While I was writing this blog, I received a newsletter from Creative Strategies, Inc. In the newsletter, Ben Bajarin was describing how “battery life is the new MHz race.” He also suggested that the metrics of how PCs are valued has changed. I can’t agree more with his point and how it applies to all mobile computing devices. Today, consumers evaluate devices based on their sleekness, battery life, connectivity options and the new experiences they enable.
These experiences are made possible because of the many unique capabilities of mobile devices such as always-on connectivity, location and contextual awareness, multimedia and sensing capabilities. These exciting new capabilities are not only processing intensive, but they also are constantly evolving and introducing new workloads with diverse requirements that have to be satisfied within the power and thermal constraints of mobile.
This calls for a new design approach. The old CPU-centric approach does not apply any more. Mobile is different and success in mobile requires new ways of thinking.
At Qualcomm, we take a holistic approach to system design to enable these new mobile experiences, while keeping power and thermal in check. We believe success in mobile is driven by many factors, including:
- Full control of key technology assets: We invest in designing our own 3G/4G modem, connectivity solutions, application processors and all key technology blocks. Controlling our technology roadmap is key for us. It not only allows us to anticipate market trends, but also to effectively address market needs and emerging mobile experiences.
- Mobile-optimized processors: We design our own best-in-class CPU, GPU, DSP, sensor core, camera and video processors and much more. We customize these processors for mobile and design them to excel at specific workloads that are necessary to enable emerging mobile experiences.
- Mobile Heterogeneous Computing: We strive to ensure that all these processors work well together. We understand each processor’s strengths and run the appropriate workload on the most suitable processor.
- Mobile-optimized power: In everything we design, power is of utmost consideration. We spend a significant amount of effort analyzing the workloads of emerging use cases. This allows us to make the right design tradeoffs for mobile and effectively provide the needed rich mobile experience at the lowest possible power.
Today, mobile is redefining computing and the old rules just do not apply in the new era of mobile. We need new approaches.
Look for future blogs and webinars to learn about Qualcomm’s approach in redefining computing.
