Qualcomm has announced two new additions to its Snapdragon 800 line of processors. The new processors are said to be its highest performing mobile processors yet and they are mated with Qualcomm’s most advanced 4G LTE connections. Each processor is designed to use less power and is claimed to be the most power efficient mobile processor with integrated 4G LTE and 64-bit computing capability.
Both processors are designed in 20 nm technology node and are said to be based on a next-generation custom 64-bit CPU micro-architecture. Further information about the architecture and design is expected to be shared later this year.
The new processors, Snapdragon 810 and 808, are capable of reaching CAT 6 speeds of up to 300 Mbps by way of the 3×20 Mhz carrier aggregation support and Advanced multimode modem. This is comparable to a three lane highway carrying data instead of the single lane trunk road that’s commonly found.
The Snapdragon 810 processor can play 4K Ultra HD resolution contents, on both internal and external displays. The chip supports 4K HEVC (H.265) encoding and decoding to deliver videos in 4096 x 2160 pixels. So, if you were thinking on getting that 4K media player, perhaps it’s time to put it on the back burner for now and wait for these puppies to roll out. The processor also has a 14-bit dual Image Signal Processors (ISP), a first for smartphones.
Here are the highlights of the Snapdragon 810 processor:
- Support for camera suite that uses gyro-stabilisation and 3D noise reduction for producing 4K video at 30 frames per second (fps) and 1080p video at 120 fps. The 14-bit dual Image Signal Processors (ISPs) can support 1.2GP/s throughput and image sensors of up to 55 MP.
- The 64-bit quad core has combined ARM Cortex-A57 CPUs and Cortex-A53 CPUs while implementing the new ARMv8-A ISA which improves the efficiency on instructions set. The Adreno 430 graphics processing unit (GPU) provides support for OpenGL ES 3.1 plus hardware tessellation, geometry shaders and programmable blending. Compared to the older Adreno 420, the new GPU is claimed to deliver 30% faster graphics performance, 100% faster GPGPU (General-purpose computing on graphics processing units) compute performance, and reducing power consumption by up to 20% while adding a new level of GPU security for content providers.
- The Snapdragon 810 processor introduces high speed LPDDR4 memory.
- Frame buffer compression and external 4K display support via HDMI1.4.
- First mobile platform to implement Qualcomm VIVE 2-stream 802.11ac with multi-user MIMO.
- Support for Bluetooth 4.1, USB 3.0, NFC and the latest Qualcomm IZat location core.
The Snapdragon 808 processor has a lower specification than the 810 but it’s no pushover. The 808 still has a better performance than most, if not all, of the current generation of processors. The chip integrates the same LTE-Advanced, and Wi-Fi connectivity as the 810 but only supports 2K display (4K external is possible via HDMI). The primary differences of the Snapdragon 808 processor include:
- Supports up to WQXGA (2560×1600) internal displays.
- It has a new Adreno 418 GPU and it supports the same OpenGL ES 3.1 plus hardware tessellation, geometry shaders, programmable blending as well as the added security for composition and management of premium video which are all similar to the Adreno 430. The Adreno 418 is also designed to have 20% faster graphics performance than its predecessor, the Adreno 330.
- It is configured with two ARM Cortex-A57 cores paired with a quad Cortex-A53 CPU.
- 12-bit dual Image Signal Processors.
- LPDDR3 memory.
- Frame buffer compression and external 4K display support via HDMI1.4.
“The announcement of the Snapdragon 810 and 808 processors underscore Qualcomm Technologies’ continued commitment to technology leadership and a time-to-market advantage for our customers for premium tier 64-bit LTE-enabled smartphones and tablets,” said Murthy Renduchintala, Executive Vice President, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., and Co-President, QCT. “These product announcements, in combination with the continued development of our next-generation custom 64-bit CPU, will ensure we have a tremendous foundation on which to innovate as we continue to push the boundaries of mobile computing performance in the years to come.”
The Snapdragon 810 and 808 processors are expected to begin sampling in the second half of 2014 and should be available in commercial devices by the first half of 2015. If you’re planning to wait for this to come out, please bear in mind that there will probably be a bigger and better chip by then. In the meantime, we still have the Snapdragon 801 to tide us over till next year and the dragon in the video below to keep us company.
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