- Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM -0.5%) has used the first day of the Mobile World Congress to share details about the Snapdragon 820, a next-gen flagship processor (the successor to the 810, which is set to begin shipping in commercial hardware) that will begin sampling in 2H15.
- The 820 makes use of Qualcomm's Zeroth neural networking processor tech, as well as a next-gen ARM CPU core architecture called Kryo (the successor to Qualcomm's Krait); the 810 used off-the-shelf ARM Cortex A-57 cores. Whereas the 810 uses TSMC's 20nm manufacturing process, the 820 will use an unnamed "leading edge FinFET process node" (quite possibly Samsung/Globalfoundries' 14nm process).
- Among other things, Zeroth is said to enable "computer vision, on-device deep learning and smart cameras that can recognize scenes, objects, and read text and handwriting," always-on "awareness Devices that can anticipate user needs by always being aware of their surroundings," and "dynamic audio that can adapt surround sound based on head movement and facial recognition." Qualcomm is counting on the technology to be differentiator as it squares off against MediaTek, Intel, Nvidia, and (indirectly) Samsung.
- Qualcomm has also announced Snapdragon Sense, a fingerprint sensor solution that relies on ultrasonic (sound wave-based) fingerprint recognition rather than (like existing mobile solutions) capacitive touch-based recognition. Qualcomm notes ultrasonic recognition allows a sensor to "scan through a smartphone cover that is made of glass, aluminum, stainless steel, sapphire and plastics," and to "scan through various contaminants that might be present on the finger, such as sweat, hand lotion and condensation."
- Sense is expected to be available in commercial hardware later this year, and is "already in various sampling stages with most major OEMs."
- Leading mobile fingerprint sensor provider Synaptics (SYNA) is selling off in response. The decline comes in spite of yesterday's Galaxy S6 reveal and a $10 Cowen target hike (to $105). This morning, Synaptics announced a fingerprint sensor solution for gaming hardware, as well as the availability of its TDDI (integrated touch controller/display driver) offerings for mobile devices.
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