Although it has been quite keen to point out that both number of cores as well as the 64-bit instructions are not that important when it comes to mobile processors, Qualcomm has unveiled two new Snapdragon SoCs based on 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 design, the octa-core Snapdragon 615 and the quad-core Snapdragon 610.

Both new SoCs are based on the same 64-bit ARM Cortex-A53 cores and feature the same Adreno 405 GPU and LTE Cat 4 support. Although it did not reveal the precise clocks for the new Snapdragon 615 and 610 SoCs, we do know that these are made on 28nm LP manufacturing process and are quite similar to the MSM8916, also known as the 1.2GHz+ clocked quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 based, Snapdragon 410, except for the GPU part of course, since the MSM8916 comes with Adreno 306 GPU.

In case you missed it earlier, the Cortex-A53 is pretty much a 64-bit upgraded Cortex-A7 design and although it did not like the idea of octa-core design, Qualcomm definitely concluded that having many smaller cores is much better, at least when the optimizations are done right. For example, in an octa-core Snapdragon 615, you have two quad-core clusters, one optimized for low-power operation and other for high-performance ones. With some optimizations, and when such performance is needed, both clusters can work at same time, providing much better performance and power efficiency.

All we need now are a couple of smartphones based on these two new SoCs in order to see if the performance is where it should be.



Source: Qualcomm.com.