Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Abandon ARM Architecture

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Abandon ARM Architecture

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Abandon ARM Architecture.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Specifications Leak, Featuring In-House Nuvia CPU Architecture with Performance Yet to be Revealed. 

While Qualcomm is set to unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 at the Qualcomm Summit on October 24-26, leaked specifications for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 have already emerged. This leak reveals intriguing aspects about Qualcomm’s chip architecture and strategic shifts.

Digital Chit-Chat Station has shared details about Qualcomm’s plan to introduce the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 by the end of 2024. Insiders suggest that Qualcomm will be transitioning to their proprietary Nuvia CPU architecture.

In 2021, Qualcomm’s acquisition of Nuvia for $1.4 billion was seen as a move to bring in design expertise to create or customize Arm CPU cores, aiming to compete with Apple.

Speculations indicate that Qualcomm might incorporate Nuvia’s blueprints into smartphones. On the other hand, “Phoenix” could potentially be a rebranded version of Oryon, a custom CPU core developed by Qualcomm.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 by Qualcomm will feature an octa-core setup, comprising 2 Phoenix performance cores and 6 Phoenix M cores. To deliver robust performance, the chip will be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm technology.

As a comparison, the leaked specifications for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 follow a “1 + 5 + 2” configuration: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with TSMC’s N4P process, CPU 1*X4+5*A720+2*A520, and Adreno 750 GPU.

The N4P node manufacturing will allow the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to offer improved performance without sacrificing power efficiency.

According to TSMC, the 3nm technology (N3) represents another significant advancement beyond the 5nm technology (N5).

It offers cutting-edge fabrication technology in terms of PPA (Power, Performance, Area) and transistor capabilities.

TSMC promises that the N3 technology will deliver up to 70% logic density gain. Compared to N5 technology, N3 provides a 15% speed increase at the same power and a 30% power reduction at the same speed.

Currently, there is no information available about smartphones featuring this chipset. However, Qualcomm’s in-house architecture necessitates power validation and compatibility checks.

Unlike Apple, which operates within a closed device ecosystem and doesn’t need extensive validation, Qualcomm is a third-party chip vendor, with its chips being used in various phones.

Consequently, both Qualcomm and other chip manufacturers like MediaTek need to undergo verification and optimization with all buyers before release. As Digital Chit-Chat Station notes regarding the stability of the new chip architecture: The true test of Qualcomm’s in-house architecture will come from hands-on testing with samples to assess energy efficiency and compatibility; uncertainty remains relatively high.