Qualcomm is looking to carve out a niche all for itself: drone processors. It has only been a few years since drones started out as clunky and barely-in-the-air machines to what we have now like the Millennium Falcon made by Disney. But now, Qualcomm just introduced the Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight, Forbes reported. It is an optimized 58 x 40 mm board which contains top tech for consumer drones.
The drone chip is based on the Snapdragon 801 processor already found in many flagship smartphones. It contains a 2.26GHz quad-core processor, digital sensor for real-time flight control, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and GPS, according to Qualcomm. All that in one tiny chip! And it does not end there. The chip also supports 4k video. Basically, everything high end consumer drones can do this chip can too.
That it is crammed full of features has one major advantage: longer flights. The need for less stuff in drones means less weight. Coupled with the navigational features of the Snapdragon Flight, Qualcomm is poised to take the lead in consumer drone technology.
Raj Talluri, SVP for product management at Qualcomm said, "Today, drones are made from multiple component vendors providing separate solutions for photography, navigation and communications, adding to the cost and bulk of consumer drones."
He adds, "The Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight brings together the technologies that have defined the mobile industry onto a single board, enabling OEMs to build drones that are lighter, smaller, easy to use and affordable with long battery life and superior functionalities."
The Snapdragon Flight is available to drone makers already and it is reported that Chinese maker Yuneec will be its first customer. Yuneec's Snapdragon Flight powered drone is expected to hit the market sometime next year. An obstacle avoidance navigational system can be added to the chip via software updates in the future.
