Snapdragon is a suite of
system on a chip
A system on a chip or system-on-chip (SoC ; pl. ''SoCs'' ) is an integrated circuit that integrates most or all components of a computer or other electronic system. These components almost always include a central processing unit (CPU), memory ...
(SoC)
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
products for
mobile device
A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...
s designed and marketed by
Qualcomm
Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...
Technologies Inc. The Snapdragon's
central processing unit
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, an ...
(CPU) uses the
ARM architecture
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...
. A single SoC may include multiple
CPU core
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...
s, an
Adreno
Adreno is a series of graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property cores developed by Qualcomm and used in many of their SoCs.
History
Adreno (an anagram of AMD's graphic card brand '' Radeon''), was originally developed ...
graphics processing unit
A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mobi ...
(GPU), a
Snapdragon
''Antirrhinum'' is a genus of plants commonly known as dragon flowers, snapdragons and dog flower because of the flowers' fancied resemblance to the face of a dragon that opens and closes its mouth when laterally squeezed. They are native to r ...
wireless modem
A mobile broadband modem, also known as wireless modem or cellular modem, is a type of modem that allows a personal computer or a router to receive wireless Internet access via a mobile broadband connection instead of using telephone or cable tel ...
, a
Hexagon
In geometry, a hexagon (from Ancient Greek, Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple polygon, simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.
Regular hexa ...
digital signal processor (DSP), a
Qualcomm Spectra
Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It ow ...
image signal processor (ISP) and other software and hardware to support a smartphone's
global positioning system
The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...
(GPS), camera, video, audio,
gesture recognition
Gesture recognition is a topic in computer science and language technology with the goal of interpreting human gestures via mathematical algorithms. It is a subdiscipline of computer vision. Gestures can originate from any bodily motion or sta ...
and
AI acceleration. As such, Qualcomm often refers to the Snapdragon as a "mobile platform" (e.g. Snapdragon 865 5G Mobile Platform). Snapdragon semiconductors are embedded in devices of various systems, including
Android,
Windows Phone
Windows Phone (WP) is a discontinued family of mobile operating systems developed by Microsoft for smartphones as the replacement successor to Windows Mobile and Zune. Windows Phone featured a new user interface derived from the Metro design la ...
and
netbook
Netbook was a commonly used term that identified a product class of small and inexpensive laptops which were sold from 2007 to around 2013. These machines were designed primarily as cost-effective tools for consumers to access the Inte ...
s. They are also used in cars, wearable devices and other devices. In addition to the processors, the Snapdragon line includes modems,
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...
chips and mobile charging products.
The Snapdragon QSD8250 was released in December 2007. It included the first 1 GHz processor for mobile phones. Qualcomm introduced its "Krait"
microarchitecture in the second generation of Snapdragon
SoCs
SOCS (suppressor of cytokine signaling proteins) refers to a family of genes involved in inhibiting the JAK-STAT signaling pathway.
Genes
* CISH
* SOCS1
* SOCS2
* SOCS3
* SOCS4
* SOCS5
* SOCS6
* SOCS7
Suppressor of cytokine signaling 7 is a pro ...
in 2011, allowing each processor core to adjust its speed based on the device's needs. At the 2013
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
, Qualcomm introduced the first of the Snapdragon 800 series and renamed prior models as the 200, 400 and 600 series. Several new iterations have been introduced since, such as the Snapdragon 805, 810, 615 and 410. Qualcomm re-branded its modem products under the Snapdragon name in February 2015.
Asus,
HP and
Lenovo
Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, Personal computer, personal computers, ...
have begun selling
laptop
A laptop, laptop computer, or notebook computer is a small, portable personal computer (PC) with a screen and alphanumeric keyboard. Laptops typically have a clam shell form factor with the screen mounted on the inside of the upper li ...
s with Snapdragon-based CPUs running
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
under the name "
Always Connected PC
Windows RT is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft. It is a version of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 built for the 32-bit ARM architecture (ARMv7). First unveiled in January 2011 at Consumer Electronics Show, the Windows RT 8 oper ...
s", marking an entry into the
PC market for Qualcomm and the
ARM architecture
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...
.
History
Pre-release
Qualcomm announced it was developing the
Scorpion
Scorpions are predatory arachnids of the order Scorpiones. They have eight legs, and are easily recognized by a pair of grasping pincers and a narrow, segmented tail, often carried in a characteristic forward curve over the back and always end ...
central processing unit (CPU) in November 2007.
The Snapdragon system on chip (SoC) was announced in November 2006 and included the Scorpion processor, as well as other semiconductors.
This also included Qualcomm's first custom
Hexagon
In geometry, a hexagon (from Ancient Greek, Greek , , meaning "six", and , , meaning "corner, angle") is a six-sided polygon. The total of the internal angles of any simple polygon, simple (non-self-intersecting) hexagon is 720°.
Regular hexa ...
digital signal processor
A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on MOS integrated circuit chips. They are widely used in audio si ...
(DSP).
According to a Qualcomm spokesperson, it was named Snapdragon, because "Snap and Dragon sounded fast and fierce." The following month, Qualcomm acquired
Airgo Networks
Airgo Networks (formerly Woodside Networks), is a Palo Alto, California-based company specializing in the development of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless technology
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allow ...
for an undisclosed amount; it said Airgo's 802.11a/b/g and 802.11n Wi-Fi technology would be integrated with the Snapdragon product suite. Early versions of Scorpion had a processor core design similar to the Cortex-A8.
Early products (2007–2009)
![HTC Desire - main board - Qualcomm QSD8250-2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/HTC_Desire_-_main_board_-_Qualcomm_QSD8250-2.jpg)
The first Snapdragon shipments were of the QSD8250 in November 2007.
According to CNET, Snapdragon claim to fame was having the first 1 GHz mobile made processor.
Most smartphones at the time were using 500 MHz processors.
The first generation of Snapdragon products supported a 720p resolution, 3D graphics and a 12-megapixel camera.
By November 2008, 15 device manufacturers decided to embed Snapdragon chips in their consumer electronics products.
In November 2008, Qualcomm announced it would also compete against Intel in the netbook processor market with dual-core Snapdragon system-on-chips planned for late 2009.
It demonstrated a Snapdragon processor that consumed less power than Intel chips announced around the same time and claimed it would also cost less when released. That same month, Qualcomm introduced a Snapdragon-based prototype netbook called Kayak that used 1.5 GHz processors and was intended for developing markets.
In May 2009,
Java SE
Java Platform, Standard Edition (Java SE) is a computing platform for development and deployment of portable code for desktop and server environments. Java SE was formerly known as Java 2 Platform, Standard Edition (J2SE).
The platform uses Ja ...
was ported and optimized for Snapdragon. At the November 2009
Computex Taipei
COMPUTEX Taipei, or Taipei International Information Technology Show (), is a computer expo held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. Since the early 2000s, it is one of the largest computer and technology trade shows in the world.
The last COMPUTEX was ...
show, Qualcomm announced the QSD8650A addition to the Snapdragon product suite, which was based on 45 nanometer manufacturing processes. It featured a 1.2 GHz processor and had lower power consumption than prior models.
Adoption (2009–2010)
By late 2009, smartphone manufacturers announced they would be using Snapdragon SoCs in the
Acer Liquid Metal
Acer Liquid MT (or Liquid Metal) is a smartphone from Acer that runs the Android operating system. After some rumors the smartphone was officially unveiled in October 2010. The smartphone runs Android 2.2 (Froyo) operating system and it is powere ...
,
HTC HD2
The HTC HD2 (also known as the HTC T8585, HTC T9193 and HTC Leo), is a smartphone in the HTC Touch family designed and manufactured by HTC. The HD2 natively runs the Windows Mobile 6.5 operating system, and was released in Europe in November 200 ...
,
Toshiba TG01
The Toshiba TG01 is a large touchscreen phone/Mobile Internet Device. It is based on the Windows Mobile operating system and uses Qualcomm Snapdragon chip architecture (QSD8250), rated at 1GHz. Connectivity-wise, it is a quad-band GSM phone with s ...
and the
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10.
Lenovo
Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, Personal computer, personal computers, ...
announced the first netbook product using Snapdragon SoCs that December. According to ''PC World'', mobile devices using Snapdragon had longer battery life and were smaller in size than those using other SoCs.
By June 2010, Snapdragon chips were embedded in 20 available consumer devices and incorporated into 120 product designs in development.
Apple
An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...
had a dominant market position for smartphones at the time and did not incorporate Snapdragon into any of its products. The success of Snapdragon therefore relied on competing
Android phones, such as Google's
Nexus One
The Nexus One (codenamed HTC Passion) is an Android smartphone designed and manufactured by HTC as Google's first Nexus smartphone. The Nexus became available on January 5, 2010, and features the ability to transcribe voice to text, an addition ...
and the
HTC Incredible, challenging Apple's market position.
Android devices did end up taking market share from the iPhone and predominantly used Snapdragon.
There was an "unconfirmed but widely circulated report" speculating that Apple was going to start using Snapdragon SoCs in Verizon-based iPhones.
As of 2012, Apple was still using their own
Ax semiconductor designs. Support for the Windows Phone 7 operating systems was added to Snapdragon in October 2010.
By 2011 Snapdragon was embedded in
Hewlett Packard
The Hewlett-Packard Company, commonly shortened to Hewlett-Packard ( ) or HP, was an American multinational information technology company headquartered in Palo Alto, California. HP developed and provided a wide variety of hardware components ...
's WebOS devices and had a 50% market share of a $7.9 billion smartphone processor market.
As of July 2014, the market share of Android phones had grown to 84.6 percent,
and Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips were embedded in 41% of smartphones.
Snapdragon chips are also used in most Android-based smartwatches. Snapdragon products have also been used in virtual reality products, in vehicles like the
Maserati Quattroporte
The Maserati Quattroporte () is a four-door full-size luxury sports sedan produced by Italian automobile manufacturer Maserati. The name translated from Italian means "four doors". The car is currently in its sixth generation, with the first g ...
and
Cadillac XTS
The Cadillac XTS (short for ''X-Series Touring Sedan'') is a full-size, four-door, five-passenger, front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive luxury sedan from Cadillac based on an enlarged version of the Epsilon II platform shared with the Buick Lacro ...
and in other applications.
32-bit ARM era (2010–2015)
![LG P710 Optimus L7 II - Qualcomm MSM8225 on main printed circuit board-5427](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/LG_P710_Optimus_L7_II_-_Qualcomm_MSM8225_on_main_printed_circuit_board-5427.jpg)
In June 2010, Qualcomm began sampling the third generation of Snapdragon products; two dual-core 1.2 GHz system on chips (SoC) called the Mobile Station Modem (MSM) 8260 and 8660. The 8260 was for GSM, UMTS and HSPA+ networks, while the 8660 was for CDMA2000 and EVDO networks.
That November Qualcomm announced the MSM8960 for LTE networks.
In early 2011, Qualcomm announced a new processor architecture called Krait, which used the ARM v7 instruction set, but was based on Qualcomm's own processor design. The processors were called S4 and had a feature named Asynchronous Symmetrical Multi-Processing (aSMP), meaning each processor core adjusted its clock speed and voltage based on the device's activity in order to optimize battery usage. Prior models were renamed to S1, S2 and S3 to distinguish each generation.
The S4-based generation of Snapdragon SoCs began shipping to product manufacturers with the MSM8960 in February 2012. In benchmark tests by Anandtech, the MSM8960 had better performance than any other processor tested. In an overall system benchmark, the 8960 obtained a score of 907, compared to 528 and 658 for the
Galaxy Nexus
The Galaxy Nexus (GT-I9250) is a touchscreen Android smartphone co-developed by Google and Samsung Electronics. It is the third smartphone in the Google Nexus series, a family of Android consumer devices built by an original equipment manufactu ...
and
HTC Rezound
The HTC Rezound is a smartphone by HTC and sold through Verizon. Along with the Galaxy Nexus and Droid RAZR, it was expected to be a major competitor to the iPhone 4S. It was released on November 14, 2011. It is also the first phone to use Beats ...
respectively. In a Quadrant benchmark test, which assesses raw processing power, a dual-core Krait processor had a score of 4,952, whereas the quad-core Tegra 3 was just under 4,000. The quad-core version, APQ8064, was made available in July 2012. It was the first Snapdragon SoC to use Qualcomm's Adreno 320 graphics processing unit (GPU).
Adoption of Snapdragon contributed to Qualcomm's transition from a wireless modem company to one that also produces a wider range of hardware and software for mobile devices. In July 2011 Qualcomm acquired certain assets from
GestureTek
GestureTek is an American-based interactive technology company headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, with offices in Toronto and Ottawa, Ontario and Asia.
Founding
Founded in 1986 by Canadians Vincent John Vincent and Francis MacDougall, ...
in order to incorporate its gesture recognition intellectual property into Snapdragon SoCs. In mid-2012 Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon software development kit (SDK) for Android devices at the Uplinq developer conference.
The SDK includes tools for facial recognition, gesture recognition, noise cancellation and audio recording.
That November Qualcomm acquired some assets from EPOS Development in order to integrate its stylus and gesture recognition technology into Snapdragon products. It also collaborated with
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
to optimize
Windows Phone 8
Windows Phone 8 is the second generation of the Windows Phone mobile operating system from Microsoft. It was released on October 29, 2012, and, like its predecessor, it features a flat user interface based on the Metro design language. It was su ...
for Snapdragon semiconductors.
By 2012, the Snapdragon S4 (Krait core) had taken a dominant share from other Android system-on-chips like
Nvidia Tegra
Tegra is a system on a chip (SoC) series developed by Nvidia for mobile devices such as smartphones, personal digital assistants, and mobile Internet devices. The Tegra integrates an ARM architecture central processing unit (CPU), graphics proc ...
and
Texas Instruments OMAP
The OMAP (Open Multimedia Applications Platform) family, developed by Texas Instruments, was a series of image/video processors. They are proprietary system on chips (SoCs) for portable and mobile multimedia applications. OMAP devices generally ...
which caused the latter to exit the market.
As of July 2014, the market share of Android phones had grown to 84.6 percent,
and Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips powered 41% of smartphones.
However, the September 2013 debut of Apple's 64-bit A7 chip in the
iPhone 5S
The iPhone 5S (stylized and marketed as iPhone 5s) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the seventh generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 5, and unveiled in September 2013, alongside the iPhone 5C.
Th ...
forced Qualcomm to rush out a competing 64-bit solution, despite the capable performance of the Snapdragon 800/801/805, since their existing Krait cores were only 32-bit.
The first 64-bit SoCs, the
Snapdragon 808 and 810, were rushed to market using generic Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 cores and suffered from overheating problems and throttling, particularly the 810, which led to Samsung ditching Snapdragon for its
Galaxy S6
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Succeeding the Samsung Galaxy S5, the S6 was not released as a singular model, but instead in two variations unveiled and ...
flagship phone.
The entry-level 200 series was expanded with six new processors using 28 nanometer manufacturing and dual or quad-core options in June 2013. The entry-level Snapdragon 210, intended for low-cost phones, was announced in September 2014.
Custom 64-bit ARM era (2016–present)
After Qualcomm's first attempt at 64-bit system on a chip, they created a new in-house architecture that in later models showed better thermal performance, especially when compared to the Snapdragon models launched after 2015, like the Snapdragon 820.
In early 2016, Qualcomm launched the
Snapdragon 820
This is a list of Qualcomm Snapdragon systems on chips (SoC) made by Qualcomm for use in smartphones, tablets, laptops, 2-in-1 PCs, smartwatches, and smartbooks devices.
Before Snapdragon
SoC made by Qualcomm before it was renamed to Snapdr ...
, an ARM 64-bit quad-core processor using in-house designed
Kryo
Qualcomm Kryo is a series of custom or semi-custom ARM-based CPUs included in the Snapdragon line of SoCs.
These CPUs implement the ARM 64-bit instruction set and serve as the successor to the previous 32-bit Krait CPUs. It was first introduc ...
cores. Qualcomm launched an updated
Snapdragon 821 later in the year with higher clock speeds and slightly better performance. The Snapdragon 820 family uses
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
's
14-nanometer FinFET
A fin field-effect transistor (FinFET) is a multigate device, a MOSFET (metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor) built on a substrate where the gate is placed on two, three, or four sides of the channel or wrapped around the channel, f ...
process
A process is a series or set of activities that interact to produce a result; it may occur once-only or be recurrent or periodic.
Things called a process include:
Business and management
*Business process, activities that produce a specific se ...
. Qualcomm also released the Qualcomm Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine SDK which was the first
AI acceleration on smartphones.
Qualcomm announced the octa-core Snapdragon 835 SoC on 17 November 2016. Released the following year, it uses Kryo 280 cores and is built using Samsung's
10 nanometer FinFET process. At initial launch, due to Samsung's role in manufacturing the chip, its mobile division also acquired the initial inventory of the chip. That means that no other phone maker was able to manufacture products containing the Snapdragon 835 until Samsung released its flagship device of the year, the
Galaxy S8
The Samsung Galaxy S8 and Samsung Galaxy S8+ are Android smartphones produced by Samsung Electronics as the eighth generation of the Samsung Galaxy S series. The S8 and S8+ were unveiled on 29 March 2017 and directly succeeded the Samsung Ga ...
.
At Computex 2017 in May, Qualcomm and Microsoft announced plans to launch Snapdragon-based laptops running
Windows 10
Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It is the direct successor to Windows 8.1, which was released nearly two years earlier. It was released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on J ...
. Qualcomm partnered with
HP, Lenovo, and
Asus to release slim portables and 2-in-1 devices powered by the Snapdragon 835.
In December 2017, Qualcomm announced the octa-core Snapdragon 845. It uses the same 10-nanometer manufacturing process as the earlier Snapdragon 835 but introduced a new processor architecture, Kryo 385,
designed for better battery life, photography, and for use with artificial intelligence apps.
In early 2018, Qualcomm introduced the 7 series, which sits between the 6 and 8 series in terms of pricing and performance. The 700 launched with octa-core models Snapdragon 710 and 712, using the Kryo 360 processor architecture, and built on a 10-nanometer manufacturing process.
In 2019, Qualcomm released new variants of its mobile processors, with the Snapdragon 855 replacing the 845. The Snapdragon 855 competes against other high end system-on-chip solutions like the
Apple A12
The Apple A12 Bionic is a 64-bit ARM-based system on a chip (SoC) designed by Apple Inc. It first appeared in the iPhone XS and XS Max, iPhone XR, iPad Air (3rd generation), iPad Mini (5th generation), 8th generation iPad and Apple TV 4K (2 ...
, and
Kirin 980. The Snapdragon 855 features Kryo 485 cores, built on
TSMC
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC; also called Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational corporation, multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the world's most valuable semicon ...
's
7 nanometer
In semiconductor manufacturing, the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors defines the 7 nm process as the MOSFET technology node following the 10 nm node. It is based on FinFET (fin field-effect transistor) technology, ...
process. The Snapdragon 730 and 730G replaced the 710 and 712. The newer 730 and 730G feature Kryo 460 cores, built on Samsung's 8-nanometer process.
In December 2019, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 865 and Snapdragon 765, which succeeded the Snapdragon 855/855+ and Snapdragon 730/730G respectively. The Snapdragon 765 has integrated 5G, while the Snapdragon 865 is assisted by a separate Qualcomm X55 5G modem. Despite lacking integrated 5G, the Snapdragon 865 is incompatible with 4G phones.
In May 2020, Qualcomm announced the new Snapdragon 768G 5G processor, an upgraded version of the 765G processor. The main difference between the 765G and 768G is that the 768G will offer 15 percent increase in performance and higher clock speed on the CPU, up to 2.8 GHz from 2.4 GHz.
In September 2020, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 750G processor, the latest addition to the 7-series, designed to bring 5G support for low-latency mobile gaming.
In December 2020, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 888. The major differences compared to the 865/+ is a new core, designed by ARM, the ARM Cortex X1, support for LPDDR5-6400 and a built in 5G modem, meaning the X55 Modem is not required. The 888 is based on Samsung 5 nm, with a TDP of 5 watts, but this can be altered by the manufacturer.
NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, which landed on Mars, runs a Snapdragon 801 processor.
In May 2022, Qualcomm announced their new model Snapdragon 8 plus Gen 1. Qualcomm states the upgraded model will offer 10% faster CPU performance, 10% faster GPU clocks, 30% power efficiency from both the CPU and GPU, 20% better AI performance per watt and 15% less power usage total. Additionally, following this announcement, Qualcomm also announced the new Snapdragon 7 gen 1 aimed at gamers with a 20% better graphics performance over the prior gen. Honor, Oppo and Xiaomi are the only brands listed as building devices around the 7 Gen 1, and are listed for release in the second quarter of 2022, whereas the 8 plus 1 gen devices are expected in the third quarter.
Description and current models
Snapdragon system on chip products typically include a graphics processing unit (GPU), a global positioning system (GPS) and a cellular modem integrated into a single package. It has software included that operates graphics, video and picture-taking. There are 23 different Snapdragon processors under the 200, 400, 600, 700, and the 800 product families spanning from low to high-end respectively, as well as Wi-Fi and mobile charging products. Some of their components include the
Adreno
Adreno is a series of graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property cores developed by Qualcomm and used in many of their SoCs.
History
Adreno (an anagram of AMD's graphic card brand '' Radeon''), was originally developed ...
graphics processing, the
Qualcomm Hexagon
Hexagon is the brand name for a family of digital signal processor (DSP) products by Qualcomm. Hexagon is also known as QDSP6, standing for “sixth generation digital signal processor.” According to Qualcomm, the Hexagon architecture is desig ...
DSP and processors using Qualcomm's S4 processor architecture. In addition to smartphones, the 400 series is used in smart watches and the 602A is intended for electronics in cars.
The current Snapdragon naming scheme was implemented after the Snapdragon 800 family was announced at the 2013
Consumer Electronics Show
CES (; formerly an initialism for Consumer Electronics Show) is an annual trade show organized by the Consumer Technology Association (CTA). Held in January at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Winchester, Nevada, United States, the event typi ...
; prior models were renamed to the 200, 400 or 600 series. A new Snapdragon 600 was also released, which by mid-year was embedded in most new Android devices. The 400 family is entry-level, the 600 is mass-market or mid-range, and 800 family is for high-end or flagship phones.
![Nexus 7 (2013) - main board - Qualcomm APQ8064-9713](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/Nexus_7_%282013%29_-_main_board_-_Qualcomm_APQ8064-9713.jpg)
The Snapdragon 805 was released in November 2013. The 410, which is intended for low-cost phones in developing nations, was announced the following month. In January 2014, Qualcomm introduced a modified version of the Snapdragon 600 called 602A
that is intended for in-car infotainment screens, backup cameras, and other driver assistance products. The quad-core Snapdragon 610 and eight-core 615 were announced in February 2014. The Snapdragon 808 and 810 were announced in April 2014. The Snapdragon 835, announced in November 2017, is the first Qualcomm SOC that is built on a 10 nm architecture. Qualcomm's new flagship chip for 2018, the 845, was announced in December 2017. According to Qualcomm, the 845 is 25-30% faster than the 835.
In February 2015, Qualcomm re-branded its stand-alone modem products under the Snapdragon name; they were distinguished from SoCs using the "x" designation, such as the X7 or X12 modem.
The first Snapdragon modem for 5G networks, the X50, was announced in October 2016. This was followed by the 2GBs X24 modem on a 7 nanometer manufacturing process that was announced in February 2018.
According to CNET, Windows phones were growing in US market share and ranked highly in CNET reviews due to their responsiveness. Snapdragon SoCs are also used in most Windows phones
and most phones entering the market in mid-2013. The
LG G2
The LG G2 is an Android (operating system), Android smartphone developed by LG Electronics. Serving as a successor to 2012's LG Optimus G, Optimus G and the 2013 LG Optimus G Pro, Optimus G Pro phablet, the G2 was unveiled at a press event in N ...
was the first phone to market using the Snapdragon 800 in August 2013.
In 2017 the 660 and 630 replaced the 653 and 626 mid-range models and several chips in the 400 product family were revised. In February 2017, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon X20, intended for 5G cell phone networks, and two new chips for 802.11ax commercial Wi-Fi networks. This was followed by the addition of the 636 to the 600 product family that October, which Qualcomm said would be 40 percent faster than the 630.
In August 2018, the Snapdragon 632, 439 and 429 were released. The new SoC is aimed at mid-range devices such as the Moto G6 Play, Huawei Honor 7A and Nokia 5.
In December 2018, Qualcomm announced the 8cx at their Snapdragon Tech Summit 2018. The 8cx is Qualcomm's first SoC specifically designed for Always Connected PC (ACPC) platform. Unlike Qualcomm's past ACPC SoCs which were just their respective mobile SoCs at higher TDP. Qualcomm also showcased their Snapdragon X50 5G modem, Snapdragon 855 and QTM052 mmWave Antenna Module.
In February 2019, Qualcomm announced their Snapdragon X55 5G modem, QTM525 mmWave antenna module, QET6100 envelope tracker and the new QAT3555 antenna impedance tuner.
In July 2019, Qualcomm announced a refresh of the Snapdragon 855, the Snapdragon 855+, which is essentially an
overclocked version of the 855 with both faster CPU and GPU performance.
In December 2019, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X52 5G modem alongside the Snapdragon 765 and Snapdragon 865.
Benchmark tests
Benchmark tests of the Snapdragon 800's processor by ''PC Magazine'' found that its processing power was comparable to similar products from Nvidia. Benchmarks of the Snapdragon 805 found that the Adreno 420 GPU resulted in a 40 percent improvement in graphics processing over the Adreno 330 in the Snapdragon 800, though there were only slight differences in processor benchmarks. Benchmarks of the Snapdragon 801 inside an
HTC One found a "bump all around" in benchmark improvements over the 800. In 2015, Samsung's decision not to use the Snapdragon 810 in its
Galaxy S6
The Samsung Galaxy S6 is a line of Android-based smartphones manufactured, released and marketed by Samsung Electronics. Succeeding the Samsung Galaxy S5, the S6 was not released as a singular model, but instead in two variations unveiled and ...
had a significant detrimental impact on Snapdragon's revenues and reputation. Benchmark tests by Ars Technica confirmed rumors that the 810 under-performed lower-end models and had overheating issues.
A Qualcomm spokesperson said these tests were done with early versions of the 810 that weren't ready for commercial use. An updated version was released and was found to moderately improve
thermal throttling
The thermal design power (TDP), sometimes called thermal design point, is the maximum amount of heat generated by a computer chip or component (often a CPU, GPU or system on a chip) that the cooling system in a computer is designed to dissipate ...
, GPU clock speeds, memory latency, and memory bandwidth when tested in a commercial product, the Xiaomi Mi Note Pro. Additionally, the 820/821, 835 and 845 performed substantially better. The Snapdragon 865's memory was improved in a later update. A 2019 benchmark test by PC World found that the 865's multi-core performance on the "default" setting was 30 percent higher than the 855 and comparable to the 855 Plus. The benchmark score for Snapdragon 888 released in 2021 is higher than that of the existing Snapdragon 865 Plus and Apple A13, but the heat output has increased by 60 percent.
See also
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List of Qualcomm Snapdragon processors
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
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Adreno
Adreno is a series of graphics processing unit (GPU) semiconductor intellectual property cores developed by Qualcomm and used in many of their SoCs.
History
Adreno (an anagram of AMD's graphic card brand '' Radeon''), was originally developed ...
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Qualcomm Hexagon
Hexagon is the brand name for a family of digital signal processor (DSP) products by Qualcomm. Hexagon is also known as QDSP6, standing for “sixth generation digital signal processor.” According to Qualcomm, the Hexagon architecture is desig ...
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Snapdragon Stadium
Snapdragon Stadium, known during its planning and early construction phases as Aztec Stadium, is an outdoor college football stadium on the West Coast of the United States, west coast of the United States, in San Diego, California. It is loc ...
References
Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Snapdragon (Processor)
ARM-based systems on chips
Computer-related introductions in 2008
Embedded microprocessors
Gesture recognition
Qualcomm
System on a chip