Mid-Tier Snapdragon Will get Cortex-A720 Therapy

Qualcomm this morning is taking the wraps off of a brand new smartphone SoC for the mid-range market, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. The second of Qualcomm’s down-market ‘S’ tier Snapdragon 7 components, the 7s collection is functionally the entry-level tier for the Snapdragon 7 household – and actually, most Qualcomm-powered handsets in North America.

With three tiers of Snapdragon 7 chips, the 7s can simply be misplaced within the noise that comes with extra highly effective chips. However the newest iteration of the 7s is a little more fascinating than traditional, as moderately than reusing an present die, Qualcomm has seemingly minted an entire new die for this half. Consequently, the corporate has upgraded the 7s household to make use of Arm’s present Armv9 CPU cores, whereas utilizing bits and items of Qualcomm’s newest IPs elsewhere.

Formally, the Snapdragon 7s is assessed as a 1+3+4 design – which means there’s 1 prime core, 3 efficiency cores, and 4 effectivity cores. On this case, Qualcomm is utilizing the identical structure for each the prime and effectivity cores, Arm’s current-generation Cortex-A720 design. The prime core will get to turbo as excessive as 2.5GHz, whereas the remaining A720 cores will turbo as excessive as 2.4GHz.

These are joined by the 4 effectivity cores, which, as is custom, are primarily based upon Arm’s present A5xx cores, on this case, A520. These can increase as excessive as 1.8GHz.

In comparison with the outgoing Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, the swap in Arm cores represents a reasonably important improve, changing an A78/A55 setup with the aforementioned A720/A520 setup. Notably, clockspeeds are fairly much like the earlier technology half, so many of the unconstrained efficiency uplift on this technology is being pushed by enhancements in IPC, although the quicker prime core ought to supply a bit extra kick for single-threaded workloads.

All advised, touting a 20% enchancment in CPU efficiency over the 7s Gen 2, although that declare doesn’t make clear whether or not it’s single or multi-threaded efficiency (or a mix of each).

In the meantime, graphics are pushed by one in every of Qualcomm’s Adreno GPUs. As is normally the case, the corporate will not be providing any important particulars on the precise GPU configuration getting used – and even what technology it’s. A high-level take a look at the specs doesn’t reveal any main options that weren’t current in different Snapdragon 7 components. And Qualcomm isn’t bringing high-end options like ray tracing right down to such a modest half. That stated, I’ve beforehand heard by way of the tea leaves that this can be a next-generation (Adreno 800 collection) design; although if that’s the case, Qualcomm is definitely not making an attempt to convey consideration to it.

Curiously, nevertheless, the video decode block on the SoC appears moderately dated. Regardless of this being a brand new die, Qualcomm has opted to not embody AV1 decoding – or, a minimum of, opted to not allow it – so H.265 and VP9 are probably the most superior codecs supported.

In comparison with CPU efficiency good points, Qualcomm’s anticipated GPU efficiency good points are extra important. The corporate is claiming that the7s Gem 3 will ship a 40% enchancment in GPU efficiency over the 7s Gen 2.

Lastly, the Hexagon NPU block on the SoC incorporates a few of Qualcomm’s newest IP, as the corporate continues their targeted AI push throughout all of their chip segments. Notably, the model of the NPU used right here will get INT4 help for low precision consumer inference, which is new to the Snapdragon 7s household. As with Qualcomm’s different Gen 3 SoCs, the large drive right here is for native (on-device) LLM execution.

As regards to efficiency, Qualcomm says that prospects ought to count on to see a 30% enchancment in AI efficiency relative to the 7s Gen 2.

Feeding all of those blocks is a 32-bit reminiscence controller. Curiously, Qualcomm has opted to help older LPDDR4X even with this newer chip, so the utmost reminiscence bandwidth is determined by the reminiscence sort used. For LPDDR4X-4266 that shall be 17GB/sec, and for LPDDR5-6400 that shall be 25.6GB/sec. In each circumstances, that is equivalent to the bandwidth out there for the 7s Gen 2.

Rounding out the package deal, the 7s Gen 3 does incorporate some newer/extra highly effective digital camera {hardware} as effectively. We’re nonetheless a trio of 12-bit Spectra ISPs, however the most decision in zero shutter lag and burst modes has been bumped as much as 64MPix. Video recording capabilities are in any other case equivalent on paper, because the 7s Gen 2 already supported 4K HDR seize.

In the meantime on the wi-fi communication facet of issues, the 7s Gen 3 packs one in every of Qualcomm’s built-in Snapdragon 5G modems. As with its predecessor, the 7s Gen 3 helps each Sub-6 and mmWave bands, with a most (theoretical) throughput of two.9Gbps.

Eagle-eyed chip watchers will notice, nevertheless, that Qualcomm is getting rid of any form of model data as of this half. So whereas the 7s Gen 2 used a Snapdragon X62 modem, the 7s Gen 3’s modem has no such designation – it’s merely an built-in Snapdragon modem. In response to the corporate, this variation has been made to “simplify general branding and to be in line with different IP blocks within the chipset.”

Equally, the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth block has misplaced its model quantity; it’s now merely a FastConnect block. With reference to options and specs, this seems to be the identical Wi-Fi 6E block that we’ve seen in half a dozen different Snapdragon SoCs, providing 2 spatial streams at channel widths as much as 160MHz. It’s price noting, nevertheless, that since this can be a newer SoC it’s licensed for Bluetooth 5.4 help, versus the 5.2/5.3 certification different Snapdragon 7 chips have carried.

Lastly, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 itself is being constructed on TSMC’s N4P course of, the identical course of we’ve seen the final a number of Qualcomm SoCs use. And with this, Qualcomm has now absolutely migrated your complete Snapdragon 8 and Snapdragon 7 strains off of Samsung’s 4nm course of nodes; all of their up to date chips are actually constructed at TSMC. And like related transitions previously, this shift in course of nodes is coming with a lift to energy effectivity. Whereas it’s not the only real trigger, general Qualcomm is touting a 12% enchancment in energy financial savings.

Wrapping issues up, Qualcomm’s launch buyer for the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 shall be Xiaomi, who would be the first to launch a brand new cellphone with the chip. Following them shall be most of the different traditional suspects, together with Realme and Sharp, whereas the a lot bigger Samsung can be slated to make use of the chip sooner or later within the coming months.