Mobile platform introduces architectures for AI and immersion

Immerse: The Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform was designed for consumers to capture cinema-grade videos and blur the lines between physical and virtual worlds. Snapdragon 845 introduces an integrated Qualcomm Spectra 280 Image Signal Processor (ISP) and Qualcomm Adreno 630 visual processing subsystem. These new architectures bring high performance, true-to-life cinematic video capture, along with photography to flagship mobile devices.

Snapdragon 845 will be able to captures 64 times more high dynamic range colour information for video capture and playback on Ultra HD Premium displays, compared to the previous generation. This massive boost in colour information includes 10-bit colour depth for over one billion shades of colours that can be displayed to the wide Rec. 2020 gamut for 4K/Ultra HD videos so your video memories can be viewed with a billion shades.

In addition to advancing the video capture experience, the Adreno 630 visual processing subsystem architecture will transform entertainment, education and social interaction, making them more immersive and intuitive. It is designed to deliver innovations for new XR experiences that span virtual, augmented and mixed reality.

According to the company, Snapdragon 845 is the first mobile platform to enable room-scale 6 Degrees of Freedom (6DoF) with Simultaneous Localisation And Mapping (SLAM) - for features such as wall-collision detection. Additionally, Snapdragon 845 introduces 'Adreno foveation', which substantially reduces power consumption, improves visual quality and boosts XR application performance, as compared to the previous generation. 

AI: Snapdragon 845 is Qualcomm Technologies’ third-gen AI mobile platform, delivering three times improvement in overall AI performance of the prior generation SoC - transforming your mobile device into the ultimate personal assistant; simplifying how you take pictures and videos; enhancing your VR games, and making voice interaction natural.

Snapdragon 845 improves voice-driven smart assistants with improved always-on keyword detection and ultra low power voice processing thanks to the performance from the Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (WCD9341) and low power audio subsystem, so users can interact with their devices using their voice all day.

In addition to the existing support for Google’s TensorFlow and Facebook’s Caffe/Caffe2 frameworks, the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (NPE) SDK now supports Tensorflow Lite and the new Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX), making it easy for developers to use their framework of choice, including Caffe2, CNTK and MxNet. Snapdragon 845 also supports Google’s Android NN API.

Secure: As security needs evolve, so do the security solutions within our mobile platforms. End-users demand enhanced privacy due to the significant growth of personal data being stored on the device. Similarly, payment companies are looking for more secure authentication mechanisms to increase reliability.

The Snapdragon 845 introduces a hardware isolated subsystem called the Secure Processing Unit (SPU), which is designed to add vault-like characteristics to existing layers of Qualcomm Technologies’ mobile security solutions. Doing so makes it possible for improved biometrics security used for authentication, as well as user or application data key management used to encrypt critical information.

Connect: The Snapdragon 845 features our most advanced suite of wireless technologies ever in a mobile platform, with LTE, WiFi, and Bluetooth features. The Snapdragon 845 integrates Qualcomm Technologies’ second-gen Gigabit LTE solution – the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem. Its lightning-fast connection speeds allow users to enjoy immersive XR experiences in more places, download a 3GB movie in less than three minutes, just before boarding a flight and access large files or apps in the cloud as fast as those stored in their phones’ memory.

The Snapdragon X20 modem supports an expanded range of technology and frequency band configurations across licensed, unlicensed and shared radio spectrum - all designed to accelerate global availability of Gigabit LTE as operators prepare for 5G. The modem supports LTE Category 18 peak download speeds of 1.2Gbps, up to five times carrier aggregation, License Assisted Access (LAA), Dual SIM-Dual VoLTE as well as 4x4 MIMO on up to three aggregated carriers.

Snapdragon 845 also includes diversity-enhanced 60GHz 802.11ad WiFi for more robust multi-gigabit coverage at speeds up to 4.6Gbps, and integrated 802.11ac WiFi with advanced features that provide up to 16 times faster connection setup, simultaneous dual-band support for an ever-expanding set of applications and 30% more capacity utilisation on carrier WiFi networks, compared to the previous generation.

The platform’s proprietary enhancements to Bluetooth 5 allow users to broadcast audio simultaneously to multiple wireless speakers, smartphones or other devices and are designed to reduce battery consumption of wireless earbuds by up to 50% compared to the previous generation.

Perform: Through heterogenous computing, the Snapdragon 845’s new architectures are being built to transform the user experience while providing significant improvements in performance and battery life. The new camera and visual processing architectures will help Snapdragon 845 deliver up to 30% power reduction for video capture, games and XR applications compared to the previous generation.

Graphics performance and power efficiencies will also garner up to a 30% improvement as a result of the new Adreno 630, compared to the previous generation. The new Qualcomm Kryo 385 architecture, built on Arm Cortex technology, will see up to 25% performance uplift across gaming, application launch times, and performance intensive applications compared to the previous generation.

“As leaders in mobile technology, we will transform the mobile experience with comprehensive advancements in visual processing, AI, security and connectivity,” said Alex Katouzian, Senior Vice President and General Manager, mobile, Qualcomm Technologies. “The Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform is the next horizon of innovation and is going to transform the way people use their mobile devices to make their lives better.”