HTC Qilin company’s first device to sport next-generation Cortex A8 processor

The wait for a next-gen processor from HTC has been pretty long, but the upcoming HTC Qilin, with its TI OMAP3 3430 processor, should finally break the long dry spell.

The Cortex A8 processor promises performance up to 3 times faster than an ARM processor running at the same clock speed and offers these features below:

New OMAPâ„¢ 3 architecture combines mobile entertainment with high performance productivity applications

Industry’s first processor with advanced Superscalar ARM® Cortexâ„¢-A8 RISC core enabling 3x gain in performance

Industry’s first processor designed in 65-nm CMOS process technology adds processing performance

IVAâ„¢ 2+ (Image Video Audio) accelerator enables multi-standard (MPEG4, WMV9, RealVideo, H263, H264) encode/decode at D1 (720×480 pixels) 30 fps

Integrated image signal processor (ISP) for faster, higher-quality image capture and lower system cost

Flexible system support

• Composite and S-video TV output
• XGA (1024×768 pixels), 16M-color (24-bit definition) display support
• Flatlinkâ„¢ 3G-compliant serial display and parallel display support
• High Speed USB2.0 On-The-Go support

Seamless connectivity to Hard Disk Drive (HDD) devices for mass storage

Leverages SmartReflexâ„¢ technologies for advanced power reduction

M-shieldâ„¢ mobile security enhanced with ARM TrustZoneâ„¢ support

Software-compatible with OMAPâ„¢ 2 processors

HLOS support for customizable interface

Support for OpenGL ES 1.1

While obviously not all these features are relevant, it will be these new generation processors and the advanced software which supports them which will be the final break between the boring Qualcomm MSM72xx chips we suffered for 3 years and the future of Windows Mobile.

Read more about the TI OMAP 3430 processor here.