Qualcomm Snapdragon Processors

We were privy to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon’s stall at the ISA Vision Summit 2013 at Bangalore this year. The stall had some of the best things under the sun to show! In fact the devices and the kind of technology that was at display was enough to blow our minds away! Before I delve into any more details about the processor and its offering, here are the specs of the processor line!

Snapdragon product specs

	S4 Play	S4 Plus	S4 Pro	S4 Prime
CPU	Up to 1.2GHz Dual or Quad ARM Cortex A5	Up to 1.7 GHz Dual Krait CPU	Up to 1.7 GHz Dual or Quad Krait CPU	Up to 1.7 GHz Quad Krait CPU
GPU	Adreno 203 GPU	Up to Adreno 305 GPU	Adreno 320 GPU	Adreno 320 GPU
Video	FWVGA	Up to 1080p HD video	1080p HD video	1080p HD video
Modem	3G/4G World/multimode	3G/4G World/multimode LTE on select processors	3G/4G World/multimode LTE on select processors	No Modem
Camera	8 MP	Up to 20MP, Stereoscopic 3D Kit	Up to 20MP, Stereoscopic 3D Kit	Up to 20MP, Stereoscopic 3D Kit
GPS	gpsOne Gen 7	gpsOne Gen8A	gpsOne Gen8A	gpsOne Gen8A
USB	High Speed USB 2.0	USB 2.0 High Speed OTG (480Mbps)	USB 2.0 High Speed OTG (480Mbps)	USB 2.0 High Speed OTG (480Mbps)
Bluetooth	Discrete solution BT 3.x	Integrated digital core BT 4.0†	Integrated digital core BT4.0†	Integrated digital core BT4.0†
Wifi	Discrete solution 802.11n (2.4GHz)	Integrated digital core 802.11n (2.4/5GHz)†	Integrated digital core 802.11n (2.4/5GHz)†	Integrated digital core 802.11n (2.4/5GHz)†
Process Technology *	45nm	28nm	28nm	28nm
Individual Chips	MSM8625 MSM8225 MSM8225Q MSM8625Q	APQ8060A MSM8960 MSM8660A MSM8260A APQ8030 MSM8930 MSM8630 MSM8230 MSM8627 MSM8227	APQ8064 MSM8960T	MPQ 8064
† -Digital integrated in SoC, Analog added via additional chip
* See detailed table for specific chip information as some generations include multiple microarchitectures

The source can be found here.

While we were at the stall, the team there demonstrated a few features to us that are relatively undeveloped and new. We were told that the processor family now runs on a quad core architecture. Nothing new at that. But then it was added that each of the 4 cores are capable of being individually controlled. When the device runs a regular application or is in the sleep mode then only one core is powered up and runs at the potential needed. However, when the user decides to play a game or get into a heavily processor intensive application, then as per need each core is individually powered and pushed to the required processing power in steps. Let me explain in detail. Say we are running a game and all the four cores are running fired at the full potential and you receive a call. Ideally speaking the run of the mill processors would generally keep running at the full power there by draining the battery. This would not be the case with Snapdragon. In a snap the processor would power down 3 cores and keep one core powered at the potential needed to run the device without lag. This would not only save the battery but also maintain the experience of the device.

Further, the devices were also demonstrated to be able to render 3D delightfully! We were shown a demo app that not only was able to use AR (Augmented Reality) and show us the innards of our body but could also delve into more detail as we selected the options. While this may seem run of the mill to you, let me point out that all this was being displayed real time using the phone’s camera and being rendered in 3D on the phone’s screen!

While there was more to show, I was running short of time and was too interested in taking the devices on display on a spin, however, that should not necessarily mean that you would have nothing more to know about it.
You can find the Wiki link about the entire family of processors here.
Also you can read more about the processors at the company’s website here.