Semiconductor designer Qualcomm has let loose the 602A on the vehicle world, its latest Snapdragon silicon aimed at the connected car.

Qualcomm’s automotive-grade infotainment chipset seems to have been built with an emphasis on modern car technology having to perform a number of different processing tasks for its drivers and passengers.

The 602A supports multiple operating systems, complex user applications, enhanced 3D navigation, high-resolution, sophisticated graphics and human-machine interfaces, facial recognition, gesture recognition and rear seat 3D gaming.

Hardware horsepower

Considering there could be up to four three unique passengers, each putting their own individual demands on a car’s hardware, the SnapDragon 602A has to have some significant grunt under its hood.

Its on-board, quad core CPU manages up to 1.5 GHz, while the Adreno 320 GPU runs at 400MHz and the digital signal processor clocks in at 600MHz. Elsewhere there is USB 2, Bluetooth 4.1, 802.11n/ac wifi and support for a plethora of 3G and 4G LTE mobile connectivity standards.

In terms of platforms, Qualcomm has stated it will pre-integrate Android and QNX car which it says will help car manufacturers optimise their whole infotainment setup for the fast booting of critical services. MirrorLink is also supported.

At CES, where Qualcomm launched its new chipset, the company showed off several proof-of-concept packages incorporating this and some of its other products in cars built by Cadillac and Maserati.