TI OMAP 4440 Dual Core Processor Promises High Performance, 3D

"Just as we saw widespread migration to the ARM Cortex A8 and Qualcomm Scorpion CPU cores in smartphones in 2010, in the next 12 months we will see the first tablets and smartphones based on dual-core SoCs from TI, Qualcomm and NVIDIA...Today TI is announcing more details on its OMAP 4440, a high performance dual-core Cortex A9 SoC slated for production in the second half of 2011."

Featuring a pair of ARM Cortex A9 processors running at 1.5GHz and a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU, the new OMAP 4440 promises 75% performance improvements over existing Cortex A8/Snapdragon platforms. Also in the feature list is support for the HDMI 1.4 spec (including 3D modes), 1080p hardware decode at 60fps, support for up to two 12MP cameras and 3D stereoscopic photography, and 720p video chat (read more on the capabilities at TI's website, and the full press release). It's cousin, the 4430, runs it's twin cores a little slower at 1GHz but offers the same GPU, with all that that implies. Anandtech thinks the 4430 will be deployed for smartphones while the 4440 is likely intended for MIDs and tablets. Now, if only someone can come up with better battery technology to keep up with all this multimedia goodness...