Telecom Lead America: Qualcomm is adding two chipsets to the Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 family of mobile processors.

The new release is in line with HIS’ prediction of Qualcomm becoming the third largest player in semiconductor industry in the world in 2012.

According to IHS, Qualcomm is likely to take third place in the global semiconductor market in 2012 with 27.2 percent growth. IHS said this represents the highest rate of growth of any Top 10 or even any Top 20 semiconductor supplier. It will allow Qualcomm to move up three positions and take third place in the global semiconductor business.

Qualcomm Technologies said it will also be releasing Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) versions of both MSM8226 and MSM8626 processors.

There have been more than 100 public QRD-based product launches to date in collaboration with more than 40 OEMs, and there are currently more than 100 designs in progress.

The QRD versions of these particular Qualcomm Snapdragon processors—the QRD8226 and QRD8626—will be available for sampling by the second quarter of 2013.

“The expansion of our Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 family extends our leadership in performance and low power for the high-volume smartphones,” said Cristiano Amon, executive vice president and co-president of mobile and computing products, Qualcomm Technologies. “This expanded roadmap provides our customers with a differentiated feature set upon which to build compelling smartphones for budget-conscious consumers.”

These Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processors with quad-core CPUs will bring premium multimedia and connectivity features to high-volume 3G handsets. Features include Adreno 305 GPU, 1080p capture and playback, and up to a 13 megapixel camera.

Both processors will be ready for customer sampling by the second quarter of 2013 for UMTS, CDMA and TD-SCDMA.

The new chipsets also features new WTR2605 multi-mode radio transceiver, optimized to address China specific requirements such as support for TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1xAdv and HSPA+. The WTR2605 transceiver comes with an integrated, high-performance GPS core with GLONASS and Beidou support. Optimized for low power consumption, the WTR2605 transceiver offers 40 percent power savings and 60 percent smaller footprint compared to previous generations.

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