The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 gen 2 SoC for flagship smartphones
Qualcomm
The Snapdragon Tech Summit is a multi-day event that showcases the latest mobile technology Qualcomm has to offer. This is the second year that Qualcomm is holding simultaneous events in China and Hawaii, as well as broadcasting the keynotes. Day 1 of the Snapdragon Tech Summit kicked off with the introduction of the latest system on a chip (SoC) for smartphones: the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. As expected, it offers improvements in performance and camera efficiency, connectivity, games, sound and security. But the biggest hit comes from the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in almost every area. The company went so far as to call it “built for AI.”
Qualcomm uses all the processing elements of the Snapdragon SoC for AI processing and calls the combination of these processing elements the “AI Engine”. Improvements built into the AI engine included a dedicated power plane and a doubling of tensor processing cores within the Hexagon processor. The result is a 4.35x improvement in performance and an equally impressive 60% improvement in performance per watt of efficiency. Qualcomm also added support for transformative neural network models that are critical to applications such as natural language processing (NLP) for speech-to-text and text-to-speech translation. Hexagon can splice the neural NLP model into smaller elements to run on microtiles that allow more efficient use of processing cores. Additionally, Qualcomm added support for Int4 data structures. In many cases, this lower precision data structure can be used by neural network models such as computational photography image enhancement without a noticeable loss of accuracy while improving speed and energy efficiency. The end result is faster and more efficient processing of neural network models.
With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Qualcomm is also introducing Hexagon Direct Link, a physical link between the Hexagon processor and the other AI processing cores for fast, real-time processing. According to the company, this will enable the first cognitive processing by the image signal processor (ISP) in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
Qualcomm also added a second AI processor to the sensor hub for real-time sensor processing, increasing sensor processing by 2x. Additional sensor processing combined with apps enables new capabilities, such as processing by the camera even when the phone is in sleep mode. As a result, the phone could still be used to detect activity and/or be used for other applications such as scanning QR codes in sleep mode. When the phone is active, real-time detection can actively monitor the user or users to unlock the phone, activate privacy mode when unauthorized users are viewing the screen, and/or disable notifications while an unauthorized user is viewing the screen.
The Snapdragon 8 gen 2 will also feature another first dedicated AI processing in the modem, an area that has long needed AI improvements. This feature improves performance, coverage and range, especially when working at the edge of a mobile network. The modem also features 4x carrier aggregation for up to 10 Gbps and simultaneous dual-SIM support, while still supporting 4G.
Another major improvement in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is in the GPU. Qualcomm improved the Adreno GPU to include hardware ray tracing with minimal impact on power consumption. The chip can run ray tracing while drawing only 5W, even without using upscaling technology like that used in computers. The upgraded Adreno GPU also supports Vulkan 1.3, HDR Vivid, Adaptive HDR, OLED aging compensation and Unreal Engine 5 MetaHumans, with a 25% increase in performance and power efficiency.
Other Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 improvements include Wi-Fi 7 support using 320 MHz high-bandwidth channels in the 6 GHz frequency band for up to 5.8 Gbps and up to 2 ns latency, dual Bluetooth channels, and the use of a new 3.2 GHz arm. Cortex X3 high-performance core for a 35% increase in performance and a 40% increase in performance efficiency. And, in what I think is one of the coolest features, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 supports dynamic spatial audio enabled by Snapdragon Sound technology.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will be manufactured using TSMC 4nm technology and will be included in products introduced by Oppo, Samsung and other smartphone vendors starting in early 2024. As promised, it will bring improvements, especially to applications multimedia such as content creation and gaming. .
Also announced as support for the Snapdragon product line is the Qualcomm AI Stack, Qualcomm AI Studio, and Qualcomm Innovation Developer Kit. Qualcomm AI Stack enables deployment of AI models across multiple platforms. Qualcomm AI Studio provides developers with a single platform to develop and optimize neural network models for Snapdragon platforms. And the Qualcomm Innovation Developer Kit provides developers with a full development Snapdragon hardware and software development platform with custom support.
Qualcomm’s AI engine and supporting tools
Qualcomm
The second day of the Snapdragon Summit will focus on XR, PCs and other technologies. So, check out the article below for more information.