Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 700 series chipsets with a focus on AI

In the electronics world, artificial intelligence has become a “do or die” proposition. All chipset makers have their own solutions and Qualcomm just kicked off the price race – AI isn’t just for flagships anymore.

The company announced a new Snapdragon 700 line of chipsets that will bring the advanced AI capabilities of the 800 series into a more affordable package. We don't know the exact specs yet, but the new chip will use Kryo CPU cores and an Adreno GPU (plus Spectra ISP and the Hexagon vector processor).

The 700 chips will be twice as fast in AI tasks compared to a Snapdragon 660. This includes tasks ranging from machine vision to speech recognition. Camera enhancements seem to be a particular focus: “Expect a multitude of additional professional grade camera features,” says Qualcomm.

The new Snapdragon will do great on Internet of Things tasks as well, thanks to its advanced connectivity – from LTE, through Wi-Fi to Bluetooth 5, the chip covers the range of connectivity from fast to low-power.

It’s suitable for battery-powered tasks as well, Qualcomm promises up to 30% improvements in power efficiency compared to the 660 chip. And it has Quick Charge 4.0+ tech, charging a 2,750mAh battery form flat to 50% full in 15 minutes.

We expect to see the Snapdragon 700 chipset in premium mid-range phones, but other smart devices as well - anything really that combines AI, screen and camera (an Amazon Echo Show comes to mind, currently powered by an Atom x5-Z8350).

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Broadcom lowers offer for Qualcomm acquisition

A week ago Qualcomm leaders met with Broadcom to discuss the $121 billion acquisition offer. While the results of the meeting were not announced publicly, Broadcom has a new offer - $117 billion. Wait, what?

In early February Broadcom upped its offer to $82 per share to try and entice the reluctant Qualcomm stockholders – they refused. Now the offer is $79 per share - $57 in cash, $22 in Broadcom shares.

The reason is that Qualcomm increased its offer for the acquisition of NXP to $44 billion. The major shareholders of NXP support this new deal and it’s almost approved by 8 out of 9 regulatory bodies. Broadcom’s leadership was less happy about this development.

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Snapdragon 845 benchmarks show an incredible GPU, faster CPU

Before phones with the Snapdragon 845 chipset hit the market, Qualcomm is offering a taste of its performance with a Qualcomm Reference Design platform.

The new chip uses new CPU core designs based on Cortex-A75 and A55. There’s four of each in the Snapdragon 845, but they are no longer split in two separate clusters. This is the first SoC to support DynamIQ, which allows for a finer voltage/frequency control.

The max frequency was increased to 2.8GHz (for the big cores), up from 2.47GHz on the Snapdragon 835. No maker ran the 835 at max clock speed though and we expect the same this year (the last few hundred megahertz are rarely worth it in terms of battery cost).

So, clock speeds aside, the Snapdragon 845 processor shows major improvements in both integer and floating point tasks. This chip is built on a 10nm LPP process, which should allow for slightly higher clock speed for similar power usage so the real world difference between the S845 and S835 should be even more pronounced.

  
Snapdragon 845 Geekbench 4 score (normalized to MHz): Single-core • Multi-core

Benchmarks by AnandTech. The CPU benchmark scores are normalized to MHz to account for varying clockspeeds.

The new GPU – Adreno 630 – is quite impressive as well. GFXBench puts it and Apple’s latest GPU in a class of their own. The Reference Design device traded blows with the iPhone X, both left a sizable gap to other Androids (including Huawei’s Kirin 970-powered Mate 10 Pro).

   
Snapdragon 845 GPU benchmarks: GFX 2.7 • GFX 3.1 • 3D Mark Sling Shot

Impressive stuff from Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 845 is currently the fastest chipset to be used in Android phones. Of course, Samsung is yet to let people benchmark its Exynos 9810.

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Alleged specs of the Snapdragon 670 leak online

Now that we’ve heard the announcement of the Snapdragon 845 from Qualcomm back in December, we turn our attention to the headlining model of Qualcomm’s 600-series chips: the Snapdragon 670. This chip is supposed to succeed the popular Snapdragon 660 CPU and its alleged specs have leaked as WinFuture reports.

According to reports, the Snapdragon 670 will be built on the 10nm process, putting it on the same hardware level as the much more efficient higher-end CPUs like the Snapdragon 835 or the Exynos 8895.

The SD 670 will have a modified Cortex A55 cluster with six high-efficiency cores dubbed Kryo 300 Silver. Meanwhile, the higher performance cluster will comprise of two Cortex A75 cores and will be called Kryo 300 Gold. The efficient cores are clocked to 1.7GHz while the higher performance cores will top 2.6 GHz. It's performance will fall somewhere between the Snapdragon 845 and the Snapdragon 660.

Each cluster will have 32Kb of L1 cache, 128Kb of L2 Cache, and 1024Kb of L3 cache altogether.

The Adreno 615 GPU will pair with the Snapdragon 670 and will operate between 430 and 650 MHz with a 700 MHz turbo mode for intensive graphic sessions. The GPU will support dual camera (and likely smartphones equipped with four cameras) but the maximum resolution isn’t known. As a reference, the reference designs for the 670 used a 13MP + 23MP setup.

The chip will feature Qualcomm’s X2x modem, which would be capable of pulling up to 1Gbps (theoretical) speeds. The chip should also support UFS memory and the older eMMC 5.1 flash standard.

The 670’s specs have been leaked back in December, along with a few others like the Snapdragon 640 and the 460, however a few of the 670’s specs don’t match the new reports.

Qualcomm hasn’t actually announced this chip yet, but it might be preparing to do so at MWC given that it’s a widely international mobile conference where an upper-midrange chipset would be an appropriate piece of hardware to show off. As it stands, the 670 was rumored to start appearing in hardware in the first half of the year, so a launch at MWC would only make sense.

Source (Translated) | Via

Rumored Snapdragon 845 specs point to next-gen Kryo cores, but old process

Qualcomm should announce the Snapdragon 845 chipset by the end of the year but some unconfirmed info is making the rounds.

The new flagship chip will be built on a 10nm Low Power Early process (from TSMC rather than Samsung). So we can’t expect performance gains due to the process.

Gains will be had, however, as new chip will use 3rd gen Kryo cores – four of them, based on Cortex-A75. Those will be paired with four A53 cores for efficiency. The graphics will be upgraded to Adreno 630, though little is known about it beyond further AR and VR optimizations.

The Snapdragon 845 will allegedly support dual cameras up to 25MP both on the front and back (four total). No word on 2160p @ 60fps video recording, however.

The new X20 modem will push theoretical download speeds up to 1.2Gbps, up from the 1Gbps speeds we saw demoed earlier this year with the 835 chip (X16 modem).

Makers are already lining up for the Snapdragon 845. Samsung reportedly bought up the initial supply for the Galaxy S9 (and will also use the 10nm Low Power Plus for Exynos 9810). Xiaomi also wants to use the new chip in the Mi 7. LG may adopt a two-tier approach with both Snapdragon 845 and 835.

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Broadcom offers to acquire Qualcomm for $130 billion

We often mention Qualcomm in relation to its Snapdragon chipsets, but the company is also one of the biggest providers of modems. The tech giant might soon find itself under new ownership in a suitably massive deal – a $130 billion acquisition by Broadcom.

The offer is for $70 a share – a 33% premium at the time, though QCOM shares shot up since then. This would be the largest tech acquisition ever and would instantly make the new company the global #3 (behind Intel and Samsung).

Broadcom, Qualcomm and NXP will have yearly revenues for 2017 of $51 billion and EBITDA of around $23 billion. That is assuming Qualcomm’s $47 billion acquisition of NXP goes through. NXP shareholders are not happy with this (they argue the offer of $110 per share is too low) and European regulatory bodies are looking into the deal.

Broadcom has stated that it wants Qualcomm with or without NXP, so that acquisition is not vital to the deal. However, Qualcomm’s own investors are none too pleased with the offer, also claiming that it undervalues the company.

The Snapdragon maker is weakened as it is undergoing some troubled times. It faces a $1 billion suit from Apple over “unfair” royalties. Cupertino is reportedly looking to replace the Qualcomm modem it uses (some current iGadgets use Intel modems).

Broadcom used to be in the mobile modem business as well, until it pulled out in 2014. Since then it was acquired by Singapore-based Avago Technologies for $37 billion (Avago since adopted the Broadcom name).

Broadcom/Avago does want to move its headquarters back to the US, which is cited as part of the reasoning behind this acquisition.

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Qualcomm claims Apple shared its trade secrets with Intel in new lawsuit

The ongoing, worldwide legal war between Qualcomm and Apple definitely isn't stopping anytime soon. Today the chip producer has filed a new lawsuit against the iPhone maker, and this one could be quite bad for Apple if Qualcomm's allegations are proved truthful.

Qualcomm says Apple "exercised its commercial leverage" to demand "unprecedented access" to its "very valuable and highly confidential software, including source code". We're talking modem firmware, by the way - Apple has been buying mobile data modems from Qualcomm for years. With the iPhone 7, however, the company has also started to use Intel modems for some batches.

Apple iPhone X

Intel is important in this new lawsuit, because what Apple apparently did with that information it got from Qualcomm regarding its modem firmware is share it with Intel - one of Qualcomm's biggest competitors. Here's the most important snippet from the filing:

Qualcomm's proprietary implementation of this communication protocol is not dictated by any standard and it contains Qualcomm's highly confidential trade secrets. Apple, however, included in the "CC'd Persons" distribution list for this request an engineer from Intel (a competitive vendor) and an Apple engineer working with that competitive vendor.

If these allegations are proven to be true, Apple will probably have to pay Qualcomm a big amount of cash for the transgression. The chip producer says the smartphone maker failed to abide by the terms of its software license, and thus it's suing for breach of contract. It also claims that Apple isn't allowing an audit to review how it's handling the software, an obligation that is included in the contract between the two companies.

This new suit comes mere days after it was revealed that Apple is planning to stop buying modems from Qualcomm for the 2018 iPhones and iPads. If this does actually happen, it would cut the chip maker's revenue by around 7.5%.

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Qualcomm likely to announce the Snapdragon 845 in early December

It's no secret that Qualcomm is going to follow up this year's Snapdragon 835 with an 845 for 2018 flagships - in fact, it's already rumored that Samsung has dibs on the entire first production batch for the Galaxy S9.

What is news, however, is that the US semiconductor company will likely announce the Snapdragon 845 at the Snapdragon Technology Summit in December. The event is scheduled for December 4-8 and is to be held in Maui, Hawaii, a leaked invite posted on Weibo reveals.

 
Qualcomm Technology Summit event invite

The Snapdragon 835 was made official at CES 2017 in January, so the new model appears to be arriving a month early. 'Arriving' might be an overstatement, though - we won't be seeing the chip in a production device before the spring, as that's when we've come to expect high-end Galaxy S's.

Source (in Chinese) | Via

Qualcomm taunts Apple with a list of Android firsts

Apple's iPhone event is what everyone is looking forward to today, but Qualcomm is set to rain on the Cupertino's company parade. It released a list of Android firsts trying to imply that Apple is playing catch up rather than leading the market lately.

Qualcomm boasts about laying the foundation for “so many technologies and experiences we value in our smartphones today”. It mentions the Gigabit LTE, available in all Snapdragon 835 devices. Although the chipset company listed sample devices (not to be confused with pioneers or firsts), we are pretty sure the Galaxy S8 still does not have a dual camera on its back.

The company lists plenty of manufacturers that it has worked closely. Names like Google, Samsung, LG, HTC, and Motorola are included, even vivo and Oppo are mentioned as “two of the top five smartphone companies in the world”.

The press release ends with stating that partners bringing next wave of class-leading Android devices will “continue to pave the way for others to come”. The whole message clearly is aimed at Apple.

Source: EE Times

This announcement is a heavy stone being thrown in the never-ending war of Android vs. iOS. 

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 836 doesn't and won't exist, rumor says

Last year's flagship smartphone chipset from Qualcomm was the Snapdragon 820, which arrived in the first half. But then in the second half of 2016 we got the Snapdragon 821, an ever so slight improvement upon the 820. Will the same happen this year to the already ubiquitous Snapdragon 835?

A new rumor comes and outright says no today. Apparently there is no 836 in development, so Google's 2017 Pixels simply can't have it inside. Quite a few rumors so far have talked about this chipset debuting in those devices, but if the newest report is true, then that won't happen.

The 836 was at one point said to power the Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 as well, which is going to be made official on September 11. But in the meantime Qualcomm itself confirmed that it is in fact the 835 inside the next bezelless phone. Note that the information about the fact that the 836 doesn't actually exist is allegedly coming from an "extremely reliable source", for what it's worth.

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Snapdragon 670 rumored to be a 10nm chip with next-gen Kryo cores

The Snapdragon 660 is just barely getting a foothold on the mobile scene but rumors of its successor have started surfacing. Dubbed Snapdragon 670, this chip will allegedly come in early 2018 and be the first of the series to hit 10nm.

Even more interesting, the chip will allegedly have an octa-core Kryo CPU – 2 high power cores (Kryo 360) and 6 low-power ones. Note that Kryo 360 would be a third-generation core, while the Snapdragon 835 and 660 use second gen cores (but they are split 4+4 in terms of high and low power).

This new processor will use ARM’s DynamIQ tech, which features on the Cortex-A75 and A55. This is the successor to big.LITTLE and is much more flexible.

Likewise, the GPU moves on to the next generation of Adreno – the 6-series – while the current Snapdragons use Adreno 5-series.

It seems that the Snapdragon 670 will be build by Samsung on its 10nm LPP tech – a refinement of the 10nm LPE used in the current Snapdragon 835 and Exynos 8895 chips. Note: LPE and LPP refers to Low Power Early and Plus respectively.

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Intel accuses Qualcomm of abusing monopoly position

There are three constants in the universe - mass, energy, and Qualcomm being engaged in legal battles. The latest complaint comes from Intel, which claims the San Diego company is charging five times more for its licenses while at the same time is offering lower prices for chips for phone manufacturers.

Intel has urged the ITC to investigate Qualcomm, as it feels it hasn’t licensed its tech under “fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory” terms and is charging absurdly high rates. Qualcomm on the other side said Intel uses patents in certain LTE modems unlawfully and has demanded Apple replace the parts.

Intel’s claims come just a day after the news thatfour companies that provide parts for iPhones and iPads accused Qualcomm of over-excessive charging for patents. The company is also investigated by the FTC and was already slapped with a fine by the South Korean government. And let’s not forget Qualcomm already claimed that Apple artificially made its modems slower than Intel’s.

Intel claiming that a company is hoarding the chip market might have a reason, but there's also an ironic side to it. Back in 2014, it was required to pay $1.4 billion fine over anti-competitive tactics in the EU.

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Foxconn joins Apple in legal battle against Qualcomm

The court battle continues for Qualcomm. Now Taiwanese companies Foxconn, Compal, Pegatron, and Wistron are planning to file a lawsuit against the San Diego company in the federal district court. The claim is Qualcomm is charging excessive fees for patent licenses and violates anti-trust laws.

All four companies are involved in the manufacturing process of the iPad and the iPhone. Apple is helping the lawsuit by covering all legal expenses. That comes as a response to the legal complaint that Apple is not paying for six key patents it is using.

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf said yesterday he expects everything to get resolved out of court, but this is not his only battle. The FTC also sues the company for anti-competitive practices. It says Qualcomm threatened to withhold chip supply to obtain agreement to unfair or unreasonable licensing terms.

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Qualcomm launches new Snapdragon Wear 1200 wearable platform

Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon Wear 1200 chipset. It will be featured in low-end wearables and single-purpose IoT devices like parking meters and pumping stations.

The Snapdragon Wear 1200 evolved from the Wear 1100. It is almost half the size while adding support for LTE Cat M1 and NB1 technologies that allow ultra-low-power electronics to connect to an LTE network with minimal power consumption. The categories max out at data speed between 10 and 50 Kbps, making the data consumption also insignificant.

Wear 1200 supports multiple tracking, including GLONASS and Galileo. Some devices might even have Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Qualcomm’s rapid charging technology.

The SoC probably would not reach an Android device, but surely we’ll see it in basic fitness trackers. It will be used by IoT devices manufacturers because of its size and enhanced connectivity. The chipset is already available for shipping.

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Qualcomm brings in-screen fingerprint technology in Q1 2018

We’ve heard many rumors about in-screen fingerprint technology, but now Qualcomm officially announced it has started producing the first samples. The ultrasonic scanner can be implemented under any smartphone surface - OLED display, metal or glass panel. Devices with such sensor will arrive in early 2018 and will be compatible with all Snapdragon chips, as well as some other platforms.

The next-generation fingerprint solutions are based around an integrated ultrasonic sensor. They will also detect your heart rate and blood flow and will provide “improved mobile authentication experiences”.

In current smartphones and tablets, fingerprint scanners can scan through a layer 400 µm thick. Qualcomm’s technology will be able to scan through an OLED panel that stacks up to 1200 µm, a glass and metal panel up to 800 µm thickness and a front glass cover of up to 650 µm.

According to a timeframe Qualcomm published, manufacturers should receive samples of the Glass and Metal sensor this month. First devices should hit the shelves in the first half of 2018.

Qualcomm and vivo are working together in demonstrating the first device. This gives more credibility to the leaked video we saw two weeks ago.

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Snapdragon 450 in the works, apparently related to the S625

Qualcomm's Cortex-A53 based chipsets sip power and it seems that there’s a new one in the works. Dubbed Snapdragon 450, it apparently comes from good stock – documentation suggests it is related to the Snapdragon 625.

The 625 was a 14nm chipset, and it performed impressively as far as battery life was concerned. Current Snapdragon 4xx chips are built on the older 28nm process (yes, even the latest 430 and 435), which place a limit on their power efficiency (they still did quite okay, though).

The GPU will be clocked at 600MHz – perhaps a downclocked version of the Adreno 506 found in the S625 chipset (where it ran at 650MHz). If that proves true, the Snapdragon 450 will have a huge advantage in graphics performance over its other 400-series siblings.

We’ll have to wait for official confirmation of these specs, but this is shaping up to be a solid alternative to the Snapdragon 630 for budget-minded phones.

Source (in German) | Via

Qualcomm is going with TSMC for 7nm Snapdragons, not Samsung

Samsung won the bid to produce this generation of flagship Snapdragon chips, but it seems that the next iteration will be forged at TSMC fabs. TSMC has been scoring some big wins recently, including building the current Apple 10 chips (at 16nm) and the Apple A11 on 10nm, plus Helio X30 on 7nm soon.

Qualcomm reportedly approached Samsung to talk about the Snapdragon 845 (LG too). Samsung will likely be one of the biggest buyers of the new chip for next year’s Galaxy flagships, but it seems it will not be building the chips in its factories.

That was a profitable business on its own, Samsung’s foundry reported $4.44 billion in sales last year, of which $1.78 billion (40%) was from Qualcomm. Of course, that business won’t disappear overnight, the S835 will have buyers even in 2018 and there will probably be 10nm mid-range chips.

Still, the Korean tech giant invested $7 billion in 10nm and 7nm production lines and was hoping to introduce 7nm chipsets next year. The most recent info is that there will be an intermediate step at 8nm, which will be a relatively minor improvement over the current 10nm. The next generation Exynos flagship will most likely be built on 8nm.

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Qualcomm introduces faster and more efficient Quick Charge 4+

Qualcomm announced Quick Charge 4 with the unveiling of the Snapdragon 835 at the beginning of the year and now it brings a more polished version of the standard. Its name is Quick Charge 4+ and should be considered as an update to the previous standard since both can be used on the same chipset.

Quick Charge 4 devices can switch to QC4+ if manufacturers decide to include three enhancements. Dual Charge is similar to an earlier version of Quick Charge, but now Qualcomm says it is “more powerful”. There is also Intelligent Thermal Balancing that steers current through the less used charging pathway to keep temperatures of the chipset and the device down. The third enhancement is called Advanced Safety Feature that monitors both the phone and the connector temperature to prevent overheating and short-circuit damage.

The San Diego company says devices that support QC4+ will charge 15% faster and 30% more efficiently. Charging would also be up to 3 degrees Celsius cooler.

Quick Charge 4+ is not a software update, but a hardware upgrade, so you can’t just get it with a patch. The only device right now on the market that supports the new standard is the ZTE nubia Z17 that was announced yesterday.

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Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 660 and Snapdragon 630 SoCs

Qualcomm has announced two additions to its range of mobile processors, the Snapdragon 660 and the Snapdragon 630. These will be succeeding the Snapdragon 653 and the Snapdragon 626, respectively.

The Snapdragon 660 is based on 14nm technology. It has 8x Kryo 260 CPU cores clocked at 2.2GHz, and is the first 600-series Snapdragon SoC to have Kryo CPU. The CPU is said to be 20% faster than the one on the Snapdragon 653. The GPU is Adreno 512, which is 30% faster than the Adreno 510 on the 653. It also has the latest Snapdragon X12 LTE modem, Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wave 2, 2x2 MIMO, Bluetooth 5.0, Qualcomm TruSignal adaptive antenna tuning, 600Mbps data and 867Mbps Wi-Fi peak download speed, USB 3.1, Qualcomm Spectra 160 ISP, 4K video capture, QHD display support, Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec support, Qualcomm Hexagon 680 DSP, Qualcomm Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX), Qualcomm All-Ways Aware, and QuickCharge 4.0.

The Snapdragon 630 is based on 14nm technology. It has an 8x ARM Cortex-A53 CPU clocked at 2.2GHz that is 10% faster than the Snapdragon 626, and a Adreno 508 GPU that is 30% faster. It also has the latest Snapdragon X12 LTE modem, Wi-Fi 802.11ac Wave 2, Bluetooth 5.0, Qualcomm TruSignal adaptive antenna tuning, 600Mbps data and 433Mbps Wi-Fi peak download speed, USB 3.1, Qualcomm Spectra 160 ISP, 4K video capture, 1080p display support, Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec support, Qualcomm Hexagon 642 DSP, Qualcomm All-Ways Aware, and QuickCharge 4.0.

Snapdragon 660 is available now to hardware partners and devices will be shipping end of this quarter. Snapdragon 630 will be available end of May and devices will start shipping next quarter.

Qualcomm aims to ban iPhone imports in the US

The lawsuit-infused conflict between Qualcomm and Apple got even more intense after the chipset company requested the International Trade Commission to ban the import of iPhones from Asia to the US. This comes as an additional hit from Qualcomm, after the San Diego-based enterprise launched a lawsuit against Apple, claiming that it made its chips look inferior to Intel's.

Up until the iPhone 7, Qualcomm was the sole supplier of modems for all Apple phones. The latest devices though started using a mixture of Intel and Qualcomm hardware.

The Free Trade Commission also jumped in with a lawsuit, claiming that Qualcomm extorts smartphone manufacturers to pay royalties even if they are using other companies’ components.

The International Trade Commission has the power to stop any import of non-US goods, but it's unlikely that it will go this far in this case. And in all cases the proceedings will be long enough not to put the next iPhone launch in jeopardy .

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