Qualcomm’s CreatePoint portal, a listing of their available products to base a digital creation upon, briefly hosted a listing that seemed to point to the Snapdragon 835’s successor being called the Snapdragon 845. The listing was titled “SDM845”, likely short for Snapdragon Mobile 845, and popped up alongside listings titled SDM630 and SDM660, which were also quickly removed. Since only Qualcomm customers are supposed to actually get into the listings, it was not determined whether the three processors listed had detailed information available. Detailed listing information on the portal normally includes support details and resources that can help in building platforms and applications for a given processor. The blunder was cleaned up fairly quickly, with a minimal amount of information leaking out.
The next big Snapdragon release is far from ready, with Samsung and TSMC vying for the rights to be the one to manufacture it. While Samsung is reportedly working with Qualcomm on developing their rumored Galaxy S9 flagship with the new chip in mind, they have not confirmed whether or not they’ve landed the contract, or how powerful their variant would be. It would use their 2nd-generation 10nm manufacturing technology. TSMC, meanwhile, is looking for a power increase between 25% and 35% compared to the Snapdragon 835. Speculation has pointed to the chip ending up being manufactured on a 7nm process, but there has thus far been nothing concrete or official to back that claim. It should be noted that both Samsung and TSMC are currently working on 7nm chipmaking processes.
Qualcomm is expected to unveil the Snapdragon 660, one of the chips that wound up listed accidentally, at an event in Beijing on May 9. The CreatePoint listing gaffe may well mean that Qualcomm plans to announce, or at least allude to, the Snapdragon 845 and Snapdragon 630. The Snapdragon 835 was officially announced in January at this year’s CES trade show, which would make revealing the Snapdragon 845 at the Snapdragon 660 event more than a little premature by comparison. Still, with Samsung and TSMC firing on all cylinders to get their own takes on the 7nm manufacturing process out the door and keeping the rumor mill turning in spectacular fashion by doing so, Qualcomm wouldn’t be entirely remiss to use such an event to confirm that the chip is coming, and reveal who will be manufacturing it.