It looks like the Symbian Foundation has been doing its jobs lately. And in the process it hooked up with ST-Ericsson and ARM to make Symbian run on a SMP or Symmetric Multiprocessing configuration. That means Symbian can definitely work on dual-core CPUs which is great news:

The test environment consists of an ST-Ericsson U8500 smartphone platform embedding the first silicon implementation of ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore in the industry. A single instance of the Symbian operating system schedules multiple threads concurrently, distributing the CPU load on two cores. This guarantees the best combination of high performance and low power providing an unparalleled capability to build next generation mobile products for a variety of advanced consumer experiences.

So with that in mind, here’s what that whole platform can do:

• HD 1080p camcorder and video
• Up to 18 Million pixels camera
• ~100 hours audio playback time
• 10 hours HD video playback time
• Simultaneously TV out over HDMI
• Video and Imaging accelerator
• HW accelerated 3D Graphics supporting OpenGL ES2.0
• 2xWVGA (960×854) displays
• Touch UI on 2 displays

Impressed by any of that? You should very well be! And you should also be ready to wait for the first smartphone ready to offer all that as it’s going to take a while from concept to final product.

via intomobile

Ericsson partnered up with STMicroelectronics and the two allies have already come up with a new product. The next-generation STw52111 chip is a mobile audio chip which will double the music playback on your future music phone or MP3 player. The new digital-to-analog converter will let manufacturers build new devices capable of offering you the highest levels of audio quality and the longer playback time. The two companies have combined PTE or Playback Time Extender with a technology with “102dB signal-to-noise ratio through the whole audio path”. The STw5211 will have the following features:

• 66dB THD (Total harmonic distortion)
• 8 to 192kHz sample rate conversion
• 32kHz RTC clock-only operationSystem clock generator
• 2.6 x 2.6mm footprint (only few external components required)

The chip will be available in April for inspections and testing and it will go into massive production in August. Are we going to see new Walkman handsets from Sony Ericsson equipped with the technology? What about new MP3s?

via Press