378: Chapter 378 News from Mount Tai 920

People in the audience began to applaud, and some began to look down at their phones.

He didn't send a message to his boss back home; this news was too important.

Jacob then spent 15 minutes detailing the various new features of the Snapdragon 801.

For instance, it supported 4K video recording for the first time, multi-screen interaction, and more advanced image signal sensors... Every feature was packaged as an "industry first."

But what truly ignited the audience was the set of real-world gaming test data he presented at the end.

On the big screen, two displays were shown side-by-side: on the left was the frame rate curve of Asphalt running on the Snapdragon 801, and on the right was the same game running on the transsion s3 with the Taishan 910.

The Snapdragon's real-world gaming frame rate was 58–60 fps, while the Taishan 910's frame rate was stuck at 50–56 fps.

Whether in terms of frame rate or stability, the Taishan 910's performance was slightly worse.

The procurement staff from Dami Company, however, didn't believe this data outright.

There was definitely something fishy going on, but whether it was rigged or not didn't matter; as long as it could save Dami Company, that was enough.

"The Snapdragon 801 is not just a processor; it is the brain of the next generation of Smartphones.

Furthermore, it is open to everyone, not just one company."

Jacob ended the press conference with a remark loaded with subtext.

That final remark about "not just one company" was clearly a jab at Transsion.

If you want to serve the open market, then open it up to everyone. Don't go creating some 9-series that's only for your own use. While that might create clear tiers, customers won't accept it.

After the press conference concluded, Qualcomm's stock price immediately rose in response.

The shares that had fallen two days ago due to the breakthrough in Chinese semiconductors instantly bounced back.

Meanwhile, various reports began to appear every day.

#Qualcomm wrests the mobile chip performance crown back from Transsion#

#The Snapdragon 801's ultra-high benchmark score of 60,000 surpasses the Taishan 910, redefining the performance ceiling for flagship Smartphones#

#Transsion's leadership in the chip sector may be more fragile than imagined. Qualcomm's 28nm process has been optimized to the extreme, reaching a level comparable to 14nm#

The entire United States market was in a frenzy; the brief lead of Chinese chips had ended, and the era of international semiconductors led by Qualcomm would continue!

After all, the boss is still the boss! Transsion could not escape their grasp.

Meanwhile, some subtle voices began to appear on Weibo and Zhihu.

Some began to question whether Transsion's 14nm was only nominally 14nm, with a real technical level of 16 or 22.

After all... if it really was 14, how could it lose to Qualcomm's 28?

Could Transsion's design really be that trash?

Some even deliberately dug up the so-called "throttling gate" of the transsion s3.

They claimed that frequency throttling would occur after prolonged gaming.

The truth of these claims was hard to verify, but they spread quickly. Transsion immediately issued a rebuttal and provided some evidence.

Throttling did exist, but it was a necessary measure taken after three consecutive hours of gaming when the phone heated up...

After issuing the announcement, Li Qing hurried into Professor Li Jiahui's office on the 19th floor.

"Professor Li, they've already reached a score of 60,000. When is our 920 coming out?"

Professor Li Jiahui just smiled.

"There's no rush for the Taishan 920. Let's first take a look at this power consumption.

Qualcomm is truly insane for hitting 2.55 GHz on 28nm."

This time, Li Qing also rubbed his eyes and looked carefully.

Sure enough, there was a line of fine print, as small as could be: "Laboratory data, obtained under conditions that ensure heat dissipation."

"According to their design, if all cores are running at full load for more than 5 minutes, the phone's back panel will hit at least 45 degrees.

But manufacturers, to ensure user experience, will definitely put a lot of effort into scheduling. This is definitely a chip with high benchmark scores but low actual performance; Qualcomm has started down the same path as MediaTek."

Speaking of this, Professor Li Jiahui shook his head. Qualcomm doing this was absolutely self-destructive.

They were chasing performance for the sake of performance, but could Qualcomm compare to them, who were essentially using cheat codes?

"But Professor Li, do you think consumers will care about this?"

Li Qing hesitated slightly.

After all, consumers don't care about things like power consumption, heat dissipation, or laboratory conditions.

They only look at benchmark leaderboards; whoever has the highest score is the strongest.

Qualcomm's move is a brand perception war.

They can lose on actual performance, but they cannot lose on perception.

"Since that's how they want to play, this old man will play along. The tape-out for the Taishan 920 is finished. Currently, there are no issues, and it can go into mass production immediately.

Let them be number one in the world for a while."

What Professor Li Jiahui didn't say was that this time, they weren't using a public architecture, nor was it a modified ARM V7A.

Instead, it was the Taishan 1.0 architecture, improved upon a perpetual license. In addition to supporting a 64-bit architecture like ARM V8, its performance was even about 15% stronger than the A57 and A53.

"In that case, I have a plan."

Having said that, Li Qing handed a promotional plan to Professor Li.

It was written "transsion s5 Promotional Teaser Plan."

The theme was: "Beyond Benchmarks."

It contained detailed frame rate curves, power consumption data, and heat dissipation comparisons. Although it didn't explicitly say a word, every comparison chart was designed to let consumers understand who truly had the better chip.

"In our tests, the Taishan 920 can score at least over 80,000 points. And that's only because we were too busy with the architecture and didn't put enough effort into the design; otherwise, its score would have doubled."

At this moment, Huang Tianya knocked and walked in...

"By the way, there's a company in Taiwan that makes heat dissipation materials. Their laboratory has a new type of graphene heat conduction film.

The technology isn't quite mature yet, but graphene conducts heat quickly, so I just went ahead and acquired them.

Let's see if they can mass-produce the technology in a short time. Then we can take advantage of the Snapdragon to make a killing."

"Boss Huang, you're trying to use physics to bring down the scores that Qualcomm boosted through overclocking!"

Huang Tianya smiled, but his smile quickly faded: "We're just taking the opportunity to earn some hard-earned money."

Hahaha!

Meanwhile, three days after the Qualcomm press conference, at the Samsung Electronics Mobile Communications Division building in South Korea.

President Shin Jong-kyun was thoroughly testing an engineering prototype. As an old partner of Qualcomm, he knew very well that no matter how flowery their rhetoric was at the press conference, everything had to be based on actual testing.

Upon testing... his initial expectations instantly vanished.

"The benchmark scores are indeed high."

He looked at the technical lead beside him and shook his head.

"But the heat is just too obvious.

This machine has only been running for 20 minutes, and the frame is already burning to the touch."