Qualcomm officially released the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 mobile platform! Eight highlights revealed!

On the morning of December 1, 2021, Qualcomm officially launched a new generation of Snapdragon 8 5G mobile platform - Snapdragon 8 Gen1. Qualcomm stated it was the most powerful mobile phone processor to date, with advanced 5G, AI, gaming, imaging and connectivity technologies, and will be commercially available by the end of 2021.

Name

This year, Qualcomm changed the naming method for the Snapdragon mobile platform, from the previous three-digit 8XX to "Snapdragon 8 Gen 1" (Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform).

The naming system of "1 digit + version number" is actually consistent with the naming principles of Qualcomm’s other platforms.

In addition, this time the chip is no longer called "Qualcomm Snapdragon", but simply "Snapdragon", which also corresponds to Qualcomm's announcement of the independence of the Snapdragon sub-brand on November 23.

Performance

In addition to the name change, the new generation Snapdragon 8 has also ushered in earth-shaking changes in the instruction set, CPU, and GPU architecture. The Snapdragon 8 Gen1 is manufactured using Samsung's 4nm process, with the first Armv9 instruction set, equipped with a new generation of ARM Cortex-X2, A710, and A510 CPU core architectures, as well as a new generation of AdrenoGPU graphics units.

1. Instruction set change. Since 2011, the Arm v8 instruction set has accompanied the smartphone industry for ten years. The new generation of Snapdragon 8 processors will use the Arm v9 instruction set. The new instruction set has been updated and upgraded in terms of security and AI capabilities, setting the stage for smartphones in the new decade.

2. CPU aspect. The three-cluster design CPU has been upgraded across the board. The super core is upgraded to X2, the original A78 architecture large core is upgraded to A710, and the small core is also upgraded to A510.

3. GPU aspect. From the previous generation of the 6 series to the 7 series, the Adreno730 is Qualcomm's most powerful GPU so far. The graphics rendering speed has jumped 30% compared to the previous generation. Under the same performance, the Adreno730 has an excellent power saving of 25%.

4. AI aspect. The seventh-generation AI engine on the new generation of Snapdragon 8 integrates all the capabilities of GPU, Hexagon, SensingHub, and CPU, and the overall performance is 4 times higher than that of the previous generation.

5. Photography aspect. The new generation of Snapdragon 8 mobile platform is also amazing in terms of SpectraISP improvement. Not only can it process up to 3.2 billion pixels per second, but its sampling capability has increased by more than 4,000 times compared to the previous generation. It is also the first 18bit imaging system specially built for smartphones.

At the same time, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 brings 8K HDR video shooting capabilities and supports the HDR10+ format, loading more than 1 billion color tones. Videos look better thanks to the new Bokeh Engine, which adds beautiful, soft backgrounds to videos; and videos also support portrait mode.

6. Network connection. Integrating Qualcomm's fourth-generation 5G Modem X65, X65 brings several world firsts: the world's first 10 Gb 5G modem RF solution, the world's first 3GPP Release 16 5G solution; the world's first 5G uplink carrier aggregation.

In addition to 5G, Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 mobile connection system can support the present fastest Wi-Fi network. Connecting to Wi-Fi 6 and 6E standard devices, its theoretical maximum speed can reach 3.6Gbps, ensuring smooth connection of games and applications.

7. Audio aspect. Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has built-in Bluetooth 5.2 and Snapdragon Sound technology, users can experience crystal clear sound and music through these new technologies, and Qualcomm aptX technology supports CD sound quality without any loss. For the first time, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 supports the new LE Bluetooth Low Energy Audio to support broadcast audio, stereo recording, and background calls for games.

8. Security. Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is the first Snapdragon platform to feature a dedicated trust management engine for greater security and additional security features for applications and services. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is also the world's first mobile platform to adopt "Android Ready SE", an alliance of Google and a number of chip manufacturers.

Through this alliance, they will jointly develop chips that meet security certification standards and high-security open-source kits with "tamper-proof encryption technology", so as to promote Android phones to become future personal digital documents or electronic wallets, which can remotely control car doors, make payments, and even as a digital driver's license and passport.

FaceSec has rich experience in designing Qualcomm ARM architecture for many years, and continues to cooperate with Qualcomm. In the future, it will launch AI smart products based on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 architecture, and continue to provide customers with AI one-stop solutions to maintain their business systems’ competitiveness.