The Qualcomm Thread

Qualcomm Ships First 48-Core Centriq 2400 Server Chips To Take On Intel In The Data Center


Today, Qualcomm officially announced that it has begun shipping its Centriq 2400 server processors to its OEM partners. This marks a big step for Qualcomm, which is no stranger to the mobile market with its Snapdragon processors, but is a lesser known quantity in the server market. Intel's Xeon processors have already seen a credible challenge in the form of AMD's Zen-based EPYC family, and Centriq promises to be a low-power, high-density alternative that can run with the big dogs in the cloud infrastructure market.

Qualcomm first began talking up its Centriq family around this time last year. At the time, the company was sampling the processors, which are built on a Samsung 10-nanometer manufacturing process. Qualcomm worked with Samsung on this 10nm FinFET process, which is also used for the incredibly poplar Snapdragon 835 consumer-centric SoC for handsets.


"Samsung's 10-nm process technology with specific optimizations for high performance, combined with Qualcomm Datacenter Technologies' leading-edge custom SoC design, allow us to deliver a world-class server processor that will disrupt the datacenter market," said ES Jung, president and general manager, Foundry Business, Samsung Electronics.


Getting down to brass tacks, the Centriq 2400 family contains a total of 18 billion transistors occupying a die that measures 398mm2. The Centriq 2400 is available in three configurations featuring 40, 46 or 48 cores. Clock frequencies for these processors range from 2.3GHz/2.5GHz (base/max) for the Centriq 2434 to 2.2Hz/2.6GHz for the range-topping Centriq 2460.


Each of those cores are connected by a bi-directional segmented ring bus that is capable of delivering 250GBps of aggregate bandwidth. For every pair of Qualcomm Falkor cores within a Centriq processor, there is 512KB of shared L2 cache. In addition, there is up to 60MB of shared L3 cache available to all cores. The cores are highly tuned, custom implementations of the ARMv8 64-bit architecture.


There's a 6-channel DDR4 memory controller than supports up to 768GB of memory, while you're find support for 32 PCIe Gen3 lanes and 6 PCIe controllers. Given that the Centriq 2400 family is built using ARM architecture, Qualcomm is playing up power efficiency as a key advantage over its rivals from Intel and AMD. In this case, Centriq processor have a maximum TDP "well below" 120 Watts.




Although we'd love to be able to give you actual real-life benchmarks numbers comparing the Centriq 2400 family to its counterparts, Qualcomm isn't quite ready to provide those numbers at this time. Instead, it says that the 48-core Centriq 2460 offers a 4x uplift in performance-per-dollar and a 45 percent performance-per-watt improvement over Intel’s Xeon Platinum 8180. Those are some pretty bold performance/cost/efficiency claims that we'll definitely want to see played out in the real world.





Qualcomm is hoping to make a splash with the Centriq 2400 family and it has lined up the following partners to showcase the power of the platform: Alibaba, American Megatrends Inc., Arm, Cadence Design Systems, Canonical, Chelsio Communications, Cloudflare, Excelero, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Illumina, LinkedIn, MariaDB, Mellanox, Microsoft Azure, MongoDB, Netronome, Packet, Red Hat, ScyllaDB, 6WIND, Samsung, Solarflare, Smartcore, SUSE, Uber, and Xilinx.

The 40-core Centriq 2434, 46-core Centriq 2453, and 48-core Centriq 2460 are priced at $888, $1,383 and $1,995 respectively. Considering that Intel's Xeon Platinum 8180 has an MSRP of $10,009, we have no doubt that Qualcomm will find more than a few companies that are willing to take a chance and kick the tires of its new server processors, if real world performance matches what the company is putting down on paper today. This ought to be interesting to watch unfold in the months ahead as Qualcomm powered servers are deployed in market.

 

Qualcomm Centriq 2400 Server Chip Takes On Intel Xeon In Cloudflare Benchmark Gauntlet

 

Qualcomm Unveils Intel's Worst Nightmare, Always Connected Snapdragon Windows 10 Convertibles Launched

 

We didn't see Qualcomm coming , that's why Broadcom wants to acquisition Qualcomm ($137 billion ) and it will benefit Apple in this case at the end.

 

Nice, Competition is always good, 48-cores at 10nm.

Keep up the good work Dr AMK.

John.

 

Tech Mega-Merger: Chip Maker Broadcom Wants to Buy Qualcomm for $105 Billion

Broadcom's $137 Billion Bid For Qualcomm Could Be The Biggest Tech Acquisition Ever

Google, Microsoft concerned that a Broadcom acquisition of Qualcomm will benefit Apple

 

Qualcomm Launches The First 10nm Server Chip
https://www.forbes.com/sites/aarontilley/2016/12/07/qualcomm-launches-the-first-10nm-server-chip/#1f1150c42119
Mobile chipmaker Qualcomm is making its next big move in its uphill battle with Intel in the data center market.

On Wednesday, the San Diego, Calif.-based company announced its second-generation server chip built on the most advanced chip manufacturing process at 10 nanometers. The chip, called the Centriq 2400, will contain 48 ARM-based cores. Qualcomm is calling its custom ARM processors Falkor.

Qualcomm said it's already sampling the new chips out to data center giants now.

Qualcomm announced its first server chip last year with a “Server Development Platform” for data center players to start trying out Qualcomm technology and seeing how well it performs.

Last month, Qualcomm said its next generation mobile processor, the Snapdragon 835, would also be built on the 10nm process node. The mobile chip will be built by Samsung (Qualcomm wouldn't say yet who is building its server chip).

“The leading edge process node has been historically driven by the PC,” said Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm's datacenter business. “That has been shifting.”

For years, the volumes PCs were selling at resulted in the most advanced processing chips in that market. Now that smartphone volumes have taken over in the tech industry, phones are benefitting from getting access the most advanced chip manufacturing technology, said Chandrasekher. "We've seen the shift from PC leadership on the process node to mobile leadership," he said.

Chandrasekher said Qualcomm is benefitting from the shifting emphasis in chip manufacturing capabilities to mobile. It's able to take what it has learned building mobile processors and use it in the data center.

It's early days for Qualcomm's data center ambitions, and it faces a tremendous uphill battle. Intel currently owns upwards of 90% of the market for data center processors, and it's certainly not going to cede territory to a competitor easily.

Qualcomm's processors are based on chip designs from ARM, a SoftBank-owned company that licenses out chip designs that have dominated the mobile market over the past decade. Lots of players in the past have tried to break Intel's dominance with ARM-based chips, but none have made it very far.

Qualcomm is seeking for growth outside of its core mobile business as that market matures. Cars are one major area Qualcomm is looking for future growth -- it recently acquired chipmaker NXP, which has a large existing business in chips for cars, in one of the biggest semiconductor deals ever for $47 billion. But it's going to take many years for the data center bet to pay off.

“We’re committed to it,” said Chandrasekher. “The investment to get to this stage has been significant. This is going to take some time to bring home.”

Anand Chandrasekher, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm's datacenter business, holding the server chip (Photo credit: Qualcomm)

 

I am hoping this year Intel's profit will be lower and competitors will benefit and make most out of this opportunity.

 

This is the logic, but this kind of companies has its own logic, you can't be sure.

 

Foundry Giant TSMC Breaks Ground On 5nm Chip Fab With 2020 Production Target
TSMC has broken ground on a new 5nm fab that will be used to produce the world's first 5-nanometer chips starting in 2020. TSMC builds chips for numerous manufacturers, including NVIDIA, Qualcomm and many others. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile chips coming this year are built on the TSMC 7nm technology. With TSMC promising the first chips using its new 5nm tech in 2020, that would likely mean we can expect the first 5nm chips from fabless semiconductor partners like Qualcomm and others, roughly in that same time frame.

The groundbreaking ceremony was held in Taiwan and the facility will reportedly be the largest manufacturing site for TSMC when completed. TSMC also expects that the capital investment will help it to extend the technological lead over its competition, including Samsung Electronics Co. Other than building chips for Qualcomm, TSMC also makes chips for Apple iPhones and currently holds 56% of the global semiconductor foundry market. TSMC tracks Moore's law more closely than others, and the company says that the new investment shows it continues to move to the next technology node every two years.


"About seven or eight years ago, many global semiconductor companies stopped pushing forward their technologies. As of today, only three companies in the world continue to move forward with advanced technologies: TSMC is one of them," TSMC chairman Morris Chang said at the ceremony.

"This facility, called Fab 18, is to start volume production of 5-nanometer [chips] in two years. I have high expectations that this will be the world’s first 5-nanometer [chip plant]," Chang said. "Next comes 3-nanometer [technology]. We are confident that we will be able to produce 3-nanometer [chips] in three to four years."

TSMC plans to use half of the space in Fab 18 to build 3-nm production lines. Fab 18 will be built in the Southern Taiwan Science Park, TSMC also has Fab 14 in the same science park, that fab builds 10nm and 16nm chips. Chang also noted that TSMC traditionally has a 15-20% ratio of return on invested capital. With those numbers, the company could recover the NT$500 billion investment in five years and generate NT$1.5 trillion in revenue over that same period. The NT$500 billion investment will also be paired with NT$200 billion in R&D spending for a total investment of NT$700 billion in 5nm process technology.

 

Can Qualcomm Close This NXP Semiconductors Merger Anytime Soon?
https://www.fool.com/investing/2018/02/16/can-qualcomm-close-this-nxp-semiconductors-merger.aspx
Qualcomm still hopes to complete the deal shortly, with just one more regulatory approval left unsigned.

Chip giant Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) has updated its tender offer for every share of automotive computing expert NXP Semiconductors (NASDAQ:NXPI) again. The number of shares committed to Qualcomm's $110 all-cash offer per NXP have been dwindling over the last year, with a temporary respite in October.

Let's have a look at the new state of affairs.

By the numbers
When NXP shareholders commit their stubs to Qualcomm's offer, the shares may be withdrawn at any time. Here's the latest tally:

Spoiler: Read More:

DATA SOURCE: QUALCOMM.

What's new?
Qualcomm reported the updated numbers without any commentary or background material, a common practice since last summer. European regulators gave their final thumbs-up four weeks ago, removing one of the last remaining roadblocks and setting the stage for a quick South Korean approval. At this point, only China hasn't given the go-ahead for Qualcomm to complete its NXP buyout.

Beyond this, the only additional detail would be the fact that this extension of the tender offer will expire at the close of business on Feb. 23. That's actually noteworthy, because Qualcomm's tender offer renewals have been arriving in monthly intervals so far. This time, it's just a two-week gap. Does this indicate a greater chance that the deal could be completed before this expiration? I hesitate to make that suggestion, because it flies in the face of lukewarm investor interest, but can't deny that it looks like a logical explanation.

"The transaction is expected to close in early 2018," according to the press materials -- a verbatim quote from the January update. It's still pretty early, so I might not be wrong after all.


IMAGE SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES.

What's next?
According to Qualcomm CFO George Davis, Qualcomm could complete this deal very quickly following Chinese approvals, putting down the final John Hancock as soon as three weeks later.

Shareholders might disagree, though. Activist analyst firm Elliott Advisors continues to push for a higher closing price, looking for a final price tag north of $135 per share. NXP shares continue to trade above Qualcomm's committed $110 offer per share, clocking in at $118.50 on Feb. 16. Meeting Elliott's demands would add another $8.5 billion to an already huge $38 billion deal price, and Qualcomm would need to come up with that additional cash somehow -- or add a share-based component to this all-cash agreement.

But that idea could actually work in Qualcomm's favor. The company is battling a hostile takeover attempt by fellow chip designer Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO). Overpaying for NXP on purpose could drive that unwelcome suitor away. Qualcomm would be cutting off its nose to spite its face, sure, but stranger things have happened. This type of move would involve an even larger increase than the $135 per share suggested by Elliott Advisors.

This three-way merger drama will play out one way or another in the next couple of months, and it's not at all obvious how the play will end. Take a seat; I'll bring the popcorn.

 

Qualcomm Reveals Snapdragon 700 SoC Series Bringing Flagship Features To Premium Mid-Range Phones
Read more at https://hothardware.com/news/qualco...es-to-semi-premium-phones#m42R6Dj2uolDqc2S.99

Spoiler: Read More:

When it comes to today's Android smartphones, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8xx series of processors get the bulk of the attention. Last year, it was the Snapdragon 835, while this year it is the Snapdragon 845. However, what about customers that want a taste of the "premium life" lavished on flagship devices in more affordable phones? That's where Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 700 series comes into play.
Qualcomm's current family of SoCs encompass the Snapdragon 200, 400, 600 and 800 series. The Snapdragon 200 carries the torch for the low-end market, while the Snapdragon 400 and 600 tackle the mid-range market, with the Snapdragon 800 of course handling the high-end. Given its numbering scheme, the Snapdragon 700 series is looking to occupy a tiny sliver of a niche between the mid-range and premium phone segments.

While Qualcomm isn't given us any concrete details on the Snapdragon 700 series like core counts and clock speeds, it is quick to point out that the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine from the Snapdragon 800 series is included. On the performance side of things, all Qualcomm is stating at this time is that it the Snapdragon 700 series offers a 2x uplift for on-device AI applications compared to the Snapdragon 660 Mobile Platform. And with the Spectra ISP, Kryo CPU and Adreno Visual Processing subsystem, the company further adds that up to a 30 percent improvement in power efficiency can be obtained compared to the Snapdragon 660 Mobile Platform.

image: https://hothardware.com/ContentImages/NewsItem/43724/content/snapdragon700_banner.jpg



Given what we've seen with the Adreno 600 series GPU in the Snapdragon 845 during our performance review, expect to similar performance from the Snapdragon 700 series in cheaper smartphones.

“The Snapdragon 700 Mobile Platform Series will bring premium tier technologies and features into more affordable devices, something our global OEM customers and consumers are demanding,” said Alex Katouzian, SVP and GM for Mobile at Qualcomm Technologies. “From our cutting-edge Qualcomm AI Engine to superior camera, device performance and power, the Snapdragon 700 Series is optimized to support the experiences consumers have come to expect from the most advanced mobile devices at a lower price point.”

Qualcomm made it a point in its press release announcing this new chip family that it is targeting the "increasing demands of the China smartphone ecosystem", so we could see the Snapdragon 700 series arrive in devices from the likes of Huawei, Xiaomi and OPPO (among others). It remains to be seen if other hardware OEMs like Samsung, LG, and Motorola will also adopt the chips to squeeze in another tier in their vast smartphone portfolios.

The first commercial samples of the Snapdragon 700 series processors will ship to customers during the first half of 2018.

 

Qualcomm Re-engages Broadcom Over Blockbuster Acquisition, Pricing Remains A Concern
Read more at https://hothardware.com/news/qualco...remains-a-primary-concern#kaBq45TkkHvB48yH.99

Spoiler: Read More:

Will they, or won't they? Qualcomm up until this point has rebuffed all of Broadcom's advances with regards to a hostile takeover. Broadcom made the first move back in November 2017, and followed up with a second offer valuing Qualcomm at roughly $120 billion.

Shortly after the second offer was made, Qualcomm responded, "Broadcom proposal materially undervalues Qualcomm and falls well short of the firm regulatory commitment the Board would demand given the significant downside risk of a failed transaction."

It appears that Qualcomm is now having second thoughts about the total rejection and is warming up to additional talks with Broadcom. The two companies had a face-to-face on February 23rd to discuss a possible deal, and the talks seem to have gone well. According to Qualcomm, "the meeting led to further progress toward a possible negotiated transaction on key issues other than price."

The main sticking points seem to surround pricing, with Qualcomm asserting that both of Broadcom's previous offers of $79 per share and $82 per share materially undervalues the company. On the pricing front, Qualcomm feels that it is uniquely positioned in the emerging 5G movement and that its impending acquisition of NXP should be taken into account with any future negotiations.

image: https://hothardware.com/ContentImages/NewsItem/43716/content/Broadcom.jpg


Qualcomm has a firm grip on LTE modem market share for the smartphone market, and there are no signs that that position will diminish in the coming years with 5G modems (although Intel is looking to make a strong push in the sector). In addition, Qualcomm also has an enviable position as a supplier of SoCs for the majority of Android smartphones on the market with its Snapdragon family of products. There is also Qualcomm's huge war chests of patents to consider.

Qualcomm Chairman Paul E. Jacobs sent a letter to Broadcom's Hock Tan outlining what Qualcomm wants to get out of any potential transaction. At the forefront, Jacobs encourages Broadcom to enter into an NDA and address concerns over regulatory approval. To that end, Qualcomm is promoting a termination fee of 9 percent of enterprise value that would be payable if the transaction is "terminated other than due to a breach of the agreement by Qualcomm or our failure to obtain stockholder approval."

Qualcomm is also asking for greater transparency with regards to how it will be able to conduct its licensing business during the murky period between agreeing to a deal and the final closing of the transaction. "You still declined to disclose any information regarding your plans to change how the licensing business would be structured and operated after closing, based on your belief that such disclosure is not permissible under antitrust law," writes Jacobs.

"We do not believe that is the case and we have heard from stockholders, research analysts and customers that you have briefed them on your plans at a high level. We continue to believe that we need visibility into those plans beyond what we are hearing in order to fully assess the antitrust risks and value implications of a transaction with Broadcom."

Qualcomm stock has been underperforming relatively to its rivals for years, which explains why Broadcom sees a buying opportunity in the first place. But the realities of hard disagreements over the transaction price and the potential for regulators to scuttle the deal a real concern. Parnassus Investments' chief Jerry Dodson, whose firm holds 8.3 million Qualcomm shares, told the LA Times that he feels the deal has a 50 percent chance of surviving if approved by shareholders.

 

Qualcomm Simulates Blazing Fast 5G Wireless Speeds That Users Will Someday Experience
Read more at https://hothardware.com/news/qualco...-users-someday-experience#fUz4bayZSp8dwj2G.99

Spoiler: Read More:

Wireless carriers have already started extolling the benefits of 5G over existing 4G LTE networks, the primary one being raw speed. 5G reckons to be much faster than 4G, which could open up a new world of possibilities on mobile. The question, how much faster will 5G actually be in real-world settings? Qualcomm has been conducting simulated tests over the past several months to answer that very question, and the results are pretty exciting.

"There is a lot of interest from various stakeholders in the mobile ecosystem—cloud platform providers, application developers, device OEMs, and others—in understanding the real-world performance that 5G NR mobile networks and devices will deliver," said Alex Holcman, senior vice president of engineering, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "We undertook this comprehensive study to help the ecosystem prepare for the foray into 5G, so that application developers, for example, can begin planning new experiences and services for users with 5G devices."

Qualcomm conducted two separate sets of simulations. The first one modeled an NSA 5G NR network in Frankfurt, Germany, operating on 100MHz of 3.5GHz spectrum, with an underlying gigabit LTE network operating across five LTE spectrum bands. And the second simulation modeled a hypothetical NSA 5G NR network in San Francisco, California, operating in 800MHz of 28GHz mmWave spectrum, with an underlying gigabit LTE network across four licensed LTE spectrum bands plus License Assisted Access (LAA) bands.

In the Frankfurt simulation, Qualcomm saw up to whopping 900 percent gain in "browsing download" speeds, which increased from 56Mbps for the median 4G user to more than 490Mbps for the median 5G user. Qualcomm also observed a massive improvement in latency, which drop from 116ms to just 17ms. While Qualcomm did not talk about the implications of this, one thing that immediately comes to mind is online multiplayer gaming.

Testing in San Francisco yield impressive results, too. Download speeds increased from 71Mbps for the median 4G user to 1.4Gbps for the median 5G uers in mmWave coverage, representing an eye popping 2,000 percent improvement. Qualcomm also observiced file download speeds of more than 186Mbps for 90 percent of 5G users, compared to 10Mbps for LTE. The media 5G file download speed was 442Mbps.

"The results from the 5G Network Capacity Simulation lend credence to the promise of 5G, with expected real-world performance that is substantially better than what is currently possible with 4G across multiple metrics. The findings also illustrate that these emerging 5G networks will have the capacity and performance to support a whole host of new services and experiences beyond the traditional categories of browsing, downloading, and streaming," Qualcomm said.

Qualcomm's data hits the web just days after Intel laid out its plans for implementing 5G wireless on future smartphones and laptops. Interestingly enough, Intel mentioned gaming as one of the beneficiaries of 5G, and Qualcomm's data seems to support that notion.

 

Qualcomm shares details on its vision for the near-future of mobile VR
https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/21/q...-its-vision-for-the-near-future-of-mobile-vr/

Spoiler: Read More:

Qualcomm is ready to show off more about what its Snapdragon 845 system architecture can do for the future of VR.

Even as headsets based on the Snapdragon 835 reference design — like Lenovo’s positionally tracked Daydream headset — are just gearing up for their stateside release, we’re already looking to what the future of VR that isn’t tethered to something else looks like. Today, Qualcomm showed off a reference design centered around its latest mobile chipset, the Snapdragon 845.

The big highlights here of the 845 reference headset are room-scale positional tracking via a pair of onboard cameras, eye-tracking and 2K per eye resolution displays. Performance bumps (30 percent faster graphics) also mean greater power efficiency (another 30 percent increase).

It’s pretty impressive the technical leaps that mobile virtual reality has been making as specially optimized SoCs from Qualcomm have led the way to standalone devices that can deliver sophisticated experiences. Features like full room-scale tracking will allow mobile standalone systems to start working toward what users of PC-based and gaming console-based virtual reality systems enjoy.

At a later date the company will be sharing more details on its plans for VR controllers on the 845 reference design. For now, they’ve detailed that they will have support for vision-based options, assumedly similar to what Microsoft has done with its Windows Mixed Reality controllers, and controllers based on ultrasound technology, about which we’ll have to wait for more details.

A surprise inclusion on the system is the addition of eye-tracking, styled for the sake of utilizing a technology that focuses high-resolution graphics on the center of your vision to account for the biology of how your eyes work. Foveated rendering will be included in the specs for the reference design and will allow a pair of cameras to track where your eyes are looking and will adjust the resolution to lighten the load on the graphics processing. This can allow for increased battery life or higher resolution displays.

This is just a reference design, so there’s nothing to buy quite yet — but in the coming months, as device manufacturers get on board, there will be a lot more to talk about.

 

Broadcom isn’t buying Qualcomm. Now what?
https://www.technologyreview.com/the-download/610532/broadcom-isnt-buying-qualcomm-now-what/

Tech’s biggest-ever takeover deal is now officially off the table, and there’s no shortage of speculation about what might happen next.

Dead deal: Broadcom withdrew its $117 billion offer to acquire Qualcomm this morning.

Next for Broadcom: It says it will continue with its plans to relocate its HQ to the US. (It’s worth noting that if it had done that sooner, it might have escaped the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States review that ultimately led President Trump to block the deal.)

And for Qualcomm: It got what it wanted—it’s been trying to resist the takeover ever since Broadcom launched it. (It spent 100 times more in lobbying than Broadcom.) But the New York Times notes that it’s out of the frying pan and into the fire: the US Federal Trade Commission and Apple both claim that some of the company’s practices are illegal, and investors are unhappy about its performance. It will hope that a planned acquisition of Dutch chipmaker NXP can ease those latter concerns.

Part of a war: DealBook notes that the dropped deal could place Qualcomm in the midst of fierce governmental protectionism. The US government’s reason for nixing the Broadcom acquisition involved concerns that it could harm America’s lead in developing 5G wireless technology and allow China to seize control. The same anti-foreign feeling could affect Qualcomm’s NXP takeover and extend to other tech sectors as well.

Not for sale: As Bloomberg notes, if there’s one firm takeaway from this whole ordeal, it’s that the US has no plans for foreign firms to acquire its semiconductor businesses. Chip firms have been clamoring to acquire each other in recent years (to boost efficiency and, in turn, profit). America’s stance could make that more difficult.

 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 “Fusion Platform” will include the SDX50 5G Modem and probably world's first 7nm mobile SoC.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 was officially announced in December. We’re starting to see more smartphones launch with Qualcomm’s newest flagship system-on-chip. The US/China variant of the Samsung Galaxy S9, the Asus ZenFone 5Z, the Sony Xperia XZ2, and XZ2 Compact all feature the chip. This list will only continue to grow over the remainder of this year. Even though the Snapdragon 845 is yet to actually reach the hands of consumers, we’re already hearing about its successor, the Snapdragon 855.

Up until now, details about the Snapdragon 855 have been scarce. We know it will be manufactured on a 7nm process, a step ahead of the 10nm LPP process used for the Snapdragon 845. In the past, reports have stated that the SoC will be manufactured by TSMC, but apart from that, all other details remain blank.

Now, Roland Quandt has found an official Softbank Japan earnings presentation that mentions the Snapdragon 855. The presentation confirms that Snapdragon 855 is the official name of the Snapdragon 845’s successor and it’s codenamed SDM855. It will be branded by Qualcomm as the “Snapdragon 855 Fusion Platform” along with the SDX50 5G modem, which has already been announced by the company. The SDX50 5G modem is stated to be commercially available in 2019.

The reason behind the “Fusion Platform” branding is unknown. In the past, they’ve used the “Mobile Platform” branding because of the view that system-on-chips are more than just a CPU paired with a GPU. Instead, they focus more on other components of the SoC such as the Hexagon 685 DSP and the Spectra 280 ISP. The “Fusion Platform” represents a shift from the “Mobile Platform” branding. It’s worth noting that Apple used the “Fusion” branding with the Apple A10 SoC in 2016.

The most probable reason for the “Fusion” branding is to signify the combination of the chip with the SDX50 5G modem. 5G smartphones will launch next year, and the combination of the Snapdragon 855 with the SDX50 5G modem looks to be a potentially significant upgrade over the Snapdragon 845. At this point, details about the SDM855’s architecture aren’t known. There’s still a long time before the official unveiling. We expect to learn more information about the chip in the coming months.

 

New Snapdragon 700 processor includes on-device AI support through the Qualcomm Artificial Intelligence Engine (AIE). The combination of a dedicated Hexagon Vector Processor, Kryo CPU and Adreno Visual Processing subsystem offer heterogeneous computing in Snapdragon 700 Processor
Read more at http://www.techgrin.com/snapdragon-...ched-qualcomm-artificial-intelligence-engine/

 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 First Look at Computex 2018

 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 chip is exclusively for Windows 10

 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 hands-on from Computex 2018

 

Qualcomm Releases Snapdragon 710; Consolidates Its AI Research
https://medium.com/syncedreview/qua...710-consolidates-its-ai-research-25ff8dc97239

 

QComm is serious about ML and AI these days, it seems they will reach their target and probably we might see re-shuffling of Chipset Series. High,Mid and Low tiers which pack quite a punch and most prepped for Windows Andromeda support.

 

So, when do you think will QC 710 finished devices be available? 6 months? a year?

 

Why the Windows 10 on ARM haters are all wrong

 

Qualcomm invites us to see its new Wear OS chip on September 10th
https://www.engadget.com/2018/08/07/wear-os-android-qualcomm-invite/

 

The fastest way to charge your phone without damaging the battery
Start at 3:09

 

Early Snapdragon 8150 results appear in Geekbench
https://www.gsmarena.com/early_snapdragon_8150_results_appear_in_geekbench-news-34016.php



FlexPai Developer Model
http://www.royole.com/flexpai-black-6g-for-dev

 

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx Processor is Big News for Windows Users

 

Qualcomm's 8cx chipset just might make always-on PCs worth using
https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/06/qualcomm-8cx-chipset-laptop-hands-on/

The Snapdragon 8cx is the first 7nm PC chip, built to compete with Core i5 on Windows 10
https://www.neowin.net/news/the-sna...p-built-to-compete-with-core-i5-on-windows-10

 

What is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx?

 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Laptop Demos From Snapdragon Summit!

 

Qualcomm kickstarts iPhone sales ban
https://www.itproportal.com/news/qualcomm-kickstarts-iphone-sales-ban/

 

Top 5 Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Features!

 

Yawn!

Top 5 features I want mobile phone companies to focus on:

1. Cost less. I paid $2K for a cell phone and enjoyed them back then (as a phone). Today's offerings are expensive without giving me much more than what a $65 tablet (Win10) with internet connectivity can...
2. Much, much better battery life. A week's worth is ideal. Make it chunky, but make it last.
3. An actual increase in productivity; opening programs, loading data, real (fast) multi-tasking, perfect 'touch precision', no lag!!! And for the O/S side; don't install garbage I don't need or want (I just need a mobile office in my pocket - offer the gaming kids other toys instead).
4. More RAM (give me 32GB as a good starting point for an always-on device).
5. More and faster storage! Yeah; I saw the eUFS 3.0 Samsung drive... now give me 2TB of that or more... today.

By default, the above is incrementally and constantly improving generation to generation. But if they actually focus on the above list, I wouldn't have to have a phone, a tablet, and a notebook or two with me every single day to do real work with.

 

Dear god. No wonder the world is in such a mess. Lobbying, Litigation, Nationalism, Acquisition of rivals.

I would ask whatever happened to simply developing a better product and letting the market decide....but I fear there never was such a time.

No wait, that isn't even an option. Got this laptop here. 4k screen, 4 core i7. Should be a decent bit of kit. Catch is it won't reliably connect to the net cause the single channel modem is complete rubbish. I'm going to have to replace it with a decent Intel one that costs a whole £13. Three guesses who makes a modem so bad it can't stand up to £13 worth of quality?

And no. Not a case of comparing what's available now with then. Got an Intel equipped laptop from then and it connects great.... and Ebay are selling those, 2 generation back, dual channel + bluetooth modems for £7.

 

Qualcomm just added $26 billion to its market cap in 2 days—Jim Cramer and other experts weigh in on its settlement with Apple
https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/17/qua...ion-to-market-capcramer-experts-weigh-in.html

One of big tech’s biggest battles is now over, and it’s making Wall Street more bullish on the space.

 

Apple thought they can make Qualcomm kiss their foot instead Apple paid the price I mean very very high price....

 

Apple got stuck between a rock and a hard place. One one hand Intel was behind on the 5G modem progress, and if completed on time it would be still be inferior to competing offerings from Samsung and Qualcomm and possibly others as they would have newer iterations by then. On the other hand if Intel completely failed to meet final targets they’d be screwed as Samsung was not in a place to fulfill all the needed orders for 2020 from what I’ve read and Huawei was not an option with the ongoing mess with that company.

Considering Intel entered the overall modem in general race so late it would take a long while to reach Qualcomm’s level in performance/power optimization .

 

Even Samsung Exynos is way behind Qualcomm modems. Especially in rural areas and weak dBm Qcomm reigns supreme. I can beat my dad's S7 on extinct Lumia by getting 20Mb down and 10-12Mb up on 3.5G. iPhone with Intel modem's down speed(30-55Mb & upload 1Mb) is good enough but newer Qcomm SD chips manages >50Mb and >10Mb upload.

 

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx SMASHES Intel Core i5

 

How Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx performs against a Core i5

 

Not to take anything away from the 8cx, but why compare against a two-year-old platform already?

One of the videos stated that they are comparable to the latest platforms from Intel, so why not just show that?

Shipping in 2020 is something I can't get too excited about. Maybe when they give a firm ship date I can see some buying decisions being formulated, at least tentatively. Right now, this is like hearing your favorite grandkid is going to be an astronaut when they grow up.

 

Yes you are right, for now they are just trying to say "hey everyone we are here". But anyway they are promising and we expect a success for them in the next 2 years.

 

The battery life would be something I would be all over (for my one of my 'digital' notebooks that I carry with me every day in addition to the actual workstations I have with me too).

What happened to the days of 'We're happy to be introducing product 'x', available right after this presentation!' ?!??!

 

I don't know how Qcomm managed such a good battery life. Maybe running SD chips on <30Wh with a day or two of battery life really helps when you pair it with bigger battery.

 

Well, alleged battery life so far. By the time it ships? It may even match what they state at ~2:20 of the second video above.

 

Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 865 chipset will be announced next month
Unlike Snapdragon 855, the Snapdragon 865 will be manufactured by Samsung.
BABU MOHAN
8 Nov 2019
https://www.androidcentral.com/qual...865-chipset-snapdragon-tech-summit-next-month

 

Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 delivers breakthrough 5G, AI, and video experiences
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/all-about-5g-technologies.803757/page-12#post-10972447

 

Snapdragon Tech Summit Day 1 featured exciting collaborations and new Snapdragon Mobile Platforms