Details of Qualcomm’s next premium Snapdragon chipset have made their way public overnight, and it should come as a surprise to no one that (a) it’ll be called Snapdragon 845 and (b) it will offer faster speed and greater power efficiency.
What do we know thus far? Not a great deal. We understand the Snapdragon 845 will be a 64-bit octa-core BIG.little configuration, meaning it has four high power ARM Cortex A75 cores and four more efficient Cortex A55 cores.What do those numbers mean? The Snapdragon 835 which features in many of 2017’s premium phones has the current-generation ARM A73 cores (though they’re Qualcomm’s own custom variant called Kryo 280) alongside four A53 cores.
Basically, the Snapdragon 845 will offer a step up.
It’s said that the ARM Cortex A75 provides a 20% more mobile performance boost over the A73 with a 40% boost in infrastructure performance as compared to the Cortex A72 while providing the same sustainable performance as the Cortex A73. Overall, with increases in efficiency and architecture, the Snapdragon 845 should offer an increase of about 30% in the performance as compared to the 835.
Will it be a huge step up in reality? Probably not, as the chipset is just one part of the equation, but if these facts and figures are right, the Snapdragon 845 should be very capable, at the very least.
Worth noting the Inquirer’s comments on the ARM cores, which then become the 845. Maybe it won’t be 4 big and 4 small?
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/05/29/arm_cpus_and_gpu_for_ai/
They also talk of 3GHz A75 cores. GPU seems to have more AI tuned cores too.
And here’s Anandtech with much more detail on it.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/11441/dynamiq-and-arms-new-cpus-cortex-a75-a55
It seems at least plausible that we might see an end to the big.little configuration, though I’m not sure such a move is necessary or even wise. The power saving benefits of having mid-tier cores to handle most activity makes quite a bit of sense, though I agree it isn’t the only way to do things.
Give the Anandtech article a read, it basically describes how these cores are changing the bigLITTLE architecture around.
Pixel 2 really does need to have a next gen chipset rather than the 835, I agree, just to set it apart from those phones released six months before it.
This is what the Pixel 2 needs to set it apart from current flagships
I can’t see how anyone in the mainstream will give two hoots whether the Pixel has a S845. It doesn’t matter one iota.
Most people won’t but if you are buying Pixel chances are you are more aware of what you are buying so having the latest does mean something.
People’s comments in places like this is where it matters.
But the Pixel is aimed at the mainstream. Most people have no idea what chip runs their phone, nor do they care.
In your opinion. 🙂
You don’t think the Pixel is targeted at the mainstream?