Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy: Custom CPU, Performance Leap, Ushering in a New Era for Mobile Platforms

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy: Custom CPU, Performance Leap, Ushering in a New Era for Mobile PlatformsOn October 22nd, Beijing time, Qualcomm officially launched the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy mobile platform in Hawaii. This brand new mobile platform has made huge breakthroughs in performance, AI, and energy efficiency, praised by the outside world as Qualcomm's "squeezing a large tube of toothpaste" masterpiece

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy: Custom CPU, Performance Leap, Ushering in a New Era for Mobile Platforms

On October 22nd, Beijing time, Qualcomm officially launched the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy mobile platform in Hawaii. This brand new mobile platform has made huge breakthroughs in performance, AI, and energy efficiency, praised by the outside world as Qualcomm's "squeezing a large tube of toothpaste" masterpiece. As the annual flagship chip, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is about to be applied to various main flagship models, and will be launched soon. After the launch event, Qualcomm's technical team accepted interviews from Chinese media, including Computerworld, and conducted in-depth exchanges on the technical details of the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy mobile platform.

Custom CPU: Breakthrough in Both Performance and Energy Efficiency

The most notable highlight of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy is the adoption of Qualcomm's self-designed Oryon CPU. This is the first time Qualcomm has applied the Oryon CPU to a mobile platform chip, marking a new era for Qualcomm in mobile chip design. With the new process and architectural design, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy has achieved a comprehensive performance breakthrough.

Based on GeekBench test results, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy has achieved a 45% increase in CPU single-core performance compared to the previous generation, and the multi-core performance has also increased by 45%. The frequency of the two super-large cores has reached an astonishing 4.32GHz.

To deploy such powerful performance cores to the mobile platform, Qualcomm has optimized the micro-architecture of the Oryon CPU. Karl Whealton, Senior Director of Product Management at Qualcomm, revealed that they have introduced a new performance core in the micro-architecture design, equipped each CPU cluster with the largest cache, and introduced a new timing prefetcher.

Energy Efficiency First: Delivering an Ultimate Experience

Considering the extremely high requirements for energy efficiency and battery life of smartphones, Qualcomm has made energy efficiency improvement an equally important indicator during the research and development of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy. From the chip architecture, the phone's mainboard architecture to the software architecture, the Qualcomm team has carried out comprehensive consideration and optimization.

On the performance core, Qualcomm has equipped each CPU cluster with 12MB of L2 cache, totaling 24MB of dedicated cache, which is also the largest cache size in the mobile field currently. The new cache design significantly improves the platform's latency performance, reducing the latency of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy from 12ns in the previous generation to 5ns. The high-speed and efficient latency performance not only improves core performance but also significantly improves the overall energy efficiency of the platform.

This approach has also been applied to the GPU core. Qualcomm has designed a 12MB dedicated cache for the GPU of the new platform, which can store some frames, reducing bandwidth consumption and thus improving energy efficiency.

Upgrade of Web Browsing Performance: Advantages of Custom Architecture

Another significant advantage of using a custom CPU is the upgrade in web browsing performance. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy has achieved a 62% performance improvement in the Speedometer test compared to the previous generation. The Speedometer benchmark focuses on the responsiveness and performance of browser stacks and framework applications, measuring the efficiency with which the CPU handles users' daily tasks.

Qualcomm believes that improving web browsing performance is crucial for the daily use of devices. Currently, many Apps, such as WeChat, Taobao, Didi, etc., many underlying services are based on Web applications, and powerful web performance can ensure that users have a smoother and more convenient experience when using these super apps. Qualcomm's technical team said they have confidence in the web performance of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy will surpass all Android competitors.

Platforms using public-domain architectures cannot match custom architectures like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy. Karl Whealton, Senior Director of Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, also revealed that the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy includes up to 192KB of L1 instruction cache in the Oryon CPU, which will help address various workloads, including web browsing.

Focus on User Experience: Qualcomm's Core Philosophy

Snapdragon has always focused more on user experience in real-world usage scenarios. When asked about the number of transistors in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, Shahin Farahani, Senior Director of Product Management at Qualcomm Technologies, said that the number of transistors cannot directly reflect performance, and more transistors do not necessarily mean better chip performance. Qualcomm is more concerned about how to achieve optimal performance and energy efficiency.

Rising Chip Costs: Qualcomm's Countermeasures

There were rumors before that, with costs rising dramatically, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy could become the most expensive mobile SoC ever. It is understood that the unit cost of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will reach $180, an increase of 15%. The significant increase in flagship chip prices will put significant pressure on terminal manufacturers, especially domestic OEM manufacturers.

In response to this issue, Chris Patrick, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile Business at Qualcomm Technologies, made a public response. He explained that the main reason for the rising chip costs is the cyclical changes in the entire semiconductor industry. Ten years ago, the same design and transistors using new processes would have been cheaper. But now this model has changed, and for the same design, upgrading to the next generation process technology will result in a significant cost increase.

He further stated that Qualcomm needs to maintain close communication with its customers, especially Chinese customers. At the same time, Qualcomm will also create a richer product tier and combination to meet the needs of different markets. For the flagship market, Qualcomm has a top-tier solution like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy. But in other tier markets, Qualcomm can bring more products with flagship core technologies but at more economical prices by downscaling flagship-level performance and experience to consumers.

Oryon CPU Future Outlook: Expanding to More Application Areas

In addition to its application in PC and mobile devices, Qualcomm has brought Oryon CPU to the latest automotive platform solutions, and will further expand its applications to other forms of products in the future. Christopher Patrick said that their passion is to make Qualcomm's technology reach a wider user group.

Conclusion

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy opens a new era for mobile platforms with its custom CPU, performance leap, and energy efficiency improvements. This flagship chip is expected to deliver an even more immersive mobile experience for users, while leading the development direction of mobile chips in the future.