Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Specifications Published

Qualcomm Tech Summit 2018 started yesterday, and while the company mentioned Snapdragon 855, they focused on the benefit of 5G technology.

Today is another day, and this time the company released details specifications about the new 5G mobile platform.

Snapdragon 855 specifications:

• CPU – 8x Qualcomm Kryo 485 64-bit cores @ up to 2.84 GHz; 7nm Process Technology; based on leaks, tri-cluster configuration: 1+3+4
• Visual Subsystem
  • Adreno 640 GPU
  • OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 FP, Vulkan 1.1 API support
  • HDR gaming
  • Hardware-accelerated H.265 and VP9 decoder.  HDR Playback Codec support for HDR10+, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision
  • Volumetric VR video playback
  • 8K 360 VR video playback
• Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine
  • Qualcomm Hexagon 690 Processor
  • Qualcomm Hexagon Vector Accelerator
  • Qualcomm Hexagon Tensor Accelerator
  • Qualcomm Hexagon Voice Assistant
  • Qualcomm All-Ways Aware Hub
  • Qualcomm Adreno 640 GPU
  • Qualcomm Kryo 485 CPU
• System Memory – 4×16-bit, LPDDR4x, up to 16GB @ 2133 MHz
• Display
  • Maximum On-Device Display Support: Up to 4K HDR
  • Maximum External Display Support  Up to two 4K HDR displays
  • 10-bit color depth, Rec. 2020 color gamut
• Audio
  • Low-power Audio Subsystem with AI
  • Hexagon Voice Assistant Accelerator for advanced voice use cases
  • Qualcomm Aqstic Audio Technology
    • Native DSD support, PCM up to 384 kHz/32-bit
    • Supports two wake words simultaneously (Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Baidu, Cortana)
  • Always-on echo cancellation and noise suppression; up to 4 mic far-field mic support for better voice recognition in tough conditions
  • Qualcomm aptX Adaptive audio technology
  • Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo Plus technology
• Camera
  • Qualcomm Spectra 380 Image Sensor Processor
  • Dual 14-bit ISPs
  • Hardware accelerator for computer vision (CV-ISP)
  • Up to 20 MP dual camera
  • Up to 32 MP single camera
  • Rec. 2020 color gamut video capture
  • Up to 10-bit color depth video capture
  • Slow motion video capture at 720p HDR, 480fps
  • HEIF photo capture, HEVC video capture
  • Video Capture Formats: HDR10+, HDR10, HLG
  • 4K HDR Video Capture with Portrait Mode (Bokeh)
• Cellular Connectivity
  • 5G Modem
    • Snapdragon X50 5G Modem
    • Supported Technologies: 5G NR
    • Support for sub-6 GHz and mmWave
    • Supported Spectrum:
      • mmWave: 800 MHz bandwidth, 2×2 MIMO
      • Sub-6 GHz: 100 MHz bandwidth, 4×4 MIMO
  • 4G Modem
    • Snapdragon X24 LTE modem
    • Cellular Technologies – LTE FDD, LTE TDDincluding CBRS support, LAA, LTE Broadcast, WCDMA, TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM/EDGE
    • Downlink – LTE Cat 20 up to 2.0 Gbps, 7x20MHz carrier aggregation, 256-QAM, 4×4 MIMO on five carriers
    • Uplink – LTE Cat 13 up to 318 Mbps, 3×20 MHz carrier aggregation, 256-QAM, Uplink Data Compression
    • Multi SIM with support for Dual SIM Dual VoLTE (DSDV) and LTE Dual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS) +LAA
    • Next-generation Calling Services including VoLTE with SRVCC to 3G and 2G, HD and Ultra HD Voice (EVS), and CSFB to 3G and 2G
  • RF Front-End
    • QTM052 5G mmWave antenna module
    • Qualcomm Adaptive Antenna Tuning & Envelope Tracking
    • High-power transmit (HPUE)
• WiFi
  • Qualcomm WiFi 6-ready mobile platform
    • WiFi Standards: 802.11ax-ready, 802.11ac Wave 2, 802.11a/b/g, 802.11n
    • WiFi Spectral Bands: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz
    • Channel Utilization: 20/40/80 MHz
    • MIMO Configuration: 2×2 (2-stream) MU-MIMO
    • Dual-band simultaneous (DBS)
    • WPA3 security
  • Qualcomm 60 GHz Wi-Fi mobile platform
    • Wi-Fi Standards: 802.11ad, 802.11ay
    • Wi-Fi Spectral Band: 60 GHz
    • Peak speed: 10 Gbps
    • Key Features: multi-gigabit speeds, wire-equivalent latency, always-on ambient WiFi sensing
• Other Wireless Connectivity
  • Bluetooth 5.0 up to 2 Mbps
  • Satellite Systems Support – Dual frequency GNSS, GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS
  • Near Field Communications (NFC)
• USB – USB Version 3.1; USB Type-C Support
• Security
  • Secure Processing Unit featuring mobile payments and Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor
  • Biometric Authentication: Fingerprint, Iris, Voice, Face
  • On-Device Qualcomm  Mobile Security, Key Provisioning Security, Qualcomm Processor Security, Qualcomm Content Protection, Qualcomm
    Trusted Execution Environment, Camera Security, Crypto Engine, Malware
    Protection, Secure Boot, Secure Token
• Charging – Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology

Compared to previous generation processor like Snapdragon 845, the new Snapdragon 855 comes with 5G that supports up to 20 times higher sustained performance compared to 4G. The CPU delivers a 45% boost in performance, continuous 4K HDR capture is now possible thanks to a 30% improvement in energy efficiency, and Hexagon 690 DSP is twice as fast for vector operation.

Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine which encompass the new CPU, GPU and Hexagon accelerator delivers 7 TOPS, or about 3 times higher performance compared to the previous generation. Adreno 640 is said to be the first GPU to handle true HDR gaming, and boosts graphics rendering performance by 20%.

The Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform is already sampling to manufacturers, and the first devices should start selling in 1H 2019.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.

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