Qualcomm launches new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip

Qualcomm

Qualcomm recently unveiled its latest SoC, which sports a new name and is expected to arrive on new devices before the year ends. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 focuses on six essential technology you'd expect a mobile chipmaker to concentrate on in 2021. That includes 5G connectivity, camera sensors, AI, gaming, audio, and security.

Its 5G modem-RF can hit up to 10-gigabit download speeds with FastConnect 6900 Mobile Connectivity System, which Qualcomm says surpasses WiFi 6 speeds. For imaging, it gets an 18-bit ISP with better dynamic range, colour, and speeds. It also supports 8K HDR video, a new Bokeh Engine for Portrait Mode-style in videos, and Always-ON ISP that offers low power consumption for tasks like face unlock.

The new Adreno GPU gets better graphics performance paired with lower power consumption. Lossless audio is coming to this chip, and for security, it supports a new Trust Management Engine and Android Ready SE for digital car keys.

AI is central to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 with improved tensor acceleration. According to Qualcomm, "The latest AI-based natural language processing from Hugging Face can intelligently serve as your personal assistant by prioritizing and analyzing your notifications. Working with Sonde Health, we are using on-device AI to accelerate their models that can analyze a user's vocal patterns to determine if a user is at risk for health conditions such as asthma, depression, and COVID-19. Also, a new always-on AI system is powered by the 3rd Gen Qualcomm Sensing Hub with more data streams being processed using lowest power AI."

These are the brands expected to release devices with this new chip: Black Shark, Honor, iQOO, Motorola, Nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, realme, Redmi, Sharp, Sony Corporation, vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE. Unsurprisingly, brands working on their own chips—Apple, Google, Samsung, and Huawei—are absent from this list.

Source: TechCrunch