Qualcomm has been in the news for the last five months. The saga started when Broadcom’s unsolicited bid to acquire Qualcomm was rejected by the company. Broadcom increased its bid, then decreased it, and attempted a hostile takeover. After these developments, the proposed acquisition was blocked. It means that Qualcomm remains a public company with its board of directors.

Now, though, Paul Jacobs, who was ousted as Qualcomm’s chairman in March, is said to be talking to strategic investors and sovereign wealth funds to contribute to “a fully financed bid to take the company private in the next two months,” according to CNBC. The former chairman would run the company after it will have been taken private.

The CNBC report states that one of the potential investors is ARM, which was bought by Softbank back in 2016 for more than $30 billion. ARM’s technology forms the basis for processors used in mobile devices, including Qualcomm’s SoCs. (For example, the Snapdragon 845‘s Kryo 385 Performance and Kryo 385 Efficiency cores are based on the ARM Cortex-A75 and the Cortex-A55 respectively.)

ARM has denied that it’s talked with Jacobs about a possible acquisition involving Qualcomm. A spokesperson told CNBC that no discussions have been held between ARM and Paul Jacobs.

The report adds that Jacobs has hired two banks to lawyers to work on the deal. If and when the deal is completed, he is said to be hoping for fewer than ten owners to be involved. Right now, he owns less than 1 percent of Qualcomm. Also, under his plan, control of the company will remain in the US.

Jacobs reportedly does not believe that the company should be carved up. However, he believes that he can only implement his plan for it as a private company, because the plan will require “significant investment” and things that “public shareholders would not like.”

Irwin Jobs was a co-founder of Qualcomm, and his son Paul Jacobs was the CEO of the company from 2005 to 2014. He served as chairman since 2014, but he was removed in March by the board after he informed them of his desire to take the company private.

Qualcomm and Apple have filed multiple lawsuits against each other. Apple accuses Qualcomm of patent infringement and of overcharging for license payments, while Qualcomm has its own issues with Apple. In this regard, Jacobs plans to settle the dispute with Apple and “rely on his strong relationship with [Apple’s CEO],” the report stated.

Finally, Jacobs reportedly plans to maintain Qualcomm’s license business, unlike Broadcom, which would shut down that piece of the company. The former chairman apparently feels that the licensing business is actually the strongest part of the company if operated correctly. The industry will have to wait and see how things play out, while we wait for more Snapdragon 845 phones to be released and for the company to officially announce the Snapdragon 710.

The new Samsung Galaxy S9 includes the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip for several markets, including Hong Kong, the United States, Canada, and parts of Latin America. Samsung has often chosen the latest flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC over their in-house Exynos SoC in some markets. This is usually the case in the United States, with the exception of the Samsung Galaxy S6. To the average consumer, there is little difference between the Exynos 9810 and Snapdragon 845 variants. Under-the-hood, however, the difference in chipsets can lead to wildly different experiences.

Anandtech‘s review of the Snapdragon Galaxy S9 and the Exynos Galaxy S9 revealed stark differences in performance and battery life between the two models, with the Snapdragon model easily outperforming the Exynos model. With these two vastly different chipsets, a difference in performance doesn’t seem to be the only concern this time around, according to a U.K. based company called GraphicsFuzz. GraphicsFuzz is a start-up firm that specializes in testing GPU reliability on devices. They develop tests to look for bugs in graphics drivers and offer help in diagnosing the root causes of any issues that they discover. For instance, the team discovered a security issue affecting the ARM driver for the Samsung Galaxy S6, for which they were awarded a bug bounty by Google. During their testing of the Snapdragon Samsung Galaxy S9, GraphicsFuzz found an error in the Adreno 630’s graphics driver that allows them to trigger a whole-phone reboot via a valid WebGL Internet page when browsing with the stock Samsung Internet browser.

In particular, there is an error in the Adreno 630’s rendering of a complex yet valid shader that can be exploited to make the device freeze then eventually reboot. A shader is simply a program that allows the GPU to render an image. GraphicsFuzz did not design the WebGL page with malicious intent to trigger this bug, and instead say it was incidentally discovered during their standard testing of GPU stability of devices. Once they discovered that this remote crash was reproducible, the company reached out to XDA-Developers to facilitate the disclosure process with both Qualcomm and Samsung.

WebGL Crash Reproduction on the Snapdragon Samsung Galaxy S9

Before we reached out to representatives from either company, we validated GraphicsFuzz‘s findings on our own device. GraphicsFuzz set up a special webpage for us to test against, and we chose the 5 most popular Internet browsers on the Google Play Store to see what would happen. The table below shows the effects of rendering the complex shader on 5 different web browsers.

Device Tested: Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Samsung Galaxy S9+ (SM-G965U)

Operating System: Android 8.0.0 Oreo SM-G965U

Both Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge will freeze the phone for a few seconds and generate an WebGL error, but the device will ultimately be fine. GraphicsFuzz reported to us that they have been in discussion with the Google Chrome team for some time and have learned that Chrome implements a mechanism that ends the GPU process after a set period of time to prevent a full phone crash. Opera freezes the phone, but it doesn’t trigger a reboot. The Firefox app itself crashes but the phone is fine. Lastly, accessing the page via Samsung Internet causes the phone to slow down to a crawl before triggering the full phone reboot.

Here is a video demonstration of the crash:

Detailed Explanation of the Error

GraphicsFuzz performed a more in-depth investigation which indicates that the issue causing the phone to reboot is in the GPU driver for the Qualcomm Adreno 630 which is part of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip. GraphicsFuzz collected a log on the crash, which we have embedded below. To give a brief summary of what is happening, when the phone renders the complex shader, the GPU sets something called a “fence.” A fence is used to orchestrate the access to the shared memory between the CPU and GPU. A mobile GPU, unlike a desktop, has access to the same RAM as the CPU, so when a game is played or something else renders, it uses a fence to access that shared memory. On a device that has discrete graphics, the GPU itself has its own memory. All current mobile phones share video memory and random access memory with the RAM’s flash storage. The problem here is that the fence is not able to complete which triggers a kernel panic and causes the phone to reboot.

[12681.035590]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] kgsl kgsl-3d0: |a6xx_snapshot_gmu| set FENCE to ALLOW mode:0
[12681.035839]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] kgsl kgsl-3d0: |kgsl_device_snapshot| snapshot created at pa 0x000000016e500000 size 927400
[12681.035993]  [0:  kworker/u16:5:27740] kgsl kgsl-3d0: |kgsl_snapshot_save_frozen_objs| kgsl_snapshot_save_frozen_objs start
[12681.036085]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] Kernel panic - not syncing: !!!FENCE TIMEOUT
[12681.036156]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] CPU: 2 PID: 433 Comm: crtc_commit:117 Tainted: G        W       4.9.65-13087505 #1
[12681.036248]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] Hardware name: Samsung STARQLTE PROJECT Rev14 (DT)
[12681.036319]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] Call trace:
[12681.036368]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] dump_backtrace+0x0/0x248
[12681.036438]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] show_stack+0x18/0x28
[12681.036509]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] dump_stack+0x98/0xc0
[12681.036578]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] panic+0x1e0/0x44c
[12681.036646]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] sde_plane_wait_input_fence+0x174/0x28c
[12681.036727]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] sde_crtc_atomic_flush+0x1c4/0x5e8
[12681.036807]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] drm_atomic_helper_commit_planes+0x19c/0x1fc
[12681.036891]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] complete_commit+0x74/0x6a4
[12681.036960]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] _msm_drm_commit_work_cb+0x48/0x1c4
[12681.037038]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] kthread_worker_fn+0x78/0x194
[12681.037108]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] kthread+0xd8/0xf0
[12681.037172]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] [] ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
[12681.037239]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] Kernel loaded at: 0x800a0000, offset from compile-time address 20000
[12681.037331]  [2:crtc_commit:117:  433] SMP: stopping secondary CPUs

GraphicsFuzz believes that the reason this issue is only happening on the Samsung Internet browser is that of the GPU watchdog. Sometimes a GPU may hang on long-running shaders, in which case the browser or OS typically has a GPU watchdog that force-restarts an unresponsive graphics driver. The GraphicsFuzz test shader has several for loops that may make it take longer to render, but it is still a valid shader. Several other devices, including the Exynos 9810 Samsung Galaxy S9 with the Mali-G72 GPU, do manage to render this shader. Thus, the team at GraphicsFuzz came to the conclusion that this error is happening due to a faulty GPU driver for the Adreno 630.

The Google Pixel 2 XL with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835’s Adreno 540 GPU running the same version of the Samsung Internet browser slows to a crawl as well—this means that this error could be an issue with the Qualcomm GPU driver rendering the shader and the Samsung Browser watchdog not ending the service.

Hopefully, Qualcomm can diagnose the underlying issue in their GPU driver that causes the reboot and provide a fixed driver to Samsung soon. Of course, it could be some time before this update propagates to end users. In the mean time, we expect that Samsung will push an update to the Samsung Internet web browser to mitigate the issue (at least preventing it from being exploited via a web page), matching the behavior of Google Chrome. Although this issue is known to affect the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+, it could also affect more devices with the Snapdragon 845.

If you are interested in testing the GPU reliability of your own mobile or desktop device, the team at GraphicsFuzz has put together a webapp demonstration that allows you to run some of their valid shaders on your device. You can access that webpage by following this link.

Disclosure Timeline

• March 28th, 2018: GraphicsFuzz reached out to XDA-Developers informing us of the issue. XDA-Developers reproduced the issue on our own Samsung Galaxy S9+ (SM-G965U).
• March 29th, 2018: GraphicsFuzz reached out with more details and set up special web pages for Qualcomm and Samsung employees to reproduce the bug
• March 30th, 2018: XDA-Developers reached out to both Samsung and Qualcomm with full details of the report. Our Qualcomm contact reached back to us acknowledging that our message was received.
• April 2nd, 2018: Our Samsung contact reached back to us acknowledging that our message was received.
• April 4th, 2018: Our Samsung contact recommended that we file a report at Samsung’s Security Reporting page. XDA-Developers filed a report, and a Samsung Engineer was assigned to the report.

Qualcomm has announced today that it will be making it easier for device OEMs with Android devices powered by the Snapdragon 636, Snapdragon 660, and Snapdragon 845 to bring Android P to these phones. This comes as the result of a partnership between both Google and Qualcomm to make sure that OEMs can bring the latest software updates to consumers. In essence, this means that Qualcomm will provide an Android P-based Board Support Package (BSP) to OEMs designed so that updates are much easier to offer. This explains why so many non-Pixel devices are also receiving an Android P beta.

“We are excited to work with Google to pre-integrate our software with Android P, making it production ready for OEMs,” said Mike Genewich, director, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Through our strengthened relationship, Google and Qualcomm Technologies are set to expand the market for Android and make it easier for OEMs to launch devices based on Snapdragon mobile platforms.”

What this means for other device OEMs isn’t clear. If this is the result of an exclusivity deal it could leave other chip manufacturers like HiSilicon and MediaTek behind in terms of advancements, leading device manufacturers to potentially favour Qualcomm chips over others. What is noteworthy is that companies like Xiaomi with the Mi Mix 2S and OnePlus with the OnePlus 6 are interested in getting the latest version of Android out faster than the competition, with both companies being part of the initial Android P beta on non-Pixel devices. Other OEMs involved include Vivo, Sony Mobile, Essential, and OPPO. Thanks to Project Treble, newer devices with the Snapdragon 636, Snapdragon 660, and Snapdragon 845 should receive the Android P update faster than before. That’s the goal, anyway.

If you’re interested in seeing what’s coming in Android P, you can check out the new gestures, new APIs, and even a new feature to prevent smartphone addiction. There are lots more to come!

It’s no secret that Google’s smartwatch platform hasn’t had a lot of recent success. That’s partly why the company decided to re-brand the platform to Wear OS and is offering smarter Google Assistant features. But better software support is only one side of the equation. The hardware inside of Android-based smartwatches hasn’t seen much innovation, which gives a considerable advantage to competitors like Samsung’s Gear smartwatches (powered by Tizen) and Apple Watches. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 2100 system-on-chip, which was announced in 2016 and is the most common SoC on Wear OS smartwatches, is itself a watch-optimized version of the 5-year old Snapdragon 400 budget SoC built on a 28nm process. But finally, it seems that Qualcomm is gearing up for a refresh of its smartwatch chipset.

Using older, outdated hardware is one of the main reasons why Wear OS smartwatches are falling behind the competition. Samsung’s Gear series offers significantly better battery life than most of its Wear OS competition, and that’s thanks to its superior SoC. Thus, to stay competitive in the smartwatch space, Qualcomm is teasing the release of another smartwatch chipset. The next-generation smartwatch chipset from Qualcomm will be built from the ground up with a focus on smartwatches to ensure an optimal experience for smartwatch users. We’re also promised smaller smartwatches: Since the new SoCs will be built using modern processes, the result will be smaller chipsets which allows smartwatch makers to make better use of space.

We’re also being promised longer battery lives since the transition to smaller manufacturing processes should lead to a reduction in energy consumption. Unfortunately, exact details of this upcoming chipset are sparse; we won’t learn more for a few more months. The new smartwatch chipset will be announced in full sometime during the fall when we’ll also hear about smartwatches powered by these upcoming SoCs. A decent system-on-chip could put Wear OS smartwatches back on the map if everything goes according to plan.

Earlier today we wrote about a Pixel-branded smartwatch being announced at Google’s Fall hardware event. This information came from the reliable Evan Blass and included mentions of the Pixel 3/3XL and next-gen Pixel Buds. However, a new report claims we won’t be seeing just one Pixel smartwatch. There will be three models and they will feature a Qualcomm chip that was unnamed prior to this point.

WinFuture reports that there are three “Google Smart Watches” codenamed “Ling, Triton,” and “Sardine.” They do not know what the difference between the variants will be, whether it’s size, connectivity, or something else. They do say the devices will include GPS, LTE, VoLTE, Bluetooth including apt-X, WiFi, pedometer, heart-rate monitor, and other health features. Google, Qualcomm, and others have been working on this for over a year. We already knew Qualcomm was set to finally release a new chip for Wear OS devices. It appears these devices will be getting the new chip and it will be called the Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 3100.

The Snapdragon 3100 is a variant of the Snapdragon 2100. It features a quad-core CPU with an unknown clock rate. Qualcomm is using the ARM Cortex-A7 architecture and Adreno 304 GPU. As previously reported, manufacturing remains on the 28nm process. The main benefit of this new chip is a power management integrated circuit that’s being called “Blackghost.”

“Blackghost” may run continuously and separately from the main processor, which is only used when the device is active. This would allow the watch to respond to voice commands without being woke up. There will also be several new power modes, such as the one introduced in Android P, to help users get the best battery life possible.

Besides the Pixel smartwatches, WinFurure also claims the Snapdragon 3100 will be featured in devices from Fossil, Louis Vuitton, Movado, and TAG Huer. Fashion brands have been some of the few who are still supporting Wear OS, so it’s no surprise to see these brands. Hopefully, the new Qualcomm chip will bring more Android OEMs back to the platform.

Many would agree that the smartwatch market has been floundering as of late. Some feel this is due to Qualcomm taking so long to put out an updated SoC. It was a little over two years ago when the company initially announced the Snapdragon 2100 chipset, and while it did wonders for the battery life of wearables, it still seems like the market has yet to mature. With the recent announcement of the Snapdragon 3100 SoC, a lot of us have been focused on smartwatches but it could usher in the next generation of AR wearables like Google Glass.

The Snapdragon 3100 from Qualcomm is poised to make a big impact in the smartwatch space. It was just rumored that Google will be releasing three different Wear OS devices later this year and all of them will be sporting this new chipset. This chip is going to be ideal for all wearable devices (and possibly some IoT products as well) as it will be using the ARM Cortex-A7 architecture and Adreno 304 GPU to keep things going. However, we have learned that the main benefit of this SoC is a power management integrated circuit that’s being called “Blackghost.”

The idea here is that “Blackghost” can run constantly while also being separated from the main processor. This will allow wearable products to still be able to listen for voice commands and still be light on battery usage. Even though most people are focused on the Snapdragon 3100 being used in smartwatches, a profile on Qualcomm’s job portal says the Snapdragon Wear 3100 platform is also said to be the foundation for new “Augmented Reality Glasses.” So we can see that they are wanting this chip to be used in multiple wearable devices and it will be perfect for something like a Google Glass-like product since the team has developed a powerful eye-tracking system with it.

The Snapdragon 3100 is said to be able to monitor the position of the pupil and cornea reflections with a camera capable of 120 frames per second without being too harsh on battery life. In fact, this task is said to only use 36 MIPS (million instructions per second) of computing power. We hope this new chip from Qualcomm will bring forth a resurgence in Android wearables.

Qualcomm is welcoming the latest WPA3 Wi-Fi security standard with open arms. In an announcement, Qualcomm said that it wanted to show its industry leadership by implementing more advanced Wi-Fi security features on devices which support it. That includes devices with the WCN3998 and IPQ807x AP platforms along with 2×2 802.11ax-enabled devices. So far, that means Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 845 system-on-chip will have what’s necessary to support WPA3.

WPA3 is part of the natural improvement of security measures after WPA2 was basically cracked open early last year – 11 years after the standard was first released fully in 2006. Qualcomm is making sure they stay on top of security advancements to entice users to buy devices with their latest chipsets. If their chips are resilient to most forms of attack, then they’ll certainly attract more enterprise customers.

WPA3 is more secure than WPA2 by changing how devices authenticate to the access point when connecting. This avoids exploits like KRACK, as the earlier handshake system used for connecting could be abused. Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) will provide a higher level of security and accessibility when connecting to open or public Wi-Fi hotspots, unlike current open WPA2 networks with shared passwords.

Qualcomm’s perseverance to solidify their name as the best mobile chip provider can’t go unnoticed. Between a focus on improving security with efforts such as WPA3 inclusion and a hardware security module to support Android P’s StrongBox Keymaster, their efforts to improve security on mobile devices is commendable. You just have to buy a device with the right chip, of course.

Today at an event in China, HMD Global has launched the new Nokia X6. This is the first smartphone under the Nokia brand that comes with a display notch. HMD Global has ensured that you still get a competitive smartphone that remains relevant to the current trends in the smartphone industry.

The new Nokia X6 is also the first smartphone in the new Nokia X-series. While the nomenclature may or may not signify the lineup’s similarity to the iPhone X’s notch, what we do know is that the X6 is pitched as a mid-range smartphone and not a high-end flagship. The highlight of this phone includes a body covered in glass — and of course, the 19:9 5.8″ Full HD+ display with 2.5D Gorilla Glass 3 for protection.

On the inside, you get an octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC with the Adreno 509 GPU. RAM options for the device can be either 4GB or 6GB, while the internal storage options can be 32GB or 64GB (expandable upto 256GB). The phone is powered by a 3,060 mAh battery which supports Quick Charge 3.0 through its USB Type-C port. While the phone does attempt to emulate the iPhone X’s notch, it thankfully has retained the 3.5mm headphone jack, and it also supports dual Nano SIMs — features that are not present on the Apple flagship. The Nokia X6 also comes with Android Oreo 8.1 out-of-the-box.

For its camera setup, HMD Global’s Nokia X6 sports a dual rear camera setup comprising of a primary 16MP f/2.0 sensor with 1-micron pixel and a secondary 5MP monochrome sensor. The front camera is a 16MP f/2.0 sensor with 1-micron pixel. Like a lot of other OEMs, HMD Global is banking on the popularity of the “AI” buzzword to market features for improved photography as well as HDR support. The Nokia X6 also offers the “Bothie” feature, which lets you click photos with both the front and rear cameras simultaneously. Of course, the Nokia X6 also supports Face Unlock.

The Nokia X6 is priced at CNY 1,299 (~$205; ₹14,000) for the 4GB+32GB variant, CNY 1,499 (~$235; ₹16,000) for the 4GB+64GB variant and CNY 1,699 (~$267; ₹18,000) for the 6GB+64GB variant. Exact availability of the device in China is unknown as of now, nor is it known if the smartphone will be made available in other markets. From a product perspective, the Nokia X6 has a lot of plus points that would make it a good offering for markets such as India.

What are your thoughts on the Nokia X6 with its notch-design and Qualcomm Snapdragon 636 SoC? Let us know in the comments below!

Qualcomm‘s latest high-end system-on-chip, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, was announced at the Snapdragon Tech Summit back in December. The chipset offers 4 Kryo 385 (A75 “performance”) and 4 Kryo 385 (A55 “efficiency”) CPU cores, the latest Adreno 630 GPU, the Spectra 280 ISP, the Hexagon 685 DSP, the Snapdragon X20 LTE modem, and a new Secure Processing Unit (SPU). The Snapdragon 845 SoC is a powerhouse in benchmarks and it is already available in devices like the Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, and the OnePlus 6. Developers on our forums have been itching to get their hands on a device with Qualcomm’s latest and greatest, but there’s just one thing that has made some developers worry about the future of development on the platform: The lack of publicly available source code for the kernel, HALs, framework branches, and more on the CodeAurora Forums.

Qualcomm and the CodeAurora Forums

If you’ve ever wondered why developers on our forums favor working on devices with Qualcomm chipsets over devices with chipsets from HiSilicon, Samsung, MediaTek, and others, the reason is that of Qualcomm’s friendliness with the custom development community. The Android that custom ROM developers build from is based on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP). Google releases a public part of AOSP but they also develop parts of Android in private (which is why if you build a ROM from AOSP today, you won’t get any of the fancy new features in Android P.) For custom ROM developers, the only choice they have to merge Android’s latest platform features is to wait for Google to release the source code with the final release. Chipset vendors, however, have an agreement with Google to get early access to the next version of Android—they fork from the private AOSP repositories, modify their chipset code to be compatible, and then distribute this code to OEMs to build and distribute ROMs for their devices.

General update process for each release of Android. Source: Google.

To abide by the GNU General Public License (GPL) under which the Linux kernel is licensed, the chipset vendors and OEMs are required to release the kernel source code, but that’s all they’re required to release. The kernel source code for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+, Xiaomi Mi Mix 2S, and the OnePlus 6 are already available, for instance. That’s enough for developers to get started on porting AOSP-based custom ROMs on these devices, but just having access to the kernel source code doesn’t mean it’ll be easy to port LineageOS 15.1 to these devices (though that’s changing thanks to Project Treble). All of the chipset specific code for new chipset features is usually unavailable in these kernel source code releases, which is expected since the code would reveal how proprietary chipset features work. Developers have access to this code in the form of precompiled binaries (called a Binary Large Object or BLOB), but it’s nearly impossible to combine these BLOBs with their work on an AOSP ROM since there’s no documentation on how that would work.

Fortunately for developers, that’s where Qualcomm’s CodeAurora Forums (CAF) comes in handy. On CAF, Qualcomm releases the public parts of their chipset specific code in a way that makes it really easy for ROM developers to build for the platform without having to know how the new chipset features work. Developers just need to fork the public parts of the new platform repositories (such as hardware/qcom/display and vendor/qcom-opensource/bluetooth) and combine it with the precompiled binaries and it’ll basically just work for the most part. Qualcomm has released their chipset specific code on CAF for previous SoCs such as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820/821 and Snapdragon 835, and usually within days of the chipset being announced! However, it has been 5 months since the Snapdragon 845 was announced, and we have yet to see the company’s usual source code drops under the sdm845 branch.

Searching CAF for source code relating to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC

The delayed release of sdm845 sources in CAF has led some developers to worry that Qualcomm would be abandoning the forum, in effect becoming like MediaTek by only sharing sources with their partners and not the community. The developers we spoke to are concerned that this would be detrimental to custom ROM development on devices from companies like Xiaomi, as CAF sources are often necessary to build stable ROMs for Xiaomi’s Snapdragon devices. We reached out to Qualcomm to find out what’s going on, and we finally have some good news to share: CAF isn’t being abandoned, it’s just that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 code drop won’t happen until Qualcomm announces their new mobile platforms. The reason? Because of leaks.

CodeAurora Forum and Qualcomm Chip Leaks

When Qualcomm engineers are working on new platform features for their chipsets, it’s rare for them to only develop these features with one chipset in mind. It’s possible for unreleased chipsets to use the same software found in already announced chipsets like the Snapdragon 845. While companies often use code names to prevent leaks, even that doesn’t totally prevent leaks from happening. For example, details of the unreleased Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 were found in CAF by Roland Quandt from WinFuture. We later found out from CAF that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 670 was being re-branded to the Qualcomm Snapdragon 710. Qualcomm hasn’t confirmed the existence of the Snapdragon 670/Snapdragon 710, but thanks to references in CAF we already know a lot about the upcoming chipset.

Thus, to prevent leaks like this from occurring, Qualcomm chose to delay the release of source code for the Snapdragon 845. We’re told that the company won’t be releasing the source code for the chipset until after the new mobile platforms are announced. After about 6 weeks from now, the company will be able to release the sdm845 sources on CAF. A Qualcomm representative apologized for the delay in source code release, stating that the company is reviewing their chipset naming conventions in code so they can release code for already announced chipsets while still avoiding leaks.

Qualcomm has officially announced the Snapdragon 710, the first system-on-chip in their new 700-tier chipset series. The 710 is the company’s latest chipset in the upper mid-range market of smart devices, succeeding the Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 found on devices such as the Xiaomi Mi Note 3, Xiaomi Mi 6X, and BQ Aquaris X2 Pro. The 710, like the high-end Snapdragon 835 and Snapdragon 845, is fabricated on a 10nm manufacturing process.

When compared to the Snapdragon 660:

• Artificial Intelligence: The Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 introduces a new “multi-core AI Engine” which is said to deliver “up to 2X” improvements in on-device AI application performance. Examples of applications of AI technology include capturing contextually-aware photos and videos and personalizing voice patterns for more natural interactions.
• Capture: The new Spectra 250 ISP allows image capture up to 32MP single ISP and 20MP dual ISP. The AI Engine allows for deep portrait mode effects and facial recognition with “active depth sensing.” This should expand the number of Android devices with portrait mode and face unlock features, which were previously limited to devices mostly from top-tier manufacturers with the ability to develop or purchase the right technology.
• Display: The chipset allows for 4K (3860×2160) High Dynamic Range (HDR) playback. This capability was previously limited to Qualcomm’s high-end Snapdragon 800 tier chipsets. Users will need to have access to content recorded in 4K HDR to take advantage of this capability; popular online video streaming services such as Netflix offer this kind of content on certain payment tiers.
• Connectivity: The new Snapdragon X15 LTE modem is a Category 15 modem that supports up to 800 Mbps download speeds, and Category 7 for up to 300Mbps upload speeds. It also brings 4×4 MIMO technology (up to 2 aggregated carriers) to improve throughput in poor signal conditions. Lastly, License-Assisted Access (LAA) will bring faster connectivity in congested areas.
• Bluetooth: The system-on-chip supports Bluetooth 5 for greater connectivity and throughput of Bluetooth Low Energy transmissions. Qualcomm’s TrueWireless Stereo Plus supports wireless listening and voice calls between a pair of earbuds without needing a wire between them (think Apple AirPods).
• Performance: The new Adreno 616 Visual Processing Subsystem allows for a 40% reduction in power consumption when gaming and playing back 4K HDR content and a 20% reduction in power consumption when streaming video. The 8 CPU cores are built with the Kryo 360 architecture (2x Cortex-A75 @ 2.2GHz and 6x Cortex-A55 @ 1.7GHz). The GPU is the Adreno 616. Many of these details were previously leaked through a reading of kernel source code from Qualcomm’s CodeAurora Forums.
• Battery: The chipset offers Qualcomm’s Quick Charge 4+ technology, though it should be noted that the manufacturer must license the technology from Qualcomm to activate it on their devices. So far, only the ZTE Nubia Z17, Razer Phone, and the BQ Aquaris X2/X2 Pro support Quick Charge 4+.

Availability:

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 710 system-on-chip is available today for Qualcomm’s partners and will be shipping on devices in the second quarter of 2018. No devices have been officially confirmed to feature the new chipset, but we have previously identified two unreleased Xiaomi devices with the Snapdragon 710.

Images sourced from Qualcomm, retrieved via Anandtech’s coverage.

Update 3:34PM CT: This article was corrected to reflect that the BQ Aquaris X2 and X2 Pro also support Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+.

Qualcomm, just like many other technology companies, believes there is a future in augmented reality and virtual reality technology. The two technologies tend to intersect so often that some are combining the two and referring to them both as “XR.” We talked about Qualcomm’s work in this area recently with the Snapdragon 3100 SoC but it looks as if the company’s first dedicated chipset for augmented reality and virtual reality devices will be called the Snapdragon XR1. The chip will be used for dedicated AR and VR headsets and we’re told to expect them in the second half of 2018.

The company has been working on the heterogeneous computing technology that will be shipping with the Snapdragon XR1 chipset. For many, it will look like the typical SoC that we currently see in smartphones and wearables on the market today. However, Qualcomm has been working to improve the Snapdragon XR1 in areas that will help our current AR and VR technologies. This includes UltraHD video playback, 6DoF head tracking, 3DoF and 6DoF controllers, Qualcomm’s Aqstic voice UI and support for QuadHD+ (2K) displays.

We have barely scratched the surface of what virtual reality and augmented reality is capable of and Qualcomm knows this. The big areas of interest are naturally going to be virtual reality videos and games for a bit, but some feel that it’s augmented reality that will actually be the breakthrough technology here. The IDC has been studying this technology for a while and their current estimates put the market at around 186 million standalone devices in consumer’s hands by the end of 2023.

As with most new platforms, Qualcomm isn’t expecting things to get too crazy right out of the gate. However, the team has been able to score some partnerships with the likes of Meta, Pico, Vuzix, and Vive. They will continue to market their latest flagship SoC (currently the Snapdragon 845) for high-end smartphones, but they feel the XR1 will be well suited for devices like the Oculus Go and other headsets where component cost is an important factor. As of this time, Qualcomm has chosen to not disclose the specs of the SoC, but they’ve developed the chip to an extent where they can start marketing it to potential partners.

The companying is positioning the XR1 as a chip that will be able to drive headsets up to 4K resolution, which makes a lot of sense considering its video decoder can also handle up to 4Kp60 video. The initial examples of the headset have highlighted the chips 3DoF tracking but it can actually handle 6DoF tracking as well. The vendor will just need to include the additional sensors in their headset and then have the software setup so that it can handle all of that additional data.

The Windows 10 on ARM project is pretty interesting in itself. Microsoft is aiming to bring the full Windows 10 desktop experience—which was, since its initial launch, an x86-only OS—to ARM-based SoCs, including support for full, desktop-grade apps and games. It was initially demoed with last year’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chipset, and while it worked fine for most use cases, it was still not quite perfect, having a lot of limitations like a lack of OpenGL support. According to WinFuture, Asus seems to be ready to take the lead when it becomes more mature and usable for the wider audience, however, and Qualcomm wants to begin setting the ground as well with the alleged Snapdragon 1000.

Since 2013, Qualcomm has featured 4 main SoC lines under the Snapdragon moniker: 2xx for the rock bottom spectrum of the market, the 4xx meant for budget phones, the 6xx meant for mid-range devices (and further extended with the new 7xx line), and the 8xx meant for flagships. There’s very little information regarding the Snapdragon 1000 at the moment, but it looks like it won’t be a successor to the current Snapdragon 845 or an extension of the 8xx line. Rather, it will fit into an entirely new line focused solely on ARM-based laptops. Maximum power dissipation for the Snapdragon 1000 is allegedly hovering 6.5 watts versus 5 watts for the Snapdragon 845, either suggesting a higher number of cores or a brutal increase in performance—putting it right in the laptop ballgame.

Asus is apparently looking to become the first manufacturer to use the Snapdragon 1000. They are allegedly working directly with Qualcomm on a Windows 10 on ARM device codenamed “Primus” that is powered by this rumored SoC. It’s still too early for any substantial leaks regarding this device. We don’t know for sure whether it’ll really be laptop since it could be a convertible notebook or a tablet. We also don’t know when will it actually be coming to store shelves, but if it’ll serve as the first Snapdragon 1000 device, then it will likely come shortly after Qualcomm officially unveils the platform.

Back in late March, a U.K. based start-up firm specializing in testing GPU reliability approached us with a GPU bug they discovered that causes the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Samsung Galaxy S9/S9+ to reboot when visiting a web page. The firm, called GraphicsFuzz, worked with us to report the issue to Qualcomm and Samsung. Some of our readers were interested in learning just how a company like GraphicsFuzz is able to find these vulnerabilities, so we collaborated with the company to showcase how they discovered an older GPU vulnerability. This already-patched vulnerability allowed an attacker to remotely “spy” on the contents of Google Chrome browser tabs on the Samsung Galaxy S6.

This user was viewing their bank’s website before visiting the malicious web page. The contents were captured and uploaded to a remote server. Source: GraphicsFuzz.

How GraphicsFuzz finds GPU bugs

A graphics driver works by taking a shader program and sending it to the GPU to be executed and thus render the image. Before sending the shader to the GPU, the graphics driver translates it into a form that the GPU can understand; a faulty translation can lead to rendering failure, program or device crashes, wrong images, and even security issues. GraphicsFuzz has an automated testing suite that allows them to find these bugs based on a set of reference shaders. When a user runs their test, all the resulting images are supposed to look the same. Any image that looks different means there was a bug.

Results of several popular devices running the GraphicsFuzz test suite. The Samsung Galaxy S6, Samsung Galaxy S7, and Samsung Galaxy S8 are included in these charts. Source: GraphicsFuzz.

For the Samsung Galaxy S6, GraphicsFuzz discovered that the images in one of the rows were showing images that were supposed to be in another table. This means that images from earlier tests were leaking into later tests. The team then re-ran the test suite in Google Chrome and discovered that parts of the web page were appearing in the image. Furthermore, they found that opening another tab caused the image to show parts of other tabs. Essentially, this bug allowed one Google Chrome tab to leak information about another Chrome tab! The team behind GraphicsFuzz wasn’t intentionally looking for security bugs, but they ended up finding one as a result of their testing. (It should be noted that the team reproduced the bug on the stock Samsung browser on the Galaxy S6 as well as Mozilla Firefox.)

How the bug works

Image used to trigger the long-running bug on the Samsung Galaxy S6. Source: GraphicsFuzz.

The “malicious” web page created by GraphicsFuzz uses WebGL to attempt to draw a space scene inside a canvas as shown above. The color of each pixel is determined by a fragment shader, a program provided by the web page to execute on the GPU. The GraphicsFuzz framework modified the fragment shader which caused it to run for a really long time. When a shader runs for too long, the browser or operating system typically aborts rendering. However, while the GPU aborted rendering after drawing a few pixels, the GPU driver didn’t report this to Google Chrome. (If you take a look at the image at the top of the article showing garbage video memory, you can actually see parts of the space scene in the top left.) This means that the pixels that were rendered before the abort are left untouched, meaning the final rendered image is mostly garbage video memory. Since video memory is continuously used to render other web pages, the “garbage” data actually contains previous renderings of other web pages. Thus, other web pages end up being displayed on the “malicious” web page. Crucially, WebGL allows the web page to capture the contents of whatever is being rendered; this image is then uploaded to a remote server.

Diagram explaining the long-running GPU bug causing Chrome tab data to “leak.” Source: GraphicsFuzz.

Google Chrome uses multiple processes so different tabs are often isolated, which makes this exploit seem impossible on the surface. However, Chrome interacts with the GPU using a single “GPU process”, which means that all tabs share the same GPU memory, thus allowing this exploit to work. The diagram above shows this in more detail.

The bug is demonstrated in this video during the first 22 seconds. Other security issues found by GraphicsFuzz are also demonstrated.

Lessons to be learned

A misbehaving GPU can bypass all of Google Chrome and Android’s security measures since WebGL allows any malicious web page to send code to the GPU for execution. Google can’t fix GPU bugs since the company doesn’t control the hardware and drivers. In this case, it’s up to the GPU vendor (in this case, ARM) to fix the bug and the OEM whose devices are affected (in this case, Samsung) to integrate the fix in an update. Add carriers to the mix and it’s easy to see how a bug like this can take a really long time to fix—it took at least 5 months for most Samsung Galaxy S6 users to receive the patch.

GraphicsFuzz helps GPU vendors find hard-to-detect bugs such as miscompilation bugs that cause the wrong code to be generated and executed on the GPU. Their automated testing framework allows them to find bugs such as the one showcased in this article. The long-running loop caused by the “malicious” web page has also been shown to cause issues on other devices such as the HTC One M7 and more recently the Samsung Galaxy S9. GraphicsFuzz tests flagship smartphones and publishes a results table which ranks these devices based on their performance on a subset of their tests. Hundreds of crashes and rendering errors have been found during their testing, but most aren’t investigated to see if they pose a security threat. However, as shown by this exploit, a misbehaving GPU is a security risk, and it’s possible that one or more critical security vulnerabilities are waiting to be discovered. GraphicsFuzz hopes that GPU vendors prioritize improving driver quality in the future.

Comparative reliability of graphics drivers, sorted by the number of total issues. Source: GraphicsFuzz.

Disclosure timeline

• In December 2016, GraphicsFuzz reported the bug to the Google Chromium bug tracker because it was eligible for the Chrome Reward Program. After GraphicsFuzz submitted the bug to the Google Chromium bug tracker, the bug was accepted by Google and forwarded it to ARM and Samsung for patching.
• Google forwarded the report to contacts at ARM and Samsung.
• Samsung silently patched the bug and rolled out the fix in the Android 7.0 Nougat update that was released between March and June of 2017. Although there was no CVE created by Samsung, Google, or ARM and neither Samsung nor ARM released any information on the patch, note that GraphicsFuzz did not report the bug via the proper process.
• Later, GraphicsFuzz was able to confirm that both Samsung and ARM had seen the report, and that ARM was able to fix the issue due to the report.
• In August 2017, GraphicsFuzz was rewarded $2,000 by Google for the bug report.
• In November 2017, the bug report was made public.

Qualcomm has been the leading chip maker for mobile devices for some time. As Windows transitions more to hybrid and convertible devices, Microsoft has worked on adding ARM chip support. Qualcomm is now ready to show off the Snapdragon 850, a chip made specifically for modern Windows 10 on ARM devices.

The easiest way to describe the Snapdragon 850 is to think of it as the Snapdragon 845 for laptops/tablets. The 850 is the successor to the first generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC System. Here are the highlights that Qualcomm mentions:

• Always on, always connected
• Beyond all-day battery life
• Sleek, innovative designs
• Windows 10

The “always connected” feature is something Qualcomm is really focusing on. The company stated that Gigabit LTE is now possible for 90% of global operators, and according to QTI Research consumer demand for Gigabit LTE has grown from 38% in 2017 to 60% in 2018.  To meet these demands, the Snapdragon 850 and its X20 LTE modem support second-gen Gigabit LTE speeds of 1.2Gbps, and devices featuring the chipset can reportedly attain 20+ hours of multi-day battery life. The 850 chip has much higher TDP and clock speeds than you would find on a smartphone. A phone will hover around 2.5W TDP while a PC can go up to 5W. The Kryo 385 CPU is clocked at 2.96 GHz, while the Snapdragon 835 was clocked at 2.6GHz. The results of the improvements are 30% better performance, 20% increase in battery life, and 20% faster Gigabit LTE speeds. In addition, the Snapdragon 850 includes the same Hexagon 685 DSP as the Snapdragon 845, with its Hexagon Vector Extensions (HVX) for machine learning workloads.

The Windows 10 April Update included more support for ARM systems. The Snapdragon 850 and the April update will enable Windows 10 on ARM devices to use the 64-bit Edge browser, have increased app compatibility, the performance improvements, 30% increase in graphics, HDR support, HiFi audio, and native ARM64 apps. Devices featuring the Snapdragon 850 will also benefit from Qualcomm Aqstic & Qualcomm aptX HD audio for higher-fidelity sound through both wired (3.5mm and Type-C) and wireless connections. Support for UltraHD Premium video playback is also a great perk considering the larger form factor this chipset targets.

The Snapdragon 850 is built on the 10nm process just like the Snapdragon 835. Qualcomm is hoping this new chip will power the new generation of mobile, always connected PC devices. Smartphones are typically powered on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Always there giving us notifications at a glance. People don’t think about computers in the same way, but Qualcomm and Microsoft are hoping to change that. The Snapdragon 850 should bring some of the features we take for granted in smartphones over to the PC. Qualcomm expects Windows 10 devices powered by the 850 to be available later this year.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 Mobile Compute Platform Specs

Cellular Modem	Qualcomm Snapdragon X20 LTE modem	Peak Download Speed: 1.2 Gbps Peak Upload Speed:150 Mbps
CPU	Qualcomm Kryo 385 built on Arm® Cortex technology	CPU Clock Speed:Up to 2.96 GHz CPU Cores:8 x Kryo 385 CPU
Adreno Subsystem	Qualcomm Adreno 630 Visual Processing Subsystem	Open GL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan, DirectX 12 Ultra HD Premium video playback and encoding @ 4K (3840×2160) 30fps Slow motion HEVC video encoding of FHD (1080p) up to 120fps H.264 (AVC), H.265 (HEVC), VP9, DisplayPort over USB Type-C support
DSP	Qualcomm Hexagon685 DSP	Hexagon Vector DSP (HVX) Hexagon Scalar DSP (Audio) Hexagon All-Ways Aware Hub (Sensor)
Camera	Qualcomm Spectra 280 Image Signal Processor	New architecture for 14-bit image signal processing, with support for up to: Single HFR 16 MPix camera at 60fps ZSL Dual 16 MPix cameras at 30fps ZSL Single 32 MPix camera at 30fps ZSL Multi-frame Noise Reduction (MFNR) with accelerated image stabilization Hybrid Autofocus with support for dual phase detection (2PD) sensors Ultra HD Premium video capture @ 4K (3840×2160) 30fps
Security Support		Qualcomm Processor Security Qualcomm Mobile Security Qualcomm Content Protection
WiFi	Qualcomm Wi-Fi 802.11ad Multi-gigabit	Qualcomm Wi-Fi 802.11ad Multi-gigabit Wi-Fi integrated 802.11ac 2×2 with MU-MIMO 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and 60 GHz
Audio		Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec and speaker amplifier Qualcomm aptX audio playback with support for aptX Classic and HD Native DSD support, PCM up to 384kHz/32bit
RF		TruSignal adaptive antenna tuning High-power transmit (HPUE)
Bluetooth		Bluetooth 5 Qualcomm TrueWireless
Location		Qualcomm Location Support for 6 satellite systems: GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS Low Power Geofencing and Tracking, Sensor-assisted Navigation
Charging		Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+ technology

There are some folks who don’t need the power of the Snapdragon 845 or even a mid-range chipset like the Snapdragon 636. Sure, it can be nice to have but this increases the overall cost of the device and this can be the sole reason why someone delays getting a new smartphone (or even their first smartphone). Google is attempting to solve this with a modified version of Android 8.1 Oreo that they’re calling Android Go and a new rumor suggests that Qualcomm will soon launch two chipsets (the Qualcomm Snapdragon 429 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 439) designed with this version of Android in mind.

Until now, Qualcomm has offered their low-end chipsets such as the Snapdragon 200 series for these devices, but it looks like this could change according to Roland Quandt from WinFuture. According to him, Qualcomm is currently working on building these two new chipsets aimed specifically at Android Oreo Go Edition. It should be pointed out that while these chips are designed for Android Go devices, they aren’t exclusively made for those devices and could be used in devices running regular builds of Android.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 429 and 439 incoming. Aimed at Android GO devices, but not exclusive to these. No idea what the 429 is, yet, but the 439 is a variant of the MSM8953 aka Snapdragon 625 = octacore ARM Cortex-A53, 14nm. No clue about speeds/other specs.

— Roland Quandt (@rquandt) June 6, 2018

At this time, Roland Quandt is unsure of the details that will make up the Snapdragon 429, but he was able to reveal some information that he had received for the 439. If his information is accurate, then the Snapdragon 439 will be a variant of the Snapdragon 625 chipset that we’ve seen in many devices in the past. As a reminder, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 features ARM Cortex-A53 cores on a 14nm die. Additional details about the CPU/GPU speeds or other specifications for the two new chipsets are unavailable at this time. In any case, it’s great to see a silicon vendor taking Android Go seriously as it could change the landscape of the smartphone market in those emerging markets.

Back in 2014, Google announced the Android One program as part of the company’s initiative to expand into emerging markets in South and Southeast Asia. Android One offers users a taste of stock Android even if they can’t afford the latest Google flagship. It’s a great way to help keep Android users up-to-date as well, as most Android One devices have received updates fairly quickly (though I’m sure Xiaomi Mi A1 owners would disagree). The Motorola Moto X4 on Project Fi and the latest Nokia-branded smartphones like the Nokia 6.1 are among the few Android One devices available in the United States. It seems that LG’s first Android One device is coming exclusively for T-Mobile USA, giving customers in the US another option if they want stock Android. Update: this device is likely a special Android One variant of the LG Q7 exclusively for T-Mobile.

Evidence for an unreleased Android One device from LG emerged from an unexpected location: kernel source code for another unreleased LG device. The LG Stylo 4 will reportedly be launching tomorrow on US MVNO MetroPCS. Almost everything about this device has already been leaked online—either by LG or MetroPCS themselves—so there’s not much worth to discuss. However, LG has taken the unusual step in releasing the kernel source code for the Stylo 4 in advance of the device’s announcement. Since the Stylo 4 will be LG’s first device launching with Android 8.1 Oreo, XDA Recognized Contributor deadman96385 decided to take a look through the kernel source code to see if there was anything interesting. Lo and behold, he found a model for a new LG Android One smartphone that is headed for T-Mobile. (Side-note: deadman96385 found the kernel source code by looking up the model number in hands-on videos published before the device’s launch.)

What we know about LG’s Android One device headed to T-Mobile

Digging through the device tree source code, deadman96385 first discovered evidence of the device by seeing a model called “cv5a” with the carrier “tmo”, country code “us”, and suffix “sprout.” The “tmo” and “us” tell us that the device is a T-Mobile USA device, while the “sprout” codename is used to signify an Android One device. Notably, the “sprout” codename isn’t present on the other regional models such as the one for NTT DoCoMo in Japan (dcm_jp), South Korea (lgu_kr, skt_kr, lgu_ldu), or the international variant (lao_com).

For good measure, here’s a list of every Android One device and their codename. I hope this list makes it easy to see why we believe this “sdm450-cv5a_tmo_us_sprout” device is an Android One device. I compiled this list based on Google’s public list of Certified Android devices.

Now, for the rumored specifications. We based this list of specifications off of files we discovered in the source code such as “sdm450-cv5a-panel.dtsi”, “sdm450-cv5a_tmo_us_sprout-pm.dtsi”, and others.

If we learn more about this device, we’ll let you all know.

Soon after the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 was made official, we discovered some commits which suggested that a Chromebook powered by that system-on-chip was in the works. Codenamed “cheza,” we knew nothing about the device other than the SoC powering it, but now we may know more thanks to a report from AboutChromebooks. A lot more work has taken place since those initial commits, which provides us with even more information about the device.

First and foremost, some of the newest code commits suggest what kind of display the first Snapdragon 845-based Chromebook will have. It appears it will have a 2560×1440 display, which is the same resolution as many other Snapdragon 845 smartphones. The Adreno 630 is more than capable of handling that resolution. As pointed out by /u/VictoryGoth on Reddit, however, that resolution could just be being used for testing.

Now, even more interesting, this commit suggests that the screen will be detachable from the keyboard base just like on the recently-launched HP Chromebook X2. That means as well that the screen should actually be a touchscreen, as if it’s detachable then it will need to enter tablet mode to be used. That’s pretty cool as it can be great for multimedia usage as a tablet if you’re not doing work or are just looking for an entertainment device. There are also USB-C, USB 3.0, and DisplayPort references in the code too.

This final commit was spotted by our own Kieran Miyamoto and relates to the fact that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 also has an X20 modem built-in. A code commit references supporting an eSIM, something that currently very few devices outside of the Google Pixels support. Because of that, it may be possible that cheza will support Project Fi (one of the few eSIM providers currently). It’s an interesting thought, and if so, it may make it one of the very few Chromebooks that actually supports mobile networks.

It’s no secret that Qualcomm has been working on entering the PC market for some time. Their first major attempt at doing so was with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 system-on-chip for the Always Connected Windows 10 on ARM devices. We’ve seen hints that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 may be coming to detachable Chromebooks for which Qualcomm has teased. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 was announced earlier this month as a successor to the Snapdragon 835 Mobile PC System, but we haven’t yet seen it in action on laptops. Now, we’re hearing that Qualcomm’s goals are even bigger than before: They’re reportedly working on a Snapdragon 1000 SoC that could even end up in desktop PCs.

According to an earlier report by WinFuture, ASUS was working in tandem with the company to release a Windows 10 on ARM device powered by it (codenamed Primus). Windows 10 on ARM aims to bring a full-fledged Windows experience to ARM chips, and we first saw it in a tech demo powered by the Snapdragon 820. Now WinFuture has shared more details on the upcoming Mobile PC platform. The report states that the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000 series may rival the Intel Y and U series for Windows 10 PCs—beating the Intel Atom and Intel Celeron processors.

Qualcomm’s latest Mobile PC platform: the Snapdragon 850

The Intel Y and Intel U series are both aimed at ultrabooks. The Intel Y series tend to have significantly lower clock speeds than the Intel U series, but both are aimed at providing great performance with low power draw. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000 reportedly reaches about 12w of power draw, which puts it in the territory of stronger x86 processors. Interestingly, the Snapdragon 1000 would be the first ARM chip to be socketed and not soldered to a board. This could mean that, in theory, you could build your own computer with a Qualcomm chip on board.

A Windows 10 on ARM device running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 platform.

The Snapdragon 1000 isn’t ready for market yet, but it’s clear what direction the company is taking with these chipsets. Though there is one curveball and it’s called “Andromeda.” We’ve heard that codename thrown around before when there were rumors about a potential Android and Chrome OS merger. The name here references a similar project for what could be a planned hybrid smartphone and PC.

Finally comes the size of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000. Bigger than any other ARM processor to date, the Snapdragon 1000 is around 20mm by 15mm. Other Snapdragon chips are around 12.4mm by 12.4mm, so it’s significantly bigger. That explains the larger power draw, and why heat may be an issue depending on the size and design of the device it’s running on, though it might not be necessary to have an active coolant on board.

The WPA3 WiFi security standard has been certified, as announced by the Wi-Fi Alliance earlier today. It’s yet another incremental network security protocol upgrade and was necessary after WPA2 was cracked wide open early last year – eleven years after it was officially unveiled. Devices require more enhanced security hardware to utilize it, something which the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 can provide once OEMs roll out support to their devices.

WPA3 offers a number of features that make it more secure than its predecessor. Here’s a summary:

• First, how devices authenticate the access point has been changed, which avoids exploits like KRACK that abused the older system.
• Next, Opportunistic Wireless Encryption (OWE) will allow for a greater level of security on public hotspots using the standard, as even without a password the data between the router and the device will be encrypted. This is different from WPA2 in that when you connect to a public network it cannot be secure, as no data is being encrypted.
• It also offers “Wi-Fi Easy Connect” which makes it even easier to connect devices with no display to your network – all you need is your mobile phone. This will be perfect for the next generation of Internet of Things devices, as it allows you to set up devices with ease.

WPA3 is divided into two categories – WPA3-Personal and WPA3-Enterprise. What’s the difference?

WPA3-Personal

• More resilient password-based authentication even when passwords are considered cryptographically weaker.
• Simultaneous Authentication of Equals (SAE) implementation, which means there are stronger protections against password guessing by third-parties.

WPA3-Enterprise

• Offers an equivalent of 192-bit encryption strength, making it perfect for government and finance work.

While we advise you to consider WPA3 support in your next Android device purchase, you will have to wait for supported routers to first arrive on the market and go down in price before it makes sense to buy one. Public WiFi hotspots may take quite a bit of time to upgrade too. The transition will take some time, but it’s something that we will all have to embrace.

The first Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 Chromebook appears to be on its way, and we already know a decent amount about the device. Codenamed “cheza”, it could well be one of the very few detachable Chromebooks on the market. It could even have LTE support at launch – though that doesn’t appear to be unique to cheza anymore. What could be unique about the detachable Chromebook is that, according to a commit on the Chromium Gerrit, this one may have a built-in stylus.

The commit message suggests that it may be like the Samsung S-Pen found on the Samsung Galaxy Note series. Very few Chrome OS devices support a stylus, and even fewer support one built-in.

We’ve established that this device, in particular, is detachable, so this may mean that you could take a drawing tablet with you anywhere if you want. You’ll be able to make use of a huge amount of applications that could benefit from having a stylus, and if the device has Linux app support, then we can expect to see even more uses for it. From what we can tell so far, Cheza is aimed not only at productivity but at those looking for a machine to do practically everything.

If you’re looking for a Chromebook that supports a built-in stylus, then your only real options are the Samsung Chromebook Plus and Pro. The Acer Spin 11 also supports a stylus, but you can’t slide it back into the device when you’re done with it. The Google Pixelbook also has one available as an extra, but it’ll set you back about $100 if you want to buy it. Lastly, the HP Chromebook X2 also comes with a stylus, though it’s awkwardly attached to the keyboard base. Hopefully, we’ll see this particular Qualcomm Snapdragon 845-powered detachable Chromebook arrive in the near future, as it looks to be potentially one of the best yet.

Featured image: the first detachable Chromebook, the HP Chromebook X2