Windows 10: Qualcomm refreshes Snapdragon 845 VR design with Boundless XR for PC

Brink · Mar 19, 2019

At Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI), we continue to innovate and transform XR performance and portability to enrich consumer lives and deliver premium XR experiences anywhere. A few weeks ago, we announced broad ecosystem support for XR viewers, which provides immersive experiences by way of 5G smartphones tethered to a light AR glass or VR HMD. At MWC 19, we also showed a live Boundless XR over 5G demonstration, with split processing between device and edge cloud, enabling photorealistic, high-quality, immersive experiences. Today at GDC 2019, we are thrilled to announce optimizations to our Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 VR Reference Design to enable a dual-mode HMD and expand our offerings to include the PC-ecosystem with Boundless XR for PC. Our Snapdragon 845 VR Reference Design now features 60-GHz wireless providing a robust, low latency (motion to photon under 20 ms), optimized for split-processing between PC and VR HMD.

The Boundless XR for PC is a dual-mode HMD that is designed to create a simple, ease-of-use experience when compared to many of the PC VR solutions today by eliminating the need for cables and tracking sensors. Notably, this solution has full six degrees of freedom (6DoF) head and controller tracking therefore removing an external accessory set up. When in proximity to the PC, the HMD is designed to wirelessly connect to the PC and utilize rendering resources from the PC while keeping perception algorithms and display processing in the HMD. When not in proximity to the PC, the HMD can still operate as a Mobile Standalone XR HMD.

This integrated solution will be commercially available this year to QTI’s customers through our Snapdragon 845 Reference Design, alongside the collaboration of various partners. Pico is our first HMD OEM to announce support for the Boundless XR for PC experience with its Pico Neo 2 device, which should be coming to market in the second half of 2019. WNC also has a reference design solution for the PC 60-GHz access point. HTC VIVE and VIVEPORT will both work to support the new specification through hardware and content, and others like automotive visualization specialist ZeroLight and Framestore have expressed interest in leveraging this solution as a path to expand reach. With Boundless XR utilizing the benefits of Mobile XR, Qualcomm Technologies is eager to impact PC XR experiences this year, and we see long-term potential for home consoles and other distributed compute architectures to take advantage of these offerings. As an immediate action, we encourage PC OEMs and system integrators to move beyond cables to drive truly immersive XR experiences on PCs.
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Source: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/onq/20...c-cutting-cord

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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

Brink · Mar 19, 2019

Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 Mobile Compute Platform Powers HoloLens 2

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), today announced that its Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 850 Mobile Compute Platform will power Microsoft HoloLens 2, allowing enterprise customers to experience richer immersion in a sleek and comfortable headset design. By combining the cutting edge, leading performance of Snapdragon 850 Mobile Compute Platform and the best of Microsoft’s mixed reality platform and Azure services, Qualcomm Technologies and Microsoft are enabling an entirely new form factor and class of user experiences.

“We believe XR is the next generation of mobile and HoloLens 2 represents a great example of where mobile computing devices are headed,” said Hugo Swart, senior director, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Our technology collaboration with Microsoft has led to another breakthrough advancement in immersive computing that can transform industries and reshape how consumers and businesses work together.”

The 10nm Snapdragon 850 power-efficient architectures, including the Qualcomm® Adreno™ 630 GPU and Qualcomm® Kryo™ 385 CPU, are engineered to enable fast processing speeds for immersive entertainment and productivity at low power.

“The Snapdragon 850 Compute Platform allows our team to leverage leading hardware and software technologies to build HoloLens 2 and transform the way people communicate, create and collaborate,” said Scott Evans, general manager, mixed reality devices, Microsoft Corp. “Power and thermal management are key Snapdragon benefits that helped enable the advances in immersion, comfort and business value we’re delivering to customers with HoloLens 2.”

Microsoft HoloLens 2 marks the fourth key extended reality (XR) ecosystem enabled by Snapdragon platforms, to support the next generation of mobile computing as the industry transforms and expands across consumer and enterprise.
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Source: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releas...ers-hololens-2

See also: Microsoft announces HoloLens2 at MWC19 VR/Holo - Windows 10 Forums

Chino · Mar 19, 2019

Qualcomm Reveals Snapdragon XR1 Platform for AR and VR

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, debuted the Qualcomm Snapdragon XR1 Platform, the world's first dedicated Extended Reality (XR) platform during a launch event leading up to the Augmented World Expo (AWE). XR1 is a next-generation platform offering mainstream users high-quality XR experiences while enabling OEMs to develop mainstream devices. The XR1 platform also has special optimizations for Augmented Reality (AR) experiences with Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities offering better interactivity, power consumption and thermal efficiency. Qualcomm Technologies also announced that Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) Meta, VIVE, Vuzix and Picoare already developing on the first dedicated XR1 platform.

"As technology evolves and consumer demand grows, we envision XR devices playing a wider variety of roles in consumers' and workers' daily lives," said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager, Mobile Business Unit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "By integrating powerful visuals, high-fidelity audio, and rich interactive experiences, XR1 will help create a new era of high-quality, mainstream XR devices for consumers."

XR1 integrates Qualcomm Technologies' heterogeneous compute architecture, including the ARM-based multicore Central Processing Unit (CPU), vector processor, Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) and Qualcomm AI Engine. Other key features include an advanced XR software service layer, machine learning, the Snapdragon XR Software Development Kit (SDK) and Qualcomm Technologies connectivity and security technologies.

The XR1 platform also provides an AI engine for on-device processing. This engine provides customers the ability to process AI-use cases and run high performing, power efficient machine learning based computer vision algorithms that can help with key AR use cases like better pose prediction, object classification, etc.

Visual Technology
The XR1 platform will enable consumers to be immersed in their favorite movies, programs and sports by supporting Ultra high-definition 4K video resolution at up to 60 frames per second for high-quality VR HMDs. New dedicated hardware and software algorithms within its Qualcomm Spectra Image Signal Processor (ISP) can help significantly reduce unwanted noise from snapshots producing a substantially improved final picture in high-quality AR headsets. The integrated display processor provides a range of display options with hardware accelerated composition, dual-display support, 3D overlays and support for leading graphics Application Programming Interfaces (API), including OpenGL, OpenCL and Vulkan. The platform also features advanced vision processing capabilities fundamental for technologies like Visual Inertial Odometry (VIO), which lets users move around in the virtual world or interact with augmented objects in an AR experience.

Audio
The XR1 platform uses Qualcomm Technologies 3D Audio Suite, Qualcomm Aqstic Audio Technologies, and Qualcomm aptX Audio for high-fidelity audio experiences and "always-on, always-listening" voice assistance as well as Bluetooth playback. XR1's head-related transfer functions (HRTF) enable users' ears to synthesize binaural sound that feels like it comes from a specific point in space.

Interaction
With three- and six-degrees of freedom (3DoF, 6DoF) head tracking and controller capabilities for XR devices, XR1 opens a whole new XR playground for mainstream users, letting them not only move freely in the virtual world like never before but also interact and play within it. An integrated sensor hub and optimized sensor fusion abilities allows users to experience rich interactions with motion to photon latencies well below the scientifically required 20 ms.

AWE attendees can find Qualcomm Technologies Inc., at booth number 213 in the Santa Clara Convention Center.
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Windows 10: Qualcomm refreshes Snapdragon 845 VR design with Boundless XR for PC

Qualcomm refreshes Snapdragon 845 VR design with Boundless XR for PC

Qualcomm refreshes Snapdragon 845 VR design with Boundless XR for PC

Qualcomm refreshes Snapdragon 845 VR design with Boundless XR for PC

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