Qualcomm’s next-gen flagship mobile SoC, the Snapdragon 875, might feature ARM’s newly announced Cortex-X1 super core as well as the Cortex-A78 CPU architecture. The new chipset will reportedly come with a “1+3+4” triple cluster CPU core architecture consisting 0f one high-performance Cortex-X1 super core, three Cortex-A78 cores, and four power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores.
The ARM Cortex-X1 brings a 30-percent higher peak performance than the Cortex-A77, which is found on the Snapdragon 865. The Cortex-A78 CPU also provides a 20-percent performance improvement over its predecessor.
Qualcomm has been using a 1+3+4 triple cluster CPU core arrangement since the Snapdragon 855 in 2018. However, its older solutions featured an overclocked Cortex-A architecture as the super core.
Last year’s Snapdragon 865, for example, features a 2.84GHz Cortex-A77 core, three 2.4GHz Cortex-A77 cores, and four 1.8GHz Cortex-A55 cores.
Now, with ARM introducing a Cortex-X1 super core, expect the next-gen flagship mobile SoCs, including the Snapdragon 875, to offer significantly higher peak performance. The new cortex-A78 CPU will further bring improvement to the overall performance of the chip.
Although ARM has yet to announce the successor to its power-efficient Cortex-A55 cores, the Snapdragon 875 should do significantly better in this regard as well, thanks to its 5nm process node.
A leak earlier this month had revealed a detailed spec sheet for Qualcomm’s upcoming flagship chipset. It will reportedly pack the Adreno 660 GPU. It’ll also feature a newer Snapdragon X60 5G modem-RF system. The chip will support both mmWave and sub-6 GHz bands for 5G connectivity.
ARM’s new CPU architectures are not expected to feature inside chipsets until the end of this year, though. That’s when the Snapdragon 875 will likely arrive as well. Flagship Android smartphones are set to get a lot faster next year.
Samsung could also use the Cortex-X1 super core
It’s not just Qualcomm who’s tapping on ARM’s new CPU solution early on. Samsung‘s next-gen Exynos chipset might also feature a Cortex-X1 super core and Cortex-A78 CPU combo.
The South Korean company has had a fair share of criticism for the below-par performance of its flagship Exynos chips when compared to Qualcomm’s offerings. Samsung’s previously used custom cores in its chips. Going forward, it plans to use stock ARM cores for improved performance.
The next-gen flagship Exynos chipset should be able to compete head-on with Qualcomm’s solution. The Exynos 1000 will succeed last year’s Exynos 990. Samsung also has an upgraded Exynos 992 in the works. It’ll not feature the Cortex-X1 super core but only the Cortex-A78 CPU.
It’s unclear if MediaTek will go the same way as Qualcomm and Samsung or it will only use the Cortex-A78 CPU core in its Dimensity 1000 successor. We’ll likely get to know over the next few months, as ARM’s new CPU architectures are yet to start appearing inside chipsets.