If you've ever followed Qualcomm's Snapdragon brand you know it can be a bit confusing. There's the MSM8260, the MSM855T, the MSM8930 and the OMGWTFBBQ. So which one do you have? Yeah, I don't know either. Qualcomm wants to change up their naming convention a bit to make it easier for you and we can't blame them.
They're making it so simple now one would have to wonder why they haven't done this before? The company announced this morning that it was moving to a numbered system for distinguishing their chips. The chips will be labeled as such: S1, S2, S3 and S4. The higher the number assigned to the chip, the higher the specs you can expect to see from the device.
As an example, their S1 line will be assigned to entry level devices sporting a 1GHz CPU or lower, such as the HTC Status and the Droid Inc 1. The S2 class chip will go for more of the high-end devices and tablets in the 1 GHz to 1.4 GHz range like Verizon's Thunderbolt. The S3 will be headed for devices like the Evo 3D, which rocks a CPU in the 1.2 to 1.5 GHz range. The S4, well, there's nothing really on the table as of now that can even house a chip of that class. Not until next year anyway. That will be designed for devices sporting between a 1.6 GHz and 2.5 GHz. Well, this is definitely a step in the right direction, especially for anyone required to remember names like this, say, for those who write for a tech blog? Anyway, we appreciate it Qualcomm. Hit the break for the old and new road maps and don't forget to let us know what you think in the comments below. Personally, I usually just commit to memory the vendors name and the number of GHz's supported for my chip. If any of our nerd readers want to continue to use the old naming convention, you have my blessing.
[via techcrunch]
