A similar approach with the Galaxy S7 makes sense as well, since it will give Samsung an advantage over other Android OEMs that usually announce their 1H flagships at the Mobile World Congress and then launch them globally by the end of March.
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Smartphone CPU maker Qualcomm said Monday that the Snapdragon 820’s DSP, the Hexagon 680, will be Qualcomm’s answer to always-on applications like step tracking and improvements in low-light photography.
As the Hot Chips conference begins in Cupertino this week, Qualcomm is set to divulge another set of information about the upcoming Snapdragon 820 processor.
Qualcomm has come up with a brand new signal processing chip that promises to revolutionize the field.
We can only assume that all issues that existed in Snapdragon 810 have been taken care of, given how the company is rolling out its successor. But the Hexagon 600-series of DSPs actually deals with some of the most important functionality for smartphones and tablets: audio, voice, imaging and video.
The other big feature of the Hexagon 680 are “Hexagon Vector eXtensions” (HVX).
Using HVX, Qualcomm’s internal data shows that its low-light video enhancement can be done with ten times less power than a quad-core Krait GPU, and three times faster to boot. Earlier this month the company revealed details about the Adreno 5xx GPU architecture, showcasing improved performance and power efficiency while also adding a new Spectra 14-bit image processor.
Finally, Qualcomm estimates that the new DSP can cut the power required to monitor sensors by about three times compared to the previous generation Hexagon DSP. The South Korean electronics giant is apparently trying to decide if it should go exclusively with Exynos chips on its next flagship or use the Snapdragon 820 in some variants like earlier.
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It is no secret that Qualcomm has been struggling as their latest high-end offering, the Snapdragon 810, failed to impress in terms of performance and there were some reported issues of the way the processor handles its temperature when using some intensive apps. That is also one of the main things that Samsung is anxious about with the Snapdragon 820 as well.
