#mobile_processors

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This is a single board PC for AI We've been used to single-board PCs for a long time, but the Orange Pi Alpro model stands out from the others. And it stands out thanks to the Huawei processor. [caption id="attachment_85436" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Huawei processor[/caption] A 107 x 68 mm PC with a Huawei processor can be purchased for just $125. Orange Pi Alpro introduced Unlike most other similar solutions based on SoCs from Rockchip, Allwinner, Broadcom and others, Alpro relies on the Huawei Ascend processor. The specific CPU model is not specified, but it is known that it has four cores and performance in AI tasks of 8/20 TOPS. This indicator is indicated because the product is focused on developing solutions with AI, that is, such a PC cannot be called universal. As for other parameters, there is 8 or 16 GB of LPDDR4X-3200 RAM, M.2 2280 slot, SD card slot, W-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.2, RJ45, two HDMI 2.0, two USB 3.0, USB-C 3.0, 40-pin GPIO, a pair of MIPI interfaces for cameras. Dimensions are 107 x 68 mm. For such a product they ask for 125 or 160 dollars, depending on the amount of RAM.

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The company believes that testing needs to be done differently MediaTek decided to respond to the hype surrounding the incredible throttling of the SoC Dimensity 9300 . It turned out that incorrect tests were to blame. [caption id="attachment_85084" align="alignnone" width="600"] MediaTek[/caption] It is well known that all modern smartphones are equipped with thermal management to ensure that the temperature of the device is maintained within an acceptable/safe range. MediaTek reacts to criticism of the incredible throttling of the SoC Dimensity 9300 The best way to use a CPU throttling test to compare devices is to run the test with the devices at the same temperature. Thanks to its larger CPU cores, the Dimensity 9300 will achieve a much higher maximum and average score than the competition if testing is done correctly. Thus, Dimensity 9300 will be able to provide greater computing performance throughout the test. It is not very clear how testing with the same temperature of smartphone cases should be carried out in practice and what relation this has to real use scenarios, however, so far there are only Vivo flagships on the market with the Dimensity 9300, so we need to wait for other smartphones to fully evaluate the behavior new MediaTek platform.

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M3 and M3 Max transistor budget increased The new Apple M3 single-chip systems have switched to the 3 nm process technology, but not all have become better than the previous generation, judging solely by the characteristics. The same M3 Pro not only has fewer cores and lower memory bandwidth, it simply contains fewer transistors. [caption id="attachment_77946" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Apple M3 Pro SoC[/caption] The Apple M3 Pro SoC not only has fewer cores than the M2 Pro but also contains fewer transistors According to the latest data, the M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max contain 25, 37, and 92 billion transistors respectively. For comparison, M2, M2 Pro, and M2 Max respectively have 20, 40, and 67 billion. That is, we see that in the case of M2 Pro the transistor budget was cut, apparently due to the removal of one graphics core, changes in the configuration of the CPU cores, and changes in the power subsystem. However in the M3 Max, the number of transistors has increased significantly relative to the M2 Max, but the new SoC has many more cores. As for the M3 Max, its 92 billion transistors are, of course, less than the M2 Ultra's incredible 134 billion, but it's still a huge number. For comparison, even the 96-core AMD Epyc Genoa contains 90 billion.

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Two orders of magnitude more power for AI Qualcomm introduced the Qualcomm S7 and S7 Pro Gen 1 single-chip systems, which should significantly change the wireless headphone market.  [caption id="attachment_73656" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Qualcomm S7 and S7 Pro Gen 1 SoCs[/caption] The new products are audio platforms, the main feature of which is technology support that Qualcomm calls Micro-power Wi-Fi.  As the name suggests, this is a very low-power consumption version of Wi-Fi. This technology allows data transfer at speeds of up to 29 Mbit/s, which accordingly opens up new possibilities for wireless headphones. And these possibilities are greater than one might think.   Qualcomm S7 and S7 Pro Gen 1 SoCs with Micro-power Wi-Fi support introduced Firstly, this is, of course, lossless sound transmission. Qualcomm itself talks about 24-bit/192 kHz mode. Bluetooth simply doesn't allow for that much data transfer, which is why Bluetooth headphones don't support Lossless. Now, it looks like Qualcomm is making it possible.   [caption id="attachment_73657" align="aligncenter" width="640"] Qualcomm S7 and S7 Pro Gen 1 SoCs[/caption] Secondly, the range of Micro-power Wi-Fi is much greater than that of Bluetooth.   Another feature that Qualcomm is touting even more than Lossless support is its AI capabilities. The new platforms provide six times more computing power and almost 100 times (!) more artificial intelligence performance than previous generation platforms.  You might think that headphones don't require any powerful AI, but Qualcomm is talking about more advanced noise reduction systems and sound enhancement technologies.   It has not yet been announced when the first products with new platforms will appear.  

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MediaTek will show Qualcomm what a real SoC should be like. Next week, Qualcomm should introduce a new top-end single-chip system, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which will be included in most flagship smartphones in 2024. However, it is far from certain that this platform will be the most powerful. On the contrary, according to well-known insider Digital Chat Station, Qualcomm's new SoC will be inferior to MediaTek's Diminsity 9300 in three key areas. [caption id="attachment_71112" align="aligncenter" width="600"] MediaTek[/caption] MediaTek will deal a triple blow to Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 We are talking about the performance of the CPU, GPU, and AI ​​task acceleration unit (the so-called neural processor, NPU). The tipster says that the Dimensity 9300's performance in every area will be higher than that of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. And if everything is as described by the insider, Qualcomm is in for a triple whammy. This, of course, does not mean that smartphone manufacturers will suddenly suddenly switch to the MediaTek SoC, but this cannot be ruled out in the future. According to preliminary data, the Dimensity 9300 design will be very different from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, since it will include four Arm Cortex-X4 supercars at once - the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will have only one such core.   Previously, Digital Chat Station was the first to accurately report the specifications and release dates of Redmi K50 and Xiaomi 12.

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The new GPU has one more core It looks like the great and terrible Apple A17 Pro SoC, which Apple actively praised during the presentation of the new iPhones, is in fact only a slightly improved A16 Bionic. New GPU tests show that there is no miracle. [caption id="attachment_56252" align="aligncenter" width="780"] A17 Pro SoC[/caption] Yes, the result in Geekbench is about 20% higher (27,158 points), as Apple itself said, but the catch is that the new GPU has six cores, while the GPU in the A16 Bionic has five cores. It turns out that almost the entire performance increase is provided by the addition of one core, that is, apparently, Apple did not change the GPU architecture in any way. Apple hasn't said anything about it, but it looks like the A17 Pro SoC [caption id="attachment_56253" align="aligncenter" width="404"] A17 Pro SoC[/caption] Let us remember that tests of the processor part also showed a slight increase in performance - and then only in single-threaded mode. Probably, the A17 Pro is in many ways the same A16 Bionic, but transferred to a new process technology and received one additional GPU core.

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Maximum attention is paid to the GPU here Apple iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max smartphones are known to have received the A17 Pro SoC, and this is a very interesting platform that is currently unique on the market. [caption id="attachment_55472" align="alignnone" width="780"] A17 Pro SoC[/caption] It’s worth starting with the fact that this is the first mobile single-chip system and, apparently, the first consumer chip in general, which is produced using the 3 nm process technology at TSCM facilities. Previously, information appeared on the Internet that Apple had temporarily purchased all orders for this technical process. The A17 Pro SoC in the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max is manufactured using a 3 nm process technology The SoC configuration includes only six processor cores: two productive and four energy-efficient. There is also a 16-core NPU and a new six-core GPU. The last one is especially important here. Apple says this is the largest GPU redesign in iPhone history. Compared to the GPU in the Apple A16 Bionic, the new one is 20% faster. But at the same time, it supports hardware acceleration of ray tracing, and MetalFX Upscaling technology allows you to relieve the graphics core. All this together is enough to run full-fledged computer games on the new iPhone Pro: Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Death Stranding, and Assassin's Creed Mirage! Yes, we have yet to evaluate the quality of graphics, resolution, etc., but this takes mobile gaming to previously unprecedented heights.

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According to its characteristics, MediaTek 8300 is similar to the flagship Dimaensity 9200 MediaTek has performed powerfully in the top segment this year: the single-chip Dimensity 9300 has outperformed the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Next up is the release of a new SoC MediaTek sub-flagship class - Dimensity 8300, and, according to published data, it will be very similar to the ex-flagship Dimensity platform 9200. [caption id="attachment_83532" align="aligncenter" width="780"] MediaTek Dimensity 8300 SoC[/caption] MediaTek Dimensity 8300 SoC specifications revealed – potentially it will be a powerful platform The Dimensity 8300 CPU will be three-cluster, with one Cortex-X3 core with a frequency of 2.8 GHz, three Cortex-A715 with a frequency of 2.4 GHz and four Cortex-A510 with a frequency of 1.6 GHz. As for the GPU, its role will be performed by the Mali-G615 MC6. So far, the most powerful platform in sub-flagship smartphones is the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2, but on paper the Dimensity 8300 looks more interesting (Cortex X3 core instead of Cortex-X2, Cortex-A715 core instead of Cortex-A710). It is very possible that the Dimensity 8300 will outperform the Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. The official premiere of MediaTek Dimensity 8300 will take place on November 21. According to rumors, the first smartphone based on it will be Redmi K70E.

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But perhaps it will be cheaper The Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 single-chip system turned out to be very productive, but the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 may not bring any significant increase in power.  [caption id="attachment_82317" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2[/caption] Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 may be even weaker - this is indicated by the characteristics According to insider Digital Chat Station, the new platform will have a 1 + 3 + 4 configuration, which is similar to the current SoC. The frequencies of the new platform will be 2.63, 2.4 and 1.8 GHz, respectively, while the current one is 2.91, 2.49 and 1.8 GHz, that is, the frequency of the super core will be lowered, and the frequency of large cores will increase. In addition, the Andreno 720 will be used instead of the Adreno 725 GPU. As a result, the new platform may turn out to be even less productive than the existing one, despite the name.  Perhaps the new SoC will be cheaper, which will allow it to become more attractive to smartphone manufacturers, because now Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 2 is installed in only a few models.  Digital Chat Station was previously the first to accurately report the specifications and release dates of the Redmi K30, K40, Xiaomi Mi 10 and Mi 11.

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The regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 appears to have a GPU clock of 770 MHz Samsung Galaxy S24 smartphones, as you know, will also receive SoC Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 . But, as in the current generation, it will be a special version of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy.  [caption id="attachment_79607" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Snapdragon SoC[/caption] Insider Ice Universe reports that the Adreno 750 graphics core in this platform will operate at a frequency of 1 GHz! Qualcomm itself does not indicate the GPU frequency in the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, but third-party sources talk about 770 MHz. That is, the increase will be very impressive.   1 GHz for GPU in Snapdragon SoC. True, as we know from the example of the same Galaxy S23, and from many other smartphones, the declared frequencies are not at all a guarantee of a certain performance, since everything depends on the temperature regime. The same Galaxy S23, with the overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, lost in tests to many smartphones with the regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 simply because the latter had better cooling.  Separately, we can recall that the first consumer GPU with a frequency of 1 GHz was the Cape Verde XT based on the Radeon HD 7770 video card, which was released in 2012. It was a GPU with 1.5 billion transistors, which was produced using a 28 nm process technology. At the same time, AMD promised to conquer 1 GHz back in 2009 before the release of the Radeon HD 4890, but the card was released with a core frequency of 850 MHz, and it took another three years for it to finally reach 1 GHz.  Ice Universe was the first to accurately talk about the new trend for smartphones with waterfall screens, about the bangs in the iPhone X, about the new design of the iPhone 14 and about Samsung’s 200-megapixel image sensor.

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It is available in 7 colors Along with the new MacBook Pro, Apple today introduced a new 24-inch iMac. It is based on the M3 chip: the developers say that the performance has doubled compared to the M1-based model. [caption id="attachment_78561" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Apple M3 SoC[/caption] Retina 4.5K display and the latest Apple M3 SoC. New 24-inch iMac unveiled The new iMac has a Retina 4.5K display, a Wi-Fi 6E adapter and a webcam that supports Full HD video streaming. The volume of unified memory was 24 GB. The new product will go on sale on November 7 in seven colors: green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue and silver. The price of the 8-core version is $1300, the 10-core version is $1500.

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There are too few tests yet As you know, in some markets the younger models of the Samsung Galaxy S24 line will be sold with SoC Exynos 2400. And Samsung claims that the graphics processor of this platform is more powerful than that of competitors’ solutions.  [caption id="attachment_76195" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Snapdragon 8 Gen 3[/caption] More precisely, this was stated by the president of the Samsung LSI division.  Will the Exynos 2400 be faster than Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in games? Exynos 2400 will be installed in smartphones released next year. It will perform well as it has better GPU performance than the competition. Let's remember that we are talking about the Xclipse 940 GPU based on the RDNA 3 architecture. According to a statement from Samsung's top manager, this GPU should be more productive than the Adreno 750 in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. At least in the first tests that are already on the Internet, the graphics core of The Exynos 2400 can be either as good as the Adreno 750 (in the OpenCL test) or behind the latter (in the Vulkan test).   We will be able to evaluate the capabilities of the Exynos 2400 only next year when new Samsung products are released, but the first devices based on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will appear on the market shortly.

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The announcement will take place on October 26 There are only a few days left before the Qualcomm press conference, but the characteristics of the single-chip Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 were leaked online earlier. MSPowerUser published a leaked press slide, highlighting that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is built on a “1+5+2” architecture and is mass-produced on a 4nm process. The processor is 30% faster and 20 percent more energy efficient than its predecessor. As for the Adreno 750 GPU, it is 25% faster and more efficient than the previous generation. [caption id="attachment_73458" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Snapdragon 8 Gen 3[/caption] Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 leaked before announcement This time around, the chipset maker has also invested heavily in GPU scaling, allowing games to be played at 8K resolution. The SoC supports features such as global illumination and ray tracing. Qualcomm equipped the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 with support for Unreal Engine 5, as well as Snapdragon Game Super Resolution. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will support 1080p resolution at up to 240 fps, but it is not yet known which games will run at this frequency. Claimed to be improved support for artificial intelligence applications, the Hexagon NPU is 98% faster and 40% more efficient than the previous iteration. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will feature Qualcomm's next-generation 5G modem, delivering 10Gbps downlink and 3.5Gbps uplink speeds. The SoC will also support Wi-Fi 7 and can reach speeds of 5.8 Gbps. In addition, support for USB 3.1 Gen 2 with a maximum bandwidth of 10 Gbps is announced, just like the A17 Pro USB controller. This update means that Android flagships with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor and support for the aforementioned specification can be connected to an external display. [caption id="attachment_73459" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Snapdragon 8 Gen 3[/caption] The presentation of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is expected on October 26.

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Smartphone running Android 14 with 16/512 GB of memory The Dimensity 9300 single-chip system demonstrated its capabilities in the popular AnTuTu benchmark. The result was published by Insider Ice Universe. The tested device ran the Android 14 operating system and is equipped with Dimensity 9300, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of flash memory. The result was more than 2 million points. And, judging by the first comments on social networks, this is significantly more than the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen3. [caption id="attachment_73233" align="aligncenter" width="342"] Snapdragon 8 Gen3[/caption] Qualcomm is making people nervous even before the announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Gen3. According to preliminary data, the Dimensity 9300 architecture will be very different from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, since it will include four Arm Cortex-X4 supercars - the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will have only one such core. Ice Universe was the first to accurately talk about the new trend for smartphones with waterfall screens, about the bangs in the iPhone X, the new design of the iPhone 14 with the Dynamic Island cutout, and different 200-megapixel image sensors. Snapdragon 8 Gen3 will be presented on October 26, and Xiaomi 14 will be announced on the same day.

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On RDNA 2 architecture Samsung does use AMD architecture-based GPUs in its non-top-end Exynos SoCs. The Exynos 1480 platform has appeared on the Internet, and it has an Xclipse 530 GPU. [caption id="attachment_71738" align="aligncenter" width="780"] Samsung Exynos 1480 SoC[/caption] The characteristics of the GPU are unknown, but it is known that it is based on the RDNA 2 architecture, while the Exynos 2400 will receive the Xclipse 940 GPU based on the RDNA 3 architecture. Samsung Exynos 1480 SoC will receive Xclipse 530 GPU As for the processor part, the new platform will receive four large cores with a frequency of 2.75 GHz and four small ones with a frequency of 2.05 GHz. What exactly these nuclei are is still unknown. In Geekbench 6, the new SoC scores 882 and 2808 points in single-threaded and multi-threaded modes, respectively, but this is even less than the Exynos 1380, so the results are hardly worth paying attention to.

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But 20 dollars more expensive than A16 Bionic Despite the state-of-the-art 3nm process technology, the Apple A17 Pro SoC is reportedly less expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. [caption id="attachment_69898" align="alignnone" width="780"] Apple A17 Pro[/caption] Nikkei estimates that each A17 Pro SoC costs $130. That's more expensive than the A16 Bionic at $110, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 costs an impressive $160. The most advanced 3-nanometer SoC Apple A17 Pro turned out to be cheaper than Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Of course, a direct comparison here is somewhat incorrect, since Apple does not sell its platforms to anyone, but in the case of the Snapdragon SoC, there is Qualcomm, which buys platforms from TSMC and then sells them to smartphone manufacturers. Of course, making money from it. Against this background, it will be quite interesting to find out how much the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will cost.