Qualcomm began shipping its third generation, dual-core Snapdragon SoC CPUs to device manufacturers sometime around early June.  And, if new information published by AlienBabelTech is taken at face value, devices powered by these new processors are already well into the testing phase.

ABT reports discovering entries for an Android device labeled HTC Glacier  in an online database of GLBenchmark test results.  The benchmark scores show a marked increase in CPU performance  compared to high-end smartphones on the market today.  When compared to the Sprint EVO 4G, for example, which employs a 1GHz 2nd Gen Snapdragon, the Glacier’s CPU produced results that were about three times as fast.

Using comparative math, the poster at ABT seems to believe these benchmark scores come from a 1.5GHz Snapdragon rather than a 1.2GHz model (the 3rd Gen Snapdragon System-on-Chip platforms are available in both clock speeds).  You can review the calculations used to guess the speed of the CPU here.

Qualcomm has only fessed up to shipping 1.2GHz versions of the new Snapdragons thus far, and a jump of 200Mhz in smartphone processors seems more likely than a 500MHz jump. So I’m betting the HTC Glacier – or whatever it’ll be marketed as – will run the 1.2GHz MSM8260 rather than its 1.5GHz sibling.  I could be wrong, of course (here’s hoping).

So, what else is known about the Glacier other than its raw benchmark test results?  Not much.  But ABT supposes that it may be the star of T-Mobile’s Project Emerald, which promises a dual-core HTC Android smartphone.  There are other theories.