A Qualcomm booth at an exhibition in Guangzhou, capital of South China’s Guangdong Province Photo: IC

 
U.S. leading chip manufacturer Qualcomm has unveiled two new 5G mobile platforms and the world's first 5G-supported extended reality (XR) platform at its annual tech summit.

During its Snapdragon Technology Summit held here last week, Qualcomm introduced two new 5G Snapdragon mobile platforms to hundreds of participants -- the flagship Snapdragon 865 and the mid-tier Snapdragon 765/765G.

The Snapdragon 865 Mobile Platform, which includes the Snapdragon X55 Modem-RF System, is a global 5G platform designed to deliver unmatched connectivity and performance for the next generation of devices, according to Qualcomm.

"Snapdragon 865 supports the world's most advanced 5G connectivity and features, raising the bar for what a mobile device should be," said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager of the Mobile Business Unit at Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Devices based on the Snapdragon 865 are expected to be commercially available in the first quarter of 2020, according to Qualcomm.

The Snapdragon 765/765G brings integrated 5G connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI) processing and select Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming experiences, Katouzian said.

Apart from advanced 5G mobile platforms, the company also announced the world's first 5G-supported XR platform, named Snapdragon XR2, which unites Qualcomm's 5G and AI innovations with the leading XR technology, and enables a new era of augmented, virtual and mixed reality experiences that are more immersive, intelligent and connected.

The Snapdragon XR2 platform is packed with significant performance improvements compared to Qualcomm's current widely adopted XR platform in terms of CPU and GPU performance, video bandwidth, higher resolution and AI improvement, said the company.

It is the world's first XR platform to support seven concurrent cameras and a dedicated computer vision processor, and enable low latency camera pass-through to unlock true mixed reality, which allows users to see, interact and create a hybrid of the virtual and real world while wearing a virtual reality device, said Qualcomm.

At the summit, Qualcomm also announced its new 3D sonic fingerprint technology which allows for increased security via simultaneous two-finger authentication, increased speed and ease of use, and a broad Qualcomm Snapdragon Compute platform portfolio which brings long battery life, accelerated AI performance and lightning-fast connectivity to fan-less, thin and light designs for modern computing.

"5G will open new and exciting opportunities to connect, compute, and communicate in ways we've yet to imagine, and we are happy to be a key player driving the adoption of 5G around the world," said Qualcomm President Cristiano Amon.

Defining the role of Qualcomm as an enabler of mobile ecosystem and partnerships, Amon said that 5G has unlocked an era of the "Invention Age."