Phones with qualcomm snapdragon 820 chipset. Processors. DSP for undemanding and low power applications

• Processor architecture: ARM v8 with support for 64-bit computing
• Computing cores: 2 Kryo 64-bit cores with a dynamically variable frequency up to 2.2 GHz + 2 Kryo 64-bit cores with a frequency of 1.6-1.7 GHz
• Technical process: 14 nm FinFET
• RAM support: dual-channel LPDDR4 RAM with a frequency of up to 1866 MHz
• Camera support: Up to 28 megapixels with built-in Spectra Camera ISP
• Graphics core: Adreno 530 GPU with a frequency of 650 MHz
• Graphics output: Supports displays up to 4K Ultra HD and outputs 4K Ultra HD video to HDTV
• Hardware video acceleration: 4K Ultra HD H.264 (AVC) and H.265 (HEVC) at 60 FPS
• Digital Signal Processor (DSP): Hexagon 680
• Modem: X12 LTE
• Navigation: GPS, Glonass, Beidou
• Bluetooth:v4.2
• Fast charging: Quick Charge 3.0
• NFC: Yes
• USB: 3.0/2.0, OTG, USB charging

Note that the Snapdragon 820 is not just a powerful processor, it is a full-fledged integrated solution for a mobile computing system with extensive multimedia capabilities in a single chip, which includes the CPU itself, a high-performance graphics core, a memory controller, a video encoding accelerator, a signal processor and more a number of functional modules.

Like all new Qualcomm chipsets, the Snapdragon 820 supports next-generation fast charging technology. It is stated that smartphones will now be charged four times faster than usual, and the new generation Quick Charge 3.0 will be 38% more efficient than Quick Charge 2.0 due to the use of new and improved energy management algorithms. Replenishing 80% of the battery charge will occur in a record 35 minutes!

An interesting feature of the new chipset is the use of Snapdragon Smart Protect technology to combat malware, which has recently begun to appear more and more often on mobile devices. This technology, built into the Snapdragon 820, allows you to monitor malware activity without losing overall device performance in the background.

X12 LTE modem

A pleasant surprise was the support for the new X12 LTE modem, which officially supports not only the LTE Cat specification. 10 (up to 450 Mbps on the incoming channel, up to 100 Mbps on the outgoing channel), but also LTE Cat. 12 (up to 600 Mbps on the incoming channel), LTE Cat. 13 (up to 100 Mbps on outgoing) and LTE in Unlicensed (LTE-U).

The advantages of the X12 LTE modem designed for Snapdragon 820 do not end there. The new product supports seemingly unrealistically high transmission speeds in WiFi wireless networks. It is reported that in 2×2 80 MHz 11ac data transfer speed will be 867 Mbps, and in 11ad mode peak speed will increase to 4.6 Gbps! That is, almost five times with the same energy consumption. Thanks to X12 LTE, the Snapdragon 820 will be able to operate in both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz wireless networks.

Demonstration of LTE Cat capabilities. 12, LTE Cat. 13, LTE-U

The first smartphones with Snapdragon 820 from Qualcomm

The first announced smartphone based on Snapdragon 820 was Xiaomi Mi5, which is expected in December this year. Further information appeared that Samsung plans to use the Snapdragon 820 in its future Galaxy S7 along with its own. Later it was clarified that the Galaxy S7 based on the new chipset from Qualcomm will be available only in two countries - the USA and China (including Hong Kong). A separate question is whether the Snapdragon 820 will be used in the Galaxy S7 Edge.

Most likely, other expected flagships from early next year will be released based on the Snapdragon 820 - HTC One M10, Sony Xperia Z6, LG G5 and others. Next, it will be the turn of purely Chinese manufacturers, who will undoubtedly use the Snapdragon 820 for their top-end smartphones. However, these are rather guesses based on current trends in the mobile device market.

Snapdragon 820 vs Snapdragon 810

As we noted above, the new chipset from Qualcomm is much superior to its predecessor. In addition, the manufacturer promises that the Snapdragon 820 will be free of problems with overheating and excessive power consumption that were characteristic of the Snapdragon 810.

Comparison of Snapdragon 820 and Snapdragon 810 characteristics

	Snapdragon 820	Snapdragon 810
Architecture	ARM 64-bit	ARM 64-bit
CPU	4 x Kryo (2 x 2.2 GHz + 2 x 1.7 GHz)	4 x Cortex A57 2 GHz and 4 x A53
Technical process	14 nm	20 nm
RAM	up to 4 Gb LPDDR4 1866 MHz	up to 4 Gb LPDDR4 1600 MHz
Graphic arts	Adreno 530	Adreno 430
LTE	LTE Cat. 12, 13, LTE-U	LTE Cat. 10
Bluetooth	BT 4.2	BT 4.1
Charger	Quick Charge 3.0	Quick Charge 2.0

Apparently, Qualcomm decided to abandon copying the 4+4 solution (4 cores for high performance mode and 4 cores for energy saving mode), which Samsung has long used in its own processors, in favor of four full-fledged computing cores, which will differ only in frequency .

In general, one can see the great and high-quality work that Qualcomm did when creating the Snapdragon 820. The test results of the first prototypes showed, although not twofold, a significant superiority of the new product over its predecessor. In single-threaded computing in the popular GeekBench benchmark, the Snapdragon 820 scores 1732 points versus 1227. In multi-threaded computing, the new chipset received 4970 points. Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 scored 4869 points here. The superiority, frankly speaking, is not impressive, but in the case of the Snapdragon 820 we are talking about test prototypes of devices that have not yet been sufficiently debugged at the hardware and software levels.

The graphics processing of the Ardeno 530 GPU built into the Snapdragon 820, according to manufacturers, is 40% more efficient than the Ardeno 430 used in the Snapdragon 810, and energy consumption is also 40% less.

Snapdragon 820 vs Exynos 8890 vs Exynos 7420

It is more difficult to compare the Snapdragon 820 and Samsung’s own chipsets from the Exynos line on a purely technical level, but some conclusions can already be drawn. Firstly, the built-in modem Snapdragon 820, like the company’s previous developments, is much more versatile than solutions from Samsung due to a larger range of supported frequencies. In addition, Qualcomm modems support the CDMA standard, while Exynos does not. This is quite critical, for example, for the American and Chinese markets.

Not so long ago we published, part of which was devoted to the operation scheme of some models of single-chip systems. The results of testing the Snapdragon 808 SoC turned out to be interesting;

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Somewhat later, a short article was published on “Personal Pages” about the specifics of the ten-core MediaTek Helio X20, which also did not meet the expectations of users in many areas.

At that time, we encountered problems with the scheduler, which was so eager to maintain acceptable power consumption of the chip that, apart from benchmarks, it did not really use the cluster of productive cores. This was expected, since if you let all ten cores work simultaneously, they will instantly drain the battery and/or overheat.

As a result, when choosing a smartphone from a technical point of view, a new variable appears - the scheduler. Each manufacturer of mobile solutions independently designs it and sets operating modes, as we will see today. Therefore, not all yoghurt chips are equally useful, and different results can be expected in practice from the same SoC. In benchmarks, they will usually be similar.

Today we have a single-chip Qualcomm Snapdragon 820 system, which is interesting primarily because it has four cores with a classic layout that operate at different maximum frequencies. Yes, the review is a little late, but the rule “better late than never” applies here, because the Snapdragon 821 is simply an overclocked version of the same chip, and there are still several months before the release of a fundamentally new SoC.

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Specifications

Parameter / Model			Snapdragon 805
Number of cores, pcs.	4	4 + 4	4
Architecture	Kryo	Cortex-A57+A53	Krait 450
CPU frequency	2 x 2.15 GHz + 2 x 1.6 GHz	4 x 2.0 GHz + 4 x 1.44 GHz	4 x 2.7 GHz
CPU core operation diagram	–	big.LITTLE (GTS)	–
Technical process, nm	14, FinFET LPP	20, HPm	28, HPm
GPU	Adreno 530	Adreno 430	Adreno 420
GPU operating frequency, MHz	624	650	600
RAM	LPDDR4	LPDDR4	LPDDR3
Number of RAM channels	4 x 16 (64 bit)	2 (32 bit)	2 (64 bit)
RAM operating frequency, MHz	1866	1600	800
Theoretical memory bandwidth, GB/s	29.8	25.6	25.6

If you compare the hero of the review with its predecessors, you can see a serious difference between all generations of SoC. In fact, we are seeing a return to the concept of the usual core layout after a not very successful attempt to play with the big.LITTLE scheme, which is still so popular among competitors.

And this is good news, since it almost does not allow the scheduler to do anything stupid and forcefully transfer, for example, one intensive thread of calculations in the browser to a “weak” Cortex-A53 cluster operating at a low frequency. This explains the marginal perceived difference in the speed of everyday applications when moving from Snapdragon 805/801 to 810/808 chips, despite the latter's clear advantage in benchmarks.

With the release of Snapdragon 820, everything returned to normal. We get four “thick” cores that provide high performance even at low frequencies, and working with a device on the new hardware platform is really very different from older generations, this is clearly visible even to the naked eye using benchmarks.

Theory

Scalability

So, we have a quad-core CPU. Let's try to go head-on and evaluate scalability in the most primitive way - using the GeekBench benchmark. Why him? We know that its Single Core results scale perfectly with the number of cores used, almost proportionally if cooling allows:

And in general, this is a completely adequate benchmark, which, with the arrival of the fourth version, forces you to mercilessly throttle modern SoCs, but that’s not about that now. If we collect the results of testing smartphones based on Snapdragon 820, carried out in our laboratory, we get the following picture:

And since in this case we are not interested in throttling, the third version of the program is appropriate here. As you can see, the scalability is clearly not fourfold or even threefold. But this chip cannot be considered a dual-core chip either. It seems that this is how it should be; if four cores are used at once, they will, at best, operate at a frequency of 1.6 GHz, that is, at the maximum frequency of the “slow” pair of cores. Or not?

The Snapdragon 820 processor is still one of Qaulcomm's TOP chipsets. However, it already has strong “brothers” - Snapdragon 821 and 835. And competitors are not asleep - Exynos 8890, Kirin 955 and Apple A10 look at least no worse. As a result, a completely reasonable question arises: is it worth buying smartphones with a Qaulcomm Snapdragon 820 processor? Let's try to answer it by understanding the situation with the flagship of the mobile chip market, which is losing its position.

Smartphones with Snapdragon 820 processor

Unlike competitors in the market, who sought to get into only expensive smartphones, the Snapdragon 820 processor managed to participate not only in TOP projects, but also in quite bold undertakings designed for supporters of clearly budget devices.

To the very cheap smartphones with Qaulcomm Snapdragon 820 processor relate:

• (160-170 euros)
• (230-240 euros)
• (260-270 euros)

Besides, Snapdragon 820 fits well into the mid-price market, embedded in the following smartphones:

• (380-390 euros)
• (420-430 euros)
• (340-350 euros)
• (410-420 euros)

IN top segment of the mobile device market Snapdragon 820 flashed in the following devices:

• (560-570 euros)
• Vivo Xplay 6 (590-600 euros)
• (790-800 euros)
• LeTV Le Max Pro X910 (640-650 euros)

Note that the Snapdragon 820 felt very confident both in the budget phone for 160 euros and in the premium model, the price of which reached eight hundred. After all, the cost of a smartphone depends on the manufacturer’s marketing policy, and chipsets are evaluated according to completely different criteria (performance, power consumption, and so on). And judging by these processor qualities, the mere presence of a Snapdragon 820 in a smartphone body raised the level of any mobile device to the premium segment, regardless of its price.

Performance of smartphones on Snapdragon 820

At the beginning of 2016, one of the best chipsets on the market was the Snapdragon 820 processor - the characteristics of this chip made it possible to obtain record results in many synthetic and practical tests. There was a clear dominance over models based on previous generation processors (Snapdragon 808 and 810). Tests of the 820th model in Geekbench Browser looked like this:

By June 2016, this model had serious competitors, and by the end of this year, the Snapdragon 820 was pushed out of the leading position by its successor - the 821 model from Qaulcomm and the Exynos 8890, Kirin 955 and Apple A10 processors. According to Geekbench Browser, even the very powerful OnePlus 3 failed to reach the level of the iPhone and Galaxy:

The final nail in the 820's ambitions is the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. This smartphone was released in two versions: one batch of devices was produced based on Exynos 8890, the second – based on Snapdragon 820. At the same time, the 820 was inferior to the Samsung processor in all respects, under virtually identical operating conditions:

As a result, in 2017, the 820th Snapdragon will most likely move into the segment of mid-range devices, since a new star has appeared on the market - Snapdragon 835. This fact does not upset either Qaulcomm representatives - they received a new toy (Snapdragon 835), or manufacturers and ordinary consumers.

Demoted from flagships The Snapdragon 820 remains a very interesting processor in terms of performance, which will still be able to troll the premium models of 2017. In the ranking according to the AndroidAuthority resource, smartphones with the Snapdragon 820 looked more than convincing.

Qaulcomm Snapdragon 820 processor specifications

• Model number in the manufacturer's catalog – MSM8996
• Technological process - 14nm FinFET
• Number and type of processor cores – two fast cores for complex calculations Kryo 2.15 GHz and two energy-saving cores for common tasks Kryo 1.6 GHz
• Graphics accelerator – Adreno 530
• Supported Memory – LPDPR4
• Wireless modem type – X12 LTE with download speeds up to 600Mbps
• Wi-Fi Standards – 802.11ac and 802.11ad

At a press conference in New York, Qualcomm officially unveiled the “processor of the future” Snapdragon 820, which will be installed in flagship devices starting next year. The chipmaker began to stir up interest in the “top” mobile platform a few months ago, and today he held the first practical demonstration of the new product.

Snapdragon 820, made using 14nm FinFET (3D structure transistor) process technology, is built on 64-bit Kyro computing cores with a clock speed of up to 2.2 GHz. They are complemented by the Adreno 530 graphics controller with support for OpenGL ES 3.1+AEP (Android Extension Pack), Renderscript, OpenCL 2.0 and Vulcan API, Spectra IPS processor, Hexagon 680 DSP digital signal processor and X12 LTE modem. Vesti.Hi-tech found out what new this chip will bring to smartphones and tablets in 2016.

High computing speed

First, the Snapdragon 820 is twice as fast as its predecessor, the Snapdragon 810. The quad-core heterogeneous computing (HMP) chipset configuration includes two high-performance cores clocked at 2.2 GHz to handle demanding tasks. and two more - low-power (1.6-1.7 GHz) for less demanding processes.

The architecture of both clusters, Qualcomm said, is the same; they differ only in the cache configuration (how is not specified). The chip offloads certain types of computation to other components as needed, such as the powerful Adreno 530 graphics accelerator, Hexagon 680 digital signal processor, and Spectra ISP image processing chip. The controller provides an increase in graphics performance of up to 40% compared to Adreno 430, while being just as energy efficient. The graphics are designed for “use in next-generation virtual reality systems and augmented reality computer vision,” the company claims.

Battery-friendly

The Snapdragon 820 is not only twice as fast, but also more energy efficient than the 810. The company says that the new product consumes less energy, including due to the “volumetric” FinFET process (transistors with a 3D structure) and a modified 64-bit architecture. True, this does not mean that the increased efficiency of the latest chip will double the battery life of a smartphone or tablet. Most likely, given the increased performance, the 820 will consume no more battery power than the Snapdragon 810.

Super accurate fingerprint sensor

One of the most impressive features of the Snapdragon 820 is its Sense ID 3D fingerprint recognition technology. Unlike the capacitive sensors ubiquitous in Android devices, Qualcomm's system scans papillary patterns with ultrasonic waves, allowing it to penetrate plastic, glass and even metal alloys. In addition, Sense ID will not prevent you from “recognizing” the owner if his finger is wet or dirty.

Improved photo and video quality in low light

The Snapdragon 820's Spectra image processing ISP chip processes photos and videos captured with the device's camera faster (includes support for new 1-micron pixel sensors), provides a wider range of colors, and also supports a hybrid focusing system for faster focus on specific areas of the frame. The presentation in New York showed how Spectra ISP improves the quality of photos and videos with underexposed areas by brightening the image, emphasizing the visibility of shadows and eliminating digital noise.

Stable LTE connection

The latest Qualcomm processor supports TruSugnal technology, which detects the source of interference (such as the user's palm) and optimizes antenna reception accordingly. You can already see this function in action on the LG V10 smartphone. Wi-Fi calling has been improved: if the connection quality is poor, the Snapdragon 820 will be able to independently switch between LTE and a wireless network when necessary.

In addition, the Qualcomm chip operates in high-speed LTE networks (up to 600 Mbps) and supports the Wi-Fi 802.11ad standard (also known as WiGig). The 802.11ad specification can rather be called "USB without wires": this technology operates at a very high center frequency (60 GHz), which does not allow it to transmit signals through walls.

So, using WiGig it will be possible to connect devices that are quite close to each other (within a few meters). Despite its short-sightedness, 802.11ad provides speeds of up to 7 gigabits per second, almost 50 times faster than 802.11n. The scope of the standard is connecting monitors, external hard drives and other peripherals, as well as transmitting large amounts of data, such as uncompressed HD video, over a wireless network.

Built-in protection against cyber threats

The Snapdragon 820 features hardware-based Smart Protect technology powered by Zeroth's cognitive computing platform, which provides real-time protection against malware. The self-learning system analyzes and classifies malware on the fly, and also ensures the security of personal data by preventing viruses from infecting the device. Smart Protect, Qualcomm says, does not affect the performance or battery life of the gadget.

The first devices with Snapdragon 820 are expected to appear in the second half of 2016. The new product can also be seen in “smart” cars.

Snapdragon 820 review | Introduction

The mobile industry was in for a surprise when Apple began shipping the iPhone 5s with a specially designed 64-bit processor. The transition to 64-bit was inevitable, but no one expected Apple to do it so quickly. Qualcomm was not far behind, whose 64-bit processor was just one of the points on the company's roadmap. Due to the lack of its own core, Qualcomm took standard ARM Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 cores for its flagship processor Snapdragon 810, which appeared last year.

Since the initial operating conditions were far from ideal, the result was a far from ideal SoC. Even before the official premiere Snapdragon 810 There were rumors about overheating and problems with the memory controller. Our own testing confirmed the information about overheating, which was the result of the release of the energy-intensive A57 core at 20 nm technology standards at TSMC. In addition, we have not yet seen an 810 chip that uses the full available memory bandwidth of LPDDR4-1600, even in v2.1.

But even though the 810th SoC was only a “touchstone”, it turned out to be not so bad. GPU Adreno 430 has become faster than Adreno 420 in the platform Snapdragon 805, the chip was able to maintain Qualcomm's leadership in ALU performance, and the faster Category 9 X10 LTE modem moved closer to the processor.

However, the SoC 810 only feels disappointing. Excessive thermal throttling was holding back performance, causing A57 cores to sit idle without load. In some cases, older Snapdragon 801 and 805 chips, as well as mid-range A53 systems, offered equivalent or better performance. The position for the flagship product was unenviable.

With a new chip Snapdragon 820 and the first proprietary 64-bit computing processor, Kryo, Qualcomm hopes to overcome these shortcomings. However, the goal Snapdragon 820 is not just about increasing productivity. It delivers innovative user experiences by leveraging heterogeneous computing that combines the unique capabilities of each processor—CPU, GPU, DSP, and ISP—to maximize performance and minimize power consumption. Machine vision, advanced imaging technologies and virtual reality are its target applications.

New abilities were largely made possible thanks to Zeroth(English) - A machine learning and vision API that allows developers to take advantage of Snapdragon 820. Qualcomm calls it a "cognitive computing platform" that will further improve the capabilities of virtual assistants on smartphones, as well as any elements that imply human-like intelligence. One way to do this is to imitate how people learn through positive motivation. We can already see mobile devices exhibiting the beginnings of intelligent behavior, but they tend to use the computing power of cloud systems. However, Qualcomm believes that with the advent of the 820 SoC, this processing can now be done locally on the device, thereby increasing privacy since all unique user data will not be processed on someone else's servers.

Qualcomm Scene Detect technology is Zeroth's machine vision application. Using heterogeneous computing, it uses neural networks for scene detection, object recognition, and pattern matching of still images and video from the device's camera. There are many uses for this technology, including automatic photo captioning for easier searching and augmented reality. The video above demonstrates the main capabilities of this system.