Qualcomm recently unveiled its latest flagship mobile system-on-chip (SoC), the Snapdragon 8 Elite, at the Snapdragon Summit. This new chip marks a significant step for Qualcomm as it adopts the company's self-developed Oryon CPU architecture for the first time.

Features of the Snapdragon 8 Elite

The Snapdragon 8 Elite integrates Qualcomm's second-generation Oryon CPU, coupled with the Qualcomm Adreno GPU and an enhanced Qualcomm Hexagon NPU. Qualcomm claims that this chip is the most powerful and fastest mobile SoC they have ever produced. Benchmark tests presented by Qualcomm show that the Snapdragon 8 Elite is on par with the Apple A18 Pro found in the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. Compared to Qualcomm's previous mobile computing platform, the 8 Gen3, the Snapdragon 8 Elite has seen a 62% increase in performance and a 45% improvement in efficiency.

Additionally, Qualcomm has redesigned the ISP for the Snapdragon 8 Elite, upgrading it to an AI ISP, which has led to a comprehensive performance boost. The ISP's throughput has increased by nearly 35%, and its energy efficiency has improved by up to 25%. This enhanced performance allows users to simultaneously utilize up to three 48-megapixel sensors for photography. The Snapdragon 8 Elite will be featured in upcoming models from Asus, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi.

Shift in Relationship with Arm

Qualcomm's relationship with Arm, which has been quite close, has taken a turn for the worse. Qualcomm, as Arm's second-largest customer, and Arm, as Qualcomm's primary supplier, have been in a legal dispute since Qualcomm's acquisition of chip design company Nuvia in 2021. Arm alleges that Qualcomm violated the licensing agreement by transferring Nuvia's Arm licenses to a newly established entity without permission. This has led to a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware.

Qualcomm argues that Arm is coercing a long-term partner, disrupting Qualcomm's performance-leading CPU products, and attempting to raise licensing fees by disregarding the extensive rights already covered by the architectural licensing agreement. Arm, on the other hand, states that due to Qualcomm's repeated and serious violations of Arm's authorization agreements, Arm had no choice but to take formal action to demand that Qualcomm correct its breach of contract.

This incident not only highlights the conflict of interests between Qualcomm and Arm but also reflects the complex relationship between self-research and licensing in the chip industry. Qualcomm aims to reduce its dependence on Arm across various fields such as PCs and mobile phones by developing its own chip architecture, thereby enhancing its competitiveness. However, as a provider of chip architecture, Arm's revenue largely depends on licensing business. A reduction in Qualcomm's reliance on Arm will objectively lead to a decrease in Arm's licensing income and make Qualcomm a competitor to Arm.

Future Outlook

The two parties are scheduled to go to trial on December 16th to resolve Arm's breach of contract claims and Qualcomm's counterclaims. The market generally expects that the two sides will eventually reach a settlement, and Arm will not truly cancel its authorization to Qualcomm. After all, Qualcomm contributed about 11% of Arm's revenue in the past year. If the two sides suddenly terminate cooperation, it will have a serious adverse impact on both parties.

Despite the unresolved legal dispute with Arm, Qualcomm has decided to continue promoting its plan for self-developed chip architecture. According to the director of product management at Qualcomm Technologies, the company has built IP from scratch, and the Oryon CPU is the final piece of the puzzle for its self-developed SoC. This approach gives Qualcomm full autonomy over the CPU, allowing it to directly define and customize the configuration of all processing channels without reliance on external sources.

In the future, as Qualcomm's self-developed chip architecture continues to improve and expand its applications, the competitive relationship between Qualcomm and Arm will become more intense. However, whether the two sides can reach a settlement and how to balance the relationship between self-research and licensing will remain a focal point of attention in the chip industry.

Dive into Conevo Distributor, Find Integrated Chip Solutions

● The DS1338U-3+T&R is a low-power, I2C real-time clock (RTC) with 56 bytes of NV SRAM, featuring automatic end-of-month date adjustment and a built-in power-sense circuit.

● The STM32H743XIH6 is a high-performance microcontroller (MCU) based on the ARM Cortex-M7 core, operating at up to 480 MHz with a floating-point unit (FPU), and featuring up to 2 MB of dual-bank Flash memory and 1 MB of RAM.

● The EPCS4SI8N is a 4Mbit SPI Flash memory device with 8-pin SOIC packaging, designed for FPGA configuration and data storage, featuring low power consumption and high reliability.

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