Chip maker Qualcomm recently presented numbers from its second fiscal report for 2013, has now shared more details regarding the upcoming system processor Snapdragon 800. The circuit builds on the Snapdragon 600, and mass production is set to start in May.
Qualcomm’s system processors can be found in many successful smartphones. Snapdragon 400 debuted in the Facebook-colored HTC First, and big brother Snapdragon 600, is used by both Samsung and HTC in their respective flagship Galaxy S4 and One. At the press conference in Beijing, Qualcomm looked to the future and heavy-weight Snapdragon 800.
Snapdragon 600 uses Qualcomm’s Krait 300-CPU, which Snapdragon 800 tops with Krait 400. The processor has four cores made at 28 nanometer, and will be clocked at up to 2.3 GHz. The cores are asynchronous and can run at individual frequency for optimal efficiency. Also the graphics gets a boost and Snapdragon 800 will sport Adreno 330, which enables users to save and play 4K content at 30 frames per second, or 2K (up to 2560 x 2048) in 60 frames per second. It also supports LPDDR3 at 800 MHz to take on Samsung Exynos 5 and its high memory bandwidth.
As a major player in wireless technology Qualcomm has equipped the new system processor with a whole set of new and exciting technologies; but much is also recognized from Snapdragon 600. Among others, we see support for LTE Cat4 for speeds up to 150 Mbit/s, 802.11 a/b/g/n and ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
Mass production is set to start by the end of May and be implemented in retail units during the second half of the year. Qualcomm has not confirmed any such devices, but it would be reasonably to assume that they will be found in coming devices from HTC LG, and ZTE, which has demonstrated a version of its 5.6″ ZTE Grand with Snapdragon 800.
We look forward to a Fall with many new high performance smartphones and tablets, where Snapdragon 800 will be fighting other powerful solutions, e.g. Samsung Exynos 5 Octa, Intel Clover Trail and Nvidia Tegra 4.
