Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 670 Processor, to Power Mid-Range Smartphones

Qualcomm has expanded its Snapdragon 600 processors series. The Snapdragon 670 is the latest addition to the family. The all-new processor is likely to power mid-range devices.

Snapdragon 670 features integrated architectures, including Qualcomm Kryo CPU, Qualcomm Spectra ISP, Qualcomm AI Engine and Snapdragon X12 LTE modem. Qualcomm claims that the new mobile platform gives OEMs freedom to add more features and experiment with different mobile device sizes than with our previous generations. The CPU uses two performance cores (of up to 2.0GHz) and six efficiency cores (of up to 1.7GHz), which according to the company, helps it deliver up to 15 percent higher performance than its predecessor.

The Snapdragon 670 uses the same digital signal processing (DSP) found in higher-tier mobile platforms, which is Qualcomm Hexagon 685 DSP. The always-on, always-sensing processor boasts efficient sensor management abilities, ideal for computing algorithms that make AI-powered apps.

The company has integrated its third-generation AI Engine, designed to deliver up to 1.8x AI performance than available in the previous generation. The company calims with its the processor bringing AI capabilities on-device, users can expect near improved responsiveness, privacy and enhanced reliability even when the device lacks a network connection.

Qualcomm’s AI Engine offers developers a variety of choices to create better apps and immersive multimedia. This includes a wide range of tools, including the Qualcomm Neural Processing SDK and Hexagon Neural Network (NN). Additionally, it supports Caffe, Caffe2, TensorFlow, TensorFlowLite, and ONNX (Open Neural Network Exchange).

The Snapdragon 670 is the first 600-tier platform to feature the Qualcomm Spectra 250 ISP, the second generation of the company’s ISP technology. ISP helps enables features such as noise reduction, image stabilization and active depth sensing.

Users can also record video with Ultra HD Video Capture, a feature that the chip giant claims uses up to 30 percent less power than its predecessor. Overall, the Qualcomm Spectra 250 ISP supports up to 25MP for single cameras and 16MP for dual cameras.

Snapdragon 670 is equipped with X12 LTE Modem, which is designed to support fast speeds in congested areas and lock onto strong signals where coverage is weak. Specifically, the modem supports download speeds of up to 600Mbps and upload speeds of up to 150Mbps, so users can stream movies and download music without a hitch.

Snapdragon 670 will hit market later this year.-Gadgets Now