Qualcomm chip boosts graphics for tablets and smartphones

Latest addition to Snapdragon family integrates faster GPU

Qualcomm has released a new Snapdragon chip to manufacturers, claiming that it will dramatically increase the graphics capabilities of tablets and smartphones.

The Snapdragon APQ8060 1.2GHZ dual-core processor is used inside the HP TouchPad tablet, and Qualcomm has integrated a new graphics processor, an Adreno 220 GPU, which has twice the power of the previous chip generation and is capable of 1080p HD video and displaying 3D.

"Our work with industry leaders has allowed us to showcase the full spectrum of Snapdragon's graphics and multimedia capabilities in the tablet and smartphone spaces across major software platforms," said Raj Talluri, vice president of product management for Qualcomm.

The chip is the third generation of the Snapdragon family and will appear in 20 smartphones and tablets, the company said, including the recently unveiled HP TouchPad.

Qualcomm also had a design win today when a teardown of the Verizon iPhone revealed that it uses Qualcomm's MDM6600 baseband/RF transceiver rather than Infineon's baseband chip.

Qualcomm is still very much playing second fiddle to market leader Nvidia and its Tegra 2 processor, but is gaining ground.

Qualcomm chief executive Paul Jacobs said that the company has sold 399 million chipsets so far, and has big plans for the future.

"The future is wide open in terms of growth and opportunities. Qualcomm's ability to deliver dual-core chips like this is down to our unique engineering, building a chip designed from the ground up for mobile devices," he said.