Mobile PCs - Next Generation PC powered by Qualcomm
A laptop PC with LTE connection, referred to as "Always Connected PCs" or "Mobile PCs" with amazing battery life is the next revolution in digital computing technology. Before Wi-Fi connectivity came to laptops, its usage was fairly limited. Wi-Fi then revolutionized the use of laptops. Today people use laptops everywhere - coffee shops, airports, university campuses etc. All thanks to ubiquitous Wi-Fi connectivity. The next obvious step is infusing smart phone connectivity to laptops. After all, how good is portability when you have to constantly worry about battery life of your device and Wi-Fi connectivity! With LTE, laptops may begin to appear in places where they typically aren't of much use as of now - parks, buses, backseat of your car etc (where there is no Wi-Fi). This might lead to a fundamental shift in how everyone connect to the internet. Wi-Fi became so popular as it is a fundamental requirement to connect laptops to internet. But what happens, if most PCs can connect to mobile data? Wi-Fi (including hotspot feature) might suddenly become less necessary.
Mobile PCs will use Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 processor, a chip usually reserved to power Smartphone, in a new line of Windows 2-in-1s. With the invention of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845 processor and MagicSnap ultrasound sensor technology by Elliptic Labs, the stage is set to power the next generation high-power flagship-quality devices in the year 2018. The CPU in the Snapdragon 845 processor features eight cores - four so-called "performance" cores, and four "efficiency" cores. The performance cores having a clock speed of 2.8 GHz offer a performance boost of 25-30% over its predecessor the Snapdragon 835 processor whereas the efficiency cores having 1.8 GHz clock offer a 15% performance boost. This chip is also more power efficient due to dedicated processing units for different tasks, for example a graphics processing unit, secure processing unit, and so on. In addition to it, the Snapdragon 845 processor uses less battery, it can also charge faster by Qualcomm's Quick Charge 4.0 which can charge the device from 0 to 50% within 15 minutes.
This chip supports the capture of a much wider array of colours (10-bit colour depth) through the camera, thereby enabling better pixel quality resulting in much more realistic images and much more immersive content. It also supports video capture of 240 frames per second at 1080p - a feature the new iPhone 8 and iPhone X hold over Android devices. This is possible due to availability of the Adreno 630 graphics processing unit (representing 30% performance boost), and the Spectra 280 image signal processor in Snapdragon 845 processor. Of course, immersion also includes mixed reality - and the Snapdragon 845 could help accelerate VR development as well. The chip supports room-scale 6 degrees of freedom, which basically means that it will detect things like walls so that you don’t run into something when you’re in a virtual environment.
The Snapdragon 845 processor is the third generation of mobile artificial intelligence platform. It has three times improvement in neural network performance. More advanced artificial intelligence plays a role in better image processing. The chip also offers improved voice recognition and low-power voice processing. On the Snapdragon 845, Qualcomm has added a security-focused module, called the "Secure Processing Unit" on the chip with its own processor, its own memory, and even its own power. Moreover, the connectivity on the Snapdragon 845 is better than ever. As we head into an age of 5G, gigabit connectivity is becoming increasingly important and Gigabit LTE is growing at a much faster pace. Qualcomm's new X20 LTE modem allows 20% faster speeds in real world tests. The Snapdragon 845 supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and 802.11ad Wi-Fi to get data speeds of up to a hefty 4.6 Gbps. And you will be able to connect through Bluetooth to multiple devices, thus enabling a Smartphone to connect with both the left and right earbuds, saving battery life and improving the connection.
According to Qualcomm, what consumers actually want from their devices is not greater performance, but instead greater connectivity and better battery life. The HP Envy x2 and the Asus NovaGo devices will have always-on LTE connectivity and 20+ hour battery life. Both the Asus and HP devices claim standby time of 700 hours or more. Putting it in another way, these new laptop PCs will work like modern smartphones and tablets. The battery will barely discharge when not in use. And it will certainly change the way we perceive our laptops today!
By: Mr. T. L. Singal, Professor, Department of EEE, Chitkara University, Punjab
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