Qualcomm unveiled two flagship smartphone processors, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, centered on new on-device artificial intelligence features.. The company said at its annual Snapdragon Summit that the chips are designed to improve personalization for AI agents through new sensing hubs that can run models of up to 200 million parameters..
Qualcomm said the sensing hub can support a local personal scribe, distinguish between speakers and build memory from user behavior to improve task automation suggestions.. The company also said the new chips can run a full voice-in and voice-out agent on the device. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 includes a new accelerator intended to run models more efficiently..
The higher-end Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 can run a 30 billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model locally. Qualcomm said the model activates only a subset of parameters for a given task.. Apple introduced a 20 billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, which it described as the most advanced in its third generation of foundation models..
Qualcomm said the new CPU also gives cameras pixel-level control, along with improved stabilization and motion understanding.. The Extreme version supports video recording at 8K at 60 frames per second and 4K at 240 frames per second for slow-motion capture. It also supports Qualcomm’s Advanced Professional Video codec..
Both chips can use AI to enhance vocals and reduce background noise. They also include Qualcomm’s voice bubble technology, which isolates a user’s noise during calls.. Motorola said at the event that its Motorola Signature 27 smartphone will use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, with general availability planned for later this year..
Qualcomm said it is working on more than 40 AI devices and expects many users to rely on smartphones for AI rather than dedicated hardware.. Featured image credit. Tags: Qualcommsnapdragon
