Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 and Sound Platforms S5 and S3 Gen 2

News keeps coming from Hawaii where Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit 2022 is underway. After the long-awaited announcement of the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platformwhich we will see in action on the first high-end smartphones from various manufacturers by the end of the year, the San Diego company also announced the Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 platformdeveloped for use in mixed and augmented reality headsets, e Qualcomm S5 and S3 Gen 2 Sound Platform, two new advanced Bluetooth audio platforms. Qualcomm also has outlined his vision to advance mobile computing with artificial intelligence and accelerate the convergence between mobile devices and PCs.

In a period in which we hear more and more often about metaverse, mixed and augmented reality, it becomes essential to create viewers capable of approaching this type of application in the best possible way. Precisely in this regard, Qualcomm has created the new one Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 platform which will allow manufacturers to create a generation of headsets that are lighter, more comfortable and more powerful at the same time.

To better balance the weight and reduce the width of the temples on both sides of the glasses, the Snapdragon AR2 platform uses a multi-chip architecturecombined with custom IP blocks, which includes an AR processora AR coprocessor it’s a connectivity platform. The main processor, built on a 4nm manufacturing process, occupies a 40% smaller PCB area, and the platform delivers overall AI performance approximately 2.5 times faster than the previous Snapdragon XR2 while consuming 50% less power. will allow you to make viewers with a total absorption within 1W.

Snapdragon AR2 works dynamically to deliver latency-sensitive perception data processing directly to the headset and more complex data processing to a smartphone, PC or other compatible device.

The AR processor is optimized for a very low “motion-to-photon” latencyi.e. the time that passes between the movement of the user’s head and the complete transposition of the same into the virtual scene, and supports up to 9 simultaneous cameras for better learning of the surrounding environment and the user’s movement. The advanced perception capabilities of the Snapdragon AR2 include a dedicated hardware acceleration engine that improves user movement tracking and localization, an AI accelerator that helps reduce latency in the most sensitive interactions such as hand tracking or 6DoF (movement in three-dimensional space) and a reprojection engine that allows for a smoother experience.

The AR co-processor aggregates camera and sensor data and enables both eye tracking and iris authentication for foveated rendering (the reduction of display quality in peripheral vision), which optimizes workloads only where the user is looking while reducing power consumption.

The connectivity platformFinally, use the system Qualcomm Fast Connect 7800 with support for Wi-Fi 7 technology that allows you to reach a latency of less than 2 ms between the AR viewer and the smartphone or the connected device. The built-in support for FastConnectXR Software Suite 2.0 enables better control of XR data to improve latency, reduce jitter and avoid unwanted interference.

To enable developers to build high-quality AR applications, both Snapdragon AR2 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 are optimized to be compatible with the development platform Snapdragon Spaces XR.

A few months after the previous generation, Qualcomm announced S5 and S3 Gen 2 Sound Platforms, new low-power audio chipsets with support for Snapdragon Sound technology optimized to work best with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 mobile platform.

The new chipsets add to the features already seen in the previous generation, including support for the Bluetooth 5.3 specification, a bitrate of up to 3 Mbit/s in EDR mode, audio playback in 16-bit 44.1 kHz lossless format and in high 24-bit 96kHz and 24-bit 48kHz definition, stereo recording support through all headset microphones, even spatial audio with dynamic head trackingone improved lossless music streaming it’s a latency of only 48ms between phone and headset for lag-free gaming sessions.

Both platforms are optimized for Bluetooth LE Audio and support the Third generation Qualcomm Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation, which further enhances the listening experience by adapting to both the way the in-ear headphones are worn and the surrounding environment. Also, the mode Adaptive Transparency with automatic speech detection allows for smooth transitions between immersive noise cancellation and natural sound diffusion when a listener needs to hear ambient noises around them.

The Qualcomm S5 and S3 Gen 2 audio platforms are already being distributed by various manufacturers and the first commercial products are expected in the second half of 2023.

At Snapdragon Summit 2022, Microsoft, Adobe and Citi outlined how Qualcomm’s Snapdragon technology is changing their businesses and expressed their full support to help the PC industry modernize by delivering intelligence-enhanced experiences artificial in even thinner products without cooling fans.

Qualcomm’s vision, reads a note, is that of drive the convergence between mobile devices and PCsbringing the best of smartphones to laptops too:

“Advanced software, custom hardware, unprecedented connectivity, and broad ecosystem support set Snapdragon computing products apart from the competition. With Snapdragon at the heart of premium experiences, we continue to enable innovative designs and amazing experiences users deserve, accelerating the transition to Windows on Snapdragon”.

The collaboration between Qualcomm and Microsoft has enabled new experiences by offering AI acceleration on Windows 11. Among them, the Windows Studio Effects Voice Focus and Background Blur features highlighted during the presentation of the Surface Pro 9 5G with Microsoft SQ3 custom processorderived from the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8CX, which allows you to manage computationally intensive tasks on a dedicated AI engine that allows you to lighten the CPU and GPU load.

To further streamline workflows, Adobe used the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3-powered developer kit to ensure its Creative Suite uses dedicated AI processing capabilities for experiences that best pair with its Adobe Sensei AI tool. Adobe also announced that in 2023 also Other Adobe Creative Cloud applications – Fresco and Acrobat – will go native to Windows 11 PCs based on Snapdragon computing platforms.

Citi also announced the transition of more than 70% of its 300,000 global users to mobile computing products, including Snapdragon-based devices including the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s.