Qualcomm launches auto chip for Snapdragon Ride to handle both assisted driving and entertainment
Qualcomm Snapdragon Ride
An American based Multinational Corporation, Qualcomm targets on creating semi-conductors, software’s and wireless technology.
Qualcomm is known for its leading tech innovations. It is a world’s leading driving force transforming industries digitally.
Quality Communications
Qualcomm was created in July 1985 by seven former Linkabit employees led by Irwin Jacobs. The company was named Qualcomm for “QUALity COMMunications”. It started as a contract research and development centre largely for government and defence projects.
Next, Qualcomm merged with Omninet in 1988 and raised $3.5 million in funding in order to produce the Omnitracs satellite communications system for trucking companies. Further, Qualcomm grew from eight employees in 1986 to 620 employees in 1991, due to demand for Omnitracs. Furthermore, by 1989, Qualcomm had $32 million in revenue, 50 percent of which was from an Omnitracs contract with Schneider National. Finally, Omnitracs profits helped fund Qualcomm’s research and development into code-division multiple access (CDMA) technologies for cell phone networks.
Snapdragon ride
Mobile chip maker Qualcomm Technologies, divulge a processor chip for the car called the Snapdragon Ride Flex SoC that handles both assisted driving and cockpit functions, including entertainment.
Previously, those functions were handled on different chips. However, merging them can help bring down costs, said Nakul Duggal, Qualcomm’s head of automotive.
“Obviously you are reducing the number of physical boxes. So it goes down to a single box. You reduce the amount of memory that you need. The extra external components that you need, those go down,” Duggal said.
Qualcomm has been steadily building up its automotive business in recent years and in September 2022 it said its automotive business “pipeline” increased to $30 billion.
With electric vehicles and increasing autonomous features in cars, the number of chips used by automakers is surging and the automotive market has been a key growth area for chipmakers.
Duggal said automotive customers are already trying out the new chip. Moreover, it would be commercially available in the first half of next year.
