Snapdragon is a family of mobile systems on a chip (SoC) by Qualcomm.

Qualcomm considers Snapdragon a "platform" for use in smartphones, tablets, and smartbook devices. The original Snapdragon CPU, dubbed Scorpion,[1] is Qualcomm's own design. It has many features similar to those of the ARM Cortex-A8 core and it is based on the ARMv7 instruction set, but theoretically has much higher performance for multimedia-related SIMD operations.[2] The successor to Scorpion, found in S4 Snapdragon SoCs is named Krait and has many similarities with the ARM Cortex-A15 CPU and is also based on the ARMv7 instruction set. All Snapdragon processors contain the circuitry to decode high-definition video (HD) resolution at 720p or 1080p depending on the Snapdragon chipset.[3] Adreno, the company's proprietary GPU technology, integrated into Snapdragon chipsets (and certain other Qualcomm chipsets) is Qualcomm's own design, using assets the company acquired from AMD.[4] The Adreno 225 GPU in Snapdragon S4 SoCs adds support for DirectX 9/Shader Model 3.0 which makes it compatible with Microsoft's Windows 8.[5] Compared to System on chips from many competitors, Snapdragon SoCs have been unique in that they have had the modem for cellular communication on-die. That is, they do not require a separate external cellular modem on the PCB. Since Snapdragon S4, the majority of S4 SoCs also features on-die Wi-Fi, GPS/GLONASS and Bluetooth basebands.[5] This integration reduces the complexity and cost of the final design for the OEM. It also has the advantage of benefiting from advances in the manufacturing process, for example 28 nm in most S4 SoCs, thus providing modems and other dedicated circuitry with lower power characteristics than external chips manufactured with older processes. Contents [hide] 1 History 2 Snapdragon S1 3 Snapdragon S2 4 Snapdragon S3 5 Snapdragon S4 6 Snapdragon 200 7 Snapdragon 400 8 Snapdragon 600 9 Snapdragon 800 10 Snapdragon 805 11 Similar platforms 12 See also 13 References 14 External links History[edit] In 4th Quarter of 2008, the first chipsets in the Snapdragon family, the QSD8650 and the QSD8250, were made available. On 1 June 2010, Qualcomm announced sampling of the MSM8x60 series of Snapdragon SoCs.[6] On 17 November 2010, Qualcomm announces the roadmap for Next-Gen Snapdragon SoC development, including the MSM8960, citing future improvements in CPU and GPU performance and lower power consumption.[7] On 5 January 2011, a version of Microsoft Windows 7 compiled for ARM was shown running on the Snapdragon SoC at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show.[8] On 3 August 2011, Qualcomm announced a plan to use simple names (S1, S2, S3 and S4) for Snapdragon processors so that the public can better understand the products. The higher the number, the newer generation of SoC it is.[9] On 7 January 2013, Qualcomm announced new names and tiers for the 2013 line of Snapdragon SoC's, Snapdragon 200, 400, 600 and 800.[10] The model tiers can easiest be described as equivalent to the Play (200), Plus (400), Pro (600) and Prime (800) tiers of the S4 generation of SoCs.[11][12]