Following mobile chip announcements from NVIDIA
But Texas Instruments
If nothing else, TI's own paper launch serves as a powerful reminder that today's high-end phones will be tomorrow's toddler-time toys, fit for prizes in Tomorrowland's cereal boxes. And it will happen quickly -- OMAP 5 devices should hit store shelves in mid-to-late-2012.
These chips will run as much as five times faster than today's state-of-the-art chips, depending on the workload. They'll support up to three ultra-high resolution LCD screens as well as 3-D HDMI support, along with up to four cameras for a highly immersive teleconferencing experience.
TI envisions pico projectors and cameras combining to create entirely new ways of interacting with your mobile devices, such as projecting documents on a table or a whiteboard and making changes by manipulating the projected image.
It's all exciting stuff and a powerful reminder of the pace of innovation. Some of TI's improvements still sound like science fiction, even to diehard bleeding-edge enthusiasts. Not for much longer, though.
There's plenty of innovation juice left in Silicon Valley's tanks, most of it powered by designs from either ARM Holdings