Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit: Day One Live Blog (6:30pm UTC)
by Ian Cutress & Andrei Frumusanu on December 5, 2017 12:01 PM EST- Posted in
- Notebooks
- Snapdragon
- Qualcomm
- Smartphones
- SoCs
- Live Blog
- 5G
01:19PM EST - This week, in Hawaii, Qualcomm is holding its annual Snapdragon Tech event. This year we're expecting to hear news on the latest Snapdragon 800-series SoC, movements in Qualcomm's 5G and IoT activities, how Qualcomm is pushing into the server space with its Centriq 2400 line of processors, and also the latest news on how Qualcomm and Microsoft are bringing Windows to a new class of Snapdragon-powered, always connected devices set to attack the mid-range laptop, notebook and perhaps tablet markets, with most major OEMs on-board.
01:24PM EST - Ian is on hand covering the presentation, Andrei will be adding commentary
01:25PM EST - The Tech Summit is a 3 day event this year, with deep-dives and round tables on most of Qualcomm's Snapdragon business. VPs and Engineers will be discussing some of Qualcomm's portfolio, as well as some detailed information about what we might hear about today in this keynote
01:26PM EST - Should be starting in a few minutes
01:31PM EST - Opening video
01:31PM EST - Talking about IoT and QC Technology
01:31PM EST - Don McGuire to the stage, VP Product Marketing
01:32PM EST - 'At the heart of our innovation is our Snapdragon Platform'
01:32PM EST - Industry leading connectivity on the path to 5G
01:32PM EST - Over 300 press and analysts from 27 countries in attendance
01:33PM EST - Largest meeting of press and analysts in mobile outside Mobile World Congress
01:33PM EST - Cristiano Amon, EVP QCT to the stage
01:33PM EST - Lots to discuss
01:34PM EST - 'It probably wasn't a hard choice to come to Hawaii for our event'
01:34PM EST - Every smartphone contains a piece of Qualcomm technology, and soon 5G
01:34PM EST - Billions of connected devices
01:35PM EST - #1 Fabless semiconductor company
01:35PM EST - 'Leading system innovation'
01:35PM EST - 'Deliver amazing UX and driving industry transitions'
01:35PM EST - Today is a smartphone revolution
01:36PM EST - redefining computing into a mobile experience
01:36PM EST - Drive the smartphone platform which changes what we do as a society. It doesn't stop here
01:36PM EST - Our goal is to interconnect everything around us
01:36PM EST - Transform the everyday devices around us. This is a goal of 5G
01:37PM EST - 8.6 Billion smartphine shipments forecast between 2017-2021
01:37PM EST - Achieved through innovation in a number of vectors
01:37PM EST - Connectivity, faster connectivity, 5G in a couple of years
01:37PM EST - Processors with AI, and leading multimedia/graphics
01:37PM EST - Creating the digital economy
01:38PM EST - A data point: 30% of the China GDP is digital
01:39PM EST - The smartphone has taken over consumer electronics, productivity, and how we hold personal data
01:39PM EST - 'The smartphone is the custodian of our digital life'
01:40PM EST - 'There is no service that doesn't have a smartphone somewhere in the chain'
01:40PM EST - 'Mobile technology transforms everything around us'
01:41PM EST - We could never be more excited than a company in the mobile ecosystem
01:41PM EST - Mobile technology is transforming IoT, networking, mobile and automotive.
01:42PM EST - This are the main four (notice there's no VR)
01:42PM EST - Outside of mobile, >$3b revenue on this non-standard QC technologies in 2017
01:43PM EST - Mentioning the acquisition of NXP
01:43PM EST - Next transition is 5G
01:44PM EST - '5G makes wireless connectivity as disruptive as electricity'
01:44PM EST - We wont talk about use cases any more, we will assume it is just there
01:44PM EST - Delivering fiber speeds to mobile devices and reducing the cost per bit
01:45PM EST - 5G reduces latency by factor 30 over 4G
01:45PM EST - $12t of 5G goods and services generated by 2035
01:45PM EST - Cloud connectivity anywhere, any time
01:46PM EST - Improving latency will change social experiences, creating responsive social content, making it real time
01:46PM EST - Media and entertainment will become mobile. 5G is all about streaming
01:46PM EST - Netflix accounts for 35% of all US internet traffic
01:47PM EST - The next platform for innovation
01:47PM EST - 5G WILL happen in 2019, according to Qualcomm
01:47PM EST - 40 companies joined QC to accelerate 5G
01:47PM EST - Ready to complete on schedule
01:47PM EST - Targeting 2019 first half
01:47PM EST - Number of trials and pilots already in place
01:48PM EST - Spec compliant tests with China Mobile already happening
01:48PM EST - Product engagements with X50 modem
01:48PM EST - Smartphone form factor already announced with mmWave
01:48PM EST - Mass adoption expected in 2020
01:49PM EST - Enhancing the capability of the LTE network are essential to 5G
01:49PM EST - Foundation will be a gigabit LTE network that carries voice
01:50PM EST - Then sub-6 GHz for multiple gigabits
01:50PM EST - Then mmWave for 10s of Gigabits
01:50PM EST - Also significantly reduces cost
01:50PM EST - Operations on Gigabit LTE are already in place
01:50PM EST - In the process of deploying gigabit
01:51PM EST - A new standard of premium mobile connectivity
01:51PM EST - Allows network operators to differentiate, and transition
01:51PM EST - Now snapdragon
01:51PM EST - 10 year anniversary of Snapdragon
01:52PM EST - This year, SD835 now in almost every premium flagship Android devices
01:53PM EST - First time that the leading mobile SoC took the lead in semiconductor technology over a CPU or GPU
01:53PM EST - The need to advance transistor technology for better smartphone experiences
01:53PM EST - The next logical step to lead in performance and what users care about
01:54PM EST - Always Connected PC is now here
01:54PM EST - Allows users to connect and collaborate at any time
01:54PM EST - Gigabit experiences anywhere on a PC
01:54PM EST - A light, fanless, attractive, portable form factor
01:55PM EST - Beyond a day of useble battery life
01:55PM EST - changes the definition of what you should expect in a PC
01:55PM EST - The Windows 10 everyone knows
01:55PM EST - Allows you to go to work for the day and not take the PC power cord with you
01:56PM EST - No need to carry a tablet either
01:56PM EST - Productivity and entertainment
01:56PM EST - Two behaviours on your smartphone now come to the PC: Instant On and updating email/social media
01:57PM EST - Creating a modern PC experience
01:57PM EST - In the two largest economies, China and US, what features would you like if you could build your own PC? :
01:57PM EST - In the US, 65% want faster connectivity anywhere anytime, 51% wanted battery life
01:57PM EST - In China, 50% want faster connectivity, 61% wanted battery life
01:58PM EST - We are launching with many partners at this event
01:58PM EST - Video time
01:59PM EST - Ready to buy very soon
02:00PM EST - To the stage, EVP of Microsoft Windows and Devices, Terry Myerson
02:00PM EST - Our mission is to empower every person on the planet and more with computing
02:01PM EST - Next wave innovation: always connected PC
02:01PM EST - I've been using an always connected PC for a few months
02:02PM EST - >Listing everything he can do on the PC
02:02PM EST - Optimized version of Office365
02:02PM EST - Screen is instant on, no need to wait
02:03PM EST - Always connected with LTE
02:03PM EST - A week of general use
02:04PM EST - IT is always thinking about devices and culture to improve productivity (and keep costs down)
02:04PM EST - Always connected liberates workflow
02:04PM EST - Snapdragon offers a lot of security features
02:05PM EST - Doing more with less. If every office has network infrastructure, can replace with 5G connected devices everywhere
02:07PM EST - These are modern Windows 10 devices. Windows Hello, Touch and Ink
02:07PM EST - 'The answer seems simple. It's not a question of if, but when'
02:07PM EST - Video time
02:08PM EST - Amon back to the stage
02:09PM EST - The SoC changes PC KPIs
02:10PM EST - New benchmarks for PCs due to Always Connected PCs
02:10PM EST - Can talk about a month of standby time with these new PCs that wasn't possible before
02:10PM EST - Jerry Shen, ASUS CEO, to the stage
02:11PM EST - Now going through some of the devices
02:11PM EST - Oops, upside down photo
02:11PM EST - ASUS has been transforming the PC industries over the last decades
02:12PM EST - 1st Netbook (Eee PC), 1st 2-in-1 (Transformer Pad), 1st Windows Touch (Transformer Book), 1st Ultrabook (Zenbook)
02:12PM EST - More consumers today expect to be mobile, always connected and entertained
02:12PM EST - Growing demand for constant connectivity and true all-day battery life
02:13PM EST - ASUS has a history of designing beautiful devices for PC and Smartphone
02:13PM EST - The first ever gigabit LTE laptop
02:14PM EST - ASUS NovaGo
02:15PM EST - Streaming movies online with ease (with enough data in your packet)
02:15PM EST - 4CA and 4x4 MIMO antenna support
02:15PM EST - One account for multiple devices: eSIM and Nano SIM
02:16PM EST - 8GB DRAM, 256GB of UFS 2.0 storage
02:16PM EST - (at least they're not saying 256GB ROM)
02:17PM EST - 22 hours video playback, 30 days modern standby
02:17PM EST - Comes with a stylus
02:18PM EST - Windows Ink, Windows Hello, Cortana
02:19PM EST - MSRP from $599, 4GB DRAM/64GB
02:19PM EST - $799 for 8GB DRAM, 256GB Storage
02:19PM EST - US, China, Italy, UK, France, Germany, Taiwan
02:21PM EST - Gunther Ottendorfer, COO of Sprint, to the stage
02:21PM EST - Love gadgets
02:21PM EST - 'Sprint has been a pioneer in telecoms for 120 years'
02:22PM EST - First US Carrier for 4G and LTE Plus
02:24PM EST - Excited to work with QC and partners on Always Connected PCs
02:24PM EST - Sprint has been a pioneer in unlimited data (in the US?)
02:24PM EST - Goal is the network of the future - satisfy data hungry customers and spectrum holders
02:25PM EST - Estimated in 2023 that the average smartphone will use 48GB/month
02:25PM EST - Sprint has more spectrum than anyone else in the US, and high-band spectrum which 5G needs
02:26PM EST - First Demo of 5G in the US
02:27PM EST - Investing in millions of small cells
02:27PM EST - Sprint has simple activation and value
02:28PM EST - QC back to the stage
02:29PM EST - Introducing HP
02:29PM EST - Kevin Frost, VP and GM of Consumer Personal Systems HP
02:29PM EST - 'We'll be in Hawaii for any meet you want to have!'
02:30PM EST - HP is about Vision, Mission, and Brand
02:30PM EST - HP Envy x2
02:31PM EST - HP users have a wide range of user experiences: content consumers up to businesses
02:31PM EST - being always connected is an important factor
02:32PM EST - HP Envy x2: Windows 2-in-1 design
02:33PM EST - 6.9mm
02:34PM EST - he keeps moving about, I can't get a clear shot
02:34PM EST - stand still please
02:34PM EST - Always Connected PCs are going to grow the PC Total Addressible Market
02:34PM EST - People are going to use these devices in new ways
02:34PM EST - Good for the PC market
02:35PM EST - Coming Spring 2018
02:36PM EST - Lenovo will have an Always Connected PC lounge at CES. Lenovo media event at CES on the 9th
02:36PM EST - QC back to the stage
02:36PM EST - 'The Always Connected PC revolution is just beginning'
02:37PM EST - A multi-year effort to transform the industry
02:37PM EST - Real-time interaction will change the way we work
02:38PM EST - Always connected to the cloud, sub-ms latency with 10s x gigabits of bandwidth
02:38PM EST - This is just the beginning
02:39PM EST - Significant investment in enterprise deployments today. That will go away with 5G
02:39PM EST - Changing the enterprise approach
02:39PM EST - Kevin Lensing, AMD to the stage
02:40PM EST - Oh wow, didn't expect AMD to be there
02:40PM EST - Talking Ryzen Mobile
02:41PM EST - I guess, Ryzen Mobile with Qualcomm modems?
02:42PM EST - Ryzen, Vega, Ryzen Mobile...
02:43PM EST - AMD technical collaboration with QC with always connected 4G on Snapdragon modems
02:44PM EST - Many AMD notebooks with Qualcomm WLAN solutions today
02:44PM EST - The reference platform on Ryzen Mobile had the 4G LTE modem on it
02:45PM EST - Validated solutions are with OEM partners to bring high-performance computing with always connected mobile PCs
02:45PM EST - Extending 4G to other elements of the mobile ecosystem
02:46PM EST - QC back to the stage
02:46PM EST - Video recapping 10 years of QC
02:47PM EST - Now for premium tier Snapdragon
02:48PM EST - SVP of Qualcomm Semicon to the stage, Alex Katouzian
02:48PM EST - Perfect examples of QC working with their ecosystem partners
02:49PM EST - How QC plans for next gen premium tier solutions
02:49PM EST - Projects start 3 years in advance
02:50PM EST - We go out to everyone: OEMs, App devs, cloud providers, carriers to see what the next project news
02:50PM EST - needs*
02:50PM EST - every 0.1mm of silicon is accounted for
02:50PM EST - When the chip comes back from the fabs, 1000s of hours on testing and tuning, and with partners and customers
02:51PM EST - Six features for the future
02:51PM EST - Content creation, Be in another world (VR), AI, Security, Wireless experience, Power and Battery
02:52PM EST - AI will touch every app on a phone
02:52PM EST - Real-time translation
02:53PM EST - Everyone wants valuable things to be secure: photos, health, passcodes etc
02:54PM EST - Imagine buying a car with just your phone
02:54PM EST - Imagine a bank vault inside the phone
02:54PM EST - Also gigabit LTE
02:54PM EST - "Accessing apps on the web as fast as the memory on your phone"
02:54PM EST - Charging a power user up in minutes
02:55PM EST - Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform announced
02:55PM EST - 'The ultimate in mobile platform capability'
02:55PM EST - The best devices for users
02:55PM EST - Video time
02:56PM EST - More details on Snapdragon 845 tomorrow
02:57PM EST - Samsung to the stage: President of Samsung Foundry, Dr ES Jung
02:57PM EST - 'ES means Engineering Sample'
02:58PM EST - 'Samsung has worked with Qualcomm for 10 years'
02:58PM EST - Happy with what we have achieved together
02:58PM EST - Most amazing chip of the year
02:58PM EST - >What about Exynos ?
02:59PM EST - Best service for QC
03:00PM EST - Help QC be the most innovative company in the world
03:00PM EST - Amon: If that's true, nothing will separate us!
03:01PM EST - Xiaomi CEO, Lei Jun to the stage
03:01PM EST - Xiaomi is a young company, but collaborated with Qualcomm for 6 years
03:02PM EST - Xiaomi flagships have always had Qualcomm
03:02PM EST - 238 million Xiaomi smartphones, powered by Qualcomm
03:02PM EST - Xiaomi's next flagship will use Snapdragon 845
03:03PM EST - Xiaomi is top 5 in quarterly smartphone market and smartphone marketshare
03:04PM EST - in Q3, Xiaomi grew 102.6% YoY
03:04PM EST - Xiaomi is number 4 in China, number 1 in India in Q3
03:04PM EST - Top 5 in 12 global smartphone markets
03:05PM EST - Xiaomi has had key innovations, such as Mi MIX
03:06PM EST - Initially, many companies were not on board, but now everyone wants a full-screen mobile phone design
03:06PM EST - Xiaomi has 102 patents for display-related technologies
03:07PM EST - 52% overseas, 48% china
03:07PM EST - 5756 patents total (23723 applied for)
03:07PM EST - Mi MIX 2 this generation, powered by SD835
03:08PM EST - Xiaomi is a highly innovative company
03:09PM EST - Xiaomi is also an e-commerce platform
03:09PM EST - The benefits for Xiaomi is efficiency for product development and deployment
03:10PM EST - Revenue model is about driving the platform, not just the product
03:11PM EST - QC back to the stage
03:12PM EST - 'There's no better place to be'
03:12PM EST - More discussions today about all that was discussed and more. That's a wrap
28 Comments
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ikjadoon - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link
I’m still curious why Dell won’t be a launch partner. Granted, Windows RT’s software failures probably left a lasting bad taste in their mouth, but ASUS, Lenovo, and HP are game.Dell is a big player, #3 in global market share. And I would’ve thought going private would’ve allowed them to take on bigger risks on more exciting projects. Battery life, if it’s as great as claimed, is a huge win.
So...maybe the better question. What does Dell know that we don’t?
Gunbuster - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link
They know they don't want to be known for some shit product you buy at Walgreens/CVS out of desperation and then throw in a drawer or trash out of frustration after using it for less than 40 hours. But hey whatever gets Microsoft to that 1 billion Win 10 activation's...ikjadoon - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link
I think you are still soured by Atom/Celeron/Pentium/Windows RT devices. This is a much better class of software and hardware.People care about battery life. People care about instant-on. People care about "leaving their charging cord behind". This is going to be i5 performance in almost all ***day-to-day tasks*** with Chromebook battery life.
HStewart - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link
The Atom based devices are not windows RT - those were ARM based devicesGunbuster - Tuesday, December 5, 2017 - link
Suuure. Windows Phone 7 was going to be awesome, then Windows Phone 8 was an all new class of greatness, then Windows Phone 10 was making everything perfect. Look at the track record here. Not even touching on RT. Microsoft's track record says this will get dropped. But by all means buy into a platform that will have 1 year of support, then radio science or half-assed gestures just enough to absolve any contract liability, then a tweet from an exec or product lead saying sorry you got F-'dphilehidiot - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link
I think Gunbuster has a solid point. MS has a track record of screwing people, especially early adopters who paid a premium for products which were then dropped. I personally think that this kind of thing will be best in chromebooks and so on where the demands are way lower. I just have a very bad experience with emulators in general (games ones tend to work fine, but anyone who has tried to run Windows software in Linux will know how slow and frustrating it can be) and whilst I expect that the apps that have been properly compiled to work natively will work fine (assuming office is in this bracket), I expect those running through the emulator to suffer. That it is shipping with 4GB of RAM says a lot about what they expect people to do on this.And this brings us to Gunbuster's point - in order to keep up it will require MS to update their specially compiled versions of Windows 10, Office, etc. Pretty sure if you tried to run x86 Publisher with a large document through an emulator on this kind of hardware it would die on its arse. If they decide to can it, like with RT, you end up screwed. And MS is a big, successful company because it is brutal and has no problems with screwing customers when something isn't commercially viable. And that would be a $600 screwing with only your own blood for lubrication.
MS does not have a good enough track record on this for me to invest. I'd much rather spend my money on something that is established as frankly MS treat their customers like crap and not only does that put you off, they need to learn that reputation and reliability are crucial when you're asking for people to invest in a new platform.
I'm not saying this is a crap product, it could be excellent as long as the use case is right (i.e. not too demanding, mostly using software compiled to run natively on the ARM cores and only the occasional dip into emulator hell) and as long as MS keep up support. I trust that QC will although that may be misguided and is based only on my gut feeling rather than on any data.
</delirious_with_tiredness_ramble>
ikjadoon - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link
>MS has a track record of screwing people, especially early adopters who paid a premium for products which were then dropped.I agree this has happened way too many times in the past, but I don't think they could've convinced AMD, Qualcomm, HP, Lenovo, ASUS, and Sprint to show up to Hawaii to promote this...unless they had pretty decent support here. Remember, half of these companies were BURNED hard on Windows RT. Why would they ever want to give Microsoft another chance...unless it was decent enough?
We do need to wait for it to come, but blatant dismissals just because "it's emulation" are absolutely unwarranted.
As a counterexample to Windows RT and Windows Phone, look at Surface. It went from meh to average to good to great. It's still not my first choice ($$$$), but they've iterated quite well in some places.
>I just have a very bad experience with emulators in general (games ones tend to work fine, but anyone who has tried to run Windows software in Linux will know how slow and frustrating it can be) and whilst I expect that the apps that have been properly compiled to work natively will work fine (assuming office is in this bracket), I expect those running through the emulator to suffer. That it is shipping with 4GB of RAM says a lot about what they expect people to do on this.
For a $599 laptop, 4GB isn't anything unexpected.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Su...
I wish it was 8GB, but we know the upsell game.
Your previous emulators: did Microsoft include CPU-specific native-code DLLs for those emulators? Did they use first-run re-compiling into native code? If not, it's not comparable to the new CHPE system in Windows on ARM. There's a big difference between "a generic emulator" and CHPE.
>in order to keep up it will require MS to update their specially compiled versions of Windows 10, Office, etc.
They already do this for those located on the Windows Store. What was the point of Windows 10 S if not to put more attention onto the Windows Store?
>If they decide to can it, like with RT, you end up screwed.
Or...you just run x86 apps with insane battery life?... Where is the screwing?
>MS does not have a good enough track record on this for me to invest. I'd much rather spend my money on something that is established as frankly MS treat their customers like crap and not only does that put you off, they need to learn that reputation and reliability are crucial when you're asking for people to invest in a new platform.
Oh, nobody should invest a dime until there are reviews. I won't buy one if it's not up to snuff in day-to-day tasks and the battery life results are as close to what they're promising.
Sure, on an emotional level, I also don't like how Microsoft ham-fisted their way into touch (remember Windows 8? I remember Windows 8) and mobile-first computing. But I do see a difference between 2010 Microsoft and 2017 Microsoft. Maybe I'm the only one.
Let's wait for benchmarks and reviews. I don't think it's terrible enough to be DOA, but I don't think it's a holy grail either (where is Dell? Where are AT&T and Verizon?).
philehidiot - Thursday, December 7, 2017 - link
Ikjadoon - all I'll say to that very fine set of counter points is... Yeh, I can't really disagree too much with most of what you've said. I think if MS want to prove themselves to have changed then this is the product they'll have to stand behind. It's potential is great. I think it'll live or die on its emulator. How they treated people by tricking them into windows 10 upgrades was a disgrace and I personally think this proves they have not changed but I am willing to be convinced.That these companies are coming back for more doesn't prove to me that they are going to keep Microsoft on track / on board. That company is a behemoth and will do as it pleases and past experience shows to me that they're willing to screw hardware partners over just as much as consumers. They know that we all need them.
You are right regarding my previous use of emulators. They have all been essentially amateur efforts rather then supported by MS and also of note it has been over a decade since I last tried one. I prefer to just use Windows...
The comment about being screwed if they stop supporting it is assuming that the emulation isn't as good as they're making out but it would also leave security holes if they revoked support entirely. Whether they'd go this far or not us questionable but for me it's the fact that the question is open to be asked without an immediate "if course they wouldn't" that causes deep concern.
Perhaps the pricing is different here in the UK but I'd never buy a new laptop with less than 8GB. That's more about longevity than actual immediate need. My current laptop is 6 years old and still going strong which gives you an idea of how I invest for the long term.
You are right about surface but you sure as hell pay through the nose for it. Windows phone had such potential, it's a real shame.
Thanks again for taking the time to provide the comprehensive reply. Always good to engage in discussion rather than argument on the net.
peevee - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link
"This is going to be i5 performance"Are you nuts, or just work for Qualcomm?
ikjadoon - Wednesday, December 6, 2017 - link
Have you seen a single demo? You act like this is "all brand-new, we've never seen this before." "They just sprung this on us! We've absolutely no idea of any of it works or even seeing in real-life. It's never been in a functioning system with a major OEM. Does it even boot in under an hour?"Don't belittle with your accusations. People can watch the demos: they're *all* over YouTube at this point. Of course I don't work at Qualcomm, but I also realize what a normal consumer wants. It ain't Geekbench, kitten.
https://images.idgesg.net/images/article/2017/12/p...
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=windo...