Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 brings 30-billion-parameter AI models onto phones

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 can run a 30-billion-parameter AI model directly on a handset, without going to the cloud.

The chipmaker announced it at its Snapdragon Summit on September 22, along with a step-down Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6.

Mixture-of-experts design outsizes Apple’s WWDC release

The model is a mixture-of-experts design. The full model has 30 billion parameters, but just a slice fires for any one task, keeping the compute burden controllable on a battery-powered device.

In June, Apple revealed a 20-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model at its Worldwide Developer Conference. It was Apple’s most advanced third-generation foundation model.

The two chips also have new sensing hubs that run smaller models of up to 200 million parameters. Those let a phone run a personal transcription tool locally and differentiate one speaker from another, Qualcomm said.

Hubs also build a memory of how a person uses the device to propose automated tasks. The company said a full voice-in, voice-out agent can run through the chip.

Nine brands sign on, led by Motorola’s Signature 27

“Today marks a milestone as we introduce not one, but two new flagship mobile platforms, delivering agentic AI experiences that are immediate, personal, and adaptive,” said Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets at Qualcomm Technologies.

Both chips are fabricated on a 2-nanometer process. They use Qualcomm’s custom Oryon CPU, a rearchitected Adreno GPU, and a Hexagon neural processing unit, the company said.

The Extreme is capable of capturing 8K video at 60 frames per second and 4K at 240 frames per second for slow motion. Both chips have Qualcomm’s voice bubble feature for voice isolation.

The platforms are lined up for use by HONOR, iQOO, Motorola, OnePlus, OPPO, REDMI, RedMagic, vivo, and Xiaomi. Motorola announced the Motorola Signature 27 on the Extreme chip at the event, with general availability sometime this year.

Cryptopolitan reported on September 22 that Apple is positioning its new Mac mini and Mac Studio desktops as local AI machines for businesses with no per-token cloud fees.

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