When it comes to supporting augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and increasingly mixed reality (MR) projects it’s not just the platform stakeholders who have been busy working to improve things in the hardware department. A number of other technology firms have also been hard at work, with perhaps the three most notable being NVIDIA, Intel, and Qualcomm.
For the latter 2017 has seen them involved in many avenues. Including working with Mastercard on an AR retail platform, announcing a 3D depth sensing technology with Himax, being involved with the HTC Vive standalone headset, now known as the Vive Focus. Partnering with Ximmerse on mobile VR, and also with Tencent on their head mounted display (HMD) to name but a few. It was also back in January it was revealed the Snapdragon 835 processor would be aimed at mobile VR and AR.
That was the beginning of the year however and Qualcomm has just announced the introduction of a new mobile platform the Snapdragon 845 and once again immersive technologies are set to play a part in its thinking. Snapdragon 845 utilising the company’s experience in areas such as artificial intelligence and what it terms ‘XR’ – eXtended reality.
Qualcomm’s Senior Vice President and General Manager of Mobile, Alex Katouzian, said “As leaders in mobile technology, we will transform the mobile experience with comprehensive advancements in visual processing, AI, security and connectivity. The Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform is the next horizon of innovation and is going to transform the way people use their mobile devices to make their lives better.”
Qualcomm say that the Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform “was designed for consumers to capture cinema-grade videos and blur the lines between physical and virtual worlds.” For increased benefit with immersive platforms it points to the new Adreno 630 visual processing subsystem architecture which covers AR, VR and MR and which, it claims, will “transform entertainment, education and social interaction, making them more immersive and intuitive” .
The Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform is expected to begin shipping to the general public in mobile devices early next year. VRFocus will bring you more news on that in 2018. For now you can find details on the Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform below and more information on the Qualcomm website.
Qualcomm Spectra 280 ISP
- Ultra HD premium capture
- Qualcomm Spectra Module Program, featuring Active Depth Sensing
- MCTF video capture
- Multi-frame noise reduction
- High performance capture up to 16MP @60FPS
- Slow motion video capture (720p @480 fps)
- ImMotion computational photography
Adreno 630 Visual Processing Subsystem
- 30% improved graphics/video rendering and power reduction compared to previous generation
- Room-scale 6 DoF with SLAM
- Adreno foveation, featuring tile rendering, eye tracking, multiView rendering, fine grain preemption
- 2K x 2K @ 120Hz, for 2.5x faster display throughput
- Improved 6DoF with hand-tracking and controller support
Qualcomm® Hexagon™ 685 DSP
- 3rd Generation Hexagon Vector DSP (HVX) for AI and imaging
- 3rd Generation Qualcomm All-Ways AwareTM Sensor Hub
- Hexagon scalar DSP for audio
Snapdragon X20 LTE modem
- Support for 1.2 Gbps Gigabit LTE Category 18
- License Assisted Access (LAA)
- Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) shared radio spectrum
- Dual SIM-Dual VoLTE (DSDV)
Connectivity
- Multigigabit 11ad Wi-Fi with diversity module
- Integrated 2×2 11ac Wi-Fi with Dual Band Simultaneous (DBS) support
- 11k/r/v: Carrier Wi-Fi enhanced mobility, fast acquisition and congestion mitigation
- Bluetooth 5 with proprietary enhancements for ultra-low power wireless ear bud support and direct audio broadcast to multiple devices
Secure Processing Unit
- Biometric authentication (fingerprint, iris, voice, face)
- User and app data protection
- Integrated use-cases such as integrated SIM, Payments, and more
Qualcomm Aqstic Audio
- Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec(WCD934x):
Playback:
- Dynamic range: 130dB, THD+N: -109dB
- Native DSD support (DSD64/DSD128), PCM up to 384kHz/32bit
- Low power voice activation: 0.65mA
Record:
- Dynamic range: 109dB, THD+N: -103dB
- Sampling: Up to 192kHz/24bit
Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 4+
Kryo 385 CPU
- Four performance cores up to 2.8GHz (25 percent performance uplift compared to previous generation)
- Four efficiency cores up to 1.8GHz
- 2MB shared L3 cache (new)
- 3MB system cache (new)
10-nanometer (nm) LPP FinFET process technology