Snapdragon question

[Doit2it]

Since the Passion has one of the Snapdragon chips, I thought someone here would know the answer to this:

If the Snapdragon chips were released to developers on Nov. 17, 2007 why has it taken 2 years for the first Snapdragon phone to come out (HTC HD2)?

My personal guess is it's taken that long for battery tech, display quality, etc. to catch up to the chip for a quality product release. Any other theories or definable answers?

 

[SoCalMiles]

My guess is thats how technology goes...OLED for example....worked on since like 89' or the 90's.....same deal started getting big in 2007....took 2 years before it got into phones and camera or other small screen displays....still not predicted to be in full production until 2015. I guess they not only need to produce these products, but they need to set-up the means to produce them cheaply. I'll use OLED again (Sorry about all the OLED usage, I was researching it cause I'm about to buy a 50 in Flat screen and was researching everything about t.v.'s the last couple nights) But Right know you want a 15 inch screen it'll cost you $10,000. 2015, in full production, they will be 20% cheaper than LCD's now. 2007 they were like "Hey look at my fancy new processor"... 2009 they're like "I can sell you 5 million units for X amount of $$".

 

[Android_LIFE]

Doit2it,

Just remember, any "NEW" fancy computer processor, is technically not new...
It takes manufacturing alone an average 18 months to get the chips out to the public once finalized! Talk about Hurry up & wait!
Saw it on some sort of Technology Documentary. Will post up if I can find out which one or remember the name.

SO manufacturing and hardware development to work with a particular chip can easily turn into years!

So I wouldn't say anything out of the norm is going on as far as the SNAP is going.

Snap is right around the bend!

 

[Doit2it]

I think I get a better picture now.

So the Nov 2007 announcement was a small pre-production run to give to developers. The developers take those chips and decide what they want to do with them to best use the new technology. The developers place their order with the chip maker. Then the chip maker has to create a mass production line for the chips based on those orders. Then the developers have to create a mass production line for their products that integrate the chips. Each of these steps would take months to design, develop, and build.

I know it's oversimplified, but does that sound like a reasonable assumption as to the 2 year lag between creation and end user.

 

[onion]

My personal guess is it's taken that long for battery tech, display quality, etc. to catch up to the chip for a quality product release. Any other theories or definable answers?

Wrong. Battery tech (li-ion poly) has not changed much since it came out over 10 years ago. Equal display DPI has been around for many years.

So what had to catch up? The move to mass 45nm process Mfrs to Mfr the chip. There is no way Qualcom could have Mfred snapdragon chips 2 years ago for the masses since hardly anyone had 45nm process capabilities.

 

[kyler13]

Battery technology has not improved much if at all over the last few years. Not in the power density aspect, at least, so I doubt that was the issue. If the processor was released for development, what's to say Qualcomm wasn't offering prototypes by Nov '07 but wasn't ready to crank out production volumes until later. Was there a delay on Qualcomm's end with the availability? Then you have the time to develop the hardware on the manufacturers end, plus use pre-existing inventories. These things take time to go from first available parts to on-the-shelf products.

 

[kyler13]

So what had to catch up? The move to mass 45nm process Mfrs to Mfr the chip. There is no way Qualcom could have Mfred snapdragon chips 2 years ago for the masses since hardly anyone had 45nm process capabilities.

The QSD8x50 snapdragon processors commonly available and in the new phones is 65nm. The QSD8672 is being done in the 45nm technology node, but first samples are just becoming available. FYI, the 8672 is 1.5GHz.