Qualcomm will change the 3 digit naming system of snapdragon chipsets.
Snapdragon will also appear as a standalone entity going forward.
Qualcomm has announced that its next flagship Snapdragon processor will be available on November 30. However, the upcoming mobile processor may not be comparable to the prior generation. This is due to Qualcomm’s intention to alter its name. The chipmaker said that it will abandon the three-digit numbering scheme in favour of a more simplified and memorable name for its Snapdragon processors. Not only that, but Qualcomm is separating Snapdragon into a separate entity.
Qualcomm has made several significant disclosures about its Snapdragon mobile platform ahead of the Snapdragon Tech Summit, which begins on November 30. Snapdragon chips will no longer be labelled “Qualcomm” in the future. For example, the next chipset may simply be called the Snapdragon 898. The suffix 5G will also disappear since the 5G connection is widespread across chips and it makes no sense to justify it by including 5G in the name every time.
But those changes are only the tip of what Qualcomm has in store for its chipsets, which is a bit confusing at the moment. This is due to Qualcomm’s decision to remove the three digits from the names of its Snapdragon processors. Qualcomm has used this technique for years to indicate how strong a chipset is and what category it belongs to. For example, the Snapdragon 480 is an entry-level processor, but the Snapdragon 888 is a high-end processor. The first digit of the three numbers reveals this. Sometimes an alphabetical suffix is added, such as in the Snapdragon 768G, where G indicates a slight bump in graphics performance and is normally reserved for phones geared toward gaming.
Qualcomm is escaping the inevitable with the new naming scheme. Its flagship chipset is already at the 888 number, so if it continues with this strategy, it will soon run out of digit combinations. As a result, the new name strategy makes sense.
Qualcomm said that starting with the upcoming 8-series flagship, it will use “a single-digit series and generation number, matching with other product categories.” Although the specific name is unknown, this system is not entirely new. Qualcomm Snapdragon chips for PCs already use this naming system. Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 or Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 are two examples. This naming approach appears novel, but it contains a logical flaw.
The high-end Snapdragon chips are released just once a year – or twice if you consider the Plus model. The remaining processors come many times a year, sometimes in parallel. As a result, determining which generation the new chipset belongs to may be difficult. In any case, Qualcomm had to have given it some thought before making the choice. So we’ll simply have to wait until November 30th for the announcement.
