The Snapdragon mobile platform has held the script of "Dragon Pride" from the day of birth
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Author | Fang Zhiguang
Edit | Li Zongren
Historically, 2007 is generally called the beginning of the mobile era, because two things happened that year that profoundly affected the trajectory of human development: in early 2007, Apple released the ancestor iPhone; in November of the same year, Qualcomm released the first generation of Snapdragon chips. They became the cornerstone of the era of dividing the PC and mobile eras, and the prelude to the new era slowly began.
"Qualcomm Snapdragon" is a name that has gone down in history, and it is the biggest contributor to the mobile era, and it may not be one of them. Qualcomm Snapdragon runs through the development history of the entire Android camp, and all landmark Android flagships have a "Snapdragon core" inside.
Qualcomm Snapdragon chips are the common denominator of all Today's Android flagships. Qualcomm's advantages in technology and experience are like an insurmountable gap, dividing the Android mobile platform into two types, one called Snapdragon and the other.
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"Prehistoric Period"
The story begins from the birth of mobile phones, mobile networks have undergone multi-generational evolution from nmT and AMPS to GSM, CDMA, and then to 3G/4G/5G, and mobile devices have also undergone a rebirth from "big brothers" to non-smart machines and then to smart machines.
Throughout the years, the old adage of "buying a phone is buying a SoC" still applies. SoC is the core component of multiple components including CPU, GPU, ISP, modem, etc., modems make mobile phones "always networked and always online", and CPU and mobile operating systems allow smartphones to run a variety of applications, which together form the cornerstone of the mobile era.
Before the prototype of the modern smartphone concept was formed, Qualcomm had already begun to lay out. Because it is facing a completely new field that has never been explored, Qualcomm "can only" all self-research:
1. In 2005, Qualcomm's first independent CPU architecture "Scorpion" was released, which is the predecessor of the Krait architecture that will shock the world;
2. In 2006, Qualcomm's first SoC system-on-chip was released, and the Hexagon DSP, which continues to this day, was also launched at this time;
3, and the significance of 2007, has now almost no one knows the "Snapdragon" series of chips released. At this time, there is still 1 year before the release of the original Android system.
Since then, in the past 15 years, Qualcomm's new SoCs have appeared almost every year with new processes, new CPUs, GPUs and modems. The original Snapdragon became the origin of everything, witnessing an exponential explosion in mobile SoC performance.
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Snapdragon S1-S4 Series:
The barbaric era from 2007 to 2011
HTC HD2
1, MSM7225/7625, born in the era of mobile SoC and no GPU, Qualcomm has brought support for 3G networks, and the domestic 3G first year in 2009, or 2 years later;
2, QSD8250/8650, from their beginnings, Snapdragon has been the flagship royal, CPU and GPU are autonomous architecture, here is also the place where Android's strongest GPU Adreno series began. Their huge user base has also created the brilliance of the original "king of brushing machines" HTC HD2;
3. Snapdragon S2 series includes MSM7230/7630, APQ8055, MSM8255/8655. In this generation, the predecessor of the Snapdragon modem " Gobi Series" was introduced, which was the first modem to support both 3G and LTE. And that year, it was 2011;
4, 2010 Snapdragon S3 series, although the shortest time span of the generation, but the MSM8260/8660 and APQ8060, using Qualcomm's first dual-core CPU architecture, the Android camp then began to maintain a core competition for several years. If the SoC model is not easy to evoke memories, then the HP TouchPad equipped with Snapdragon S3, Samsung Galaxy S II LTE, HTC Evo 3D, LG Optimus LTE, the original millet mobile phone, it is estimated that it can also evoke the memories of many people;
5. Snapdragon S4 is the largest generation of product lines, which are subdivided into four sub-series of Play, Plus, Pro, and Prime. At this time, a 4-core CPU appeared, and the Krait architecture succeeded the Scorpion architecture, which already had 2MB of L2 cache in 2012. The original Moto X, LG Optimus G, Prince Nexus 4, and Xiaomi Mi 2 equipped with Snapdragon S4 have become unforgettable classics for countless players.
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Snapdragon 800 Series: Moving towards 8-core 64-bit
In 2013, Qualcomm launched a new naming and division scheme, including Snapdragon 200/400/600/800 four-order positioning:
1. The original Snapdragon 800, according to whether there is a modem, is divided into APQ/MSM series, including 8074/8274/8674 and other products. At this time, there was already LPDDR3 memory, eMMC 5.0 support, and subsequent quickcharge 2.0 fast charging in the unified fast charging market, and a large number of now well-known technical specifications were finalized at that time;
2. After the Snapdragon 801 and Snapdragon 805, they constantly improve the process and increase the frequency. The Snapdragon 805 set an incredible record for 2.7GHz and remained there until 2018 when it was broken by the Snapdragon 845. Its memory bandwidth has reached 25.6GB/s, which is ready for future 4K screens. At the same time, the third generation of Gobi LTE modems added support for LTE-Advanced (4G+) and all-Netcom, gradually ending the history of domestic consumers needing to choose models according to operators, and laying a hardware foundation for the later unified standard.
3, 2014 Snapdragon 810/808, the number of cores increased to 6 cores and 8 cores respectively, and became the first batch of products in the Android camp to enter the 64-bit era. At the time, the Hexagon V56 DSP and Spectra ISP already supported 55-megapixel cameras. It was also at this time that Qualcomm enabled the naming of the Snapdragon X series LTE modem, and the speed reached the LTE Cat.9 (450Mbps) level in the same year. Its specifications are so advanced that before the arrival of 5G, domestic operators have not used it at all.
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Snapdragon 820 to Snapdragon 855:
Heterogeneous and multi-platform development
From this period onwards, Qualcomm expanded snapdragon's positioning to a "mobile platform" and began an attempt to isomorphize the computing platform.
Snapdragon 835 architecture diagram
1. The Snapdragon 820 at the beginning of 2016, its third-generation Kryo architecture is the only 2+2 giant core route in the Android camp, introducing a heterogeneous AI architecture of "CPU + GPU + DSP". In the same year, the Spectra 180 ISP and the Hexagon 680 DSP were born, and the exaggerated throughput had laid the hardware foundation for the later computational photography;
2, 2017 Snapdragon 835, refreshed the flagship SoC energy efficiency ratio record, so that the Android camp flagship for the first time the overall endurance surpassed the iPhone, the X16 LTE modem at that time has entered the 1000Mbps mark. This generation introduced a large number of new attributes such as machine learning and VR, and began to expand into the notebook field, and QC4/QC4+ fast charging was also born at this time. The leading position of the Snapdragon 835 also makes the Xiaomi Mi 6, Galaxy S8 and other models equipped with it incomparably "longevity";
3, Snapdragon 845 as the flagship standard in 2018, the number of transistors reached 5.3 billion, the frequency of the Kryo 385 Gold architecture rushed to 2.8GHz, the performance of the Adreno 630 also reached 737GFLOPS, Spectra 280 ISP supports up to 192 million pixel cameras, this generation also introduced Qualcomm's own aptX HD Bluetooth standard;
4. On the Snapdragon 855 in 2019, Qualcomm used the 1+3+4 architecture in the CPU for the first time, and the GPU performance broke through the 1000GFLOPS mark. At this time, the mobile game was on fire, and the Snapdragon 845 launched the Snapdragon Elite Gaming solution, which began to provide a globally coordinated gaming experience and support a series of technologies such as PBR physical rendering.
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"Modern" Snapdragon: still synonymous with flagship
1, followed by the familiar Snapdragon 865. As the flagship of 2020, its specifications are still mainstream today. The number of transistors of snapdragon 865 reached 10.3 billion, the A77-based Kryo 585 architecture went up another level on the IPC, and the Adreno 650 increased the frequency without mentioning the subsequent Snapdragon 865+ and Snapdragon 870 with its super energy efficiency ratio, and the FP32 performance soared from 1200GFLOPS to 1370GFLOPS, and integrated an independent security module SPU;
2, old friend Snapdragon 888 does not need to be repeated. In 2021, the royal flagship core, the CPU part has the Android camp's long-lost super core X1, 4MB level three cache, CPU performance increased by 25%, GPU increased by 35%. It brings the VRS variable coloring rate technology that only existed in the previous terminal game for mobile terminals, and the sixth-generation AI engine has soared by 50% in performance to 26TOPS, integrating X60 5G modems and supporting 100W QC5 fast charging.
At the end of 2021, Qualcomm launched a new naming method, the rumored Snapdragon 895, and finally debuted as a "new generation of Snapdragon 8", and Adreno GPUs no longer use digital suffixes.
The new Snapdragon 8 brings the largest CPU architecture innovation in recent years, with super core, large core and small core all updated to Armv9 instruction set, X2 super core frequency rushed to 2.995GHz, 6MB L3 cache + 4M SLC cache. What is even more frightening is that the GPU performance of this generation has soared by more than 50%, substituting GPU performance into another dimension.
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Love Letters to Gamers:
Snapdragon Elite Gaming
Looking back at Snapdragon now, it is already a computing platform that has expanded to tablets, PCs, XR devices, wearables, The Internet of Things, automotive and other fields.
After years of development, the games, audio, audio, and connected submodules that users care about the most have grown and developed, giving birth to different technology matrices such as Snapdragon Elite Gaming, Snapdragon Sound, Snapdragon Sight, Snapdragon Connect, etc., which together constitute an important core of Qualcomm Snapdragon's flagship experience.
In the face of crazy growth in game demand, Qualcomm launched a system-level game experience solution Snapdragon Elite Gaming in the Snapdragon 855 era, which deeply integrated and optimized the original independent parts such as powerful Adreno GPU performance, touch, audio, and connectivity.
Snapdragon Elite Gaming, the original Snapdragon Elite on the Snapdragon 855, introduced physical rendering (PBR) technology on the end game, which greatly improved the lighting effect and texture texture, so that in the "grill game" "Light Mountains" that is more terrifying and more GPU-oriented than the original god, it can show the picture effect that is really close to the end game.
Mixed calls of CPU, GPU, and AI engine multi-module, aptX Adaptive and Qualcomm Aqstic audio, Vulkan 1.1 support, 4K TV Out, anti-cheat extension program and other technical features were introduced as early as this time.
The 2nd Generation Snapdragon Elite Gaming on the Snapdragon 865 dramatically improves frame rate and HDR effects, bringing high frame rate support for 90/120/144FPS, with True 10-bit HDR and Adreno HDR fast mixing technology, and end-level forward rendering technology to further enhance particle rendering effects.
A year later, the 3rd generation of Snapdragon Elite Gaming brought another end-game-level feature to the Snapdragon 888 - real-time variable resolution rendering technology (VRS), which can mix and color non-visual focus content, greatly improving energy efficiency ratios without sacrificing image quality. There are also many features such as the Game Quick Touch, which reduces touch latency.
On the new generation Snapdragon 8, the 4th generation Of Snapdragon Elite Gaming arrived as scheduled. Among more than 50 optimizations, including upgrading VRS to VRS Pro, developers can control the rendering resolution based on the screen position, and support the same end-game level stereoscopic rendering technology. At this point, Snapdragon Elite Gaming was able to assign audio tasks to the Hexagon DSP and already had support for spatial audio.
In addition, Qualcomm also released the Snapdragon Game Toolkit (Snapdragon Game Toolkit), allowing developers to better use previous game results and sample code.
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Snapdragon Sound, which has no other branch,
Snapdragon Sight
and Snapdragon Connect
In addition to the game, in terms of important functions such as sound, image, and connection, Qualcomm has a large number of technical characteristics of "only this one has no other branch".
In early 2021, Qualcomm released the Snapdragon Sound Snapdragon Listening brand, hoping to integrate a series of audio hardware and software technologies to provide a stronger wireless audio experience. Contrary to the "Bluetooth soundless" stereotype, the Qualcomm Aqstic DAC in Snapdragon Sound can support PCM formats and DSD formats up to 32-bit 384kHz.
After the introduction of aptX Lossless technology, aptX Adaptive can adjust the transmission rate between 140Kbps and 1Mbps according to the environment, achieving up to 24-bit 96kHz HD audio transmission and minimum 89ms delay, and has 16-bit 44.1kHz CD lossless sound quality support. In addition, behind-the-scenes technologies such as Qualcomm Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) technology and aptX Voice ultra-wideband voice are actually part of Snapdragon Sound.
In addition, the introduction of LE Audio features also allows the new generation of Snapdragon 8 to achieve broadcast audio, stereo audio recording and game voice synchronous backhaul and other functions.
In the photo part that is a must for manufacturers, Snapdragon Sight is a newly divided image technology solution. On the new Snapdragon 8, the first 18-bit ISP on the mobile side is part of Snapdragon Sight, the former has a staggering number of pixels per second, the former can take 200 million pixels of photos at a time or take 3 photos of 36 million pixels at the same time, greatly improving the imaging speed, but also the core hardware basis of multi-frame synthesis, so that its super night shooting mode from the previous 5 frame stack, violently increased to 30 frame stack.
In terms of video, the new Snapdragon is the first mobile platform to support 8K HDR video shooting. The video specifications of 1 billion colors HDR10+ are completely overflowing in 5 or 6 years. But the most interesting thing is definitely the new low-power ISP, which can be online 24/7 and continue to provide various AI support such as face detection.
The Snapdragon Connect connection part that needs to be said last is qualcomm's home. The X65 5G modem on the new Snapdragon 8 is the world's first 5G solution that complies with the 3GPP Release 16 specification, and the downlink peak speed has rushed to 10Gbps, and the upload peak is 3Gbps, which is faster than the downlink of many 5G products.
The FastConnect series of independent connection subsystems starting from the Snapdragon 865, even the FastConnect 6800 at that time, also had Bluetooth 5.1, Wi-Fi 6, 60GHz Wi-Fi (10Gbps) support. FastConnect 6900 on the new generation Of Snapdragon 8 (the same generation also has FastConnect 6700), in addition to Bluetooth 5.2, also support Wi-Fi 6E, the speed is directly the cap of 3.6Gbps.
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Summary: Invincibility is the loneliest
In the latest statistics on the patent quality and patent scale of semiconductor companies, Qualcomm has become a pole in the semiconductor industry with extremely large technical reserves.
Snapdragon mobile platform from the day of birth to hold the "Dragon Auror" script, iPhone release 2 years ago has a self-developed CPU architecture, and then Scorpion, Krait, Kryo architecture all the way. The GPU and modem are even more excessive, Adreno GPU has been the strongest in Android from the very beginning to the present, and the Snapdragon X series modem has never been threatened, tirelessly refreshing the speed of each node in the 4G and 5G eras.
Qualcomm has seven founders, the third from right is Dr. Evan Jacobs
Qualcomm's distinctive business model allows it to run wild in technology. Looking back at the history of the Snapdragon series, it will be found that it often makes hardware features that are several years ahead, and its "competition" with other friends has never been on the same level.
Qualcomm founder Evan Jacobs, when reviewing the experience of founding Qualcomm, said: "At that time, we had no business plan, and in the first 6 months, we came up with a lot of ideas, and these ideas have kept us busy until now. "The strength of Snapdragon may have been set since the founding of Qualcomm.
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