Qualcomm has announced that its Snapdragon system-on-a-chip mobile processors are to be renamed, in an effort to make consumers more aware of what's powering their mobile devices.
Snapdragon processors have powered huge amounts of mobile device since 2008, and have formed a key part of Android's quest to take over the world.
Big names like HTC, Sony Ericsson and LG all use the processors in some of their handsets.
Until now, Snapdragon processors have had rather functional, technical names, such as QSD8x50 and MSM8x55.
During an investor call, Qualcomm announced that it has taken a leaf out of Intel's Core i-number book and made the Snapdragon processor's titles a bit more, well, snappy.
S-Express
There are four new tiers of processor, named S1 to S4. That "S" stands for "System", with the number referring to how powerful the chip is.
S1 includes standard handsets such as the HTC Droid Incredible and Sony Ericsson X10i, S2 is featured in more powerful phones like the HTC Thunderbolt and LG Revolution, and S3 powers uberphones and tablets such as the HTC Sensation and HP TouchPad.
S3 is the current top-of-the-range processor, with the mysterious S4 devices set to be launched at the end of the year. Qualcomm has said that the S4 devices will include 28nm quad core processors.
Expect to see "Powered by S1" appearing on new phone packaging very shortly.
via TechCrunch
