[Maui, United States = DigitalToday reporter Seok Dae-geon] Qualcomm has applied a package that moves the memory position to the side in the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, creating a new path to draw heat out of the chip. The design aims to keep high burst performance for longer in top-tier smartphones.

Chris Patrick (크리스 패트릭), Qualcomm senior vice president and head of the mobile handset division, said at the Snapdragon Summit 2026 mobile roundtable held in Maui, Hawaii, on Sept. 23 local time, "If you dissipate heat and keep the SoC cool, you can remain in the maximum performance range for longer."

The reason it focused on sustaining peak performance while changing the package structure is, coincidentally, the premiumisation of the smartphone market. Patrick said, "Even at a time when memory costs are rising, the share of premium devices is increasing in virtually every region." Qualcomm therefore chose a multi-flagship strategy of releasing two flagship platforms rather than supporting all premium devices with a single platform.

That meant Qualcomm needed a design that would keep high burst performance for longer in top-tier smartphones. Until now, Qualcomm has used PoP (package on package), stacking memory vertically on top of the SoC, in the 8 series for nearly 10 years. In that structure, Qualcomm handles LPDDR5 and LPDDR6 wiring inside the package without going through the mainboard.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 unveiled this time differs from the package structure. It applies an offset PoP that enlarges the package and moves memory to one side. In the space above the die created by moving the memory, it places a thermally conductive material to create a low-thermal-resistance path to the smartphone cooling system.

By lowering the temperature of parts of the die such as the CPU and GPU through this path, it became possible to drive the overall system at higher performance. Patrick said, "A chip that, like a racing engine, uses very little power in normal times but delivers very high maximum performance when needed," and added, "If you sustain maximum performance for longer, system response becomes faster and the user flow becomes smoother."

Smartphone makers using offset PoP need to change some of their cooling design. That is because heat exits both toward the mainboard and upward over the memory, effectively making two cooling paths. Patrick said, "It does not require completely new technology, and it is a level of system design that changes slightly."

◆Qualcomm: "We hope to be with Samsung Electronics on this platform as well"

Memory capacity inside the chip also differs between the two platforms. Adreno high-performance memory (HPM) is 18MB for the 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 and 12MB for the 8 Elite Gen 6. Patrick explained that "the game development industry is using HPM as a local cache for core game functions." The 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 GPU also includes a matrix acceleration function.

For the CPU, Qualcomm cited microarchitecture improvements as a factor behind higher maximum performance. Some view the Orion CPU prime core's up to 5 GHz as an effect of switching to a 2-nanometre process. Patrick responded, "There were major generation-to-generation improvements in the microarchitecture." He cited examples including FlexCache, a new cache structure, the SME engine, and an inter-core coherency interface.

Qualcomm is also reviewing the next generation of packaging methods. Patrick explained that placing memory next to the die is possible, but it changes the internal layout of smartphones and affects space for the battery and camera. Offset PoP involves a small increase in area, allowing battery space to be preserved. Patrick said, "A combination of PoP and offset PoP could be the right long-term solution," but added, "We will continue to look at other methods," leaving open the possibility of changes in approach.

The Snapdragon 8 Elite and Elite Extreme Gen 6 platforms are set to be installed in flagship devices from global OEMs. Asked whether Samsung Electronics will adopt them, Patrick said, "I don't speak on behalf of customers," but added, "We hope to be together on this platform as well." He added, "The strongest partner in the mobile industry worldwide."