Stop focusing on the performance of the Snapdragon 845, because what really matters is these

Leifeng.com: Not surprisingly, Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 845 processing platform is also very “AI”.

A few hours ago, at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit held in Hawaii, Qualcomm finally officially unveiled the Snapdragon 845 platform, and gave a comprehensive introduction to the various details of the Snapdragon 845 platform based on the official announcement yesterday.

Leiphone.com also participated in the entire press conference on site. The following is the content that you need to pay most attention to.

As a new flagship product, positioning is naturally very important, and Qualcomm finally positioned the Snapdragon 845 platform as "a new architecture for AI and immersive experience." That's right, the performance, process, power consumption and other aspects that everyone paid the most attention to in previous years are not the most important features of the 845 this time.

However, as a rule, we still need to briefly review some of the conventional changes. First of all, the process is still the same 10nm LPP technology as the previous generation 835 platform, which also determines that while the performance of the Snapdragon 845 is improved, its energy efficiency ratio must also be considered.

The second is the CPU, which has been upgraded from the previous Kryo 280 to the Kryo 385. It still has the same 4+4 big and small core architecture as the previous generation, but there have been some changes in the core architecture, core operation management mechanism, and frequency. The official figures given by Qualcomm are that the performance of the big core is improved by 25-30% compared with the previous generation, and the performance of the small core is improved by 15%.

The GPU has also been improved, with the official overall performance improvement ratio being 30%, but we currently don’t know what the internal architecture of the Adreno 630 is, nor the corresponding actual running scores.

Another good news is that Qualcomm has added "system cache" to the 845 platform for the first time. According to Leifeng.com, this cache will serve as a connection between the various parts of the 845 platform, and to a certain extent also improve the operating efficiency and performance of the entire 845 platform.

It is worth noting that Leifeng.com saw some power consumption performance measured by Qualcomm in the offline demo later in the press conference. When running the same large Bechmark, the cumulative average power consumption of the Snapdragon 845 platform was 2961mW (milliwatts), while the Snapdragon 835 was as high as 3764mW. The overall power consumption reduction ratio is more than 20%.

2. How much AI is used in Snapdragon 845?

Snapdragon 845 will "add" some AI capabilities, but the specific method has always been a mystery. When the internal module diagram of the 845 platform appeared today, many people were dumbfounded - because there is no obvious AI computing unit in the entire internal module, but it is still a traditional DSP, ISP and other processors for specific scenarios.

Regarding this, Gary Brotman, product manager of Qualcomm AI and machine learning, told Leifeng.com after the press conference: "We don't want to just add an 'AI module' to the mobile phone processor, but let AI technology really bring changes to consumers."

In fact, Qualcomm's final choice for AI computing is "heterogeneous" - including CPU, GPU, and DSP, all of which have the ability to run AI algorithms.

So who should be entrusted with the specific AI needs? Qualcomm has developed a NPE system specifically for managing various AI languages, architectures, and algorithms, and then assigning tasks based on the strengths and weaknesses of the three chips: CPU, DSP, and GPU, ultimately providing solutions for different application scenarios.

This solution has another benefit, which is that Qualcomm gradually moves the most commonly used AI functions and algorithms into the most efficient DSP, while the CPU and GPU can take on the development of some less frequently used or new AI functions, thereby saving overall system power consumption.

Among the three processors, DSP is undoubtedly the most efficient choice for some AI scenarios. It is also Qualcomm's third-generation vector computing DSP. It can also complete tasks such as image processor, vision processor, deep learning processor, neural network processor, etc.

Of course, hardware alone is not enough. Qualcomm itself does not have a plan to independently cultivate AI algorithms for various application scenarios. Instead, they chose to "build a path" and "support". First, they developed a very easy-to-use SDK for Qualcomm's current DSP processors. At the same time, Qualcomm is also maintaining close cooperation with companies and schools in the AI ​​industry. The two companies most mentioned in today's press conference are from China, namely SenseTime and Face++.

3. The first independent security module

As another major change in the 845 platform, Qualcomm has added a new Security Processing Unit to the internal module architecture.

It is a relatively independent system from other modules, with its own independent OS, cache, and even power management system. As a further supplement to the soft security zone (HLOS) and hard security zone (TrustZone) in the previous CPU, it is fully expected to make users' biometric information, bank cards, SIM and other extremely sensitive content more secure.

4. The Gigabit LTE Era is Further Consolidated

Qualcomm platform naturally cannot ignore the progress of baseband. The improvement of the updated Snapdragon X20 Modem is mainly to further utilize LTE speed increase, rather than directly enter the 5G era. As Qualcomm officials themselves said: Snapdragon X20 Modem is our second Gbps modem to be commercialized.

Of course, in terms of speed, the X20 Modem has made some progress compared to the X16 Modem on the Snapdragon 835. First of all, it can achieve a stable downlink speed of 1.2Gbps. At the same time, it supports up to 5 carriers. With the help of 4x4 MIMO technology, the X20 Modem can achieve up to 12 channels of Internet access at the same time.

In the on-site demo, the engineering prototype equipped with Qualcomm 845 did indeed stabilize the downlink speed at around 1.2Gbps, which made Leifeng.com think that the speed displayed was a static picture.

In addition to cellular networks, the 845 has also made progress in Bluetooth and wireless networks. Improvements such as multiple Bluetooth wireless speaker connections and Wi-Fi 11ad dual antennas will also bring some changes to the user's wireless application experience.

Leifeng.com Summary: Snapdragon 845, focusing on user experience

In the past few years with smartphones, the main theme of mobile processors has almost always been performance and power consumption. However, it is not difficult to see from the Snapdragon 845 that as performance reaches a certain level, it is no longer the most direct factor affecting the user experience. On the contrary, computing power needs to change due to user needs.

You need to make your ISP support better imaging and shooting technology, and you need to make deep learning and neural networks learn at high speed on your own hardware platform, so as to bring users comprehensive and subversive AI capabilities. You need to further provide users with faster networks, etc. Compared with the previous pure running score comparison method, we seem to have entered a new era of mobile phones that "prioritizes experience".

According to the current pace, the first batch of Snapdragon 845 models will probably appear in early next year, and the most likely time point is MWC Barcelona 2018. By then, through the real Snapdragon 845 phones released by mobile phone manufacturers, we may be able to experience its true power.