However, while Qualcomm has opted to take a performance-area boost from the smaller geometry process, the company has again decided to talk of artificial intelligence capabilities without providing dedicated neural networking accelerators in hardware.
The Kryo 360 CPU core is based on an ARM Cortex architecture license and is optimized to support a 20 percent overall uplift in performance, compared to the Kryo 260 present on the Snapdragon 660. The octa-core architecture of the Snapdragon 710 is two big Cortex-A75 style cores running at 2.2GHz and six Cortex-A55 style cores running at 1.7GHz.
Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon features a multicore AI engine and neural network processing capabilities. But this means that neural networking algorithms can be programmed up and applied through the Snapdragon Neural Processing SDK and then run across multiple cores including the Hexagon 685 vector processor.
“Through heterogeneous computing, the Snapdragon 710 Mobile Platform’s newly enhanced architectures, including the Qualcomm Hexagon DSP, Qualcomm Adreno Visual Processing subsystem and Qualcomm Kryo CPU, are engineered to work harmoniously to run on-device AI applications quickly, intuitively and efficiently,” the company states.
This is the approach taken by Qualcomm for multiple generations of product (see No NN-dedicated hardware on Qualcomm IoT processors) and explains why the company only achieves a 2x overall improvement for on-device AI applications compared to the Snapdragon 660.
The 710 features the X15 LTE modem, a category 15 LTE modem that supports up to 800Mbps download speeds. It brings 4×4 MIMO on up to 2 aggregated carriers.
“By incorporating key AI capabilities and performance advancements, the Snapdragon 710 is designed to transform our customers’ products into the ultimate personal assistants, enhancing critical everyday consumer experiences, such as high-end camera features that will benefit from on-device high-speed AI processing, without sacrificing battery life,” said Kedar Kondap, vice president of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, in a statement.
The Snapdragon 710 Mobile Platform is available today and is expected to be found in consumer devices in the second quarter of 2018.
Related links and articles:
News articles:
No NN-dedicated hardware on Qualcomm IoT processors
Qualcomm offers neural network SDK for Snapdragon processor
Intel warns over Snapdragon PC, Qualcomm responds