AfterDawn: News

Qualcomm dogged by overheating in its Snapdragon 810 chip

Over the past week, Qualcomm has been dogged by reports that claim that its new high-end Snapdragon 810 chip generates too much heat and smartphone makers are staying away.

One major report from the week claimed that Samsung is being forced to use their own Exynos chip for the upcoming Galaxy S6 flagship because the 810 overheated the phone too much. Qualcomm is working on an updated version, but it is unclear if it will be ready in time for the launch of the new device.



LG, on the other hand, is said to have worked around the heating issues by updating the cooling system for their upcoming high-end devices, including the G Flex 2.
"Heat levels don't depend entirely on the CPU (mobile processor) but also on how the phone's internal cooling system is designed," said Choi Yong-su, a vice president for LG's smartphone development.

Qualcomm is the biggest chipmaker in the world, and the Snapdragon 810 is a big part of its 2015 sales plans. Some analysts estimate profits could be reduced by up to 8 percent if the Snapdragon 810 is a dud.

Source:
WSJ

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 25 Jan 2015 10:47

• Previous article

• China denies it hacked Microsoft's Outlook email service

• Next article

• Celebrating 100 years since the first transcontinental phone call was completed

• 4 comments

• blueboy09

  If Samsung and the other phone companies are wise, they should wait until the bugs and deficiencies are out of this chip..

  25.1.2015 10:52 #1

• Tarsellis

  Originally posted by blueboy09: If Samsung and the other phone companies are wise, they should wait until the bugs and deficiencies are out of this chip.. Doesn't fit with their refresh/sales cycle. Qualcomm wasn't ready to go to market with 64 bit, so had to use somebody else's technology, and couldn't ship it with the thermal window manufacturers have long since been demanding.
  
  LG's got the right idea, better design for heat dissipation, so you can use a higher TDP and more powerful (but shorter lived) chip. I think if not for that move, the 810 chip would die on the vine. As is, I think qualcomm shot themselves in the foot by not being ready and doing the R&D to be able to do their own 810 chip.

  2.2.2015 11:33 #2

• pmshah

  Originally posted by Tarsellis: Originally posted by blueboy09: If Samsung and the other phone companies are wise, they should wait until the bugs and deficiencies are out of this chip.. Doesn't fit with their refresh/sales cycle. Qualcomm wasn't ready to go to market with 64 bit, so had to use somebody else's technology, and couldn't ship it with the thermal window manufacturers have long since been demanding.
  
  LG's got the right idea, better design for heat dissipation, so you can use a higher TDP and more powerful (but shorter lived) chip. I think if not for that move, the 810 chip would die on the vine. As is, I think qualcomm shot themselves in the foot by not being ready and doing the R&D to be able to do their own 810 chip. Designing a better heat dissipation system is certainly not the answer. Overheating only means bad design and wasted power. The heat would still be generated and drain the batteries much faster.

  2.2.2015 23:23 #3

• Tarsellis

  Better heat dissipation is the answer when the only technology you have that will fit your solution generates that much heat. I did say that does drain the battery (shorter lived) ,ore quickly, but good heat dissipation does not mean over-heating, quite the opposite in fact.
  
  Dissipating heat from the batteries better will also cause the battery charge life to last longer, as well as the number of charge cycles. Heat's really harder on batteries than processors.
  
  LG got stuck in a bad place. They wanted to step up the performance of a flagship product and push the limits of current processor technology, but their partner didn't meet their specifications, and they either found a way to make it work inspite of this, or didn't release.

  3.2.2015 09:54 #4