RIM Migrating Away from Marvell Processors With the PlayBook?

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One of the things that was nagging me about the upcoming PlayBook was the fact that its much touted processor is made by Texas Instruments (TI). For years now RIM has always been using Marvell chips in their GSM smartphones and Qualcomm chips in their CDMA smartphones. The PlayBook is introducing TI to the BlackBerry family.

I was reading some research on this deviation by FierceWireless and it seems like Marvell might be on the outs in RIM devices. Their processors power a huge portion of RIM’s portfolio so it is interesting to see them not getting in on the PlayBook action. Maybe it is because they do not have a competing processor. This makes me wonder why RIM did not chose Qualcomm, their alternate supplier, and their SnapDragon processor for the PlayBook since they do have dual core 1Ghz chips. THere is also a competing processor from

All together it will be interesting to see where RIM sources their processors for the new devices that are rumored for 2011. We know the 800Mhz PXA930 will probably just be the same processor in current devices without RIM underclocking it but where will this new rumored 1.2 Ghz processor come from? These processors are rumored to have OpenGL support which has been missing so far in all of RIM’s GSM devices.

I just cannot wait to get a faster processor in my Torch or Bold form factor. The OS is already relatively fast on a 624Mhz processor just imagine what it will be like at DOUBLE the clock speed (1.2Ghz)!

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