Qualcomm is is working with
its Snapdragon 820 chip, which will launch later this year. At the heart
of the 820 is Qualcomm’s first ever cognitive computing platform called
“Zeroth”, which was first demoed at CES in January.
Zeroth will act as an ‘active’ personal assistant, rather than a
‘passive’ one. A modern smartphone has around 10 sensors attached to it,
which are constantly absorbing information. Zeroth will use those
sensors, process that data and actively make decisions for you to
improve your smartphone experience.
A good example of Zeroth in use is smartphone photography. Typically
users rarely venture outside of the automatic settings – few tinker with
manual controls to optimise pictures. This is where Zeroth will take
over, as Qualcomm’s VP of marketing Tim McDonough explains.
“We trained Zeroth how to recognise the scene that you typically use
when you have to manually select. Landscape, portrait and low-light –
all those settings you can use but nobody does. Zeroth knows if it’s
outside, inside, daytime or night-time. We also taught it to recognise
objects.”
“If I point it at my hand, it will know that it’s a hand and a watch.
So you combine the data ‘is this an inside shot or an outside shot’,
‘is it a beach, a mountain, a flower or a piece of fruit.’ What you end
up with is scene-data and object data, then you really choose the
perfect settings to take the best picture.”
Zeroth will also index your pictures and make them searchable by
keywords. For example, searching for ‘me at the beach’ will find the
correct pictures because Zeroth knows what you and the beach look like.
Qualcomm is hoping that by releasing the SDK, developers will find
interesting ways to use Zeroth and fulfil its potential. It’s also
hoping that Zeroth represents a significant enough jump in technology
that will put some distance between itself and the competition, whilst
winning back business from the likes of Samsung and other OEMs.
McDonough is confident the 820 will do just that.
“We win business based on having tech that no one else has. And that
there’s a big enough difference to the alternatives. That’s how the
pendulum has swung back over the years. With the 820, we’re going to
really ratchet up the differentiation.”
“We’re going to offer something so different that people just have to have it.”
The 820, will have its own built-in LTE modem, helping reduce costs, that the Exynos has separately.
Rumors still saying Samsung will built the Qualcomm`s Snapdragon 820 chip with 14nm.
The 14nm process will allow smaller and less costly chips, and better power efficiency.
The move to Samsung for chip fabrication may also be an attempt by Qualcomm to win a place for the chip in Samsung’s next Galaxy S flagship smartphone due out in 2016.
For the latest Galaxy S6 phone, Samsung chose to use its own Exynos chip, rather than the Snapdragon 810.
Qualcomm is expected to sample the Snapdragon 820 chip to their customers the 2H 2015.
Forbes
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