What meaning can be attributed to Qualcomm’s announcement a couple of days ago regarding the launch of the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 mobile platform? The right answer probably lies in the title that accompanied the presentation of the new smartphone processor from the Californian company, i.e. the attempt to bring the functionality of artificial intelligence “on device” to a larger number of Android devices. In short, the basic idea is to broaden the range of models (Honor, Realme, Xiaomi, Redmi and iQOO are the first brands to adopt the product) which will be able to boast the power of generative AI (the platform supports LLM models such as Baichuan-7B, Llama 2 and Gemini Nano and therefore contemplates the use of new generation virtual assistants processed locally and capable of generating original content starting from texts, voices or images) powered by a Snapdragon System on chip.
To achieve this goal, Qualcomm has invented a slightly revised version of the performance of its top-of-the-range processor to propose (to manufacturers) a more competitive chip in terms of costs and therefore capable of becoming particularly attractive even for the mid-range high of the market, the one where a competitor such as the Taiwanese Mediatek moves successfully. According to some experts, the strategy that gave life to the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 project is even more targeted: to create the conditions to double-link the producers of the Android world to its ecosystem through functional chips for the use of its platforms, directing application developers to use their own AI frameworks and models.
The differences with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Between the new chip and what is currently considered the flagship chip for smartphones, the differences are marginal. Both use a 5 nanometer production process and Qualcomm’s choice at the core level went to the 8-brain Arm v9 architecture, the one that equips the third generation Snapdragon 8. Something changes at the cluster configuration level (the new processor adopts a 1/4/3 scheme compared to the 1/5/2 of its “big brother) and the clock speed of the Prime Cortex at 3.4 GHz), while in general it can be said that the Soc 8s responds to the desire to reduce energy consumption while maintaining a level of performance practically unchanged in the eyes of the user. Or rather: perhaps the most obvious limitations are under imaging, because there is no support for the 8K HDR format during recording and the super slow motion and video recording functions with Night Vision are limited. Finally, the modem for network connectivity also changes: instead of the Snapdragon X75 with downlink speeds of up to 10 Gbps, the new chip integrates the Snapdragon X70 with speeds of up to 5 Gbps. Not much, one might say, but everything suggests that the launch of the new chip is of very significant importance in Qualcomm’s intentions.
#chip #smartphones #Snapdragon #Gen #Qualcomm #mediumhigh #range
2024-03-22 03:43:24