Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c & 8c Processors Target Entry-Level & Mainstream Mobile PCs

Nearly exactly one year ago, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 8cx processor for always-on always-connected PCs, and lateron Qualcomm and UL released PCMark 10 benchmark results showing Snapdragon 8cx had similar performance to a 15W Intel Core i5-8250U Kaby Lake-R processor, but with much better efficiency. The price of such laptops is still fairly high with Samsung Galaxy Book S announced in August for $1,000, and possibly canceled at this stage. Microsoft SQ1 powered Surface Pro X tablet is the only system based on Qualcomm Arm technology (customized version of Snapdragon 8cx) available now, and also sells for $1,000 and up. Qualcomm has now unveiled Snapdragon 7c and 8c arm processor to address the entry-level and mainstream markets of connected mobile PCs. Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Specifications: CPU – Octa-core Kryo 468 processor @ up to 2.45 GHz GPU – Qualcomm Adreno 618 GPU DSP – Qualcomm Hexagon 692 DSP with Hexagon […]

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 865, 765, and 765G 5G Mobile Platforms

Qualcomm-Snapdragon 865 / 765 5G Mobile Platform

Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit 2019 is taking place in Maui, Hawaii, US on December 3-5, and the company announced three 5G mobile platforms at the event: Snapdragon 865 with Qualcomm Kryo 585 CPU, Adreno 650 GPU, and external Snapdragon X55 5G modem up to 7.5 Gbps download Snapdragon 765 with Qualcomm Kryo 475 CPU, Adreno 620 GPU, and external Snapdragon X52 5G modem up to 3.75 Gbps download Snapdragon 765G where G stands for Gaming and the SoC comes with a speed-binned Qualcomm Kryo 475 CPU, while the Qualcomm Adreno 620 GPU provides 10% faster graphics rendering compared to the standard Snapdragon 765. Snapdragon 865 5G Mobile Platform SM8250 specifications provided by Qualcomm: CPU – Octa-core Kryo 585 up to 2.84 GHz GPU – Adreno 650 GPU with support for Vulkan 1.1 API, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenGL 2.0 FP, 10-bit HDR gaming, hardware-accelerated H.265, and VP9 decoder DSP – Hexagon […]

Wi-Fi Certified 6 Program Available for Products based on Broadcom, Cypress, Intel, Marvell, and Qualcomm 802.11ax Chips

WiFi 6 Certified

Last year the WiFi alliance introduces a new naming scheme for WiFi using numbers instead of IEEE standards so that WiFI 4 is 802.11n, WiFi 5 is 802.11ac, and WiFi 6 is the latest 802.11ax standard with data throughput up to 10 Gbps, and a better ability to manage high-density scenarios. Shortly after (November 2018) we also got news of the first WiFi 6 routers from ASUS and NETGEAR, but the WiFi alliance only just announced the launch of their Wi-Fi Certified 6 program that promises optimal interoperability and security. The program will make sure the following features are properly implemented: WPA3 WiFi security Orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA): effectively shares channels to increase network efficiency and lower latency for both uplink and downlink traffic in high demand environments Multi-user multiple input multiple output (MU-MIMO): allows more downlink data to be transferred at once and enables an access point […]

Microsoft Unveils The Vision AI Developer Kit For AI on the Edge

Microsoft Vision AI Developer Kit

The field of Artificial Intelligence is getting more exciting every single day, and the big corporations and startups are massively pouring for it. One thing I am undoubtedly sure about is that the future will certainly be remarkable. Microsoft, the biggest software company in the world with sales over $100 billion has been venturing in the domain of artificial intelligence for a while now with cloud computing platform Azure and other related cloud computing services, but instead of its usual cloud computing route for AI, Microsoft is banking on AI on the edge with the introduction of the Vision AI Developer Kit in joint partnership with the semiconductor giant Qualcomm. With millions of data collected at the Edge, the potential of artificial intelligence on the edge is promising. AI cases performed on the Edge will help in making critical decisions, and more data insight can even facilitate important business scenarios. […]

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus SoC Update Closes on the 3.0 GHz Mark

Snapdragon 855 Plus

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 215

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 […]

More Investments into RISC-V – Qualcomm Backs SiFive, OpenHW Group Created

RISC-V Investments

Some may doubt RISC-V will ever challenge Arm at least in some markets, but the industry is investing in solutions based on the royalty-free open source ISA, with this week SiFive securing $65.4 Million from various investors including Qualcomm Ventures LLC, and the announcement of the launch of the OpenHW Group, a new not-for-profit global organization aims to boost the adoption of open-source processors currently backed by 13 companies, and aiming to reach 25 sponsors by year’s end. SiFive gets more interest from investors Here’s the main part of the announcement of SiFive’s new series D funding: SiFive, Inc., the leading provider of commercial RISC-V processor IP and silicon solutions, today announced it raised $65.4 million in a Series D round led by existing investors Sutter Hill Ventures, Chengwei Capital, Spark Capital, Osage University Partners and Huami, alongside new investor Qualcomm Ventures LLC. This Series D round brings the total […]

Lenovo Project Limitless 5G Laptop and Snapdragon 8cx Benchmarks

Snapdragon 8cx PCMark 10 Application benchmark

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 […]