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Qualcomm bringing flagship gigahertz processing to mainstream smartphone tier of chipsets

Press release, November 13; Meiling Chen, DIGITIMES Asia 0

SAN DIEGO – November 12, 2009 – Qualcomm Incorporated (Nasdaq: QCOM), a leading developer and innovator of advanced wireless technologies, products and services, today announced that it is sampling a new smartphone chipset family that breaks new ground in mobile performance in the mainstream smartphone tier. The MSM7x30 family features a strong emphasis on multimedia performance, supporting high-definition video recording and playback, exceptional graphics with dedicated 2D and 3D cores, and an overall chip design optimized for a highly responsive, immersive Web experience. The first devices based on the flagship MSM7x30 family of chipsets are expected to launch commercially before the end of 2010.

"Qualcomm continues to focus on enabling the best possible mobile experiences and this new family of solutions brings an unmatched feature set to the smartphone segment," said Alex Katouzian, vice president of product management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. "As the demand for smartphones continues to grow, our innovative technology will enable Qualcomm's device manufacturing partners to deliver products with greater value than ever before."

The MSM7x30 family of chipsets, which includes the MSM7230 solution for HSPA+ networks and MSM7630 solution with multi-mode HSPA+/EV-DO Rev. B and SV-DO support, is designed around optimal data throughput and powerful multimedia functionality. The 7x30 has the same market-leading Scorpion CPU as previously commercialized in the Snapdragon QSD8x50 chipset. The 7x30 uses an 800MHz to 1GHz custom superscalar CPU based on the ARM v7 instruction set, delivering exceptionally high-end processing at low power to support features that include:

– 720p high-definition video encode/decode at 30 frames per second
– Integrated 2D and 3D graphics GPUs with support for OpenGL ES 2.0, and OpenVG 1.1 industry standard APIs
– Dedicated low-power audio subsystem supporting 5.1 surround
– 12-megapixel camera support
– Integrated GPS for location-based services
– Support for leading mobile operating systems, including Android, Windows Mobile, Brew Mobile Platform and Symbian
– Support for package-on-package memory for reduced board space, optimized power consumption and more responsive performance

The MSM7x30 family of chipsets is supported by the PM8058 power management integrated circuit and the QTR8600 RF subsystem with integrated Bluetooth and FM radio. The MSM7x30 chipsets will directly interface with Qualcomm's WCN1312 WLAN solution for 802.11 b/g/n.