ASUS officially announced the launch of their new gaming phone, the ROG Phone II. The device will become the world’s first gaming phone to be powered by the new Snapdragon 855 Plus Mobile Platform. ASUS first gaming phone, the ROG Phone, launched in 2018, and it was quite popular. This ROG Phone II is an improved upon version of the first one. A unique feature of the new device is the Kryo 485 CPU in the Snapdragon 855 Plus. The CPU will run at up to 2.96GHz — a 4.2% improvement compared to the 2.84Ghz of the Snapdragon 855, while the Adreno 640 GPU is clocked 15% faster than in the current Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform. Specifications of ASUS ROG II phone Here are the highlights of the features and specifications. Display 120Hz FHD+ AMOLED display 240Hz touch sampling rate, 49ms touch latency (compared to 87ms on the Samsung Galaxy […]
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC Update Closes on the 3.0 GHz Mark
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 was officially unveiled in December 2018, and is found in several premium phones and at least one development kit. The processor features one Kryo 485 Gold (A76-class) core clocked @ 2.84GHz, with 7 others cores in another 3-core Kryo 485 Gold cluster @ 2.42 GHz, and a 4-core Kryo 485 Silver (A55-class) cluster clocked at 1.80 GHz. Qualcomm has now announced the Snapdragon 855 Plus processor that’s virtually the same as the original, but with the high-performance Kryo 485 Gold core frequency boosted to close to 3.0 GHz (2.96 GHz), and the Adreno 640 GPU also getting faster at 672 MHz against 585 MHz for Snapdragon 855. The differences are highlighted in bold in the comparison table below courtesy of Anandtech. SoC Snapdragon 855 Snapdragon 855 Plus (855+) CPU 1x Kryo 485 Gold (A76 derivative) @ 2.84GHz 1x512KB pL2 3x Kryo 485 Gold (A76 derivative) @ 2.42GHz […]
Qualcomm 215 64-bit SoC Targets Entry-level Smartphones
Qualcomm Technologies has recently announced the Qualcomm 215 Mobile Platform quad core Cortex-A53 processor with a dual ISP for entry-level smartphones. Compared to the Snapdragon 212 quad core Cortex-7 32-bit processor, the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 215 64-bit processor offers a 50% increase in CPU performance, and up to 28% increased gaming performance thanks to its Adreno 308 GPU. It also adds an Hexagon DSP for low power audio and sensor processing which allows up to 5 days of audio playback. Qualcomm 215 (QM215) specifications: CPU – 4x Arm Cortex A53 up to 1.3 GHz GPU – Adreno 308 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, DirectX, OpenCL DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon DSP Memory I/F – LPDDR3 up to 3 GB RAM @ 672 MHz Storage I/F – eMMC 4.5 and SD 3.0 (UHS-I) Display – Up to 1560×720 resolution (19.5:9 aspect ratio); support for external display Video Capture – 1080p30 […]
Linux 5.2 Release – Main Changes, Arm, MIPS & RISC-V Architectures
Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 5.2 last Sunday: So I was somewhat pre-disposed towards making an rc8, simply because of my travels and being entirely off the internet for a few days last week, and with spotty internet for a few days before that [*]. But there really doesn’t seem to be any reason for another rc, since it’s been very quiet. Yes, I had a few pull requests since rc7, but they were all small, and I had many more that are for the upcoming merge window. Part of it may be due to the July 4th week, of course, but whatever – I’ll take the quiet week as a good sign. So despite a fairly late core revert, I don’t see any real reason for another week of rc, and so we have a v5.2 with the normal release timing. There’s no particular area that stands […]
Inforce Introduces Snapdragon 660 & 845 Modules with On-Device AI
Inforce Computing has just launched two new pin-compatible system-on-modules, namely Inforce 6502 and Inforce 6701, powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 & Snapdragon 845 SoC respectively. In their newsletter, the company claims those are their first modules with on-device AI capabilities with the Snapdragon 660 enabling “advanced visual computing, enhanced graphics and on-device machine learning capabilities”, while the more powerful Snapdragon 845 is better suited for “immersive multimedia experiences including optimized AI performance for a more responsive, power-efficient user- experience and capture of cinema-grade videos in UHD@60fps resolution. Inforce 6502 Snapdragon 660 SoM Specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 with 8-core Kryo 260 processor, Adreno 512 GPU, Qualcomm Hexagon 680 DSP with Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX) for Caffe2 and Tensorflow System Memory & Storage – 3GB LPDDR4, Dual-Channel + 32GB eMMC flash in single eMCP package Connectivity Bluetooth 5.0 + Wi-Fi 5 802.11ac 2×2 with MU-MIMO and Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) […]
Intrinsyc Open-Q 820Pro SoM Comes with a Faster Snapdragon 820E Processor, 4GB RAM
Intrinsyc Open-Q 820 system-on-module was introduced in 2017 with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 processor, 3GB RAM, and a built-in wireless module for 802.11ac WiFi 5, and Bluetooth 4.1 connectivity. The company has now announced an almost identical ultra-compact module but based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 820E and featuring 4GB RAM. Open-Q 820Pro μSoM is a drop-in replacement for Open-Q820 requiring only some software changes. Snapdragon 820E is said to deliver 9% faster CPU and 5% faster GPU speeds at the same power consumption compared to Snapdragon 820. Open-Q 820Pro μSoM specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 820E (APQ8096SG) Embedded Platform with four Kryo cores including 2x cores @ up to 2.342GHz, and 2x cores @ up to 1.6GHz, Adreno 530 GPU @ 652.8 MHz, Hexagon 680 DSP @ 825 MHz System Memory – Dual-channel 4 GB LPDDR4 @ 1866 MHz (PoP) Storage – 32 GB UFS 2.0 1-lane gear3 flash Connectivity Pre-certified […]
Intrinsyc Launches Open-Q 212A SoM & Qualcomm Home Hub 300 Development Kit
Intrinsyc has just announced the availability of the Open-Q 212A system-on-module and Home Hub Development Kit based on Qualcomm Home Hub 300 Platform powered by the Qualcomm APQ8009 SoC better known as Snapdragon 212. The module supports multi-mic beamforming, audio canceling, HiFi audio, as well as WiFi 5 and Bluetooth connectivity, which makes it suitable for integration into cost-sensitive home hub, home automation, and smart audio devices featuring voice control, AI, and wireless connectivity. Open-Q 212A system-on- module Open-Q 212A SoM, which should not be confused with the company’s Open-Q 212 SBC released two years ago, features for the following specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 212 processor (APQ8009) quad-core Arm Cortex-A7 @ 1.267GHz with Adreno 304 GPU, Qualcomm QDSP6 DSP System Memory – 1GB LPDDR3 RAM Storage – 4GB eMMC Flash storage Video – 720p@30fps playback; up to 720p playback with H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC); up to 720p H.264 […]
Lenovo Project Limitless 5G Laptop and Snapdragon 8cx Benchmarks
Last December, Qualcomm unveiled Snapdragon 8cx processor for laptops, or as the company calls them “always-on always connected mobile PCs”. Only 4G LTE was mentioned at the time, but a few months later it was confirmed that the processor would find its way into 5G always-connected mobile PCs. Qualcomm made two main announcements at Computex 2019 about their new Arm processor for laptops. First, they announced a partnership with Lenovo for Project Limitless, the first 5G PC powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx 5G compute platform, and the company released some benchmarks to demonstrate the high performance and long battery life of their solution. Lenovo Project Limitless 5G Laptop The press release did not reveal that much information, but we do know Project Limitless features Qualcomm Snapdragon 8C 5G compute platform with Snapdragon X55 5G modem enabling download speed of up to 2.5 Gbps, and it will be the first […]