Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Qualcomm Announces New Snapdragon 630, 660 Midrange Chips (extremetech.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the new-and-improved dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from ExtremeTech: Qualcomm's new upper-midrange and midrange Snapdragon 600 refreshes were announced today, and both parts are a solid improvement over their predecessors. Both the Snapdragon 630 and 660 are being upgraded with the X12 LTE modem that debuted with the Snapdragon 820 last year. You don't need to sweat the technical details too much on this -- the bottom line is that the newer modem is capable of up to 600Mbps downstream and 150Mbps upstream connectivity. The new Snapdragon 660 SoC is also an eight-core chip, with four Kryo CPU cores clocked at 2.2GHz, and four clocked at 1.8GHz. Total memory bandwidth is 29.9GBps, nearly double what the Snapdragon 650, 652, and 653 offered. Technologies like QuickCharge 4 and a Spectra 160 ISP round out the chip. The Spectra 160 ISP isn't quite as powerful as the Spectra 180 ISP in the Snapdragon 835, but it's still a capable processor in its own right. Overall, the Snapdragon 660 should be considered the upper-midrange SoC with some capabilities and features that bleed over from the high-end 8xx family. The degree to which users notice the difference between a high-end 6xx and the 8xx series will depend on how aggressively they use their phones. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 630 is intended as a midrange, workhorse part with strong battery life and good (if not stunning) overall performance. This new SoC combines four Cortex-A53 cores (clocked at 2.2GHz) with four high-efficiency Cortex-A53 cores running at 1.8GHz. GPU performance is provided by the Adreno 508 (likely just a clock-bumped Adreno 506) and overall memory bandwidth is just 10.66GBps. This still represents a significant improvement over previous devices, but the Snapdragon 630 won't break speed records.

23 comments

  1. are being upgraded with the X12 LTE modem by DrYak · · Score: 2

    And let me guess :
    this modem will function as the SoC's northbridge ?
    Meaning that the piece or hardware that is running for its firwmare some external 3rd party code uploaded by the cell towers of the service provider will have full access to all the RAM and other such peripherals ?

    Yay !

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
    1. Re:are being upgraded with the X12 LTE modem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Remember that these are the same clowns that (together with the clowns at Google) implemented a full disk encryption scheme in a way that allows a determined attacker (read: state) to obtain the decryption keys:

      https://bits-please.blogspot.pt/2016/06/extracting-qualcomms-keymaster-keys.html

    2. Re:are being upgraded with the X12 LTE modem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's really not how LTE works. And the modem probably has wide DMA access anyhow.

  2. Broadband alternatives. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You don't need to sweat the technical details too much on this -- the bottom line is that the newer modem is capable of up to 600Mbps downstream and 150Mbps upstream connectivity.

    So in other words wireless is a viable broadband alternative, to cable and DSL?

    1. Re:Broadband alternatives. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only if you live in South Korea.

    2. Re:Broadband alternatives. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Only if you live in South Korea.

      75 years ago, North and South Korea were identical.

      But then one got free-market capitalism and the other got socialism/communism.

      And look at the difference now.

    3. Re:Broadband alternatives. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the other got socialism/communism

      Correction: the other got military dictatorship.

      For examples of working socialism, look at health care in democratic countries.
      For examples of working communism, well, I don't know any.

    4. Re:Broadband alternatives. by bothemeson · · Score: 1

      And we're yet to see free-market capitalism except for brief periods of time - eg the Wild West - it seems to look remarkably like the worst forms of anarchism. If Trump doesn't get impeached we may well see it again,,, briefly.

    5. Re:Broadband alternatives. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you stupid?

  3. Aggressive use by sabbede · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm looking forward to the speed boost as my cell phone use can be very aggressive. For example, yesterday I shoved it up two asses and jammed it down one throat. I'm not sure how Qualcomm is going to be enhancing that, but I'm excited to find out.

    1. Re:Aggressive use by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 0

      My usage is a little different, though mine is certainly already agressive enough. Last week it broke its leash and ran away. By the time I caught up with it, it had already attacked three kids, two seniors, one postal worker and fifteen iPhones.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    2. Re:Aggressive use by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like this is a very common scenario. Lets hope they optimise for it.

    3. Re:Aggressive use by sabbede · · Score: 1

      The first reply was excellent, very funny. But I think this one is my favorite.

  4. Open source firmware? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do they have it? If not then how is this news for nerds?

    1. Re:Open source firmware? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nerd != OOS freetard.

  5. Re: Whites need a homeland by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Please stop making them so beautiful.

  6. Cost? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How much are they selling these for?
    When will something of this power be available for the Raspberry Pi Zero?

  7. To be supported ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... until May, 2019