Premium Section SoC Will get a Cortex-X CPU Core

After a 2021/2022 product cycle that was a bit extra interesting than Qualcomm maybe would have favored, 2023 has been a much more simple yr for the prolific SoC and mobile modem vendor. After releasing the primary of their Gen 2 household of elements earlier this yr with the flagship-class Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the corporate is getting ready to iterate by the subsequent step of its product stack with the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. Geared toward what’s turn out to be Qualcomm’s conventional $400 to $600 “premium” market phase, which focuses on flagship-level options with extra modest efficiency and prices, for the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, Qualcomm is aiming to ship a large efficiency enhance to the platform.

Positioned because the successor to final yr’s Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, this yr’s iteration of the Snapdragon 7 is, broadly talking, extra centered on bettering efficiency than including options. Whereas final yr’s Gen 1 half added mmWave assist and new CPU and GPU architectures – notably Armv9 structure CPU cores – this yr there’s solely a handful of latest options. Instead of that, nevertheless is what Qualcomm is touting as certainly one of their greatest efficiency boosts ever for the Snapdragon 7 household. That is being enabled largely by a much-welcomed pivot from Samsung’s beleaguered 4nm course of to TSMC’s  4nm course of, mirroring the change Qualcomm made final yr for the well-received mid-cycle Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 half.

Additionally new this yr, Qualcomm is dropping hints that this is not going to be the one Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 half we see this yr, vis-a-vie the choice to launch their first Gen 2 half because the 7+ reasonably than the 7. In a nutshell, launching as a Snapdragon 7+ half leaves Qualcomm room to launch a vanilla Snapdragon 7 half in a while. To make certain, Qualcomm isn’t explicitly saying any such half now, however there’s little purpose to launch a 7+ first except that they had plans for one thing beneath it; in any other case they might have launched it as 7 half ala the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, which was at all times a one-chip stack.

By way of CPU group, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 retains the identical 1+3+4 CPU core configuration that we’ve seen for the previous few generations of the Snapdragon 7 household. The massive information right here is that the top-performing Prime core is getting a major efficiency enchancment, as Qualcomm makes the change from utilizing a barely increased clocked mid-core to utilizing a extra performant CPU structure altogether.

So, for the primary time ever for a Snapdragon 7 half, Qualcomm is tapping certainly one of Arm’s Cortex-X cores for the Prime core. The Cortex-X2 used right here is technically Arm’s previous-generation design, so it received’t be stepping on the toes of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and its Cortex-X3 core. However in comparison with the A710 core used for the 7 Gen 1’s Prime core (and seven+ Gen 2’s mid-cores), the Cortex-X2 represents a major enchancment in each IPC and clockspeeds. In consequence, the height clockspeed for the Prime core has gone from 2.4GHz to 2.91GHz, which compounds additional with the IPC positive aspects of the extra advanced core.

All advised, Qualcomm is touting an “as much as” 50% CPU efficiency enchancment for 7+ Gen 2 over the 7 Gen 1; just about all of that is coming from the brand new Prime core.

The trade-off is that such a big efficiency enhance is de facto solely accessible for single-threaded workloads, since there’s solely the one Cortex-X2 core. The three mid (efficiency) cores are as soon as once more Cortex-A710 based mostly, and are clocked all of two% increased than earlier than. As such, the 7+ Gen 1 isn’t going to see large positive aspects on closely multithreaded workloads. The improved energy effectivity of TSMC’s 4nm course of ought to pay some dividends there, however a few of these positive aspects have been invested into making that power-hungry Cortex-X2 viable from a battery life perspective.

In the meantime, the 7+ Gen 2 additionally incorporates a quicker Adreno GPU. As has been the case with Qualcomm’s built-in GPUs for a few generations now, the corporate isn’t assigning a product quantity to it – not to mention disclosing important architectural particulars – so there’s a restricted quantity of element we will share. Primarily based on the function abstract, it doesn’t seem like that is utilizing the newer GPU structure from the 8 Gen 2; so it might appear Qualcomm has integrated a much bigger model of their current GPU and nearly definitely given it a wholesome clockspeed enhance.

No matter is the case, the GPU efficiency expectations for the brand new SoC are important: Qualcomm is boasting an enormous 2x efficiency enchancment over the 7 Gen 1 – a platform that solely delivered 20% greater than its personal predecessor. Though these aren’t flagship-class SoCs, Qualcomm nonetheless likes to place the Snapdragon 7 sequence as being a superb match for gaming smartphones, particularly in China, so it’s not too stunning to see Qualcomm investing a lot into GPU efficiency.

All advised, Qualcomm is touting a 13% enchancment in energy effectivity over the 7 Gen 1, no less than on an “prolonged day by day use” foundation. The change to TSMC’s 4nm course of ought to pay important dividends, as evidenced by final yr’s 8+ Gen 1 half, however on the identical time it’s clear that Qualcomm has been investing a superb portion of these positive aspects into bettering total efficiency.

Feeding the dragon is a 32-bit (twin 16-bit) LPDDR5 reminiscence controller. Not like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the 7+ Gen 2 isn’t getting assist for quicker LPDDR5X reminiscence, which suggests establishment reigns for the Snapdragon 7 household. On this case, this implies assist for reminiscence speeds as much as LPDDR5-6400, which works out to 25.6GB/second of reminiscence bandwidth. Contrasted with the numerous CPU and GPU efficiency will increase, there’s going to be much more strain positioned on Qualcomm’s cache and reminiscence subsystem to maintain the assorted processing blocks fed.

Talking of which, it’s not simply the CPU and GPU blocks which have seen main efficiency will increase. Qualcomm’s Hexagon DSP/AI engine block has additionally acquired a major efficiency tune-up, rivaling the 2x enhance to the GPU. Qualcomm was gentle on the technical particulars right here, nevertheless in our briefing there was no point out manufactured from options comparable to INT4 or micro-tiling – two main options of the next-gen Hexagon block on the 8 Gen 2 – so it appears seemingly that it is a closely beefed up model of the Hexagon block used on the earlier 7 Gen 1.

One piece of Snapdragon 8 know-how that’s making its approach right down to the Snapdragon 7, nevertheless, is its triple 18-bit Spectra ISP. Changing the 14-bit unit featured in earlier generations of the platform, the 18-bit unit on the 7+ Gen 2 will convey assist for triple publicity computational HDR video seize, in addition to improved low gentle pictures, which Qualcomm calls their Mega Low Gentle function. The tip result’s that the 7+ Gen 2 can seize at increased resolutions when utilizing zero shutter lag performance, and mixed with the up to date GPU, can now report 4K video at as much as 60fps, doubling the 7 Gen 1’s 4K30 restrict.

Lastly, rounding out the package deal is a reprise of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X62 built-in modem. Like final yr’s SoC, it is a mmWave + Sub-6 Launch 16 design that may obtain a theoretical most obtain fee of 4.4Gbps. This yr’s design does include a twist, nevertheless: twin SIM twin energetic (DSDA) assist, which is one other first for the Snapdragon 7 platform. Each energetic radios on 7+ Gen 2 assist 5G and 4G communications, permitting twin SIM customers to make use of basically no matter community they’d like on both radio. That is one other premium function, that till now, had been restricted to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 platform.

As for non-cellular connectivity, the 7+ Gen 2 makes use of a FastConnect 6900 radio system. This can be a comparatively modest replace over the sooner 6700 radio, bumping up Bluetooth assist to model 5.3 of the protocol, and growing the height bandwidth of the 2×2 stream Wi-Fi 6E radio to three.6Gbps because of dual-band simultaneous (DBS) assist.

Wrapping issues up, the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 might be coming to market in a short time. In response to Qualcomm, handsets utilizing the SoC might be accessible later this month, with Redmi and Realme among the many OEMs slated to launch telephones based mostly across the new chip.