Snapdragon 8 Gen1 is made on Samsung 4nm process, not TSMC

Qualcomm has made its new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 platform official, announcing the new SoC during its annual Snapdragon Tech Summit in Maui, Hawaii.

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The new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 SoC was thought to be fabbed on TSMC's process node, but during a Q&A session company CEO Christiano Amon announced the new chip was being fabbed by Samsung on its new 4nm process node.

Alex Katouzian, SVP and General Manager of Qualcomm's Mobile, Compute, and Infrastructure division also chimed in, saying that the flagship new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 SoC is not made by TSMC. The new Snapdragon 8 Gen1 will be a major competitor to Samsung's upcoming Exynos 2200, Apple's new A15 Bionic, and MediaTek's just-announced Dimensity 9000 SoC.

• Read more: Qualcomm Snapdragon brand change: Qualcomm name dropped, more coming
• Read more: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen1 phones: 4500mAh battery, 65W charging
• Read more: Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon 898: preparing for November 30 unveil
• Read more: Samsung Galaxy S22 series: Qualcomm Snapdragon 898, Feb 2022 release

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Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Key Features:

• Connectivity: Equipped with the 4th gen Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System, the new Snapdragon 8 is the most advanced 5G mobile platform and the world's first 5G modem-RF solution to reach 10 Gigabit download speeds. Snapdragon 8 features the Qualcomm® FastConnect™ 6900 Mobile Connectivity System supporting the fastest Wi-Fi speeds available-up to 3.6 Gbps-over Wi-Fi 6 and 6E to ensure games and apps perform smoothly, even with multiple devices on one network.
• Camera: This new premium mobile platform takes smartphone photography beyond pro. Snapdragon Sight™ Technology includes the first commercial 18-bit mobile ISP, capturing over 4000x more camera data than its predecessor for extreme dynamic range, color, and sharpness at staggering speeds up to 3.2 gigapixels per second. This is also the first 8K HDR video capture in a mobile platform and it's capable of capturing in the premium HDR10+ format that's loaded with over a billion shades of color. Video will look even more stunning thanks to the new Bokeh Engine which adds beautiful soft backgrounds to videos; it's like Portrait Mode for video capture. Snapdragon 8 also includes a fourth separate ISP, the new Always-On ISP, which allows the camera to run with extremely low power consumption so users can experience always-on face unlocking and locking if your face isn't present for heightened privacy.

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• AI: The 7th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine is equipped with the ultra-high performance and efficient Qualcomm® Hexagon™ processor, featuring a 2x faster tensor accelerator and 2x larger shared memory than its predecessor. Users can capture pro-quality images thanks to intelligently integrated Leica Leitz Look filters-recreating their legendary bokeh effect. The latest AI-based natural language processing from Hugging Face can intelligently serve as your personal assistant by prioritizing and analyzing your notifications. Working with Sonde Health, we are using on-device AI to accelerate their models that can analyze a user's vocal patterns to determine if a user is at risk for health conditions such as asthma, depression, and COVID-19. Also, a new always-on AI system is powered by the 3rd Gen Qualcomm® Sensing Hub with more data streams being processed using lowest power AI.

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• Gaming: With over 50 Snapdragon Elite Gaming features, Snapdragon 8 delivers ultra-smooth responsiveness, color-rich HDR scenes at the highest visual quality, and desktop-level capabilities that are mobile-firsts. The new Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU provides a 30% boost in graphics rendering capabilities and 25% improvement in power savings compared to the previous generation to unlock a new generation of mobile GPUs. The platform delivers, Adreno Frame Motion Engine to can generate twice as many frames while maintaining the same power consumption. Another mobile-first feature is Variable Rate Shading Pro to provide a finer grain of control for game developers to further tune game performance. Desktop-level Volumetric rendering brings unrivaled realism to fog, smoke, and particle effects that have been optimized for mobile by Qualcomm Technologies' in-house Snapdragon Studios.
• Sound: Users can experience a new class of crisp, crystal-clear voice and music with integrated Bluetooth 5.2 and Snapdragon Sound™ Technology, now featuring Qualcomm® aptX™ Lossless Technology for CD-quality lossless wireless audio. This is the first Snapdragon mobile platform to support all-new LE audio features such as broadcast audio, stereo recording, and voice back-channel for gaming.
• Security: Snapdragon 8 features vault-like security to help keep users' data protected. This is the first Snapdragon platform to feature a dedicated Trust Management Engine to achieve heightened security and provide additional Root of Trust for apps and services. Snapdragon 8 is also the world's first mobile platform to feature Android Ready SE-the new standard for digital car keys, drivers' licenses, and more. Additionally, the Qualcomm® Secure Processing Unit features support for iSIM, an integrated SIM card so users can easily and securely connect to cellular networks without a SIM card.