This article is from WeChat official account:Semiconductor Industry Observation (ID: icbank), of: Li Shoupeng, from the head of FIG: Qualcomm

It was titled “Why is the new chip called Xiaolong888? This is what Qualcomm said! ” In the article, we probably talked about Qualcomm’s new generation of flagships, and we also talked about why Qualcomm broke the convention in the naming of this chip. However, from a Weibo published yesterday by Xiaomi founder Lei Jun and the discussion from insiders, Qualcomm’s new product is indeed a surprise.

But the name of the chip is not the only thing that is striking. After seeing Qualcomm’s in-depth interpretation of Snapdragon 888 yesterday, we found that the hardest core is actually the design of this new flagship. Before discussing each detail in detail, the author first summarizes a few points that everyone pays great attention to Snapdragon 888:

  • Made with Samsung 5nm process

  • Equipped with Arm X1 core, A78 core and A55Kyro 680 CPU designed by the kernel

  • Equipped with Qualcomm’s latest X60 baseband

  • Equipped with Qualcomm’s latest GPU Adreno 660

  • Equipped with Qualcomm’s new generation DSP Hexagon 780

  • Equipped with Qualcomm’s first three-core ISP Spectra 580

In addition, Snapdragon 888 also integrates Qualcomm’s third-generation 5G modem and radio frequency system Snapdragon X60 and Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 mobile connection system, and also supports the new Type-1 Hypervisor. This allows the chip to be able to connect to the outside world through 5G and WiFi, while also being able to protect and isolate data between different applications and multiple operating systems on the same terminal in a new way.

Next, let’s interpret the highlights of Snapdragon 888 one by one.

Samsung 5nm process blessing

Actually, at the press conference yesterday, Qualcomm didn’t talk much about the manufacturing process of the new chip. They just mentioned that Snapdragon 888 uses Samsung’s 5nm process. It is worth mentioning that Qualcomm’s previous generation flagship used TSMC’s 7nm process, which is a new attempt for Qualcomm.

From previous semiwiki reports, we have seen that Samsung’s 5nm process has a 25% increase in density compared to 7nm, a 10% increase in performance, and a 20% reduction in power consumption. In contrast, TSMC’s 5nm density has increased by 1.8 times, performance has increased by 15%, and power consumption has been reduced by 30%. For this reason semiwiki believes that Samsung’s 5nm process will have some disadvantages compared with TSMC.

But the author needs to emphasize here that the above analysis is for reference only and does not represent the true strength of Samsung’s process. For the specific situation, we can wait for relevant agencies to analyze the section of A14 and Snapdragon 888 (if any) to obtain.

But we can be sure that after adopting Samsung’s 5nm process, the production capacity of Samsung Snapdragon 888 should be worry-free, which is an absolute good. According to recent media reports, because the shipments of Apple A14 and Apple M1 exceeded expectations, TSMC’s 5nm production capacity was tight. Many companies, including Broadcom, are also eyeing TSMC’s 5nm process. At this time, Samsung, which has an advantage in production capacity, has become a wise choice for Qualcomm.

Newly designed CPU

In the design of the previous generation of Snapdragon 865 CPU Kryo 585, Qualcomm adopted the design of “A77(1)+A77(3)+A55(4)”. According to Qualcomm’s introduction, in this design, one A77 core is a high-performance core, and the other three A77 cores are used as large cores. Together with four A55 cores, this can meet the needs of high, medium and low.The same performance application requirements, and have a better performance in power consumption.

Coming to Snapdragon 888, Qualcomm also adopted a “1+3+4” design on its CPU Kyro 680. This new CPU chooses Arm’s A78 and A55 in the big and small cores respectively, which is logical. In terms of performance cores, Qualcomm also followed Arm’s roadmap and chose the more powerful X1 core.

From a certain point of view, Qualcomm’s decision is can be seen assymbol of entering a new stage of smart phone SoC.

Readers who are familiar with the development of smart phone SoC should understand that in the past few years, in order to meet the computing needs of terminal applications, mobile phone SoC has moved from single-core to multi-core. In order to balance performance and power consumption, Arm introduced the Big.Little architecture. Introduced the concept of large and small cores, and got through this difficulty together with mobile phone chip manufacturers.

In recent years, in order to handle tasks more finely, Huawei and Qualcomm have begun to adopt the design of “performance core + large core + small core”, and the X1 launched by Arm can be said to cater to this This trend follows the trend. This is another bright spot besides the A78 at Arm’s conference in May this year.

As anandtech said in an article, Arm’s existing business model aims to create a CPU IP that can meet the needs of the widest range of customers. But inThis brings up a problem, that is, you can’t pay too much attention to any area of ​​the PPA triangle without compromising the other two areas.

In the opinion of the author of anandtech, Arm’s CPU cores have been living in the shadow of Apple’s CPU cores for many years, because Apple’s experienced chip team has made the single core of its chip unparalleled performance. This brings trouble to Arm, that is, can they build such a powerful kernel? The launch of X1 is to solve this problem.

According to the introduction, Cortex-X1 is designed based on Arm’s “Cortex-X Custom Program” project, which is based on the improvements made by Arm’s “Built on Arm Cortex Technology” project released a few years ago. Under this authorization model, Arm allows customers to collaborate early in the design phase of the new microarchitecture, and requires customization of the configuration, such as a larger reordering buffer(ROB), different prefetchers or interface customization to better integrate SoC design. (For a deeper understanding of Arm’s new architecture, you can check“ Arm’s new CPU in-depth interpretation “)

Qualcomm is the main beneficiary of this licensing model.

“Snapdragon 888 is the world’s first mobile platform using Arm Cortex X1 architecture. This is a brand new architecture that can increase CPU performance by 25%, and we have also increased the overall efficiency of the entire CPU cluster by 25%.” , Ziad Asghar, vice president of product management of Qualcomm Technologies, emphasized at the press conference.

From the data provided by Qualcomm, we can see that the X1 core frequency of Qualcomm’s CPU is 2.84Ghz, with 1MB L2 cache, and the three A78 cores have 2.4Ghz frequency, 512KB L2 cache, and A55 small. The core frequency is 1.8Ghz, and the cache is also 128KB.

Integrated X60 baseband

In the article mentioned at the beginning of this article, we mentioned that Snapdragon 888 is Qualcomm’s first 8-series processor integrated with 5G baseband. But because in the previous generation of Snapdragon 865, Qualcomm did not embed the X55 baseband, which led to extensive discussions. When asked why he made such a choice, Ziad Asghar told reporters: “For Qualcomm, integrating a modem is not a difficult problem, and the company will choose a better method according to its needs when designing its products.”

As Qualcomm’s third-generation 5G modem and radio frequency system, Qualcomm Snapdragon X60 can indeed bring consumers a better experience.

According to Ziad Asghar’s point of view, X60 is the world’s most advanced integrated 5G modem and radio frequency system. From the information provided by Qualcomm, we can see that the Snapdragon X60 supports 5G Sub-6GHz carrier aggregation and millimeter wave, and can provide the world’s fastest commercial 5G network speed up to 7.5Gbps. By supporting almost all major networks in the world, the modem and radio frequency system also supports excellent network coverage, including the use of dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) technology to achieve nationwide Range of 5G network coverage.

In the opinion of Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon, dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS) technology will enable more countries to achieve nationwide 5G coverage. Because DSS enables 5G and 4G to use the same spectrum, that means a faster and easier transition to 5G. “DSS also provides a foundation for the realization of 5G independent networking, opens the door to new business models and services, and makes full use of the advantages of 5G’s low latency, service quality and security,” Cristiano Amon emphasized.

In addition, Snapdragon 888 also supports the global 5G multi-SIM card function, so as to realize international roaming, manage personal and work numbers at the same time on a mobile phone, and optimize monthly package tariffs.

“With the leading X60, Snapdragon 888 becomes the first mobile platform to add key features such as 5G carrier aggregation on FDD and TDD-and all of these are implemented in a very compact, integrated solution “, Ziad Asghar emphasized. He further pointed out that with the X60, Snapdragon 888 brings great flexibility to operators and can bring the best 5G experience to more networks around the world.

Actually, in my opinion, no matter how brilliant results Qualcomm delivers on the baseband, it is all expected. Because this is the technology they have been studying for more than 30 years. In a sense, this is also the core of Qualcomm’s food. The “buy baseband, send AP” argument that has been circulating in the industry is an endorsement of Qualcomm’s baseband technology.

For the author, the most impressive thing about Qualcomm’s 5G baseband is that this is not just a baseband, but a radio frequency system. This is also the part that may cause dramatic changes in the industry. (About Qualcomm RF and its impact on the industry, please refer to this article “ Qualcomm RF, what is the foreground?》)

Qualcomm’s previous introduction also stated that the new Qualcomm QTM535 mmWave antenna module launched by X60 is smaller than the previous generation, and can be designed with novel and stylish mmWave smartphones and has improved mmWave performance.

Adreno 660 empowerment

According to Qualcomm, Kryo 680 and Adreno 660 can provide continuous and stable high performance, which is the advantage of the Snapdragon mobile platform. From the above, we have seen the excellence of Kryo 680. As for Adreno, this is of course Qualcomm’s absolute advantage.

Developed as a mobile phone SoC(Such as Demura and sub-pixel rendering technology) to further improve the image quality displayed by smartphones. Especially in terms of games, with this new GPU, Qualcomm brings a brand new experience to consumers.

Macey Davis, senior manager of public relations at Qualcomm Technologies, pointed out at the Snapdragon Summit that Qualcomm has been committed to mobile game innovation for more than 20 years. In all these technological changes, Qualcomm has been leading innovation. Among them, Qualcomm’s Snadragon Elite Gaming has been at the forefront of innovation with its breakthrough features realized on the mobile terminal for the first time.

“As the first company in the industry to introduce end game features such as GPU driver updates for specific games and end game forward rendering to the mobile end. We are very proud to allow developers to make full use of hardware through our innovations. Gamers provide a truly amazing experience,” Macey Davis emphasized.

On Snapdragon 888, Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming will once again bring another feature implemented on mobile for the first time to mobile games, that is variable resolution rendering(Variable Rate Shading). From the introduction of Macey Davis, we know that so far, the variable resolution rendering called VRS is only supported on high-end PCs and next-generation professional game consoles.

He also pointed out that the variable resolution rendering supported by the new Qualcomm Adreno 660 will help reduce GPU workload and significantly enhance game performance. This will enable the next generation of mobile games to run at faster speeds and higher resolutions while still maintaining the highest visual fidelity. In addition, the reduction in GPU workload can also reduce power consumption, allowing players to play games longer.

“When rendering each frame, the GPU executes a shader program for each pixel to calculate its color. This means that 3.6 million pixels are shaded. Variable resolution rendering allows developers to specify shader programs in 2 Or run once for a group of 4 pixels, and then reuse these color results for the surrounding pixel coloring. With variable resolution rendering, you can color the entire frame with only 1.4 million pixels. This will Reduce the total number of pixels of the overall coloring by 40%, thereby greatly reducing the GPU workload. This feature will allow developers to create a more immersive gaming experience without sacrificing visual fidelity,” Macey Davis said.

6th generation AI engine

According to Qualcomm, Snapdragon 888 has achieved a major breakthrough in AI architecture. The overall newly designed sixth-generation Qualcomm AI engine includes the new Qualcomm Hexagon 780 processor, which combines AI with professional imaging, personal voice assistants, top games, extremely fast connections and more features to empower top mobile experiences.

Hsin-I Hsu, senior product manager of Qualcomm Technologies, explained the advantages of this new engine from multiple aspects.

First, Qualcomm redesigned the Hexagon processor. According to reports, the new Qualcomm Hexagon 780 processor has what we usually call the Fusion AI accelerator architecture. In order to analyze what is fusion, Hsin-I Hsu uses the Hexagon processor of Snapdragon 865 as an example. He pointed out that Qualcomm has scalar, tensor and vector accelerators in the previous generation of flagships.

“But on the Hexagon processor of Snapdragon 888, we redesigned it, so now the physical distance between these accelerators has almost disappeared. Not only that, we are still between these three different accelerators A large amount of shared memory has been added so that these accelerators can share and move data faster and more efficiently,” Hsin-I Hsu said.

From the data he provided, we can see that in some use cases, the timeliness of data interaction can be increased by up to a thousand times.

At the same time, Qualcomm has also improved the accelerators themselves. According to Hsin-I Hsu, the performance of the new accelerator’s scalar accelerator has increased by 50%, while the processing speed of the tensor accelerator is twice that of the previous generation.

In order to balance performance and power consumption, Qualcomm has not only improved the above-mentioned performance, but also simultaneously improved the accelerator performance per watt-up to three times that of the previous generation! Other parts of the Qualcomm AI engine have also been upgraded, such as the Adreno 660 GPU upgrade mentioned above, which is one of the representatives.

Thanks to these new designs, the AI ​​computing power of Snapdragon 888 has reached 26 TOPS! In terms of benchmark data, based on the industry standard AI model, the peak performance of Snapdragon 888 is far ahead of competing products. “Qualcomm’s technical expertise has always been to ensure the powerful performance of the platform without sacrificing power consumption. From the performance of this product, we can see that Qualcomm is still the leader in performance per watt”, Hsin-I Hsu said .

In order to allow AI to run around the clock in Snapdragon 888, Qualcomm also introduced a smarter second-generation Qualcomm sensor hub based on last year.

Hsin-I Hsu said that Qualcomm has added a dedicated, always-on, low-power AI processor. ThisThis additional AI processing capability allows Qualcomm to share up to 80% of the workload of the Hexagon processor to the Qualcomm sensor hub, thereby achieving more power-saving purposes. It is understood that the power consumption of Qualcomm’s sensor hub for all processing is less than 1 mA.

To ensure that developers can easily access the Qualcomm sensor hub. Qualcomm is also cooperating with Google on its latest TensorFlow Micro framework, which is optimized for the AI ​​processor on the Hexagon processor and the Qualcomm sensor hub. In this way, Qualcomm’s OEM partners and developers can develop their own context-aware applications while making the most of our hardware.

“For example, with the second-generation Qualcomm sensor hub, we can reduce the load of the “Ok, Google” detection algorithm on the Hexagon processor by 38%,” Hsin-I Hsu told reporters.

Hsin-I Hsu further pointed out that another cool feature created by Qualcomm for its sensor hub is to allow it to communicate with all other parts of the terminal. For example, your microphone, various sensors, and modem, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection functions, so that Qualcomm’s sensor hub can collect data from all parts of the terminal in real time and create context-aware use cases.

To make it more convenient for customers to develop, Qualcomm also introduced its 6th generation neural network processing SDK while releasing the new AI engine. Jeff Gehlhaar, vice president of technology at Qualcomm Technologies, told reporters that Qualcomm Neural Network Processing SDK has provided support for excellent AI experience on more than 500 million Android devices worldwide! The enhancement of Qualcomm’s neural network processing SDK includes support for more models and support for Microsoft Windows 10 AI use cases on laptops equipped with the Snapdragon computing platform.

“On Snapdragon 865, we launched Hexagon NN Direct, allowing developers to directly access Hexagon from their applications. This method has been widely recognized, so we targeted this on Snapdragon 888 The way to make a further important upgrade-that is, the ability to bring a unified Direct application program interface to the entire mobile platform. The original design of this engine Direct is to bring a unified AI application across the entire Snapdragon platform on Snapdragon 888 for the first time Program interface”, Jeff Gehlhaar said.

For developers or OEMs, they can make full use of the advantages of this solution and use fifth and sixth generation AI engines across Snapdragon platforms.

Jeff Gehlhaar said that through this solution, Qualcomm has expanded and enhanced the functions of its AI software solutions, providing developers with direct access to the hardware, not only for the Hexagon 780 processor, but also for Adreno GPU and Qualcomm Kryo CPU.

In addition, Qualcomm has also extended TVM, an open source compiler supporting Hexagon for AI accelerators. That means that developers can now write custom operators with a few short lines of Python code, compile them for Hexagon, and plug them directly into the Qualcomm AI engine Direct framework.

“As the first on the Snapdragon platform, this will enable developers and OEMs to create personalized experiences and expand Qualcomm’s AI Engine Direct. We plan to share our contributions with the open source community and welcome open cooperation”, Jeff Gehlhaar said.

Tri-core ISP, security and communication others

According to Qualcomm, the advantages of the new Snapdragon 888 also include its ISP, security and support for WiFi 6 and WiFi 6E.

Look at the ISP first. According to Ziad Asghar, with the new Qualcomm Spectra 580 ISP, Qualcomm supports three ISPs on the Snapdragon platform for the first time. This means that a smartphone based on its design can capture three different image streams from three different perspectives, then decide which photo or video is best for you, and combine them to create the best shot Experience. Users can also capture high-resolution images of ultra-high-speed motion at 120fps, or shoot three 4K HDR videos at the same time. The new 4K HDR video shooting powered by computing HDR has achieved significant improvements in color, contrast and picture details.

“Spectra 580 will also support the latest sensor technology called single-frame progressive HDR sensor. This is the first time Qualcomm has achieved the achievement of introducing computational HDR into a mobile platform,” said Ziad Asghar.

According to reports, the processing speed of the Qualcomm Spectra 580 ISP has increased to 2.7 billion pixels per second, which is a 35% increase in pixel throughput compared with the previous generation. Qualcomm Spectra 580 ISP also uses a new low-light architecture for the first time, which allows it to take brighter photos even in almost dark environments.

In addition, Snapdragon 888 also supports 10-bit color depth HEIF format shooting, allowing users to capture photos with more than 1 billion colors.

Look at the security aspect again. According to reports, Snapdragon 888 introduced the industry’s first security solution using Hypervisior and CAI-compliant cameras to better protect consumers’ data security. Saritha Sivapuram, senior director of product management at Qualcomm Technologies, told reporters: “This feature was previously only popular on desktops, mainly used to run multiple operating systems in their own independent secure spaces. Snapdragon 888 will be the first to support Type- 1 Hypervisor’s Snapdragon mobile platform”.

Saritha Sivapuram further pointed out that, like desktop computing, Qualcomm’s Hypervisor can enable multiple instances of the same operating system on a smartphone and switch between them instantly. In this way, you can have an operating system instance dedicated to your own work applications, and a separate operating system for personal applications, or you can even run a completely different operating system.

“Qualcomm’s Hypervisor creates isolation within the hardware to protect the security and privacy of each environment. We also think that the Hypervisor can be used in different ways. For applications, the future may be their own operation System application”, Saritha Sivapuram continued.

From his introduction, we know that Hypervisor can not only isolate the application, but also make the data of the application completely unaffected by the application in the main operating system. This allows Qualcomm Hypervisor to open a trustworthy new world for application developers, allowing them to create a new private experience in each application.

“Hypervisor is just one of the many technologies empowered by the Snapdragon chipset. In fact, our security technology has been extended from the Snapdragon chip to the cloud,” Saritha Sivapuram said.

Through cooperation with Truepic, Snapdragon 888 can also take photos that comply with CAI(Content Authenticity Initiative) standards and have encrypted imprints(CAI is an open standard advocated by Adobe to verify the source of digital content).

Look at the connection aspect again. Earlier we talked about 5G cellular communication, but in fact, the communication capabilities including WiFi and Bluetooth are also a parameter to consider the performance of the mobile phone SoC. And Qualcomm, which has many series of wireless products, seems to be ready for this situation.

According to reports, the Snapdragon 888 platform uses the recently launched Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 mobile connection system, which can provide the fastest Wi-Fi 6 speed in the current mobile Wi-Fi industry.(up to 3.6Gbps), and supports the new 6GHz frequency band of Wi-Fi 6E. By supporting Bluetooth 5.2, Bluetooth dual antennas, Qualcomm aptX™ suite, broadcast audio and advanced modulation and coding technology optimization, FastConnect 6900 mobile connection system can also provide a clear, reliable and responsive new Bluetooth audio experience.

“Snapdragon 888 is the pinnacle of our years of R&D and innovation. We believe it will set a new standard for the top mobile experience and bring the experience that users expect.”, Senior Vice President of Global Product Marketing, Qualcomm Technologies, Mo Kedon finally said.

This article is from WeChat official account:Semiconductor industry observation (ID: icbank) , of: Li Shoupeng