Qualcomm has been heavily involved in the immersive technology industry for sometime now, with its most recent efforts including the Snapdragon 845 Mobile VR Reference Design, as well as its partnership with eye tracking company Tobii. As VRFocus reported last week, Qualcomm were rumoured to be working on a new platform which the company has now confirmed as Snapdragon XR1.
As part of a launch event leading up to the Augmented World Expo (AWE) this month, Qualcomm debuted its dedicated Extended Reality (XR) platform. Snapdragon XR1 has been created to offer consumers high-quality XR experiences while enabling OEMs to develop mainstream devices.
Being a full system-on-a-chip, the Snapdragon XR1 Platform has special optimisations for augmented reality (AR) experiences with AI capabilities that’ll offer better interactivity, power consumption and thermal efficiency. Included on the platform is an ARM-based multicore CPU, vector processor, GPU, Qualcomm AI Engine, advanced XR software service layer, machine learning, the Snapdragon XR Software Development Kit (SDK) and Qualcomm Technologies connectivity and security technologies.
“As technology evolves and consumer demand grows, we envision XR devices playing a wider variety of roles in consumers’ and workers’ daily lives,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager, Mobile Business Unit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. in a statement. “By integrating powerful visuals, high-fidelity audio, and rich interactive experiences, XR1 will help create a new era of high-quality, mainstream XR devices for consumers.”
The XR1 platform will support Ultra high-definition 4K video resolution at up to 60 frames per second for high-quality visuals on VR headsets, whilst on the audio side the platform has Qualcomm Technologies 3D Audio Suite, Qualcomm Aqstic Audio Technologies, and Qualcomm aptX Audio built in for high-fidelity audio experiences and “always-on, always-listening” voice assistance as well as Bluetooth playback. Plus XR1’s head-related transfer functions (HRTF) enable synthesized binaural sound for the best immersion.
In addition to all of that, XR1 support three-and six-degrees of freedom (3DoF, 6DoF) head tracking and controller capabilities for XR devices to ensure gameplay interaction is at its best.
Qualcomm does note however, that while the Snapdragon XR1 Platform is dedicated to providing the most focused XR experiences, it doesn’t usurp the Snapdragon 845 which is still the company’s premium product (XR1 can be considered one notch below the 845). As and when the Snapdragon XR1 begins to find its way into consumer products VRFocus will let you know.