Qualcomm Snapdragon 8150 expected to feature 8-core design with dedicated NPU

tech2 News StaffOct 11, 2018 15:38:17 IST

It’s nearing the end of 2018, and as is now tradition, rumours about Qualcomm’s new flagship mobile chipset have started circulating. The new chip, which will likely power the bulk of next year’s flagship Android devices, is expected to arrive in December. This chip will be the successor to the Snapdragon 845.

According to German site Winfuture.de, the new chip is likely to be dubbed Snapdragon 8150 and not Snapdragon 855. There’s also expected to be a Windows-friendly version of the chip called the SM8180, which will further Qualcomm’s Always-Connected-PC efforts.

The report states that the new chip will continue with the current big.LITTLE architecture which features 4x high-performance cores (gold) and 4x high-efficiency cores (silver). The cores are expected to be based on the ARM Cortex-A55 and Cortex-A76 architectures. As with the Snapdragon 835 and 845 before it, Qualcomm is expected to modify the architecture to suit their overall chipset design.

The size of the Snapdragon 845 ship belies its potential. Image: tech2/Anirudh Regidi

The speeds of the cores are expected to be 2.6 GHz and 1.7 GHz, which are similar to those on the Snapdragon 845. However, the 8150 is expected to be built on a new 7 nm process, which should result in greater efficiency, lower power consumption, and in effect, better battery life.

Neural processing

While Qualcomm’s earlier models leveraged the onboard Adreno GPU and Hexagon DSP for AI tasks, Winfuture reports that Qualcomm is likely to include a dedicated neural processing unit (NPU) this time around.

Android Authority speculates that rather than build its own NPU from scratch, Qualcomm could license ARM’s Project Trillium design.