Qualcomm has unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the company’s most recent flagship smartphone processor. Qualcomm claims that in addition to making the new platform more effective and powerful, it has also added more artificial intelligence (AI) know-how.
The latest Qualcomm AI Engine and enhanced Hexagon processor will be used by the Snapdragon 8 to provide “faster natural language processing with multi-language translation and advanced AI camera functions,” according to the company. According to Qualcomm, the processor’s architecture improvements will enable up to 4.35 times the AI performance of Gen 1 CPUs. Support for the Int4 AI precision format, according to the manufacturer, would result in a 60 percent increase in performance/watt for sustained AI inferencing over the previous-generation chipset. The Sensing Hub will have a while.
According to Qualcomm, the updates will also make new camera-focused functionality possible. According to this, semantic segmentation will be used by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to automatically and in real-time enhance images and videos. To make the camera aware of and individually improve features like faces, hair, clothing, and skies, this uses an AI neural network. The processor has been modified by Qualcomm to handle additional sensors, like Samsung’s 200-megapixel Isocell HP3. This Snapdragon variant is the first to enable 8K HDR playback at up to 60 frames per second using the AV1 codec.
A fascinating feature for mobile gamers is real-time hardware acceleration, according to Qualcomm, which should enhance the visuals in supported games. According to the manufacturer, compared to the Gen 1 chip, the new Adreno GPU and Kyro CPU operate over 25% quicker and use 40% less power. In addition, Qualcomm says it will provide the first mobile-optimized support for the Unreal Engine 5 Metahumans Framework, which will enable gamers to “experience photorealistic human characters in their games.”
On the connectivity front, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will use AI to manage download speeds, latency, coverage, and power efficiency. There will be support for dual 5G SIMs as well (speeds of up to 5.8 Gbps). In terms of audio, phones that use the chipset will be able to offer spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, 48kHz lossless music streaming, and latency as low as 48ms.
Qualcomm notes that the first phones with the Gen 2 chipset should be available by the end of the year. Partners including ASUS Republic of Gamers, Honor, Motorola, OnePlus, Oppo, Sharp, Sony, Xiaomi, and ZTE plan to use the chip in their devices. There’s likely to be more news from Qualcomm in the coming days, as the company is hosting its Snapdragon Summit this week.
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