Qualcomm launched Snapdragon 8 Gen-1, the latest flagship chipset last month at its annual Tech Summit event. Its participating OEMs are yet to bring their handsets powered by the latest chipset to the market and we have started hearing about the Snapdragon 8 Gen-2 SoC already.
As per a tipster on Weibo, Qualcomm could bring the successor to its newly launched SoC somewhere in May 2022, way ahead of its time. This simply suggests Qualcomm is working on the next major chipset already.
Well, nothing much can be deduced from this vague information but if we refer to a typical chip design flow, it is fair to assume that Qualcomm has already carried out the first necessary steps, which majorly includes deciding the specifications and designing the layout of the chip based on those chosen specifications.
The whole manufacturing process involves hundreds of steps and can take months from design to mass production. And, if the chipset maker is to ship its next major flagship processor by May 2022, it would carry out the operations ahead of its time.
Currently, Snapdragon 8 Gen-1 SoC is facing fierce competition from its direct rival Dimensity 9000 from MediaTek. Some early benchmarks have shown the latter outpacing the former. In Geekbench 5 benchmark test, the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 SoC stayed ahead of the Snapdragon 8 Gen-1 in both multi-core and single-core thread tests.
It is concluded that TSMC’s 4 node is qualitatively more efficient than Samsung’s node using which Snapdragon 8 Gen-1 has been fabricated. One visible reason is that the MediaTek chipset averages about 5% lower power draw on the Geekbench tests.
Well, Qualcomm is said to have secured a contract with TSMC for 4nm-based Snapdragon 8 Gen-2 SoC already, so to stay ahead in the race in the coming year.
Meanwhile, for the rest of the Snapdragon 8 Gen-1 production, Qualcomm has reportedly chosen TSMC. Rumors say Qualcomm is unhappy with the low yield that Samsung’s 4nm fabrication facilities are delivering. As a result, Qualcomm could choose to turn to TSMC for the remaining Snapdragon 8 Gen-1 production.
All this collectively tells that TSMC is pretty much packed with all the orders and this is the reason why Qualcomm might have thought to stay ahead and planned things pretty early.
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