ST-Ericsson and Nokia announced a partnership at MWC 2009 that will have the pair working together to bring a next generation smartphone platform to market. The two firms are going to provide the Symbian Foundation with a reference platform based on the ST-Ericsson U8500 single chip.

This chip provides a HSPA Release 7 Modem for data connectivity. Also integrated into the chip is a SMP ARM dual-cortex A9 CPU optimized for power savings and performance. The chip is the first to enable full HD 1080p camcorder functionality.

The chips integrated graphics accelerator allows it to deliver a PC-like web surfing experience on a phone platform. ST-Ericsson says that it will provide the first samples of the Smartphone platform by the end of Q1 2009.

Via ST-Ericsson