Qualcomm To Bring A 5G Integrated CPU For Mobile Devices

Qualcomm is all set to take over the 5G world in a different way, in the future. Leading the 5G mobile market by introducing its two widely used chipsets, Qualcomm has already prepped to shift to something new and advance. The race of 5G powered Android smartphones had just started and we had recently seen at MWC 2019, different manufacturer came out with their first ever 5G Smartphones running on Snapdragon X50 or X55 modem. Apple on the other side uses Intel modems, will be waiting until 2020 to bring its first 5G iPhone in the market.

At MWC 2019 Barcelona, Qualcomm unveiled its first processor coupled with a 5G Modem. This means a CPU is enough to manage application processing and network. This replaces the requirement of a separate modem chip that tortuously reduces the impact on power consumption. Qualcomm had just introduced the new chip, but if incoming future this becomes a part of consumer product, then Qualcomm had already shifted the way how a smartphone works.

Intel and MediaTek had postponed their plans of launching 5G chips until 2020. Samsung will be the first company to have the 5G integrated processing chip revealed by Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon at MWC.

“The integration of our breakthrough 5G multimode modem and application processing technologies into a single SoC is a major step in making 5G more widely available across regions and tiers,” he said in a press release.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 and 8cx are the latest chip in the line. 855 is coupled with X50 Modem while 8cx works with X55.

Snapdragon 8cx:

• 5G Chipset: Snapdragon X55 Modem
• 5G mmWave specs: 800 MHz bandwidth 8 carriers 2×2 MIMO
• 5G sub-6 GHz specs: 200 MHz bandwidth 4×4 MIMO
• CPU Cores: Qualcomm Kryo 495 CPU (Octa-core CPU)
• Modem: Qualcomm Snapdragon X24 LTE modem

Snapdragon 855:

• 5G Chipset: Snapdragon X50 Modem
• 5G mmWave specs: 800 MHz bandwidth 8 carriers 2×2 MIMO
• 5G sub-6 GHz specs: 100 MHz bandwidth 4×4 MIMO
• CPU Cores: Qualcomm Kryo 485 CPU (Octa-core CPU)
• Modem: Qualcomm Snapdragon X24 LTE modem

Bringing the integrated processor with 5G capabilities will give enough space for mobile design to shrink more. There won’t be a requirement for standalone modem offering extra space and less impact on the battery. It now relies on Qualcomm how well they can optimize the chip to deliver performance and bandwidth side-by-side. One common issue many users had reported in high end device is overheating on common activities like gaming, video chat, video streaming, hd calling, etc. It is tangible that if a single chip manages high speed gigabit + application processing it requires to be well optimized to handle multiple tasks with ease.

Source: Cnet