Snapdragon 602A Unveiled At CES 2014

Qualcomm is branching out in a big way at CES 2014. Earlier, the company announced it would be releasing a new SoC created specifically for smart TVs and now there’s news of a new Snapdragon chip developed for in-car infotainment systems.

While a car probably doesn’t need the graphics power built into some of Qualcomm’s other chipsets and included in countless Android tablets and smartphones, the Snapdragon 602A was nonetheless manufactured to meet a high set of standards imposed by the automotive industry, according to the company.

“We are excited to bring to the car the same mobile technologies and Snapdragon experiences consumers around the world enjoy on their mobile devices,” said Kanwalinder Singh, senior vice president of business development for Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. in a press statement. “Building on top of Gobi 3G connectivity already embedded in vehicles globally and Gobi 4G LTE connected cars being rolled out in 2014, the Snapdragon 602A will enable the next generation of connected infotainment in the car.”

Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 602A will herald the Gobi system into the second generation and deliver a connected in-car experience that has yet to be seen in automotive infotainment systems. It’s unclear yet whether the company has already struck agreements with car manufacturers to include the new chipset.

In addition to the new hardware, Qualcomm also unveiled a new developer platform that will work with both Android and QNX.

“As part of Snapdragon Automotive Solutions, Qualcomm Technologies also has announced the Snapdragon Automotive Development Platform, which is anticipated to commence sampling in Q1 of 2014. This new platform demonstrates the highly integrated, BOM optimized hardware available only through Qualcomm Technologies’ integrated automotive infotainment solution and comes with support for Android and QNX software packages, allowing customers to evaluate, demonstrate and develop on a highly integrated Qualcomm Snapdragon platform focused on the automotive industry,” the company said.