Qualcomm: All about the largest mobile processor manufacturer and its Snapdragon chips

Until the pandemic sparked a semiconductor shortage, many people hadn’t thought about the central role semiconductors play in today’s technology industry.

Within the variety of devices, the smartphone has earned its place as the most important in recent years and so have the mobile processor manufacturers, among which the American Qualcomm stands out in particular.

The company, best known for its popular chips, Snapdragonis present in hundreds of smartphone models from dozens of different brands every year and is a major benchmark in the Android mobile ecosystem.

But Qualcomm is much more than that and its four decades of history have a lot to do with the fact that mobile phones have become so popular and that you can stay connected at all times thanks to them.

Here’s everything you need to know about Qualcomm, the world’s largest mobile processor design company:

What is Qualcomm and where is it from?

Qualcomm’s history began in 1985, when a group of seven former employees of another company in the sector (Linkabit) led by Irwin Jacobs formed. From the beginning, it specialized in research into mobile telephone networks.

Qualcomm is called that because Its name derives from the first letters of quality communicationseither quality communications in English. The company is based in the American city of San Diego, in the state of California.

Its importance dates back to the 1990s, when Qualcomm developed the code division multiple access (CDMA) standard, which its patents would later be adopted as part of 2G networks, but not before waging a trade and patent war with Ericsson.

After playing a role in 3G, Qualcomm turned its attention to mobile chips and in 2007 – the same year the first iPhone was introduced – launched its most popular family of processors, which survives to this day: Snapdragon.

Qualcomm is known for using a production model fablessthat is, without factoriesThe American company develops the patents and technologies for its processors, but outsources their production to other large companies specialising in silicon foundries, including the Taiwanese TSMC and Samsung.

Qualcomm on the markets: how much are its shares worth?

Four decades after its creation, Qualcomm has managed to become not only one of the most important semiconductor companies but also one of the most valuable in the world in general.

At the time of writing, Qualcomm has a market capitalization of nearly $194 billion, making it the 64th most valuable company in the worldahead of giants such as IBM, Inditex (Zara) and Walt Disney, among others.

Their position and rating in the ranking of the most valuable companies change often, but you can always check them in real time. here.

As a result of the stability of its income, which is not directly affected by production costs thanks to its model fabless Since Qualcomm also earns millions of dollars thanks to its patents, the company has one of the most coveted shares in the technology sector.

Currently, Qualcomm shares are trading at nearly $174 per sharealthough if you are thinking of buying stock from this company, check it carefully because the markets can always be unstable.

All about Snapdragon, the family of mobile chips

If there is one thing that Qualcomm is particularly known for today, it is its Snapdragon family of processors, launched in 2007 and aimed at mobile devices, both smartphones and other devices (tablets, laptops, headphones, etc.).

Qualcomm does not call Snapdragon chips but platforms or system on chip (system on a chipor SoC in English), since technically they do not have just one element but several designed by the American company.

The main elements that make up a chip from the Snapdragon family are:

• CPU. The computer processing unit This is what was traditionally known as a processor. Today it is divided into several cores, some oriented towards high-performance tasks and others for background tasks focused on energy efficiency. They are usually ARM Cortex models, with the popular architecture of this British company.
• GPU, or graphics processing unitInside each Snapdragon chip is a GPU, usually from the Adreno family, that handles graphics duties.
• ModemQualcomm also includes this component in the Snapdragon platforms, which is responsible for wireless connectivity with telecommunications networks or with WiFi or Bluetooth wireless networks.
• NPU, or neural processing unit. It is a component that has started to become popular in recent years and is dedicated to accelerating artificial intelligence tasks, performing millions of operations per second. Beyond generative AI, which is so fashionable, one of the most common uses of the NPU is the camera and scene recognition.

Some of the most notable Snapdragon mobile processor models launched recently include the Snapdragon 8 series, featuring the most powerful chips of 2024 such as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Snapdragon 8s Gen 3; the mid-range 7 family, featuring the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, Snapdragon 7s Gen 3, and Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 as the latest versions.

The brand has now unified its nomenclature so that the first number indicates the range, with 8 being the highest and from there up to the entry-level range. Previously, its chips contained 3 digits, with notable models such as Snapdragon 888, Snapdragon 695 or Snapdragon 680.

Qualcomm lands on computers

As part of its strategy to launch chips for mobile devices, Qualcomm has several models of processors for laptops, although it has recently doubled its bet.

Initially, Snapdragon PC chips were only intended for ultralight models and were relatively rare, but the company has gained a lot of prominence with the launch of its Snapdragon X family of PC processors.

The new ones Snapdragon X Elite and Pluslaunched in the second quarter of 2024, represent a huge leap in internal power that makes them comparable for the first time to Apple Silicon chips, but they are especially focused on AI tasks thanks to the use of an NPU with 45 TOPS of power.

These chips, aimed at Windows laptops, are based on the ARM process architecturejust like the chips in Apple laptops and mobile phones for years, and they represent an alternative to the x86 architecture used by Intel and AMD in their PC processors, which stands out for allowing for more compact formats and longer battery life.

Major brands such as Lenovo, Acer, Asus and Microsoft Surface have already launched the first laptop models with Snapdragon X Elite, which are also the first devices to support Copilot+, the new generation of Windows based on AI.

Is Qualcomm or MediaTek better?

Since it began to face competition in the mobile market, Qualcomm has had to face a great rivalry with the Taiwanese processor manufacturer MediaTek.

MediaTek has been gaining popularity over time both among users and among mobile phone manufacturers, who have been increasingly betting on this company, which currently occupies the first position in the mobile chip market, with a 40% share, compared to Qualcomm’s 23%, according to data from Counterpoint Research of the first quarter of 2024.

However, Qualcomm still exerts a remarkable dominance of the market by other parameters, and in fact remains the first company in mobile processor revenuewith 36% of the total value, ahead of Apple and MediaTek.

Qualcomm has several processor models that compete directly in the same range with MediaTek’s. For example, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is present in many top-of-the-range Android models in 2024, while others have opted for MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300, with TSMC’s 3-nanometer architecture, compared to its rival’s 4 nanometers – fewer nanometers means more transistors in less space, and therefore more power and less energy consumption.

Historically, in the high-end range, Qualcomm has been the brand chosen by Android manufacturers for their most powerful models, while MediaTek was the option chosen for smartphones that focused more on good value for money.

However, recent releases have pretty much leveled the playing field, and while there is still a general consensus that the highest-end Snapdragon processors only compete with Apple’s top of the range, at present I recommend that you compare model by model to find out which one is newer and more powerful. of the two.

To find out whether Qualcomm or MediaTek is better, considering that new chip models from the same family are launched approximately every six months, check out the chip models and benchmark results available, which will help you determine the exact performance.

Therefore, it could be concluded that both brands are reliable, and that although Qualcomm has historically been ahead, MediaTek has caught up with it in all ranges, and the performance of each processor must be compared one by one.

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Tags: Qualcomm, Processors