Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Processor Unveiled; X20 LTE Modem, Kryo 385 CPU, Adreno 630 GPU And Much More

Qualcomm at its second annual Snapdragon Technology Summit on Tuesday (5 December) unveiled next generation flagship Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform. Qualcomm has highlighted five key areas- Immersion, AI, Security, Performance and Connection. The new Snapdragon 845 will be shipped in smartphones from early 2018.

Snapdragon 845 is integrated with Qualcomm Spectra 280 image signal processor (ISP) and Qualcomm Adreno 630 visual processing subsystem. These brand-new architectures bring high-performance, true-to-life cinematic video capture, along with superior photography to flagship mobile devices.

According to Qualcomm, Snapdragon 845 is the first mobile platform to enable room-scale 6 degrees of freedom (6DoF) with simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) for better VR experiences. Additionally, there is “Adreno foveation,” which reduces power consumption, improves visual quality and boosts XR application performance.

Snapdragon 845 delivers three times improved overall AI performance when compared to its predecessor. The company claims that the new processor improves voice-driven smart assistants with improved always-on keyword detection and ultra-low-power voice processing.

Security

Qualcomm has also introduced 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.

The SPU makes it possible for improved biometrics security used for authentication, as well as user or application data key management used to encrypt critical information.

Connectivity

The Snapdragon 845 features our most advanced suite of wireless technologies ever in a mobile platform, with cutting edge LTE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth features.

The Snapdragon 845 integrates Qualcomm’s second-generation Gigabit LTE solution – the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem.

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 chipmaker claims that the modem supports LTE Category 18 peak download speeds of 1.2 Gbps, up to 5x carrier aggregation, License Assisted Access (LAA), Dual SIM-Dual VoLTE as well as 4x4 MIMO on up to 3 aggregated carriers.

Snapdragon 845 also includes diversity-enhanced 60GHz 802.11ad Wi-Fi for more robust multi-gigabit coverage at speeds up to 4.6 Gbps.

The processor also has 802.11ac Wi-Fi with advanced features that provide up to 16X faster connection setup, simultaneous dual-band support and 30 percent more capacity utilization on carrier Wi-Fi networks, compared to the previous generation.

Performance

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 percent power reduction for video capture, games and XR applications compared to the previous generation.

The new Qualcomm Kryo 385 architecture, built on Arm Cortex technology, will see up to 25 per cent performance uplift across gaming, application launch times, and performance intensive applications compared to the previous generation.

The new Adreno 630 will garner graphics performance and power efficiencies up to 30 per cent when compared to the previous generation.

Xiaomi has announced that their next flagship device will be powered by Snapdragon 845 chipset.

“Xiaomi’s close relationship with Qualcomm Technologies in the premium tier will continue into 2018,” said Lei Jun, founder, chairman and chief executive officer, Xiaomi. “Xiaomi is committed to making devices that combine cutting-edge innovations in technology and beautiful design, while defying price expectations, and we have chosen Snapdragon 845 to power our next flagship smartphone.”

Samsung has confirmed that Samsung Foundry will be the foundry for Snapdragon 845 as the Companies continue to work together to advance the silicon manufacturing process.  

“As the foundry partner for the Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform, we look forward to our continued collaboration,” said Dr. ES Jung, president and general manager, foundry business, Samsung Electronics. “Samsung Foundry continues to reduce power consumption and increase performance in process technology and we look forward to the success of Snapdragon 845 in 2018.”

According to reports, Samsung Galaxy S9, S9+ will likely be powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor.