Dual-core Glacier details leak

August 5, 2010 | 10:31

Tags: #android #arm-cortex #cortex #cortex-a8 #cortex-a9 #smartphone

Companies: #arm #htc #t-mobile

HTC looks to be working on its fastest Android-based handset yet - but it has chosen possibly the worst name to emphasise speed ever: the HTC Glacier.

The latest handset, apparently named for the extremely slow-moving ice sheets, was first noticed by AlienBabelTech on the GLBenchmark site - and the scores tell their own story, with the as-yet unannounced Glacier beating HTC's current leading handset the Evo 4G by a comfortable margin, scoring up to three times higher in some cases.

The theory as to the device's speed is the presence of a dual-core ARM chip - the first to be used in an Android handset. Most likely Qualcomm's dual-core 1.2GHz Snapdragon processor, the presence of two physical processing cores would explain the extremely high benchmark scores.

Interestingly - and disappointingly for HTC if the figures truly are the result of testing on the company's next-generation handset - the scores posted are only slightly higher than the Samsung Galaxy S - which has a 1GHz Hummingbird ARM-based processor at its heart.

The scores were posted to the benchmark site, and have since been removed, by T-Mobile employee Mike Bibick - leading DailyTech to suggest that the device represents T-Mobile's rumoured Project Emerald dual-core smartphone.

Neither HTC nor T-Mobile is confirming - or, for that matter, denying - the rumours of a dual-core device, but it's a logical place to take the technology: with core clock speeds not progressing very far past the 1.2GHz mark, adding additional processing cores is certainly the way to go in order to improve performance - but it remains to be seen what effect this has on the Glacier's battery life.

Are you excited by the prospect of a dual-core Android handset, or merely disappointed that it appears to have been beaten by a theoretically slower chip even before it's launched? Share your thoughts over in the forums.
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