Qualcomm has revealed details about Snapdragon 865 processor. Of course, the new generation chip will include advanced 5G support. But there are other important innovations such as 200-megapixel photo processing, 4K HDR and 8K video capture, Dolby Vision support, new dynamic lighting capabilities for mobile games, and real-time voice recognition and translation.
What is inside the 7nm Snapdragon 865 chip?
Qualcomm has not yet disclosed some parameters, so let's briefly list what is known:
- 8 Kryo 585 cores: One high-end Cortex-A77 @2,84GHz; three performance cores ARM Cortex-A77 @ 2,4 GHz and four energy-efficient cores ARM Cortex-A55 @ 1,8 GHz;
- support for up to 16 GB of LPDDR5 @2750 MHz and LPDDR4x @2133 MHz;
- Adreno 650 graphics core with support for output in 4K at 60 Hz or 3200 Γ 1800 at 144 Hz and HDR10 +;
- Spectra 480 image processor: 200 megapixel photos; 4K video capture along with 64-megapixel photos; 4K HDR; 4K at 120 fps; 8K; 720p at 960 frames; support for Rec 2020 and 10-bit per channel;
- Hexagon 698 digital signal processor with advanced noise reduction technology and AI features;
- 5G connectivity provides an external X55 modem (download up to 7,5 Gb/s and upload up to 3 Gb/s); mmWave (800 MHz bandwidth, 2Γ2 MIMO), below 6 GHz (200 MHz bandwidth, 4Γ4 MIMO); support for LTE (CBRS, WCDMA, HSPA, TD-SCDMA, CDMA 1x, EV-DO, GSM / EDGE);
- new Wi-Fi capabilities: FastConnect 6800 (802.11ax, 802.11ac Wave 2), up to 1,774 Gbps peak, 1024 QAM, OFDMA; 60 GHz Wi-Fi with peak speeds up to 10 Gbps; constant perception of the environment through Wi-Fi;
- Bluetooth 5.1 with support for Qualcomm aptX specifications;
- Qualcomm Sensing Hub: continuous long-range detection, echo cancellation, support for multiple voice assistants;
- Power: Quick Charge 4+ and Quick Charge AI.
Qualcomm promises that the Kryo 585 processor will provide a boost of more than 25% compared to the Snapdragon 855; energy efficiency will also increase by 25%. The Adreno 650 GPU, according to the company, will provide 20% more graphics performance and 35% more energy efficiency than the Adreno 640. The Hexagon 698 signal processor will deliver 4 times the performance of the Hexagon 690.
The Qualcomm X55 modem's support for LTE capabilities along with 5G means it will be more cost effective and allow faster network switching. However, the X55 is an external chip, which means that in the future it can become even more efficient by integrating with the processor that will replace the Snapdragon 865. The advantages of an external modem include the ability to use it with other single-chip systems - for example, from Apple.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is another major innovation of the Snapdragon 865. Qualcomm is touting its AI Engine 5, which consists of the new Hexagon Tensor Accelerator and Sensing Hub.
The last block is responsible for low-power functions: for example, recognition of wake-up commands like "Hey Google"; data processing from the gyroscope, accelerometer and barometer; data streams; real-time noise reduction for improved voice recognition and so on. With the SD855, Qualcomm has optimized the Hexagon signal processor for AI. The new Hexagon 698 in the Snapdragon 865 is capable of 15 trillion operations per second, more than twice as much as its predecessor, while consuming 2% less power.
Much attention is paid to the camera functions, because today many people update their smartphones for better photos and videos. The new Spectra block has been redesigned to be much more efficient. While the previous camera sensor could process one pixel per clock, the current Spectra ISP processes four pixels at a time. Qualcomm doesn't state a clock speed, but the sensor can handle 2 gigapixels per second. This made it possible to achieve a number of improvements: to reduce the frequency and, accordingly, power consumption, as well as to implement new functions.
Firstly, the camera will be able to capture a whopping 200-megapixel photos at the same time, even from a single sensor. Yes β the company says that in 2020 there may be smartphones that will have such giant sensors. The Spectra 865 will also be able to capture still images more efficiently while recording video. Supports 9 times more AF points than SD855.
Currently, the camera can only take 1080MP photos when recording 2p video, but with the SD865, the smartphone will be able to save 64MP photos in parallel with 4K HDR video recording. Snapdragon 865 phones will also have 8K video capture (non-HDR). We can not say about the support for capturing 4K video at 120 frames / s. And 720p video at 960 frames / s, the chip can write without time limit. And if SD845 has support for capturing video in HDR10, and SD855 in HDR10 +, then SD865 also supports the Dolby Vision standard.
Most of the gaming improvements in the Snapdragon 865 will come from a 20 percent increase in Adreno 650 GPU performance. But what's new is downloadable graphics driver updates. Simply put, Qualcomm plans to separate Adreno drivers from general Android updates. The company itself will be engaged in their development, and smartphone manufacturers will distribute them. Qualcomm has also added support for Game Color Plus 2.0, which essentially brings HDR effects to games that don't natively support HDR displays. What's more, Qualcomm has worked closely with Unreal to bring some of the features and lighting effects available in the desktop version of the Unreal 4 engine to mobile platforms.
Source: 3dnews.ru