As the dark of the night rolls into China this evening, Qualcomm is hosting a mobile-focused product launch event they’re calling “Snapdragon Night”. Headlining the event is the announcement of the company’s new flagship SoC, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. A mid-generation update to their flagship smartphone SoC, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, the 8+ Gen 1 follows Qualcomm’s annual tradition of releasing a refresh product to boost performance and to give partners something new to work with for the second half of the year. And for this year in particular, we’re looking at a very notable change in chips from Qualcomm.
Unlike previous generations where Qualcomm merely launched a faster speed bin of their existing silicon, for 2022 we have something more substantial to talk about. Qualcomm has switched up foundries entirely – moving from Samsung to TSMC – and as a result is rolling out a new die. Thanks to this, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Qualcomm is reaping something of a one-off manufacturing gain, allowing them to both dial up CPU and GPU performance while simultaneously cutting power consumption.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Flagship SoCs | |||
SoC | Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 | Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 | |
CPU | 1x Cortex-X2 @ 3.2GHz 3x Cortex-A710 4x Cortex-A510 6MB sL3 |
1x Cortex-X2 @ 3.0GHz 3x Cortex-A710 4x Cortex-A510 6MB sL3 |
|
GPU | Adreno (10% Higher Clockspeed) |
Adreno | |
DSP / NPU | Hexagon | Hexagon | |
Memory Controller |
4x 16-bit CH
@ 3200MHz LPDDR5 / 51.2GB/s 4MB system level cache |
||
ISP/Camera | Triple 18-bit Spectra ISP
1x 200MP or 108MP with ZSL 8K HDR video & 64MP burst capture |
||
Encode/ Decode |
8K30 / 4K120 10-bit H.265
Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG 720p960 infinite recording |
||
Integrated Modem | X65 integrated
(5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) |
||
Mfc. Process | TSMC 4nm | Samsung 4nm |
Quickly diving into the specifications, the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is essentially the original Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 ported over from Samsung’s 4nm line over to one of TSMC’s 4nm lines. Under more normal circumstances, this kind of a shift would likely be unremarkable – or at most, an amusing exercise in looking for edge cases – however for Qualcomm’s flagship SoC, the matter is more significant.
While official sources and statements on the quality of Samsung’s 4nm process are few and far between, unofficially, it’s become clear that Samsung’s 4nm process hasn’t lived up to expectations. This has caused a cascading impact on the chips made on the process node, leading to the original Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 developing an affinity for power consumption, and Samsung’s own Exynos 2200 not faring any better. Conversely, by all accounts TSMC’s N4 process is looking great, with the optically shrunk node building off of TSMC’s already successful and very performant 5nm technologies.
As a result of this performance gap between Samsung and TSMC’s 4nm nodes, Qualcomm is taking the unusual step of (essentially) porting their high-end SoC over to TSMC’s fab. Which, although not strictly necessary – Qualcomm carries a lot of momentum and the 8 Gen 1 has been selling well – is certainly a prudent move for the company. Qualcomm is facing especially stiff competition this generation from MediaTek, whose flagship-level Dimensity 9000 SoC was the lead product for TSMC’s 4nm node. And that leaves MediaTek with a distinct advantage against the original 8 Gen 1, one that Qualcomm would be very happy to nullify.
Ultimately, the switch in fabs is giving Qualcomm a chance to improve upon the original 8 Gen 1 from both ends of the spectrum, resulting in the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. On the performance front, TSMC’s node affords them an easy opportunity to increase CPU and GPU clockspeeds for more performance. The prime Cortex-X2 core is now…
Read More: Moving to TSMC for More Speed, Lower Power