Broadcom announces SoC with HSPA+ and Merlyn Applications Processor

[Deleted member 13524]

http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=s548734

The BCM28150 HSPA+ baseband processor integrates the Broadcom Merlyn applications processor technology, providing an optimal combination of high performance and low power applications and multimedia processing power for smartphones. Key features of the BCM28150 SoC include:

* Dual ARM Cortex™ A9 cores at 1.1 GHz frequencies that incorporate the ARM Neon™ 128-bit SIMD (single instruction, multiple data) engine, which is vitally important for delivering flexible, powerful acceleration and low power operation for consumer multimedia applications such as Adobe® Flash®.
* An integrated HSPA+ release 8 category 14 modem that supports 21 Megabits per second (Mbps) of downstream connectivity, as well as Class 33 EDGE support for greater flexibility and worldwide roaming.
* Broadcom's industry-leading VideoCore IV with vector processing unit (VPU) offering a 'third processing core' for offloading MHz from the Cortex A9 cores, reducing power consumption while improving the Android user interface experience. VideoCore's high performance graphics engine supports powerful shaders and over 1Gpx/s fill rates and can render 3D mobile games natively at up to 1080p resolution at high frame rates which, in combination with a HDMI output, allows a console-quality gaming experience on large screen HDTVs.
* Advanced imaging with support for 20Mpx sensors and multiple camera inputs for stereoscopic (3D) capture and gesture recognition with advanced ISP feature support (red eye, face tracking, smile detection, etc.).
* A small 12x12 PoP memory package.

So, resuming the goodies:
- Made in 40nm (TSMC?)
- Integrated baseband GSM + CDMA
- Dual Cortex A9 @ 1.1GHz with NEON
- "Videocore IV" with a vector processor (the Nokia devices' BCM2727 has the "Videocore III" and two vector processors, maybe this one is higher-clocked or was made to be paired with a more powerful CPU from the ground up and is less autonomous than BCM2727).
- GPU does 1GPix\s, no further details other than 1080p output at 60fps.




So I guess this is the SoC that Broadcom announced they were shipping to Nokia a while ago?
Clearly, the announcement date being 2 days before MWC isn't a coincidence (just checked the MWC referrence in the announcement, duh)

EDIT:
Picked-up a few more specs from the BCM28150 site:

- Dual channel LPDDR2 @ 400MHz (highest-bandwidth Cortex A9 solution to date?)
- 1080p 30fps encoding
- "Low-power 40 nm process" could mean TSMC's 40LP?

 

[Deleted member 13524]

Hum.. I now remember that Nokia's 40nm SoC with integrated baseband was supposed to be a low-cost solution, right?

That said, this may not be that chipset, even more with them claiming Android compatibility all over.

 

[Arun]

Sorry, been meaning to reply for a few days but forgot to do so. The multimedia/application processing parts seem mostly identical to the BCM2763 multimedia coprocessor and the BCM11311 tablet application processor. It looks like a solid high-end solution (I wonder what bitrates they support?) but it's obviously a bit late to market relative to competition. As you said, it seems mostly aimed at Android, and is definitively not the custom low-end platform for Nokia.

 

[Exophase]

- Dual channel LPDDR2 @ 400MHz (highest-bandwidth Cortex A9 solution to date?)

It's the same as OMAP4.