Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, we change: new architecture, new Cortex cores

The recently announced Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 will hold the scepter of the best SoC in the Qualcomm range until the end of the year, during which time the American company usually announces the flagship chip for the following year. On first name there can be no doubt: Qualcomm switched to the new naming just six months ago after using Snapdragon 8xx for several years, so the name of the most powerful SoC for 2023 will be, barring hype, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

The first interesting rumors begin to arrive on his account. The well-known whistleblower Digital Chat Station wrote on Weibo that Qualcomm is planning a revolution in terms of architecture: from the current 1 + 3 + 4, with a powerful Cortex-X2 core, three Cortex-A710s for medium-high loads and four Cortex-A510s devoted to efficiency, we will move on to a more complex, articulated and, moreover, unprecedented structure.

1 + 2 + 2 + 3: THE NEW ARCHITECTURE OF SNAPDRAGON 8 JAN 2

The Snapdragon SM8550, product model of what, in fact, we should know how Snapdragon 8 Gen 2should have architecture 1 + 2 + 2 + 3. Basically, while remaining an octa core, Qualcomm should insert an extra level by doing without a Cortex-A710 and an A510. According to information collected by Digital Chat Station, in fact, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 will have a core Cortex-X3two Cortex-A720 (unpublished), as many Cortex-A710 and three Cortex-A510.

The whistleblower also shared the alleged composition of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 with their respective core codenames: 1x Makalu-Elp, 2x Makalu, 2x Matterhorn, and 3x Klein-R1. If the Cortex-X3 and A720 trade names say nothing, Makalu instead it is already known to the news: Arm spoke about it in October 2020 at the Dev Summit, when he illustrated the evolution of the Cortex cores up to 2022.

snapdragon 8 gen 2, we change new architecture, new cortex cores

Makalu basically represents the next generation: according to the graph distributed at the time by Arm, Cortex-X3 and A720 should guarantee a 30% more performance compared to the Cortex-X1 / A78, a slightly smaller increase than the Cortex-X2 of current Snapdragons. The construction of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 should be entrusted to the TSMC foundries, which will use the same 4-nanometer production process of Snapdragon 8/8 + Gen 1. Performance, in short, should go up, but the hope is that it can also increase efficiency.