Snapdragon is a family of mobile systems on a chip by Qualcomm. Qualcomm considers Snapdragon
a "platform" for use in smartphones, tablets, and smartbook devices.
The original Snapdragon CPU, dubbed Scorpion, is Qualcomm's own design. It has many features
similar to those of the ARM Cortex-A8 core and it is based on the ARMv7 instruction set,
but theoretically has much higher performance for multimedia-related SIMD operations. The
successor to Scorpion, found in S4 Snapdragon SoCs is named Krait and has many similarities
with the ARM Cortex-A15 CPU and is also based on the ARMv7 instruction set.
The majority of Snapdragon processors contain the circuitry to decode high-definition video
resolution at 720p or 1080p depending on the Snapdragon chip. Adreno, the company's proprietary
GPU series, integrated into Snapdragon chips is Qualcomm's own design, using assets the
company acquired from AMD. The Adreno 225 GPU in Snapdragon S4 SoCs adds support for
DirectX 9/Shader Model 3.0 which makes it compatible with Microsoft's Windows 8.
All Snapdragons feature one or more DSPs called Hexagon, short QDSP5 or QDSP6 in the modem
and multimedia parts. In the Snapdragon 200-800 series, one of the multimedia Hexagons is
programmable by the users through the Hexagon SDK. The multimedia Hexagons are mostly used
for audio encoding/decoding, the newer Snapdragons have a hardware block called Venus for video
encoding/decoding. Compared to System on chips from many competitors,
Snapdragon SoCs have been unique in that they have had the modem for cellular communication
on-die. That is, they do not require a separate external cellular modem on the PCB. Since
Snapdragon S4, the majority of S4 SoCs also features on-die Wi-Fi, GPS/GLONASS and Bluetooth
basebands. This integration reduces the complexity and cost of the final design for the OEM.
It also has the advantage of benefiting from advances in the manufacturing process, for
example 28 nm in most S4 SoCs, thus providing modems and other dedicated circuitry with
lower power characteristics than external chips manufactured with older processes.
History In 4th Quarter of 2008, the first chips in
the Snapdragon family, the QSD8650 and the QSD8250, were made available.
On 1 June 2010, Qualcomm announced sampling of the MSM8x60 series of Snapdragon SoCs.
On 17 November 2010, Qualcomm announces the roadmap for Next-Gen Snapdragon SoC development,
including the MSM8960, citing future improvements in CPU and GPU performance and lower power
consumption. On 5 January 2011, a version of Microsoft
Windows 7 compiled for ARM was shown running on the Snapdragon SoC at the 2011 Consumer
Electronics Show. On 3 August 2011, Qualcomm announced a plan
to use simple names for Snapdragon processors so that the public can better understand the
products. The higher the number, the newer generation of SoC it is.
On 7 January 2013, Qualcomm announced new names and tiers for the 2013 line of Snapdragon
SoC's, Snapdragon 200, 400, 600 and 800. The model tiers can easiest be described as equivalent
to the Play, Plus, Pro and Prime tiers of the S4 generation of SoCs.
Snapdragon S1 Snapdragon S2
Snapdragon S3 Snapdragon S4
Snapdragon 200 series Snapdragon 200
Snapdragon 400 series Snapdragon 400
Snapdragon 410 The Snapdragon 410 system on a chip was announced
on the 9 December 2013, it is Qualcomm's first 64-bit mobile system on a chip. It also has
Multimode 4G LTE, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou capabilities, and contains
the Adreno 306 GPU. It is capable of supporting a 1080p screen and a 13 Megapixel camera.
Snapdragon 600 series Snapdragon 600
Display Controller: MDP 4. 2 RGB planes, 2 VIG planes, 1080p
CPU Instruction Set: ARMv7 Snapdragon 602A
The Snapdragon 602A processor was announced on the 6th of January 2014, it is Qualcomm's
solution to car industry. Snapdragon 610
The Snapdragon 610 was announced on February 24, 2014
Hardware HEVC/H.265 decode acceleration Snapdragon 615
The Snapdragon 615 was announced on February 24, 2014, it is Qualcomm's first octa-core
SoC. Hardware HEVC/H.265 decode acceleration
Snapdragon 800 series A Snapdragon 802 chip, 8092, was previously
announced by Qualcomm to be part of the series, but then Qualcomm declared they are not going
to release the chip to market. Snapdragon 800
4 KiB + 4 KiB L0 cache, 16 KiB + 16 KiB L1 cache and 2 MiB L2 cache
4K × 2K UHD video capture and playback Up to 21 Megapixel, stereoscopic 3D dual image
signal processor USB 2.0 and 3.0
Display controller: MDP 5, 2 RGB, 2 VIG, 2 DMA, 4k
there are free Linux drivers Qualcomm's Adreno GPU
there are free Linux drivers for the Qualcomm Atheros WNICs
LLVM supports the Qualcomm Hexagon DSP Snapdragon 801
The Snapdragon 801 was announced on February 24, 2014. It designed to be a higher clocked
variant of the Snapdragon 800, it also adds eMMC 5.0 support allowing transfer rates of
up to 400 MB/s. Snapdragon 805
Notable features Quad-core Krait 450 CPU at up to 2.7 GHz
per core ARMv7-A
16 KiB / 16 KiB L1 cache per core 2 MiB L2 cache
4K UHD video upscale & play Dual camera image signal processor supporting
up to 55 Megapixel, stereoscopic 3D Adreno 420 GPU
LPDDR3 25.6 GB/s memory bandwidth IZat Gen8B GNSS location technology
USB 2.0 and 3.0 Hexagon, QDSP6V5A, 600 MHz
e-MMC V5.0 UFS V2.0
BT4.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi 28 nm HPm
Snapdragon 808 The Snapdragon 808 is Qualcomm's first hexa-core
SoC, notable features include: ARMv8-A
H.265/HEVC decoding eMMC 5.0 support
12-bit dual-ISP Snapdragon 810
Notable features include: ARMv8-A
H.265/HEVC encoding/decoding eMMC 5.0 support
14-bit dual-ISP support for triple-band and IEEE 802.11ad.
Qualcomm acquired Wilocity Similar platforms
R-Car by Renesas Tegra by Nvidia
OMAP by Texas Instruments Exynos by Samsung
Ax by Apple NovaThor by ST-Ericsson
Atom by Intel i.MX by Freescale Semiconductor
RK3xxx by Rockchip A31 by AllWinner
MTxxxx by MediaTek VideoCore by Broadcom
K3Vx/Kirin by HiSilicon OCTEON by Cavium
See also Smartbook, a netbook-like class of devices,
first models of which are powered by Snapdragon PXA by Marvell
SH-Mobile by Renesas Nomadik by ST-Ericsson
ZiiLabs ZMS series Snapdragon Stadium, temporary name used for
Qualcomm Stadium in December 2011 References
External links Snapdragon Chip Product Page
Features of Snapdragon S4 Processors