Qualcomm has announced the second generation Snapdragon Audio Platform Elite at its annual summit in Hawaii. The new chipset doubles on device AI processing power while cutting battery consumption by 40%. It is engineered to power next generation earbuds, smart glasses, and wearable audio gear with extended wireless range.
The hardware delivers a major leap in local processing capability for personal audio accessories. Peak AI performance reaches 128 GOPS with 256 MAC operations per cycle, which is twice the compute power found on the earlier S7 platform. Despite this extra capability, the silicon uses 40% less power and shrinks in physical footprint by 30%. These space savings allow device makers to design smaller audio gear that can handle multiple local voice assistants at the same time.
Wireless transmission relies on Snapdragon Sound technology and aptX Lossless encoding for bit perfect streaming. Qualcomm also integrated XPAN technology alongside ultra low power Wi Fi 6E to bypass standard Bluetooth distance limits. This allows your headphones to maintain a stable audio link across whole buildings far away from your phone. For voice calls, a 5th generation adaptive active noise cancellation system works with cVc echo suppression and multi microphone setups to isolate speech in loud environments.
Manufacturers can deploy this silicon across a wide variety of wearable designs. Supported hardware categories include standard in ear buds, over ear headphones, open ear speakers, audio glasses, and camera equipped smart headsets. Qualcomm is already supplying reference designs to hardware partners to help them push finished consumer products to store shelves faster.
