Dual-Core Qualcomm Chips To Be Released Soon?

Qualcomm issued a press release a little while back stating that they have completed reference designs for a  dual-core mobile chip.  Today, Alienbabeltech seems to have found the results for a GLBenchmark 1.1 test done on a mysterious HTC device.  The device is called the HTC Glacier but has no image.  They compared the bench results to the iPhone 4, HTC Evo and the Samsung Vibrant, Moto Droid X, and the T-Mobile G1, with interesting results.  Both Snapdragon models, the Evo and the Droid X were crushed by the mysterious newcomer.  Alienbabletech suspects this means that the Glacier must be loaded with one of these new chips, in particular, the dual-core chip.  Does this mean we can expect dual-core chips in future Android and Windows Phone offerings?  Read on for a closer look at the facts.

However if you look at the results, you can see that this new device doesn’t perform much better than the Samsung Vibrant, which to my knowledge has only a humble single core chip.  GLBenchmak is a OpenGL test.  That means it stresses the GPU more than the CPU.  The Vibrant’s Hummingbird CPU shares the same core as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon, but Samsung gave it an upgraded GPU chip.  Hence, the increased performance on the benchmark.  The noticeable score improvement does mean that HTC has elected to use a new chip, it does not mean that the chip is necessarily the dual-core model we are all drooling for.  It more likely is the 1.3Ghz chip noted at the bottom of the press release with a new GPU in tow.  I suspect it is not the dual-core model as the scores are not that much better than the Vibrant or iPhone 4’s.

The press release states:

“our customers are already showing as they begin designing products based on our dual-core MSM8260 and MSM8660 chipsets.”

If they just started designing products in June there is no possible way for one to be ready for testing let alone launch anytime soon.  I think we have fallen victim to another round of wishful thinking.  It would be very amazing if a 3rd gen dual-core 1.2Ghz chip materialized before a 2nd gen single core 1.3Ghz chip.  While I wouldn’t say it’s impossible, and MrK does have logical reasons for making his claim of a dual-core CPU, I would definitely put this in the possible but very unlikely category.  It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement of a new product, but let’s try to be reasonable.