Qualcomm is adapting its smartphone processor technology to better handle AI tasks. To do so, it is reusing technology it developed for chips running in AI laptops.
Qualcomm has already developed suitable technology for AI workloads, which it successfully deployed in laptop chips to bring Microsoft’s AI features on Windows to life.
Snapdragon 8 Elite
The technology is being introduced by Qualcomm in new hardware, namely phone chips. This is evident from the recent announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which contains second-generation Oryon CPU cores. These cores were first introduced in the Snapdragon X Series chips for laptops. These chips revolutionized the laptop market by making the Windows 11 experience on Arm workable.
Also read: Windows on Arm is rapidly maturing
Qualcomm is trying to capitalize on its success for a longer period of time by bringing the technology to the smartphone market. The company reports impressive improvements, including 44 percent better energy efficiency and a 45 percent increase in multicore performance.
A new element to the chips are prime cores that achieve higher clock speeds of up to 4.32 GHz. Further optimizations made to the chips will enable better generation of text and graphics.
“In addition, it revolutionizes mobile experiences by offering personalized, multi-modal generative AI directly on the device enabling the understanding of speech, context, and images to enhance everything from productivity to creativity tasks while prioritizing user privacy,” said Chris Patrick, SVP and general manager of mobile at Qualcomm Technologies.
Source: Qualcomm
Software to leverage the hardware
To maximize the potential of these smartphone processors, Qualcomm is providing developers with additional tools beyond the standard Android development kit.
According to the company, Samsung, OnePlus, Oppo and Xiaomi have already expressed interest in the new chip. The first devices with this chip on board are expected in the coming weeks.