Qualcomm’s next-gen, 28nm mobile SoC will boast two advanced processing cores that offer 5x the performance compared to the original Snapdragon chip.
As Anand Lal Shimpi explains, power consumption is expected to be a whopping 75% lower; however, it remains unclear if such a reduction is based on active or idle power benchmarks.
So, what GPU will power the MSM8960?
Well, Qualcomm has confirmed that the Adreno 3xx GPU would be deployed in SoCs from 2011 – 2013 on a 28nm process.
“This appears to be the GPU family used in the next-generation Snapdragon – [which] will have performance similar to the Xbox 360/PS3,” wrote Lal Shimpi.
“If that’s indeed the level of graphics performance we’ll see in the next 3 years, being able to play Xbox 360 titles on Windows Phone 8 may not be too far fetched.”
The MSM8960 is scheduled to begin sampling in 2011, with smartphones featuring the new SoC likely to hit the streets by 2012.
