Snapdragon, Kirin and Exynos: What do mobile processors do? And what's behind the terms?
Experts in the smartphone scene like to throw around words like "Snapdragon" or "Kirin" and then nod meaningfully at each other. But what is behind the terms? And what does the marketing promise?
"The singularity is near," said Huawei CEO Richard Yu at the launch of the Huawei Mate 10. However, this is only possible because the new processor in the device, the Kirin 970, is specially designed for artificial intelligence. Before we dive deep into the science of processors, or as deep as necessary so that you know a little better, let's take a quick trip to the impending robot apocalypse. Because the singularity is not necessarily a good thing.
The Singularity, actually "The Mechanical Singularity" when written out, describes the creation of an artificial superintelligence. In other words, a computer that is many times more intelligent than a human being. Once such a machine has been developed, technological progress will be unstoppable and much faster than humanly possible. This will have a lasting impact on our world. In fiction, this superintelligence usually decides that humanity is either superfluous or harmful and - contrary to Asimov's rules of robotics - immediately turns its attention to the destruction of humanity.
But it's not just in fiction that the Singularity and the apocalypse are being driven by robots; the technology companies of our world are also working on it. These include not only Huawei, but also Samsung and Panasonic, among others.
Despite the impending doom of humanity, the new Kirin processor from Huawei is impressive. But the Exynos processors and Snapdragons are also impressive. But which processor suits you best is, of course, once again the answer: "Well... it depends."
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What does it depend on? Let's take a look.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 835: The de facto standard and an introduction to platforms
Probably because of its resounding name, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 is the processor that is mentioned the most in spoken language. That, and the marketing budget of technology giant Samsung, which has installed the Snapdragon in its latest flagships, is many times larger than that of the competition.
The name is made up of three components:
- Qualcomm: The name of the manufacturer
- Snapdragon: Series of the processor
- 835: Model
In common parlance, the part is usually called "the Snapdragon". However, the Snapdragon is more than just a processor. It can be compared to a platform, technically known as a "system-on-a-chip" or SoC for short. This means that the Snapdragon system is something between a complete system and individual components. Something that smart device manufacturers can build on.
- Gigabit connectivity: Data transfer rates of up to one gigabit are possible with the Snapdragon platform. This corresponds to the 5G standard, which is currently regarded as the future of mobile communications.
- Spectra 180 Image Signal Processor: The photo sensor enables images with a resolution of up to 32 megapixels without delay. In the dual-cam configuration, the ISP allows two times 16 megapixels
- Kyro CPU: Based on Cortex technology from the manufacturer ARM, the small processor can do a lot and is particularly energy-efficient according to the manufacturer
- Adreno 540 graphics chip: According to manufacturer Qualcomm, the graphics card of the Snapdragon 835 platform is more energy-efficient, faster and more powerful than the competition
- Haven Security Suite: Very confidential data, such as your fingerprints or facial features, is stored on these chips
- Although the phones sometimes don't do this, the 835 Snapdragon allows support for dual SIM systems
- Bluetooth 5.0: About twice as fast as its predecessor, Bluetooth 4.2, and achieves a data transfer rate of two megabits per second, requires less power and has up to four times the range
The Snapdragon platform is designed for communication. Data must be able to flow quickly from A to B without requiring a lot of power, as communication must not break down.
A side effect of the improved energy efficiency is that the phones can get by with less battery power and still last longer. Less battery also means less weight, which can be found in ultra-light flagships such as the LG V30, which weighs just 150 grams without SIM and memory card.
A little detail at the end: There are a total of 8998 parts built into a Snapdragon platform.
Huawei Kirin 970: The one with the singularity
Whenever the Huawei Kirin 970 is mentioned, or just the "Kirin", the letters A and I appear in all technical articles and marketing materials. "AI" stands for Artificial Intelligence. Essentially, the Kirin promises an intelligent companion in your pocket. Although initial tests are still a long way from intelligence and independent thinking, they already look pretty good. The Kirin's flagship, the Huawei Mate 10 Pro, processes images independently and recognises people, food and animals thanks to cloud-based image recognition. Humans do this automatically in a millionth of a second, but try teaching a machine to do it. Especially because my travel plates are nothing like those of Customer Care Representative Melanie Anna Lee. Hers are little works of art, mine look barely edible. The Kirin recognises both and classifies them in the same way.
Just like the Snapdragon 835, the Kirin's name is a compound:
- Huawei: manufacturer
- Kirin: series
- 970: model
Unlike the Snapdragon, however, the Kirin - obviously - not only focusses on communication, but also on artificial intelligence. With the Huawei Mate 10, the world's third-largest smartphone manufacturer is trying to give its customers a device that thinks for itself. Presented at the IFA in Berlin, the Kirin is designed to process and recognise up to 2,000 images in a neural network in one minute. To put it simply, neural networks are attempted replicas of brains. They work independently of orders and are able to comprehend and abstract examples, draw conclusions from them and say at the end "Yes, the Bärlocher has produced rice. The one from Lee looks prettier, but both are rice".
The Kirin platform achieves this - like the Snapdragon, the Kirin 970 is not a single chip, but a platform - by incorporating a Neural Processing Unit (NPU), i.e. dedicated hardware for artificial intelligence. Where other manufacturers have so far relied almost exclusively on software and have not allowed the calculations in the neural network to take place on the smartphone to a large extent, Huawei brings the computing power into your pocket. At least in part.
But apart from recognising all kinds of things, the Kirin platform with its NPU should also help to make using the phone faster and, above all, longer. As Christophe Coutelle, Huawei's Vice President of Software Marketing, told the industry magazine DigitalTrends:
An app like Prisma uses the camera. Therefore, it also uses the image signal processor, the processor and the graphics chip to display the image on the screen. In addition to all this, a smartphone still needs resources to run the image recognition with artificial intelligence. The NPU of the Kirin 970 will speed up this process. That means higher frame rates, smoother transitions and less power consumption." - Christophe Coutelle, Huawei's Vice President of Software Marketing, DigitalTrends
Huawei is officially keeping a low profile when it comes to exact specs, but the website anandtech knows more.
- Four ARM Cortex A73 processor cores with 2.4GHz performance
- Four ARM Cortex A53 processor cores with 1.8GHz performance
- ARM Mali-G72 graphics chip (exact data unknown)
- Dual image signal processor
- Support for HDR10
- Support for recording in 4k at 60fps
- Data transfer rates of up to 1.2 Gbps, slightly above 5G speed
Exynos 9 Series (8895): The third in the bunch
If the competition is already producing new processors, then so must Samsung. After all, the company is the world's largest chip manufacturer. The development from Samsung is called the Exynos 9 Series (8895), or "the Exynos" for short.
- Samsung: Manufacturer
- Exynos: Series
- 9: Series
- 8895: model
Though there is no second platform in the Exynos 9 series, Samsung is certainly keeping the option open. A "Samsung Exynos 9 8996" is at least theoretically possible, even if the version history of the platforms does not suggest this. This is where it gets a little strange. This is because the Samsung Galaxy S8 and S8+ were delivered with both Exynos and Snapdragons. The difference is small and not really noticeable in everyday use.
In Samsung's marketing chatter, the manufacturer talks about the "best ever experience in mobiles", which sounds a lot like Apple and hasn't impressed tech freaks since at least the death of Steve Jobs. Hence, tech specs.
- Samsung Exynos Quad Core CPU with 2.3GHz performance
- ARM Cortex-A53 Quad Core CPU with 1.7GHz performance
- ARM Mali-G71MP20 graphics chip
- Supports up to 4k UHD displays, i.e. a screen resolution of 4096x2160 pixels
- 1 gigabit per second download
- 150 megabits per second upload
- Supports up to 28 megapixel main camera and 28 megapixel front camera
According to the specs alone, the Exynos is by far the worst-positioned platform. Because if Samsung relies on 5G and increasingly outsources cloud services from the device to server farms, then 150 Mbps simply can't keep up. Hence Samsung's big talk about the Snapdragon 835 before the launch of the S8 series. Behind the scenes, Samsung bought up most of the 835 platforms a few months before the launch of this year's flagships. The market has since calmed down a bit, but at the beginning of the year it was worth a news item or two. There is currently speculation about the successor to the 835.
But - and this is where the Exynos comes as a surprise - in benchmarks in our offices, the Exynos was easily able to keep up with the other two platforms purely in terms of system performance. Chapeau.
In the race for the fastest and best platform, you have a choice: communication or intelligence. But that's not to say that the Snapdragon can't perform functions with AI or that the Kirin is useless when it comes to uploading and downloading. The manufacturers are simply going in different directions with their chipsets. They are giving us a deep insight into the direction of development.
- Samsung, with its own processors and Snapdragons, wants communication from the backbone of the internet to your pocket to be as fast as possible
- Huawei seeks the intelligence of the machine on the local device
And Apple? Apple is currently focussing on its own development, the A11 Bionic. We'll take a look at it as soon as the iPhone X has been thoroughly tested here in the editorial team.
So if you're wondering which platform you need or want, the answer is still "Well... it depends". But at least now you know what matters. Even if you're not looking for a new phone, you can now join in with your colleagues when they're talking shop. Have fun with it.
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