May 20, 2021 – San Diego – Getting the latest software updates and features on your smartphone is key to a better user experience and adds excitement to the devices you use all the time. In late 2019, Qualcomm Technologies announced GPU updateable drivers — a first in the mobile industry. Just like how you get updates on your desktop GPUs, smartphone users are now able to update their GPU to take advantage of potential performance and feature gains.
Today we have exciting news to share, working together with Google, we are expanding updatable drivers in the AI realm for Snapdragon mobile platforms. Starting later this year, Qualcomm Technologies and Google will start offering regular updates for NNAPI. The drivers will be made available to devices via Google Play Services, it will automatically update in the background, and the updatable NNAPI drivers will not only work on the latest and greatest Snapdragon processors but will also be backward compatible with older Snapdragon processors as well. This will allow for regular updates to Google Assistant and Google Maps (among other applications) to help make the user experience better, smarter, and more intuitive.
On top of that, Qualcomm Technologies has been a strong proponent of driving alignment in the Android ecosystem for years. Since initially announcing our Qualcomm Neural Processing SDK, we have been making regular updates monthly and making such update available to our OEMs and partners, making sure they always have the latest APIs and math operators for AI applications. Not only can you see improved AI performance by running popular industry benchmarks, some of your favorite apps will also benefit from these updates Qualcomm Technologies regularly makes available to our partners that can help make those apps faster and more responsive.
We can’t wait to see Snapdragon powered devices take full advantage of the updatable AI drivers to add new features and help make your favorite applications run even faster— giving you the experience you deserve.
