Snapdragon Platform

Snapdragon is the name of a family of chipsets with an ARM-based CPU. They were developed by Qualcomm which calls it Snapdragon platform. They were invented for use in smartphones and mobile computing devices.

The Snapdragon chipsets are designed for real-time computing with low power consumption and for providing long battery life. There are a number of chipsets on the platform like the QSD8650, QSD8250, QSD8672 etc. Snapdragon chipsets are created for the new generation mobile phones. Their focus is on connectivity and they try and provide connectivity options like 3G, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS. They are thin, portable and easy-to-use.

Another powerful feature is their 1 Ghz processors which provide power and stability. Mobile-phones based on the platform provide real-time communication, high-performance multimedia, Internet browsing all with the lowest levels of power consumption to provide all-day long battery life.

Devices powered by Snapdragon chipsets are called Smartbooks. Smartbooks try to condense the power of a laptop into a tinier mobile phone. Smartbooks offer high-quality graphics, 3D action, built-in GPS and more. The Snapdragon allows higher resolutions and high form factors, making them extremely robust and a pleasure to use. They are also super lightweight and ultra-portable.

Some of the technical features these Snapdragon chipsets boast of are mind-boggling. They can use a 1 Ghz processor along with integrated 3G Mobile broadband. They have the capability of displaying high-definition video along with supporting multiple video codecs. Along with high-performance 3D capability, Snapdragon can support up to 1280 x 720 resolution. They can support a camera upto 12 megapixel as well as multiple audio codecs (AAC+, AMR etc). And that’s not all, along with mobile broadcast TV, Snapdragon supports Windows Mobile, Android and a number of other operating systems.

The first smartphone to use a Snapdragon chipset is the Toshiba TG01 which uses the QSD8250 Chipset. It has a processor speed of 1 Ghz along with supreme connectivity options. It is WiFi enabled, GPS enabled, Bluetooth 2.0 enabled, microSD expandable memory as well as a micro-USB connector. It was released in 2009 and was noted for it’s sleek size and thickness. It has a huge display of 4.1 inches with a 480 x 800 touchscreen. It also boasts of a 3.2 MP camera. Another feature of the TG01 is its G-Sensor, which Toshiba claims enables gesture operations, such as shaking the TG01 to take a call or tilting it to switch between applications. It runs on the Windows Mobile 6.1 Operating System, has a RAM of 256 MB and ROM of 512 MB.

The HTC HD2 is another phone released on a Snapdragon chipset. Released in November 2009, it has powerful features like a 1 GHz processor, 4.3 inch 480×800 resolution touchscreen display, a 5 megapixel camera as well as 512 MB RAM. It runs on the Windows Mobile 6.5 Operating System.

Qualcomm claims the Snapdragon chipsets can run very high resolutions. There are still a lot of companies which have announced plans to exploit this tremendous power Snapdragon provides. These chipsets have truly provided a better user experience.

- Angikaar Choudhury

Tags: snapdragon, snapdragon chipsets, snapdragon platform, snapdragon qualcomm chipset

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