Project Ara, Google’s modular smartphone project, will finally be available next year to any buyers who are excited about the prospect of being able to upgrade their smartphones’ hardware by themselves. And even better, it looks like the first Project Ara smartphones might be quite powerful.
FROM EARLIER: Project Ara won’t be the only modular smartphone next year
In an update on the Google+ Google ATAP channel a few days ago, head of Project Ara Paul Eremenko revealed more details about the progress of Google’s modular smartphone, including details about the processor used for Project Ara prototypes.
According to Eremenko, the Project Ara team currently has two different application processors at their disposal, including the powerful NVIDIA Tegra K1 chip that’s also used in Google’s Nexus 9 tablet, and a second 64-bit chip coming from Marvell. A third Rockchip processor is also expected to be available to Project Ara handset buyers, according to previous announcements.
“For the AP modules, we have been working with our friends at Marvell and NVIDIA to create two separate reference designs and form factor module prototypes around their PXA1928 and Tegra K1 processors, respectively, using a Toshiba UniPro bridge ASIC to connect to the on-device network,” Eremenko wrote.
The exec further teased the Project Ara design, saying that the “Spiral 2 form factor prototypes look beautiful, custom module shells and all.”
Google will host a new Project Ara Developers Conference in January, at which point it’ll likely share more details about the upcoming Project Ara launches.
And the Spiral 2 form factor prototypes look beautiful, custom module shells and all!! We can’t wait to show it to you at the Developers Conference in January! Speaking of which, if you haven’t registered and want to come, do it now! We still have a few spots left in some of the sites worldwide. You can fill out a short application form at
