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Snapdragon 855: a mobile platform for 5G, AI technology and augmented reality



In 2019, the first smartphones and premium 5G devices will appear. There will be a sharp jump in the development of AI technologies, the quality of photo and video, battery life, performance in games and applications of augmented reality (XR). This year will set the stage for a new decade of modern mobile technology. At the Snapdragon Tech Summit, Qualcomm first introduced the Snapdragon 855 mobile platform, the first commercial platform that provides both 4G speed and 5G support at the same time.

Built-in AI technologies affect the performance of mobile devices in games and augmented reality applications, the quality of shooting and the effectiveness of voice control systems, they make working with modern gadgets faster and more convenient, and their management is more intuitive. This means that your smartphone will be able to adapt to your personal preferences and habits without the need to regularly go into its settings and tweak something there yourself. The user will be able to experience total immersion in the world of augmented reality, which blurs the boundaries between physical and virtual, enjoy games, movies and photos in HDR that look on the screen just like in life thanks to a billion display colors, feel the real power of a modern mobile platform, which 7-nanometer process technology and updated architecture provide the highest performance and excellent energy efficiency. The new era of 5G, AI technology and augmented reality has already arrived, and with it comes new premium mobile devices based on the Snapdragon 855. Let's take a closer look at the main features of this platform.

5G network support


The platform supports 5G NR networks operating in the millimeter range (mmWave) and at frequencies up to 6 GHz, and has minimal delay times and multi-gigabit data rates, which mobile devices could only dream of earlier. In the millimeter range, the speed in real conditions has become 20 times higher than it was possible in 4G networks, which allows using mobile devices to solve completely new tasks that require the transfer of huge amounts of data.

The platform also supports the new version of the Wi-Fi protocol, so all Snapdragon 855 devices on these wireless networks will be able to transfer data much faster and safer. Regardless of whether you are using a smartphone with a new generation mobile network or connecting it to a Wi-Fi network (even in public places, for example, at an airport or a shopping center full of people with gadgets), the data transfer rate will remain maximum.

Thanks to the Snapdragon X24 LTE modem, the new platform is capable of much, and mobile multiplayer games will be the best test of its network capabilities. Support for high-speed data transfer and technology Snapdragon Elite Gaming will allow you to play at maximum settings and at maximum resolution without stalling and delays even in games using augmented or virtual reality!

Snapdragon Power and Performance


Snapdragon 855 will be the perfect platform for the upcoming 5G era thanks to the updated architecture and the use of modern 7-nanometer process. It is able to work with large amounts of data and demanding applications with maximum performance, but at the same time it is highly energy efficient and cost effective. The Qualcomm Kryo 485 CPU provides a performance gain of 45% compared with the previous Snapdragon flagship platform and operates at up to 2.84 GHz. With Snapdragon 855, users will be able to catch more, and their gadget will spend less time next to the outlet!

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 mobile platform: a list of features that were first implemented on the market:



The platform will allow each device to reach its potential by 100%, but it will help you spend less energy on it and work longer with a single charge. And if the gadget is still discharged, Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology will bring the charge rate from 0 to 50% in just 15 minutes. But performance is not just a processor and a battery. The Qualcomm Adreno 640 graphics subsystem provides a 20 percent increase in graphics processing compared to the previous generation, which game lovers will appreciate in really high resolution.

The Qualcomm Hexagon 690 processor has been rebuilt to maximize support for modern AI technologies, while new subsystems have been introduced, including a double number of vector accelerators and a tensor coprocessor. The mechanism of interaction with voice assistant and noise reduction technology was also improved, which could be seen at the demonstration of the Elevoc noise reduction system at the summit and in the work of assistants from Google, Amazon and Baidu.

The Snapdragon 855 uses the first commercial mobile ultrasonic sensor for a fingerprint scanner in the mobile device industry. The Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor sensor scans the entire surface of the finger and works even if you have wet hands or a dirty finger.

Built-in AI technology


AI technologies affect both the hardware and software of modern smartphones. In Snapdragon 855, they work at the level of the smartphone itself and help create the image of a new generation of flagship devices for the 5G era.

Thanks to the new accelerators and the updated 4th generation AI engine, which has become faster, smarter, safer and gets more information from the system than its predecessors, Snapdragon 855 has 3 times higher application performance using AI. This opens up completely new possibilities for working with voice interface, camera, games and augmented reality applications.

We decipher it for users: now the phone receives information about the environmental conditions and can adapt to them, for example, to achieve maximum image quality, translate heard text in real time and eliminate extraneous noises that interfere with hearing the other party and speak during a video call.



And for all this, AI technologies that your device itself supports can be used. From the "cloud", artificial intelligence and machine learning are moving "under the hood" of your smartphone in order to increase security, reduce power consumption and achieve greater performance in the applications that use them.

We continue to expand the list of companies that are part of our ecosystem and use our AI platform to create their own applications and offer users completely new opportunities.

At the Qualcomm Tech Summit, Google demonstrated groundbreaking in the field of object recognition using AI, which can help in case you cannot provide an exact textual description of the object you want to find or buy. Together with Google, we transferred this technology from the “cloud” to the device, which made it more universal, improved the accuracy of work and reduced the delay in image processing.

Elevoc, a company from China that deals with AI technologies, demonstrated the capabilities of its noise cancellation algorithm, which filters out background noise using machine learning and provides perfect audibility during phone calls, even if the user is in a café full of people or on a noisy street.

Face ++ showed a technology called SuperIQ that helps improve the quality of images taken in low light conditions. Machine learning and neural networks, trained to reduce noise, help transform blurred pictures into crisp and clear ones, on which even small details can be viewed.

Arcsoft is also working on proprietary technology for cameras using AI, Super Night Shot. In it, machine learning helps to improve the quality of night photos, analyzing them and adjusting the illumination of each pixel of the image.

Finally, Next VR showed the summit participants how 5G networks and AI technologies can change the XR world, making it much more realistic. For example, during a football broadcast, viewers can easily view each of the players, and the introduction of a user position tracking system with six degrees of freedom in 5G-enabled applications will allow a person to be “inside” the transmitted image and freely move inside the image.

New camera features


For many users, it is high-quality photo and video becomes the decisive factor when choosing a smartphone model. The Snapdragon 855 sets new standards for video quality using the first-of-its-kind CV-ISP processor, the Qualcomm Spectra 380, which allows for incredibly realistic shots and great videos.

CV-ISP allows you to recognize, classify and separate objects caught in the lens in order to achieve maximum image quality. Also, the processor allows you to separate the background from the main objects in the photo and in real time remove some of them or replace the background image with another.

The object recognition system with CV-ISP works much faster, which allows to reduce energy consumption when processing images by almost 4 times. CV-ISP also allows you to shoot video at 60 fps while tracking the depth of the picture, that is, the Snapdragon 855 was the first mobile platform presented that is capable of shooting videos in 4K HDR with bokeh effect in portrait mode.



Snapdragon 855 also became the first Snapdragon platform in which the HEIF format is supported at the hardware level (in the Qualcomm Spectra 380 processor). When you finish shooting, Snapdragon 855 uses this format to save data, saving about half the space compared to traditional formats, including data on recognized objects. Then they can be used to process existing and create completely new images.

Top class entertainment


“Super powers” ​​HDR are not only about the capabilities of the camera! You can easily play 4K HDR video, watch wireless broadcasts on your device and even (for the first time in the world) play games with HDR support to immerse yourself in the world of your favorite entertainment.

Snapdragon 855 was the first mobile platform with support for Snapdragon Elite Gaming. This is a complete set of unique features and technologies that will help you feel like a real pro-gamer, picking up a smartphone. The main component of Snapdragon Elite Gaming is the Adreno 640 graphics processor, which for the first time in the history of mobile platforms supports the latest API Vulkan 1.1. In addition, Adreno 640 supports physically correct texture rendering, making the environment and characters in games look much more realistic. And HDR support allows you to display more than a billion shades in 10-bit color on the screen!

4K HDR video playback provides excellent image quality, and, in addition to working with video in HDR10 + and H.265 and VP9 support, the new mobile platform spends seven times less energy when watching YouTube videos in HDR.

As for sound reproduction, Qualcomm aptX Adaptive technology provides signal transmission in the highest possible quality via Bluetooth and is capable of automatically adjusting its quality and bit rate to the external environment and the type of content transmitted. Snapdragon 855 will be the first mobile platform where this technology works in conjunction with the Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo Plus, which allows you to completely get rid of the wires when working with stereo headsets.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/440832/

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