Qualcomm today took the wraps off a pair of new 64-bit processors, the Snapdragon 610 and 615.
Both the 610 and 615 support LTE and join the recently announced Snapdragon 410 in Qualcomm’s 64-bit portfolio. The 610 performed quad-core processing while the 615 houses an octo-core solution.
All three of the new SoCs support ARMv8, the latest instruction set for ARM compatible devices, which are backwards compatible with 32-bit software. Both the 610 and 615 bring along the Adreno 405 GPU from the Qualcomm’s high-end 800 series.
The Snapdragon 615, 610, and 410 chipsets are all pin compatible and support the same Qualcomm power management, audio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, RF, and RF360 solutions. The 615 and 610 are expected to begin shipping in the third quarter of 2014 and start showing up commercially in the fourth quarter.
In addition to the new high-end chipsets, Qualcomm ramped up the Gobi 9×30 based on its fourth-generation LTE platform. The chipset brings the promise of 300 Mbps downlink speeds to the automobile with its support for LTE-Advanced Category Six.
The Gobi 20 nm technology node features global carrier aggregation support for deployments up to 40 MHz TDD and FDD LTE variations. In addition, the chipset supports dual-stream 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.1 as well as dedicated short-range communications, a standard technology required by future regulation surrounding vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
Qualcomm made its way into some other high-profile show news, too. When Samsung announced its new Galaxy S5, the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 was on-board. While Qualcomm’s 600 series is getting the 64-bit treatment, for now fall on the 801 to carry the high-performance 32-bit flag for the company.