Texas Instruments has responded to recent CPU announcements by rivals Qualcomm and Samsung with upgraded silicon of its own, boosting its dual-core OMAP4440 processor to 1.5GHz among other enhancements to the line. Powered by a pair of ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processors and complemented by another pair of lower-power ARM Cortex-M3 cores, the upgraded system-on-a-chip is said to deliver 50% better overall performance than the dual-core 1GHz OMAP4430, with a claimed 33% reduction in website load time and 25% increase in graphics performance. The revised design, which will begin sampling in Q1 2011 ahead of second half full-scale production, also promises to support full HD playback in 3D along with simultaneous image capture from sensors up to 12 megapixels.

TI currently provides the SOC’s that power Motorola’s popular Droid family of Android handsets, although the Illinois manufacturer has likely chosen nVIDIA’s Tegra 2 to run its upcoming Olympus handset on AT&T. TI has expressed interest in joining the Windows Mobile family as well, which currently runs exclusively on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon. Samsung is also employing multiple ARM Cortex-A9 cores in its upcoming Orion chipset, while Qualcomm has just revealed a roadmap which includes the first mobile processors manufactured using 28nm fabrication techniques. When it comes to smartphone silicon, it’s clear that none of the major players are resting on their laurels, which will only serve to benefit the consumer as devices continue to raise the bar for speed and efficiency.

Source: TI

Via: PhoneScoop