Windows 10: New Qualcomm QCS400 SoC series brings AI enhanced smart audio

Brink · Mar 19, 2019

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The future of smart audio is here.

With the new Qualcomm QCS400 SoC series, we’re bringing immersive sound quality together with on-device artificial intelligence (AI) designed to deliver evolved audio experiences throughout the home. From the simple smart assistant to the hi-fidelity soundbar, this exciting new technology is engineered to deliver better sound quality, optimal battery life, and next-gen voice control compared to our previous technology.

We chatted with Rob Saunders, director of product marketing at Qualcomm Technologies International, Ltd. to find out how the Qualcomm QCS400 SoCs have been engineered specifically for consumer audio within the expanding IoT and how they’ll support their customers and enrich the audio experiences of consumer electronics users.

What are the three most important user experiences that the Qualcomm QCS400 SoCs make possible?

First, the Qualcomm QCS400 SoCs support the evolutionary improvements in voice UI that are critical to realizing the vision of the connected smart home. A combination of highly-integrated tech — including our advanced Qualcomm AI Engine, far-field multi-keyword voice pickup with beamforming, and low-power voice detection — compared to our previous technology, it supports faster response times for voice commands, more robust voice pickup when people are using their speaker in noisy environments, and local voice control, which makes it possible for smart speakers to respond even when they aren’t connected to the internet.

Added to that, these SoCs can drive smarter, more immersive sound quality, particularly for home cinema experiences compared to our previous SoCs. With its high-performance, low-power architecture, the Qualcomm QCS400 can support rich audio features, including Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, that help people to have a powerful surround-sound experience with a soundbar and networked speaker set-up. People want to be further immersed in the thrill of a car chase or the excitement of a live stadium concert, and this helps to make that a reality.

The third thing to call out is that the Qualcomm QCS400 SoCs are designed to make it easier for people to enjoy this great sounding audio virtually everywhere. There are two ways we look to achieve this. One is with robust, multi-channel connectivity that is engineered to enable smart speakers to be networked together in a room or around the home. This means people can have ample control of the audio devices on their home network and play back music and audio in different rooms or the whole home at the same time. The second way we help enable great audio is by driving improvements in power performance and battery life — people can take their speakers with them into the yard or even to the park or beach and enjoy playback with voice commands.

Would you tell us more about the superior audio features you mentioned?

The new SoCs have a quad-core processor as well as a dedicated audio DSP offering up to 32 channels of processing, as well as rich features like Dolby Atmos and DTS:X. It’s all about helping our customers to deliver a rich, more immersive, cinema-like experience in the home.

In addition, with Qualcomm DDFA amplifier technology for premium audio amplification and Qualcomm aptX Bluetooth technology, we’re supporting great sound quality on other wireless audio devices like smart speakers. And, the Qualcomm QCS400 SoCs are designed to also deliver low-latency whole-home networking for virtually seamless audio streaming minus the lag or delay.

Apart from low-latency streaming, there are other rich connectivity features on these SoCs — for example, support for tri-radio coexistence of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Zigbee channels all at once. This is a complex feature that supports music streaming and home control at the same time, and by having it pre-integrated we’re helping save development time for our customers. With all this combined, we believe this SoC series is really delivering quite an impressive array of audio capabilities and features.

One of the most notable advances on the Qualcomm QCS400 SoCs is the on-device AI. Can you tell us more about that?

Our Qualcomm AI Engine is an exciting feature of the Qualcomm QCS400 SoCs. AI is a growing force in all areas of technology because it gives devices the ability to learn ways of doing things, instead of relying on programmed logic — by learning in this way, they can be more efficient and effective. On Qualcomm QCS400, we’ve taken this AI capability and applied it to help us make a smarter, more robust Voice UI than our previous technology. We believe that smart speakers with this technology can more accurately recognize wake words, respond faster, and perform many commands without connecting to the cloud. This is better for on-the-go use and at home control.

Our Qualcomm AI Engine is compatible both with third-party neural networking frameworks and our own Qualcomm Neural Processing Engine (NPE) SDK — tools that will help developers utilize this advanced AI to create their own machine-learned features. This is a powerful capability.

How does the Qualcomm QCS400 SoC series span across different types and tiers of devices?

Qualcomm QCS400 is designed to underpin smart audio devices from a home assistant or portable smart speaker through to a high-end audio/visual receiver (AVR). And within those categories, it’s possible to have a broad spectrum of features and price points.

We looked to achieve this scalability by creating SoC variants at different tiers to suit the needs of different product categories. By including our Audio Development Kit (ADK), we also looked to provide flexibility in the SoC design to give developers the power to configure and customize a broad range of features for their end products. The Qualcomm AI Engine is also designed to be highly flexible, and through our Qualcomm NPE SDK, audio manufacturers can utilize this powerful system to create and run their own machine-learned inferences.

What does the future of smart audio look like?

It will be connected — both to the cloud and between local devices. This means robust networking across all channels will be a critical technology requirement.

It could be even smarter, with more intuitive and robust voice interaction and more opportunities for personalization (through biometrics, for example) and security features. These things are necessary to help truly deliver the convenience benefits that smart audio devices could offer people.

Finally, sound could be even higher quality and more immersive across audio devices. From wireless headphones and earbuds, to soundbars and home cinema. Our 2018 State of Play report shows sound quality has repeatedly been the highest-ranked factor by consumers when choosing wireless audio products. That’s not going away, and I think people will become even more aware of sound quality and care even more about it over time.

Learn more about how the QCS400 SoCs and the Smart Audio Platform 400 are made to deliver smarter audio.
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Source: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/20...eets-device-ai

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Brink · Mar 19, 2019

Qualcomm announces full featured Wi-Fi 6 mobile SoC at MWC19

The next generation of Wi-Fi is here — Wi-Fi 6. Qualcomm Technologies is changing the game with this latest breakthrough in connectivity by going above and beyond standards specifications to dramatically enhance user experiences with advancements in speed, latency, coverage, and capacity. Coupled with significant improvements in battery efficiency and a suite of Wi-Fi security protocols based on WPA3, we are aiming to set a new bar by which all other solutions will be measured.

At MWC19 Barcelona, we delivered Wi-Fi 6 to the world in two groundbreaking ways: First, we announced Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform-based devices with our WCN3998 chipset integrated to support key Wi-Fi 6 features, and second, we provided our distinctive view of what our full-featured Wi-Fi 6 mobile SoC looks like, ready for standard certification later this year.

What is Wi-Fi 6?

Wi-Fi 6, the sixth generation of Wi-Fi that’s based on the 802.11ax specification, is a cousin of sorts to 5G. Both these massive leaps in connectivity technology are designed not only in response to the global macro-trends of skyrocketing data and low-latency demands of today’s mobile experiences, but also to help usher in a new decade of possibilities for how we connect and interact with each other, our devices, and the world around us.

As users continue to add more connected devices to their networks, and many of those devices support a new-class of bandwidth hungry applications such as augmented or virtual reality (AR/VR), the importance of Wi-Fi 6 will become more pronounced. Wi-Fi 6 is a powerful tool designed to deliver reliable and high-speed performance to more devices in more places.

Our 30 years of technical expertise in mobile networks and our unique culture of innovation helps us develop the most advanced version of our Wi-Fi and to realize the full potential of Wi-Fi 6.

Qualcomm Technologies’ approach to Wi-Fi 6

Wi-Fi 6-ready Snapdragon Mobile Platforms

With the rapid adoption of our Wi-Fi 6-based networking platforms, we were also driven to ensure all users could enjoy the benefits of Wi-Fi 6 on their smartphones in the same time frame. For this reason, we accelerated support for some key Wi-Fi 6 features on our Wi-Fi 6-ready 2x2 WCN3998 chipset, well ahead of the standards timeline. As we announced at the Snapdragon Tech Summit last December, this chipset is an important part of the Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform, giving it access to Wi-Fi 6 advancements for extended capacity, range and performance (8-stream sounding MU-MIMO), power efficiency (Target Wake Time) and Advanced Security (WPA3).

An assortment of these first Snapdragon 855 phones designed to support both 5G and Wi-Fi 6 features are being launched at MWC19 Barcelona. And while Snapdragon 855 devices were the first for Qualcomm Technologies, you can expect these capabilities to appear on other Snapdragon Mobile Processors in the future with our 2x2 WCN3998 and 1x1 WCN3988 Wi-Fi 6-ready chipsets.

Blazing the trail to full-featured Wi-Fi 6

Our MWC19 Barcelona announcement of the Qualcomm QCA6390 Connectivity SoC for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 unveiled the next leap forward. This SoC builds on our previous capabilities with additional support for the full set of Wi-Fi 6 features, and in most cases, our implementation goes far beyond what is required by the standard.

Most notably, this new flagship Wi-Fi 6 SoC offers our customers and end users:

Gigabit-class with peak speeds approaching 1.8 Gbps, redefining mobile user experiences

Supporting features: 1024 QAM in both bands along with Dual Band Simultaneous capability

Higher capacity and efficiency to support many more devices

Supporting features: 8-stream sounding and OFDMA and multi-generational, field-proven MU-MIMO

Supporting features: Enhanced utilization of 2.4 GHz band, and 8-stream sounding

Supporting features: Target Wake Time, advanced architectural enhancements and 14nm process node technology

Supporting features: WPA3 Personal, Enterprise, Enhanced Open, and Easy Connect

Supporting features: Bluetooth 5.1 and Qualcomm Technologies enhancements for link resilience, audio quality, and power efficiency, all while only requiring a single antenna

Long-range performance for improved experiences at the edge of the network

Power efficiency for a longer battery life

WPA3: the broadest and most secure protocol suite available

Bluetooth advancements that support wireless ear buds with increased range, improved audio quality, and longer battery life

In total, this rich set of features provide a unique and high-performance toolkit for our customers and application developers to leverage as they continue to innovate and revolutionize mobile connectivity experiences into the next decade.

Qualcomm Wi-Fi 6 series for the 5G era

With smartphones that include Qualcomm Technologies’ advanced implementation of Wi-Fi 6 features such as 8-stream sounding, power saving features and full suite of WPA3 security, we’re are providing new Wi-Fi capabilities that customers can broadly enjoy today. Adding to our latest feature-rich QCA6390 Wi-Fi 6 SoC, we expect our customers to continue to be ahead of the curve in delivering Wi-Fi 6 performance for a new era of connected experiences well into the future.

It takes more than just providing a single technology into a device platform to create a compelling user experience. It takes a system-level design and development approach to bring together expertise that spans decades and multiple technologies — from licensed to unlicensed spectrum and across mobile and infrastructure products — and establish a strong foundation of platform performance and coexistence optimization across Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, LTE, and 5G. It takes experience in delivering multiple generations of technology innovation to our mobile and computing customers that, in turn, enable them to innovate and grow on top of the foundation of our inventions. It takes Qualcomm Technologies.

Expect to see Qualcomm Technologies’ Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity solutions to continue to amaze and be at the heart of the devices you love.
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Source: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/20...red-mobile-soc

See also: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releas...me-changing-wi

Mark Isi · Mar 19, 2019

Audio Enhancements

Hi Charlotte,

One step that we could try is to manually re-install the Audio Enhancement, and see if it helps. First, go to HP's website and download the latest Audio Enhancement installer (IDT) and save it to your Downloads folder. Once done, follow the remaining steps
below:

Search for Control Panel via Cortana search and hit the
Enter key.

Open the Device Manager and click Sound, Video and Game controllers.

Right click the IDT device and select Uninstall.

Restart your PC.

Once your PC restarts, it should automatically load all audio driver. Let it complete the process.

Go to the Downloads folder, right click on the IDT installer and select
Run as administrator.

Once complete, check if you have the enhancements back and let us know the outcome.

Brink · Mar 19, 2019

Qualcomm Announces New Flagship Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform

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During the second day of the annual Snapdragon Technology Summit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ:QCOM), unveiled the newest generation in the 8 Mobile Platform Series, the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 Mobile Platform. This is the world’s first commercial mobile platform supporting multi-gigabit 5G, industry-leading AI and immersive extended reality (XR) collectively, ushering in a new decade of revolutionary mobile devices. Using new chip architectures built on leading 7nm process technology, Snapdragon 855 will offer users long-lasting battery life and superior experiences in areas such as imaging, audio, gaming and XR.

“As operators launch 5G networks in early 2019, consumers will for the first time be able to take advantage of transformative 5G consumer experiences on mobile devices with Snapdragon 855,” said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager, mobile, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We are proud to share our technology inventions and be among the first to bring mobile 5G to the world.”

Connectivity: The Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform unleashes transformative 5G experiences to the world, with the Snapdragon X50 5G modem, while harnessing the best in multi-gigabit 4G connectivity with the built in Snapdragon X24 LTE modem. With Snapdragon X50, this platform supports 5G for both Sub-6 GHz and mmWave frequency bands, providing blazing-fast responsiveness and unprecedented speeds. It is designed to deliver Multi-Gigabit speeds that were previously unachievable in mobile communication. In mmWave frequency bands, users can expect up to 20x faster average performance compared to some of the current commercial solutions, to master the extreme data demands of today and pave the way for next-generation immersive experiences, including multiplayer VR gaming, shopping with AR, and real-time video collaboration. Snapdragon 855 also offers powerful next generation Wi-Fi performance via the Qualcomm® Wi-Fi 6-ready mobile platform, including advanced features like 8x8 sounding to serve more devices more efficiently (up to 2x improvement over 4x4 sounding devices), Target Wakeup Time for up to 67% better power efficiency, and the latest security with WPA3. Snapdragon 855 also supports mmWave Wi-Fi, utilizing the Qualcomm® 60 GHz Wi-Fi mobile platform. This industry first 802.11ay-based platform takes Wi-Fi speeds up to an unprecedented 10 Gbps and brings wire-equivalent low latency. Snapdragon 855 also enhances its support for Qualcomm TrueWireless™ Stereo Plus technology to meet growing demands in the headset and hearables markets for truly wireless devices by optimizing for low latency between left and right earbuds as well as lowering the power consumption allowing longer listening time per battery charge.

Performance: Snapdragon 855 is engineered to deliver industry leading performance and efficiency. It features our cutting-edge Qualcomm® Kryo™ 485 CPU built on Arm Cortex Technology, offering up to a 45% performance improvement over our previous generation flagship platform. The new Qualcomm® Adreno™ 640 GPU provides up to 20% faster graphics than the previous generation while continuing to lead the industry in performance per watt. Gaming experiences using Adreno graphics will achieve a new level of realism with through support of Vulkan 1.1, high dynamic range (HDR), and physically based rendering (PBR).

AI: Snapdragon 855 features the 4th generation multi-core Qualcomm® AI Engine, which offers a total capacity of more than 7 trillion operations per second (7 TOPs), and 3x the AI performance compared to the previous generation mobile platform. The all new Qualcomm® Hexagon™ 690 Processor includes a newly designed Hexagon Tensor Accelerator (HTA) and four Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX) - a doubling of vector processing from our previous generation flagship, plus four scalar threads, all of which provide a powerful blend of dedicated and programmable AI acceleration. Adreno GPU hardware enhancements that improve AI acceleration include 50% more arithmetic logic units, and new instructions to further accelerate AI performance have been added to the all-new Kryo 485 CPU. The 4th gen Qualcomm AI Engine software suite brings a number of enhancements to the Qualcomm® Neural Processing SDK, Google’s Android NN-API, and to both Hexagon NN and the Qualcomm® Math Library. And a broader range of optimized network precisions and neural network classes are now available to support the surge of on-device AI voice, camera, gaming and XR user experiences, many of which are available from Qualcomm Technologies’ AI software collaborators and will be featured on next-generation Snapdragon 855 devices. The expanding roster of AI software collaborators taking advantage of 4th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine capabilities now includes AI Speech, AnyVision, iFlytek, Elevoc and Nalbi.In addition, Snapdragon 855 brings a more advanced on-device Voice Assistant using dedicated AI acceleration for echo cancellation and noise suppression, so users can talk to their Voice Assistant device at any time.

Camera: Snapdragon 855 sets new standards for capturing stunning photos and videos. The new Qualcomm Spectra™ 380 ISP integrates numerous hardware accelerated computer vision (CV) capabilities, enabling the world’s first announced CV-ISP to provide cutting-edge computational photography and video capture features while at the same time offering up to 4x power savings. The CV-ISP includes hardware-based depth sensing which enables video capture, object classification, and object segmentation all in real-time in 4K HDR at 60fps. This means a user can capture a video and accurately replace selected objects or backgrounds in the scene in real-time all with 4K HDR resolution using over 1 billion shades of color. Even further, the new Qualcomm Spectra 380 ISP is the first announced ISP to support video recording using HDR10+, so the more than 1 billion shades of color can be captured with exceptional contrast and visual brilliance. Finally, in order to efficiently store this amazing content, Snapdragon 855 adds hardware acceleration for HEIF file format encoding, reducing file sizes by 50% for efficiently saving and sending user generated content.

Entertainment: Snapdragon 855 provides consumers with an upgraded entertainment platform for more realistic gaming, improved cinematics, and higher performing XR.

Gaming: Snapdragon 855 is the first platform to offer our new Snapdragon Elite Gaming Experience. This experience includes cinematic color grading in true HDR (>1 billion colors), filmic tone-mapping, demanding physically based rendering (PBR), and support for the Vulkan 1.1 graphics library. Even the most demanding games will run smoother with the Snapdragon 855, with custom algorithms designed to reduce dropped frames by >90%. Multiplayer gaming is improved by reducing latencies, and the Snapdragon 855 platform lowers latency for users choosing the industry’s first 5G, the industry’s first 11ay-based 60GHz Wi-Fi, or simply algorithmic enhancements to reduce latencies using existing 802.11 standards. Finally, the audio experience has been upgraded with the new Qualcomm® aptX™ Adaptive audio codec and support for Qualcomm TrueWireless Stereo Plus. aptX adaptive is designed to provide the ultimate wireless listening experience by combining robust premium audio quality with significantly lower latency for gaming and multimedia applications.

Movies: The enhanced cinema experience will also enable HDR10+ playback – a commercial first on mobile. Users can also watch more movies on a single charge, as newly introduced hardware accelerated H.265 and VP9 decoding offers higher energy efficiency.

XR: Snapdragon 855 also enables volumetric virtual reality (VR) immersive video experience at 8K resolutions. This, in addition to many of the new capabilities already described, gives users the ultimate freedom to watch, learn, play and share dynamic experiences in real time, even further blurring the visual lines between physical and virtual worlds.

The Snapdragon 855 is the first mobile platform to support the new Qualcomm® 3D Sonic Sensor, the world’s first commercial ultrasonic fingerprint solution supported under the display. This is the only mobile solution that can accurately detect fingerprints through numerous contaminants. Furthermore, this technology enables sleek, cutting-edge form factors while distinguishing itself from alternatives with higher levels of security and accuracy.

The Snapdragon 855 Mobile Platform is currently sampling to customers and is expected to begin shipping in commercial devices in 1H 2019. Snapdragon 855 will power the next generation of premium flagship devices and launch the world into a new decade of more immersive and connected user experiences. For more information please visit Qualcomm’s site at Snapdragon Mobile Platforms, Processors, Modems and Chipsets | Qualcomm.

Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 855 Mobile Platform features include:

Qualcomm® Artificial Intelligence Engine

Qualcomm® Hexagon™ 690 Processor

Qualcomm® Adreno™ 640 GPU

Qualcomm® Kryo™ 485 CPU

Connectivity

Snapdragon X24 LTE modem LTE Category 20

Snapdragon X50 5G modem (for 5G devices)

Qualcomm Wi-Fi 6-ready mobile platform: 802.11ax-ready, 802.11ac Wave 2, 802.11a/b/g/n.

Qualcomm 60 GHz Wi-Fi mobile platform: 802.11ay, 802.11ad

Bluetooth Version: 5.0

Bluetooth Speed: 2 Mbps

High accuracy location with dual-frequency GNSS

Qualcomm Spectra™ 380 Image Signal Processor

Dual 14-bit CV-ISPs; 22MP @30 fps concurrent dual cameras; 48MP @ 30 fps single camera

Hardware CV functions including object detection & tracking (Histogram of Oriented Gradients, Harris Corner Detection, Normalized Cross Correlation, Linear classification and optical flow) and stereo depth processing

Advanced HDR solution including improved zzHDR and 3-exposure Quad Color Filter Array (QCFA) HDR

4K60 HDR video capture (HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG) with Portrait Mode (bokeh), 10-bit color depth and Rec. 2020 color gamut

Hardware-based Multi-Frame Noise Reduction (MFNR) for snapshot and Motion Compensated Temporal noise Filtering (MCTF) for video

Hardware-based Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) solution within camera subsystem

A new modular ISP design with more flexibility to tap in and out of the imaging pipeline both in the RAW and YUV pixel domains

High frame rate capture for slow motion video (720p @ 480fps)

HEIF photo capture, HEVC (H.265) video capture

Audio

Qualcomm Aqstic™ audio technology

Qualcomm® aptX™ support, including classic aptX, aptX HD and aptX adaptive

Qualcomm TrueWireless™ Stereo Plus

Qualcomm® Adreno™ Visual Subsystem

Adreno 640 GPU

Vulkan 1.1 API support

HDR gaming (10-bit color depth, rec 2020 color gamut)

Physically Based Rendering

API Support: OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 FP, Vulkan 1.1

Maximum On-Device Display Support: Up to 4K HDR

Maximum External Display Support: Up to two 4K HDR displays

Hardware-accelerated H.265 and VP9 decoder

HDR Playback Codec support for HDR10+, HDR10, HLG and Dolby Vision

Volumetric VR video playback

8K 360 VR video playback

Qualcomm® Kryo™ 485 CPU

One Prime core clock speed: Up to 2.84GHz

Three Performance cores clock speed: Up to 2.42GHz

Four Efficiency cores clock speed: Up to 1.80GHz

Architecture: 64-bit

Process

7nm Process Technology

Qualcomm® Hexagon™ 690 Processor

Secure Processing capability

Quad threaded Scalar Core

Four Qualcomm® Hexagon™ Vector eXtensions (HVX)

Qualcomm® Hexagon™ Tensor Accelerator

Qualcomm® Hexagon™ Voice Assistant

Qualcomm All-Ways Aware™ technology

Security

Qualcomm® Biometric Authentication Suite: Fingerprint, Qualcomm® Iris Authentication, Voice, Face, Qualcomm® Secure Processing Unit enabling mobile payments

Qualcomm 3D Sonic Sensor

Qualcomm® Quick Charge™ 4+ Technology

Memory

Memory Speed: 2133MHz

Memory Type: 4x16bit, LPDDR4x

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Source: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releas...orm-new-decade

Windows 10: New Qualcomm QCS400 SoC series brings AI enhanced smart audio

New Qualcomm QCS400 SoC series brings AI enhanced smart audio

New Qualcomm QCS400 SoC series brings AI enhanced smart audio

New Qualcomm QCS400 SoC series brings AI enhanced smart audio

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