MWC 2018: Before the arrival of the next technical singularity

Almost all astrophysicists believe that the starting point of all things is BigBang - of course, what we are talking about is not a famous music mix, but a real expansion in the void. 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was a dense one. The hot sphere expands after the big explosion. The 'time' is born. This sphere is the first singularity.

Afterwards, humankind develops in a manner similar to the acceleration movement, and the more the speed of progression, the more it will even increase geometrically. Now that futurists begin to predict the arrival time of the next singularity, is it 2045 or 2030? Perhaps this It is not important. What is important is that before this happens, who will promote the breakthrough of basic R&D? Especially the basic research and development of information technology closely related to the next 'singularity point'.

In 2018 MWC, we can see some clues.

(Qualcomm MWC Booth)

5G Sprint: Qualcomm completes real-world network simulation

As an important basic science and technology, 5G will produce up to 12 trillion US dollars in products and services in 2035. Qualcomm is an important contributor to 5G basic technology. Its chief executive Steve Molenkov has stated that '5G's The impact of the world economy will be similar to the emergence of electricity or cars.

During the MWC, Qualcomm released a number of important results obtained during its massive 5G real-world network simulation experiments over the past few months, which received great attention. Qualcomm selected two cities in Frankfurt, Germany and San Francisco, USA, at 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz respectively. Millimeter-wave frequency band 5G network simulation experiments. The final results show that two 5G simulation experiments have achieved 5 times the network capacity gain, and compared with 5G is the most advanced Cat. 20 Gigabit LTE network. The experiment also achieved 7x and 23x faster response speeds respectively, which greatly improved the application experience. In San Francisco's 5G millimeter-wave simulation experiment, the average pageview download speed averaged 1.4Gbps. In addition to the increase in download rate and response speed, 5G can also improve the quality of streaming video. Compared with LTE users enjoying 2K, 30 frames/s, 8-bit video, 5G users can enjoy 8K, 120 frames/s and 10 colors in simulation experiments. The streaming video experience, which will not only be a huge change for users, but will also provide developers with a vast space to enhance the VR experience and video experience.

(Live show 5G real network simulation results)

With a huge breakthrough in basic inventions, Qualcomm is still thinking about how to quickly share 5G technology with its partners. In the era of 5G, due to the complexity of technology, handset manufacturers may have to use more than 1,000 components to build their end products. How can this problem be solved? Qualcomm released the Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G module solution during MWC, integrating 'more than 1,000 components' in several modules covering digital, RF, connectivity and front-end functions including application processor, baseband modem, memory, PMIC, RF front-end, antennas and passive components, etc., are expected to be sampled by 2019. This means that Qualcomm becomes the first company to provide epoch-making, turnkey commercial 5G module solutions; it also means that terminal manufacturers can Faster production with less cost and less time.

The world’s first released 5G chipset, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G new air interface modem, has been selected by 20 global terminal manufacturers to support the earliest batch of 5G smart terminals they build. It is expected to be released in 2019. These 20 companies Vendors include ASUS, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Connect Technologies, HMD Global, HTC, Inseego/Novatel Wireless, LG, NetComm Wireless, NETGEAR, OnePlus, OPPO, Sharp, Sierra Wireless, Sony Mobile, Telit, vivo, Wentai Technology, Kai Technology, Xiaomi and ZTE.

At the same time, many wireless network operators around the world have also selected the Xiaolong X50 5G modem for 5G new air interface mobile trials under 6GHz and millimeter wave bands, including AT&T, BT, China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom. , Deutsche Telekom, KDDI, Korea Telecom, LG Uplus, NTT DOCOMO, Orange, Singapore Telecom, SK Telecom, Sprint, Telstra, TIM, Verizon and Vodafone.

Interoperability among different vendors is the most important aspect of industrial cooperation. It is an important step before 5G commercialization. In November 2017, Qualcomm, ZTE and China Mobile successfully implemented the world's first end-to-end 5G based on the 3GPP R15 standard. New Air System Interoperability During the MWC, Qualcomm also demonstrated 5G new air interface interoperability tests based on the 3GPP R15 standard completed by five equipment manufacturers including ZTE, Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung, covering the sub-6GHz and millimeter wave bands.

Three operators in China and several well-known Chinese terminal and equipment manufacturers are choosing to cooperate with Qualcomm in depth. It can be seen that Qualcomm attaches great importance to the development of China's wireless communication ecosystem. In fact, just in January this year, Qualcomm also A number of Chinese manufacturers have announced the '5G Pilot Program' to express the global opportunities brought by 5G and strengthen cooperation to better support the upgrading of China's smart phone industry towards higher end and speed up the sea.

The future of good 5G experience is also inseparable from the continuous evolution of 4G LTE. On the eve of MWC, Qualcomm also released an 'artifact' that can significantly enhance the user experience - the Xiaolong X24 LTE modem, which will bring 4G LTE to the '2Gbps' era. It is also the world's first chip released based on the 7nm FinFET process technology. This is also the third generation of Qualcomm's Gigabit LTE chipset. The GSA released a status relating to LTE and 5G chips on February 20th. Research report, which pointed out that the current downlink rate is the fastest X24 LTE modem.

AI: Towards the terminal side

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is another important technology for humans to achieve the next singularity. It gives different types of terminals the ability to learn. Traditionally, many neural network trainings and inferences are done in the cloud or on servers. In the past few years, the entire model has undergone great changes. Many artificial intelligence reasoning tasks, such as pattern matching, modeling and detection, classification, identification, detection, etc., have gradually shifted from the cloud to the terminal side. This protects data privacy and improves performance. The overall reliability has great benefits.

During the MWC, Qualcomm announced the artificial intelligence engine AI Engine, which is a collection of hardware and software to accelerate the terminal-side AI user experience on the Snapdragon mobile platform. The multiple programmable heterogeneous computing cores integrated in the Snapdragon processor - The Qualcomm Hexagon vector processor, Qualcomm Adreno GPU, and Qualcomm Kryo CPU provide partners with a wider choice of flexibility to support different AI functions, data and computational accuracy requirements, and the ability to quickly and efficiently run artificial intelligence applications on the terminal side. The second component of the AI Engine is software and tools. Software and tools are undoubtedly more important when dealing with AI use cases. Hardware is an accelerated platform, and developers at the software level can implement a lot of innovation to create the latest AI use cases. .

Currently, several smart phone manufacturers have used the artificial intelligence engine AI Engine on the Snapdragon mobile platform to accelerate artificial intelligence applications on their terminals, including Xiaomi, Jiajia, Vivo, OPPO, Motorola, Asus, ZTE, Nubia , Hammer and Black Shark, some of which are planning to use artificial intelligence engine AI Engine to optimize artificial intelligence applications on their future flagship Xiaolong smartphones.

Based on its artificial intelligence engine AI Engine, Qualcomm and leading artificial intelligence software development companies as well as leading cloud service providers have also established in-depth cooperation to bring exclusive use case optimization to Xiaolong mobile platform, such as Shang Tang Technology and Despise Face++. A variety of pre-trained neural networks support image and camera features, including single-camera bokeh, face unlocking, and scene detection and recognition; Tencent recently launched an interactive "high-energy dance room" on its mobile QQ social platform. In the mobile phone QQ on the Android side, an artificial intelligence engine AI Engine component is used to accelerate the frame rate of this feature. In addition, Baidu also plans to fully support the Qualcomm artificial intelligence engine AI Engine and its ecosystem.

Various Terminals: Enhancing Experience is the Key

At this MWC, Qualcomm Xiaolong 845 mobile platform was awarded the GTI Mobile Technology Innovation Breakthrough of the Year. The judging party said that Xiaolong 845 gave full play to Qualcomm's industry-leading mobile heterogeneous computing expertise designed specifically for immersive multimedia experiences. It will also serve as a top-level artificial intelligence platform to expand the way people interact with the world.

During the exhibition, Samsung Galleria S9 and S9+, Sony Xperia XZ2 and Asus ZenFone 5Z have announced that they will carry the Xiaolong 845 mobile platform. The Xiaolong 845 will also support the subsequent launch of a series of domestic mobile phones such as the Xiaomi MIX 2S.

In addition, Qualcomm announced the launch of the Snapdragon 700 series mobile platform during the event, which became another highlight of Qualcomm's MWC efforts to bring top technology and features to affordable terminals. Qualcomm said, 'From our top Qualcomm artificial intelligence Engine AI Engine to excellent camera, terminal performance and power consumption, optimized Opteron 700 series will support consumers to enjoy their desired experience on the most advanced mobile terminals at a more affordable price.

Thanks to the rapid development and accumulation of smart phone platforms, the entire mobile technology's innovation speed and scale are continuously being improved and expanded. As the largest technological innovation platform, mobile technology is transforming and influencing many adjacent industries.

Qualcomm launched a new virtual reality (VR) reference platform based on the Snapdragon 845 mobile platform during this event to support the next wave of smartphone VRs and standalone VR headsets, helping manufacturers and developers create immersive applications and the future Experience. In the field of AR and VR, Qualcomm has supported customers to launch more than 20 types of terminals, including stand-alone heads-up display devices and XR-enabled smartphones, including the first to be led by VR ecosystem leaders such as Google Daydream, Oculus and Vive. Batch independent VR terminal.

In the PC space, Asus, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo have introduced three new Windows 10 devices powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile PC platform that will leverage the mobile operator's ultra-fast LTE network to support mobile computing anytime, anywhere. 'Always connected PC' The connectivity and simplicity of smartphones combined with the capabilities and innovative features of Windows 10 PCs transform the way consumers work and play. During the MWC, Qualcomm and Microsoft jointly announced that they will join hands with leading global retailers to sell to consumers. PC, and cooperating with more operators around the world, to bring fast, convenient and economical wireless connectivity to always connected PC products.

On the automotive side, Qualcomm has been providing technology solutions to the automotive industry for 15 years. Currently, it is the world's largest semiconductor provider of in-vehicle information processing and automotive Bluetooth connectivity solutions. Among the top 25 top automotive manufacturers brands in the world, 14 brands have adopted Qualcomm's automotive infotainment system designs for its products. In addition, Qualcomm is working with leading automotive manufacturers and automotive supplier ecosystems to accelerate the commercialization of cellular-car networking (C-V2X) technology. Such as Peugeot Citroen. The Group and Qualcomm announced during the MWC that they will jointly advance the testing of the C-V2X communications technology. One of the objectives of the test is to test the C-V2X technology and then implement direct communication between vehicles as the first step in the deployment of 5G for automotive applications. .

(Qualcomm on-site display of intelligent network connected car related technology)

In the area of Internet of things, Qualcomm has also been working for many years. The number of IoT chips shipped every day has exceeded 1 million. In fiscal year 2017, Qualcomm’s IoT business revenue exceeded 1 billion US dollars. Currently, it offers a high degree of expertise in this area. Differentiated chipset products, reference designs and over 30 dedicated platforms.

Almost all astrophysicists believe that the starting point of all things is BigBang - of course, what we are talking about is not a famous musical composition, but a real expansion in the void. 13.7 billion years ago, the universe was a dense one. The hot sphere expands after the big explosion. The 'time' is born. This sphere is the first singularity.

Afterwards, humankind develops in a manner similar to the acceleration movement, and the more the speed of progression, the more it will even increase geometrically. Now that futurists are predicting the arrival of the next singularity, is it 2045 or 2030? Perhaps this It is not important. What is important is that before this happens, who will promote the breakthrough in basic R&D? Especially the basic research and development of information technology closely related to the next 'singularity point'.

In 2018 MWC, we can see some clues.

(Qualcomm MWC Booth)

5G Sprint: Qualcomm completes real-world network simulation

During the MWC, Qualcomm released a number of important results obtained during its massive 5G real-world network simulation experiments over the past few months, which received great attention. Qualcomm selected two cities in Frankfurt, Germany and San Francisco, USA, at 3.5 GHz and 28 GHz respectively. Millimeter-wave frequency band 5G network simulation experiments. The final results show that two 5G simulation experiments have achieved 5 times the network capacity gain, and compared with 5G is the most advanced Cat. 20 Gigabit LTE network. The experiments also achieved 7x and 23x faster response speeds respectively, which greatly improved the application experience. In San Francisco's 5G millimeter-wave simulation experiment, the average pageview download speed averaged 1.4Gbps. In addition to the increase in download rate and response speed, 5G can also improve the quality of streaming video. Compared with LTE users enjoying 2K, 30 frames/s, 8-bit video, 5G users can enjoy 8K, 120 frames/s and 10 colors in simulation experiments. The streaming video experience, which will not only be a huge change for users, but will also provide developers with a vast space to enhance the VR experience and video experience.

(Live show 5G real network simulation results)

With a huge breakthrough in basic inventions, Qualcomm is still thinking about how to quickly share 5G technology with its partners. In the era of 5G, due to the complexity of technology, handset manufacturers may have to use more than 1,000 components to build their end products. How can this problem be solved? Qualcomm released the Qualcomm Snapdragon 5G module solution during MWC, integrating 'more than 1,000 components' in several modules covering digital, RF, connectivity and front-end functions, including application processors, baseband modems, memory, PMIC, RF front-end, antennas and passive components, etc., are expected to be sampled by 2019. This means that Qualcomm is the first company to provide epoch-making, turnkey commercial 5G module solutions; it also means that terminal manufacturers can Faster production with less cost and less time.

The world’s first released 5G chipset, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G new air interface modem, has been selected by 20 global terminal manufacturers and supports the earliest batch of 5G smart terminals they built. It is expected to be released in 2019. These 20 companies Vendors include ASUS, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Connect Technologies, HMD Global, HTC, Inseego/Novatel Wireless, LG, NetComm Wireless, NETGEAR, OnePlus, OPPO, Sharp, Sierra Wireless, Sony Mobile, Telit, vivo, Wentai Technology, Kai Technology, Xiaomi and ZTE.

Interoperability among different vendors is the most important aspect of industrial cooperation. It is an important step before 5G commercialization. In November 2017, Qualcomm, ZTE and China Mobile successfully implemented the world's first end-to-end 5G based on the 3GPP R15 standard. New Air System Interoperability During the MWC, Qualcomm also demonstrated 5G new air interface interoperability tests based on the 3GPP R15 standard, completed by five equipment manufacturers including ZTE, Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung, covering 6GHz and millimeter-wave frequencies.

The future of good 5G experience is also inseparable from the continuous evolution of 4G LTE. On the eve of MWC, Qualcomm also released an 'artifact' that can significantly improve the user experience - the Xiaolong X24 LTE modem, which will bring 4G LTE to the '2Gbps' era. It is also the world's first chip released based on the 7nm FinFET process technology. This is also the third generation of Qualcomm's Gigabit LTE chipset. The GSA released a status relating to LTE and 5G chips on February 20th. Research report, which pointed out that the current downlink rate is the fastest X24 LTE modem.

AI: Towards the terminal side

AI (Artificial Intelligence) is another important technology for humans to achieve the next singularity. It gives different types of terminal the ability to learn. Traditionally, many trainings and inferences about neural networks are done in the cloud or on servers. In the past few years, the entire model has undergone great changes. Many artificial intelligence reasoning tasks, such as pattern matching, modeling and detection, classification, identification, detection, etc., have gradually shifted from the cloud to the terminal side. This is to protect data privacy and improve performance. The overall reliability has great benefits.

During the MWC, Qualcomm announced the artificial intelligence engine AI Engine, which is a collection of hardware and software to accelerate the terminal-side AI user experience on the Snapdragon mobile platform. The multiple programmable heterogeneous computing cores integrated in the Snapdragon processor - The Qualcomm Hexagon vector processor, Qualcomm Adreno GPU, and Qualcomm Kryo CPU provide partners with a wider choice of flexibility to support different AI functions, data and computational accuracy requirements, enabling the fast and efficient operation of artificial intelligence applications on the terminal side. The second component of the AI Engine is software and tools. Software and tools are undoubtedly more important when dealing with AI use cases. Hardware is an accelerated platform, and developers at the software level can implement a lot of innovation to create the latest AI use cases. .

Various Terminals: Enhancing the Experience is the Key

At this MWC, Qualcomm Xiaolong 845 mobile platform was awarded the GTI Mobile Technology Innovation Breakthrough of the Year. The reviewer said that Xiaolong 845 has fully utilized Qualcomm's industry-leading mobile heterogeneous computing expertise designed specifically for immersive multimedia experiences. It will also serve as a top-level artificial intelligence platform to expand the way people interact with the world.

In addition, Qualcomm announced the launch of the Snapdragon 700 series mobile platform during the event, which became another highlight of Qualcomm's MWC, trying to bring top technology and features to affordable terminals. Qualcomm said, 'From our top Qualcomm artificial intelligence Engine AI Engine to excellent camera, terminal performance and power consumption, the optimized Snapdragon 700 series will enable consumers to enjoy their desired experience on the most advanced mobile terminals at more affordable prices.

In the PC space, Asus, Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo have introduced three new Windows 10 devices powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon mobile PC platform, which will leverage the mobile operator's ultra-fast LTE network to support mobile computing anytime anywhere. 'Always connected PC' The connectivity and simplicity of smartphones combined with the capabilities and innovative features of Windows 10 PCs transform the way consumers work and play. During the MWC, Qualcomm and Microsoft jointly announced that they will join hands with leading global retailers to sell to consumers. PC, and cooperating with more operators around the world, to bring fast, convenient and economical wireless connectivity to always connected PC products.

(Qualcomm on-site display of intelligent network connected car related technology)