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Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 888

Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 888

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During the first day of the Snapdragon Tech Summit Digital, Qualcomm Incorporated President, Cristiano Amon took the virtual stage with global industry leaders to highlight the critical role Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 8-Series mobile platforms have played to drive experiences forward for the next generation of devices. Qualcomm Technologies’ innovation in the premium tier, coupled with the evolution of 5G, is accelerating and continuing to redefine immersive consumer experiences. The proliferation of these premium tier experiences has and will continue to enrich the lives of billions of smartphone users around the world.  

“Creating premium experiences takes a relentless focus on innovation. It takes long term commitment, even in the face of immense uncertainty,” said Cristiano Amon, president, Qualcomm Incorporated. “It takes an organization that’s focused on tomorrow, to continue to deliver the technologies that redefine premium experiences.”

Kicking Off a New Era for Mobile

Qualcomm Technologies builds foundational technologies for smartphones first, and then these technologies extend to the broader Snapdragon tiers and into important growth segments being transformed by mobile technology, such as Always On, Always Connected PCs, Extended Reality (XR) devices, Edge/Cloud AI products,  5G Fixed Wireless Broadband, and multiple others. The requirements and complexity of these diverse applications depend on innovation that comes from breakthroughs in the premium tier. Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager, mobile, compute, and infrastructure, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., introduced the Company’s latest flagship Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 888 5G Mobile Platform, which delivers the premium experiences users deserve.

Lekha Motiwala, director of product management for Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., shared an inside look at the Company’s most premium offering.

  • Snapdragon 888, with the 3rd generation Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ X60 5G Modem-RF System, enables global compatibility by offering mmWave and sub-6 across all major bands worldwide, as well as support for 5G carrier aggregation, global multi-SIM, stand alone, non-stand alone, and Dynamic Spectrum Sharing.
  • The new 6th generation Qualcomm® AI Engine, with the completely re-engineered Qualcomm® Hexagon™ processor, takes a pivotal leap forward in AI compared to the previous generation to improve performance, power efficiency—all at an astonishing 26 tera operations per second (TOPS). The platform is further enhanced by the 2nd generation Qualcomm® Sensing Hub, which incorporates lower-power always-on AI processing for intuitive, intelligent features.
  • Since its inception, Qualcomm® Snapdragon Elite Gaming™ has delivered dozens of mobile-first technologies to smartphones, including Updateable GPU Drivers, Desktop Forward Rendering, and frame rates achieving up to 144 frames per second (fps). The 3rd generation of Snapdragon Elite Gaming featured in Snapdragon 888 delivers Qualcomm Technologies’ most significant upgrade in Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU performance.
  • Snapdragon 888 will triple down on the future of computational photography and transform smartphones into professional quality cameras. With the faster gigapixel speed Qualcomm Spectra™ ISP, users can capture photos and videos at 2.7 gigapixels per second or roughly 120 photos at 12MP resolution—up to 35% faster than the previous generation. 
During the keynote, Qualcomm Technologies demonstrated the power of Snapdragon 888 through a Radio-Controlled race car connected entirely by 5G mmWave. Two race cars were connected to a private 5G network that was built with the help of Verizon and Ericsson and controlled over 5G using a Snapdragon 888 reference design with the Snapdragon X60 5G Modem-RF System. The drivers controlled these cars from over a mile away and viewed live video of the track from afar using the amazing capture capabilities of Snapdragon 888. Additionally, with the help of Tension, the race can be viewed on multiple low latency streams to track the RC cars’ position on a dynamic map using the newest location capabilities of the Qualcomm® Location Suite for improved accuracy. This showcases the use case possibilities when high performance, reliable, and low latency communications are the norm.

Amon, Katouzian, and Motiwala were also joined by ecosystem leaders (in order of appearance):

  • "Verizon is on the forefront of showcasing the transformative capabilities of 5G Ultra Wideband," said Nicola Palmer, chief product officer at Verizon. "Qualcomm Technologies’ Snapdragon Tech Summit Digital 2020 is an opportunity to reflect on the successes we've had this year, including launching nationwide 5G coverage, dozens of 5G Ultra Wideband cities, MEC deployments, and a multitude of 5G devices and innovations. It also gives us the opportunity to look towards 2021 as we continue to bring the possibilities of 5G to life for businesses, individuals, and society."
  • “NTT DOCOMO has been a leading mobile innovator in Japan for nearly 30 years and this leadership has continued into the 5G era, as the first operator in Japan to launch commercial 5G service in March this year,” said Naoki Tani, executive vice president and chief technology officer, NTT DOCOMO, INC. “5G enables a new era of mobile experiences that are making people’s lives more convenient and comfortable, and these experiences are being brought to life on the DOCOMO 5G network through our exciting portfolio of 5G devices powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G mobile platforms. We look forward to the next generation of 5G devices powered by Qualcomm Technologies’ industry-leading Snapdragon 888 5G Mobile Platform to deliver the best experiences on DOCOMO’s 5G network.”
  • “Our work with Qualcomm Technologies is aligned with our mission to make the latest Natural Language Processing technology accessible to researchers and businesses around the globe, and run as fast and efficiently as possible” said Clément Delangue, co-founder and chief executive officer of Hugging Face. “We need our models to run on the most premium of mobile platforms… and that means Qualcomm Snapdragon.”
  • “Xperia smartphones are feature-packed with Sony's advanced imaging and entertainment technologies, and it’s essential for our products to be powered by the latest premium Snapdragon mobile platform to offer the best-in-class experiences to our fans. One of the entertainment experiences which we are very passionate about is mobile gaming, and we are overwhelmed by the incredible positive response we’ve received from fans around the world for Xperia 1 II and Xperia 5 II,” said Mitsuya Kishida, president, Sony Mobile Communications Inc. “We are committed to further enhancing mobile entertainment in the 5G era and look forward to working closely with Qualcomm Technologies to continue delivering world-class mobile gaming and other experiences on the go.”
  • “In collaboration with Epic Games, the OnePlus 8 Series became the first smartphones to deliver Fortnite at 90 FPS, a groundbreaking mobile gaming achievement made possible by Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming,” said Kyle Kiang, chief marketing officer, OnePlus.
  • “Over the past decade, from the first generation of Xiaomi mobile phones to the 10th anniversary masterpiece Xiaomi 10 series, we have been joining hands together with Qualcomm Technologies to bring the most advanced mobile experiences to users around the world,” said Lei Jun, Founder, chairman and chief executive officer of Xiaomi. “Snapdragon 888 is the most powerful mobile platform from Qualcomm Technologies ever. In addition to the industry leading 5G connectivity, it has brought groundbreaking breakthroughs and innovations in AI, gaming, and camera. I'm glad that our new flagship smartphone Mi11 will be the one of the first devices with Snapdragon 888. This is another cutting-edge product from us and will be loaded with various hardcore technologies.”
  • The following OEMs provided their support for Snapdragon 888, including ASUS, Black Shark, Lenovo, LG, MEIZU, Motorola, Nubia, realme, OnePlus, OPPO, Sharp, vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE.  

This year’s Snapdragon Tech Summit Digital keynotes are being livestreamed on Dec 1 and 2 at 7:00 a.m. PT (qualcomm.com/snapdragonsummit). Stay tuned to the Qualcomm Twitter handle for live updates before and during the keynotes. #SnapdragonSummit

Snapdragon 888 Key Features
  • Connectivity: Snapdragon 888 is the world’s most advanced platform that implements 5G, along with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth audio for enhanced mobile experiences. The integrated 3rd generation Snapdragon X60 5G Modem-RF System enables support for 5G sub-6 carrier aggregation and mmWave to deliver the world’s fastest commercially available 5G speeds, up to 7.5 Gbps.  The Modem-RF System also supports superior coverage across virtually all major networks worldwide – including nationwide 5G thanks to the use of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing technology. Snapdragon 888 is also unique in supporting Global 5G multi-SIM, which allows for international roaming, managing personal and work numbers on the same phone, or optimizing monthly subscription costs. Plus, this platform includes the recently debuted Qualcomm® FastConnect™ 6900 Mobile Connectivity System, supporting the fastest Wi-Fi 6 speeds of any mobile Wi-Fi offering in the industry (up to 3.6 Gbps), as well as new 6 GHz capacity with Wi-Fi 6E. FastConnect 6900 also delivers a new class of crisp, reliable and responsive audio with support for Bluetooth 5.2, dual Bluetooth antennas, Qualcomm® aptX™ suite, broadcast audio and advanced modulation & coding optimizations.​
  • AI: Snapdragon 888 takes the biggest architectural leap forward in AI. The completely re-designed 6th generation Qualcomm® AI Engine with the new Qualcomm® Hexagon™ 780 processor enables premium experiences that blend AI with professional cameras, personal voice assistants, elite gaming, lightning-fast connectivity and more. Snapdragon 888 delivers industry-leading power efficiency and performance with up to three times performance per watt improvement over the prior generation—all at an astonishing 26 TOPS. The platform is further enhanced by the 2nd generation Qualcomm® Sensing Hub, which integrates a dedicated low-power AI processor to enable use cases like screen awake, lift and activity detection, and audio event detection. This is achieved by using contextual awareness and combining new data streams like 5G, WiFi, and Bluetooth. Additionally, the new Qualcomm AI Engine Direct software will provide developers the flexibility to run their next generation on-device AI-powered apps at full-throttle.
  • Camera: Snapdragon 888 transforms mobile devices into professional quality cameras. Featuring the new Qualcomm Spectra™ 580 ISP, this platform is the first Snapdragon with a Triple Image Signal Processor (ISP), capable of capturing from three cameras simultaneously at breakneck processing speeds—up to 2.7 gigapixels per second. Users can also enjoy 120fps burst snapshots for capturing ultra-fast high-resolution action shots, or capture three 4K HDR videos at the same time. New 4K HDR with computational HDR video capture provides dramatic improvements to color, contrast, and detail. The Qualcomm Spectra 580 ISP also debuts a new low light architecture, for brighter photos, even in near darkness. Also included is photo capture in 10-bit color depth in the HEIF format – so you can capture photos in over a billion shades of color.
  • Gaming: Snapdragon 888 is armed with the full Qualcomm® Snapdragon Elite Gaming™ arsenal. Users can harness the power of ultra-smooth play at the highest HDR quality graphics, with desktop-level capabilities. Snapdragon 888 delivers Variable Rate Shading (VRS) for the first time to mobile devices. In comparison to the prior generation, VRS improves game rendering by up to 30% for mobile’s most immersive experiences to date, while also improving power. Qualcomm® Game Quick Touch increases responsiveness by up to 20%, dramatically lowering touch latency and giving the ultimate advantage in multiplayer games. With the speeds and low latencies that 5G and Wi-Fi 6 deliver, elite gamers can unite or compete in real-time for unmatched global competition.
  • Performance: Snapdragon 888 packs in major architectural advances. It is manufactured using the most advanced 5nm process technology, allowing breakthrough performance and superior power efficiency. The Qualcomm® Kryo™ 680 generates up to a 25% uplift in overall CPU performance and allows top frequencies of up to 2.84GHz. It is also the first commercial CPU subsystem to be based on the Arm Cortex-X1. The Qualcomm® Adreno™ 660 GPU achieves its biggest performance leap yet, delivering up to 35% faster graphics rendering compared to the previous generation. More importantly, the Kryo 680 and Adreno 660 are able to sustain their performance over long periods of time, which is the hallmark of Snapdragon performance.
  • Security: Snapdragon 888 includes many security measures for keeping on-device user data private including Qualcomm® Secure Processing Unit, Qualcomm® Trusted Execution Environment, and support for Qualcomm® Wireless Edge Services – a cloud service that Snapdragon can interact with for apps and services to measure the security of the devices and its wireless connections in real-time for secure experiences. Snapdragon 888 features a new Type-1 Hypervisor, which provides a new way to secure and isolate data between apps and multiple operating systems on the same device. Additionally, in collaboration with Truepic, Snapdragon 888 can capture cryptographically-sealed photos that are compliant with the Content Authenticity Initiative standard, an open standard for digital content provenance led by Adobe.

Devices based on Snapdragon 888 are expected to be commercially available in the first quarter of 2021. For more information, please visit: https://www.qualcomm.com/documents/qualcomm-snapdragon-888-mobile-platform-product-brief. Livestream replays will also be available on the Snapdragon Tech Summit Event Hub.

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