Qualcomm The Snapdragon Tech Summit is a multi-day event showcasing the latest mobile technology Qualcomm has to offer. This is the second year Qualcomm is holding simultaneous events in China and Hawaii, as well as streaming keynotes. Day 1 of the Snapdragon Tech Summit kicked off with the introduction of the latest smartphone system-on-chip (SoC) – the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. As expected, it delivers performance and efficiency improvements for camera, connectivity, gaming, audio and security. But the biggest punch comes from the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in almost every field. The company went so far as to call it “purpose built for artificial intelligence.” Qualcomm uses all the processing elements of the Snapdragon SoC for artificial intelligence processing and calls the combination of these processing elements the “AI engine”. Among the improvements built into the AI engine were a special power level and a doubling of the tensor processing cores in the Hexagon processor. The result is a 4.35x improvement in efficiency and an equally impressive 60% improvement in efficiency per watt. Qualcomm also added support for transformer neural network models that are critical for applications such as natural language processing (NLP) for speech-to-text and text-to-speech translation. Hexagon can plug the NLP neural model into smaller components to run on micro-tiles allowing for more efficient use of processing cores. In addition, 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 appreciable loss of accuracy while improving speed and power efficiency. The end result is faster and more efficient processing of neural network models. With Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, Qualcomm also introduces Hexagon Direct Link – a physical connection 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) on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Qualcomm also added a second AI processor to the sensor center for real-time sensor processing, increasing sensor processing by 2x. Additional sensor processing combined with apps enables new features such as camera processing even when the phone is in sleep mode. As a result, the phone could still be used for activity detection and/or used for other applications such as scanning QR codes while in sleep mode. When the phone is active, real-time detection can actively monitor the user or users to unlock the phone, enable privacy mode when unauthorized users view the screen, and/or disable notifications while an unauthorized user sees the screen. Snapdragon 8 gen 2 will also feature another first, exclusive AI processing in the modem, an area that is long overdue for AI improvements. This feature improves performance, coverage and range, especially when operating at the edge of a cellular network. The modem also includes 4x cellular aggregation for up to 10 Gbps and simultaneous dual-SIM support, while remaining backward compatible with 4G. Another major improvement in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is the GPU. Qualcomm has improved the Adreno GPU to include hardware ray tracing with minimal impact on power consumption. The chip can perform ray tracing while drawing only 5W, even without using upscaling technology like that used in computers. The updated 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 improvements in Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 include Wi-Fi 7 support using high-band 320 MHz channels in the 6 GHz frequency band up to 5.8 Gbps and latency up to 2 ns, two Bluetooth channels and the use of a new 3.2 GHz Cortex arm X3 high-performance core for 35% increase in performance and 40% increase in performance efficiency. And, what I think is one of the coolest features, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 supports dynamic spatial audio powered by Snapdragon Sound technology. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will be built on TSMC 4nm technology and will be embedded in products introduced by Oppo, Samsung and other smartphone vendors from early 2024. As promised, it will provide improvements, especially in multimedia applications such as content creation and the games. Also announced to support the Snapdragon product line are Qualcomm AI Stack, Qualcomm AI Studio, and Qualcomm Innovation Developer Kit. The Qualcomm AI Stack enables the development of AI models across multiple platforms. Qualcomm AI Studio offers developers a single platform for developing and optimizing neural network models for Snapdragon platforms. And the Qualcomm Innovation Developer Kit offers developers a complete Snapdragon hardware and software development platform with custom support. Qualcomm AI Engine and supporting tools Qualcomm The second day of the Snapdragon Summit will focus on XR, computing and other technologies. So look for the next article for more information.
