Qualcomm has always conquered the world of smartphones and androids since its day of the first release. The evolution of smartphone processor has always been through the hands of Qualcomm Snapdragon. Not only smartphones it has also powered many modern technologies to the next level. Now Qualcomm Snapdragon is stepping towards the future of technology with the help the latest Snapdragon processor, Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon 8cx.
Lets talk about Snapdragon 855 first………..
The first processor to support 5G. To explain 5G in simple, it is the successor of 4G and promises to provide uninterrupted high-speed internet up to 20 Gigabits per second (Gbps). The snapdragon 855 delivers transformable 5G experience. It is worlds first 5G mmWave and sub-6 GHz mobile solution and World’s first 2 Gbps LTE modem including the world’s first 7x Carrier Aggregation and world’s first 14nm RF Chip. It comes with Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 Modem.
Although snapdragon 855 will not have built in 5G modem and it will use external modem to support 5G.
The performance of snapdragon 855 is powered by Kryo 485 CPU. Basically, we have octa-core processor that have four high performance cores and four energy efficient cores. But there the core distribution is different this time. It has one Primary Core with clock speed up to 2.84 GHz, three Performance Core with clock speed up to 2.42 GHz and four efficiency core with clock speed up to 1.80GHz. These core boost the performance in case of multi-threading or multi-tasking. When there is task which needed to be ended as fast as possible or if there is a single threaded task then Primary core could solve this more easily as it has more clock speed and more cache memory compared to other cores, and when there is a multi-threaded task it would use the performance cores it boost the performance and we also have the energy efficient cores to boost multi-tasking performance.
In case of GPU also it is not lagging behind. It have the latest Adreno 640 GPU. It promises a 20% increase in performance compared to previous snapdragon processors. With the next-gen Adreno 640 GPU, Vulkan 1.1( First for mobile gaming), HDR Gaming( First true HDR gaming on mobile), and Physically Based Rendering, elite gaming on mobile is achieved. It promises to boost Physically Based Rendering so objects are recreated to mimic the real-life look, feel, depth, and material, presenting extremely realistic, deeply dimensional visuals. It will also give you stable performance for a very long time while gaming and time for app launches will also be reduced.
Qualcomm snapdragon 855’s A.I. engine also includes Qualcomm Hexagon 690 Processor, Qualcomm Hexagon Vector Accelerator, Qualcomm Hexagon Tensor Accelerator, Qualcomm Hexagon Voice Assistant, Qualcomm All-Ways Aware technology. Neural networking or neural processing forms the backbone of every A.I. processor and the is in case of snapdragon also, Qualcomm Hexagon 690 Processor boost and improves the neural processing compared to its previous processors. It has 4th generation A.I. engine featuring Tensor Accelerator. It boosts and improves the performance of all the A.I. based activities and security in smartphones.
World’s First HDR10+ mobile video capture and playback for imagery with even more contrast and detail. World’s First 4K HDR Video Capture with Portrait Mode (Bokeh) so you can film cinema-grade videos.
World’s First Computer Vision ISP (CV-ISP) delivers real-time object recognition, segmentation, and replacement to allow users to isolate and swap out backgrounds and objects– in real-time. This comes with the Dual 14-bit CV-ISPs, Hardware accelerator for computer vision (CV-ISP), Qualcomm Spectra 380 image signal processor. It helps to click high quality photos more efficiently in less time. Here less time means, when you click a high quality picture you need to hold the camera for a while after the click in order to get the perfect image. But with the introduction of Computer Vision ISP the time is reduced and you get a high quality picture instantly after the click with low battery consumption. It also enables 10 bit color depth video capture and Slow motion video capture up to 720p at 480fps. It also provides hardware based Electronic Image Stabilization solution with camera subsystem.
With this processor, we would be able to experience a complete boost in the performance in the smartphones in terms of gaming, entertainment, internet connectivity, security. There are guesses that Xiaomi Mi Mix 3 5G variant and One Plus six T might have the Snapdragon 855 processor in 2019.
Now lets look at Snapdragon 8cx ……………
This processor is also know as the most Extreme snapdragon ever. This processor is specially built for windows 10 and it is only for PCs. Although Qualcomm develops Snapdragon is only for mobile platforms but its journey is also towards conquering the world of PCs and laptop. For those who don’t know about Qualcomm’s journey in the world of PCs and Laptops please Click Here. It is also one of my publication, I hope you would enjoy the article and it would help you to know more about the world of technology.
Snapdragon is the worlds first 7nm chip for a PC. There is Kyro 495, Adreno 680 and Hexagon 690 for GPU and CPU it allows 2X graphics and 2X 4K monitors. It is 2X faster than its previous generation, Adreno 680 is 60 percent more efficient than the GPU in the Snapdragon 850 Mobile Compute Platform. These GPU components provide premium mobile PC performance without unnecessarily compromising battery life. The Kryo 495 features an octa-core CPU design with larger L2 Cache, L3 Cache, and system Cache. More Caches are available so it would smooth-en the multitasking activities.
It also has Spectra 390 and Snapdragon X24 modem( the world’s first announced modem to support Category 20 LTE with speeds of up to 2.0 Gbps.). The integrated Snapdragon X24 modem also allows 90+% of global operators to obtain Gigabit speeds. It supports ultra-fast, 2nd gen USB 3.1 and with 3rd gen PCI-E, you get limitless peripherals and fast storage. The Snapdragon 8cx supports dual 4K HDR displays and cutting-edge Hi-Fi Audio. With a built-in Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec and Qualcomm aptX HD codec. It also supports Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology means you can power back up quickly and get back to being productive. It also ensures high battery life.
Always On, Always Connected PCs empower a new class of user experiences with their smartphone-like LTE connectivity. The Snapdragon 8cx also supports 4X4 MIMO and 7X carrier aggregation that enable 70 percent greater throughput at the edge or in weak or crowded conditions compared to competitor solutions
This processor would definitely bring a strong competition for Intel and AMD. The most remarkable improvement of this processor is that it could bring high performance in thin, fan-less and light design and it also increases performance for the user in an energy efficient way which gives more battery life to the system.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon will bring a lot of improvement in the world of technology, with that it would also awaken its other competitor in the race of developing smart processors. Will Qualcomm’s Snapdragon prevails with its world’s first title in the world of technology or soon it would be taken by some other company? Till then let’s see how people would accept the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processors with the worlds first title.