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 OMAP™ 3 architecture combines mobile entertainment with high performance productivity applications - Composite and S-video TV output
- XGA (1024×768 pixels), 16M-color (24-bit definition) display support
- Flatlink™ 3G-compliant serial display and parallel display support
- High Speed USB2.0 On-The-Go support
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.
Sphere: Related Content
Posted in 
Tags: 
Warm fuzzy feeling.
[Reply]
rad Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 4:28 pm
yep, HTC might finally ship something faster than a 2002-era Pocket PC
[Reply]
The amount of hardware buttons along the bottom makes me smile. HTC is realizing the sometimes less isn't more.
However, the lack of D-Pad and the persistent inclusion of the completely pointless zoom strip makes me sad. Come on, HTC! The zoom strip will only work in like two pieces of software! The d-pad will work in EVERYTHING!
[Reply]
rad Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
This is probably still a render, but those look like touch-sensitive (capacitive) keys instead of buttons, and having so many crammed into one row is probably not the best idea in terms of usability.
[Reply]
Finally.. those damn MSM7XXXs are going the way of the dinosaur.. was like a Model T engine in my Ferrari..
[Reply]
Does anyone know how this cpu compares to tegra or snapdragon?
[Reply]
mweb586 Reply:
August 31st, 2009 at 2:06 pm
It's not as good. Both the Tegra and snappy have OpenGLES 2.0 graphics enabled.
Plus, there is no mention of things like audio and video being sent to a specific part of the processor. So my guess is that it could possibly have the HTC audio bug problems and slow multitasking if you were to switch between games, movies and other general tasks, unlike the Tegra which delegates things to certain portions of the processor.
Personally, I will be rooting for the Tegra.
[Reply]
what they didnt tell you!
3X faster than qualcomm 600mzh at same speed.
but will it be faster then qualcomm 1G cpu tho..
[Reply]
you dont need a SnapDragon to play video… the new OMAP is built on a newer and better platform….screw qualcomm… NEVER AGAIN!!!
[Reply]
Wishmaster89 Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 5:19 am
It is not newer nor better platform. To be precise snapdragon should be more efficient than OMAP according to various sources. Graphically Snapdragon is better than omap3 but you can check this out on glbenchmark. Snapdragon contrary to msm7xxx is really good SoC.
[Reply]
what the hell ??
"The Cortex A8 processor promises performance up to 3 times faster than an ARM processor running at the same clock speed"
Either the poster (admin) didn't know that CortexA8 is still an ARM archtitecture or he actually meant ARM 11 !!!!
So @netboy: he probably meant an ARM11 cpu at the same speed not a snapdragon (which is likely what you meant)
Ofcourse snapdragon is faster than this, both CPU and GPU wise, but not a thing you'll notice on a phone (ofcourse software should be goodm like iphone)
[Reply]
wmpoweruser Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 7:02 am
I did of course mean the current generation of ARM processors.
[Reply]
The first phone with XGA? Does any 4" and below-sized screen NEED XGA? Would it be noticeably better than WVGA? My guess is no.
[Reply]
netboy Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
yes, we NEED XGA! i cant wait!
remember those fools that said QVGA is good enought, and VGA kills battery 4X faster cus it' 4X the resolutions?
i dont see no different in battery life between QVGA, VGA, and WVGA!
[Reply]
rad Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 4:36 pm
That's the OMAP processor's spec. WM doesn't support anything above 854×480 in any case, so you have no need to worry
[Reply]
That's the maximum resolution the processor can support not the phone.
[Reply]
HTC testbedding in China instead of hapless other users this time? Too late for me! What’s with OGLES 1.1? I already got OGLES 2.0 on this m900 already.
[Reply]
NuShrike Reply:
August 27th, 2009 at 5:51 am
What difference from this http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=2264 when the Snapdragon people were the ones pushing their vaporware PR.
[Reply]
It's a little old now actually; the same as in the Palm Pre, which is inferior to 3GS, and Snapdragon according to rad's info.
[Reply]
rad Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 4:38 pm
If it were out today, it'd be fine, but yeah, by the time HTC ships phones with OMAP3 in the U.S. and elsewhere (mid-2010 I suspect), Apple and others will likely have Cortex A9-spec processors out (like TI OMAP4).
[Reply]
The TI OMAP3 3430 indicated here is the same processor used in the Palm Pre, but apparently clocked at 600 MHz (vs. 500 MHz in the Pre). Cortex A8 is twice as fast as ARM11 clock-for-clock.
The iPhone 3GS has a Samsung CPU (not TI OMAP) based on Cortex A8 at 600 MHz. So this should be about the same speed in terms of the CPU, though of course, Apple's actually using an 867 MHz model in the 3GS, underclocked to 600 MHz, so if needed, they might choose to boost the clock speed with later OS updates, as they did for the original iPhone.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon's Scorpion CPU is a slightly enhanced version of Cortex A8. At 1 GHz, it's roughly 70% faster than the 600 MHz TI OMAP3.
There's no information here about what GPU HTC went with (hopefully not just relying on the ARM chip's built-in graphics abilities…). Palm chose the PowerVR SGX 520, and Apple went for the SGX 535. Snapdragon's ATI Imageon Z430 GPU gives performance in between the two.
@Foamy: Tegra uses an old ARM11 at 600 MHz, so this should be roughly twice as fast as Tegra in CPU performance. No word on the GPU yet, but Tegra has a pretty powerful one (40% faster than iPhone 3GS' chip and almost twice as fast as Snapdragon's Imageon GPU).
[Reply]
panamanian Reply:
August 26th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Hello, can you provide us with the source or links where did you get that information?
thanks
[Reply]
Well, so much for the Samsung Omnia 2 and HTC Leo. It looks like any new smartphone has only a few month lifespan.
[Reply]
nuke1 Reply:
August 27th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Hah. Is HTC trying to advertise itself as HIV whore, or something. Easy come, easy go.
[Reply]
"Support for OpenGL ES 1.1"
Nope, it's OpenGL ES 2.0 and OpenVG, via the POWERVR SGX graphics core (the same as the iPhone 3GS).
[Reply]
wmpoweruser Reply:
September 3rd, 2009 at 8:05 am
I would of course love to know how you know….
[Reply]