On December 3rd, the 2024 Digital Technology Ecology Conference hosted by China Telecom was held in Guangzhou. The theme of this conference is "Empowering AI to Build a New Digital Ecosystem", showcasing the important achievements of the industrial chain in promoting digital transformation and intelligent upgrading of thousands of industries through deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation.
As a leading enterprise in the field of connectivity and computing and an important ecological partner of China Telecom for more than 20 years, Qualcomm was invited to participate in this conference and make an appearance in the exhibition area. Focusing on the three themes of "making AI infinitely beautiful", "making connectivity efficient and calm", and "making intelligence evolve without boundaries", Qualcomm showcased its innovative achievements in terminal AI, 5G Advanced (5G-A) and Wi Fi 7, smartphones, PCs, Extended Reality (XR), automobiles, industrial Internet of Things, wearables and many other fields from multiple dimensions, allowing attendees to truly experience the innovative vitality released by digital technology.
Qualcomm President and CEO Amon delivered a video speech titled "Using AI and 5G-A Innovation to Drive Intelligent Computing Everywhere" at the main forum of the conference. He said, "Qualcomm continues to expand its core technology pillars, including outstanding connectivity, high-performance low-power computing, and leading intelligence, making it applicable to many industries and creating new core competencies. We are working together with our ecosystem partners to fulfill our commitment to making intelligent computing ubiquitous, driving changes in many industries, and creating new user experiences
AI is the new UI, revolutionizing various terminals to enable everyone to enjoy AI
As a representative of the new round of digital technology transformation, generative AI has not only given rise to new application scenarios, business models, and industrial forms, but also brought exciting new experiences to consumers' digital lives. Various terminals are important links between generative AI and consumers.
With terminal side AI solutions tailored for a diverse range of terminals, Qualcomm continues to promote the popularization of AI and is committed to enabling terminals such as smartphones, mobile PCs, and connected cars that are within reach of users to run generative AI functions anytime and anywhere, thereby achieving close integration between terminals and the cloud and promoting the widespread application of generative AI.
On the basis of accelerating the integration of AI into various terminals, Anmeng also looked forward to the user experience transformation triggered by AI in a video speech. He said, "AI is the new UI (user interface), and the experience centered around apps is changing. With AI running everywhere on the terminal side, AI agents can understand users' personalized data, context, and various input forms from audio to computer vision. Users will no longer need to open specific apps, and AI agents will be able to autonomously perform tasks for them
In the process of promoting the development of terminal side generative AI, Qualcomm and China Telecom have worked together and achieved fruitful results. In the field of smartphones, Qualcomm has assisted China Telecom in building the "Maimang" 5G AI smartphone, providing users with a new AI first experience. Among them, the sales of Maimang 30 terminals have exceeded 1 million units; Both parties are also collaborating to adapt and run the Star Model on China Telecom smartphones equipped with Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition. Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition is specially designed for terminal AI, using the second-generation custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU and powerful Qualcomm& reg; Hexagon NPU has achieved breakthrough performance improvements by supporting personalized multimodal generative AI on the terminal side, thereby enhancing the experience from productivity to creative tasks. In addition, the smart glasses jointly developed by China Telecom Artificial Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd. and Shunwei were also showcased. The glasses are based on China Telecom's Starry Sky model and feature the first generation Snapdragon& reg; Using AR1 platform's smart glasses as a carrier, explore multimodal generative AI applications in smart glasses scenarios. Based on the first generation Snapdragon& reg; The AR intelligent terminal on the AR1 platform has strong performance, adopts 14 bit dual ISP, and has various top-level shooting features. Thanks to Qualcomm& reg; Hexagon NPU, which also supports AI capabilities, can improve the quality of photo and video shooting, reduce noise to achieve clearer calls, and more.
In addition to the exciting presentation of AI cooperation achievements on the terminal side at the Qualcomm booth, Qualcomm also teamed up with ecological partners such as the mobile game "Eternal Love", OLLAMA, Zhipu, Private LLM, LM Studio, etc. to bring a demonstration of generative AI technology, and showcased multiple Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition empowered smartphones, Snapdragon X series empowered AI PCs, as well as the immersive experience of "Snapdragon XR Fantasy Journey" and the automotive intelligence innovation empowered by the Snapdragon cockpit platform.
5G-A connects everything intelligently, opening up new depths in industry applications
According to data from the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, the contribution rate of China's digital economy growth to GDP growth in 2023 will reach 66.45%, becoming an important force in effectively supporting stable economic growth. As the core driving force of the digital economy, technologies such as 5G-A and AI can efficiently promote the accumulation and growth of new quality productivity. In the context of the current hybrid AI revolution, the collaborative operation of terminal AI and cloud AI has put forward higher requirements for high-speed end-to-end connections with higher reliability and lower latency. This makes 5G, as an important connection "base", even more crucial in the process of consumers and enterprises using AI tools and applications.
Since the commercialization of 5G five years ago, the global development of 5G has entered the "second half" and is at a critical juncture of "ten years of grinding and one G". This year, the first 5G-A global standard version 3GPP Release 18 was completed, laying the foundation for a new round of 5G technology innovation. 5G-A will provide higher quality connectivity, empowering new AI based use cases, more energy-efficient terminals and networks, as well as technology applications such as satellite communication. 5G-A can achieve peak speeds of 10 Gigabit downstream and 1 Gigabit upstream, millisecond level latency, and billions of IoT, achieving a tenfold increase in capability compared to 5G. Driven by 5G-A, the future application of 5G industry will usher in deeper innovative development. According to the "5G Scale Application 'Sail' Action Upgrade Plan" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and twelve other departments, by the end of 2027, China will build a development pattern of "universal capability, universal application, and empowering universal", and fully realize the scale application of 5G. The upgrade of 5G-A network and technological innovation will play a key empowering role in this process, continuously expanding the breadth and depth of 5G applications, and driving the industry towards higher levels of digitization and intelligence.
5G-A is a key area where Qualcomm and ecological partners such as China Telecom work together to accelerate the transformation of various industries and unleash the potential of the digital economy. Triple Carrier Aggregation (3CC), as one of the first 5G-A technologies to be deployed on a large scale, can "transform a single lane into three lanes" and quickly improve the connectivity experience. Through 3CC technology, Qualcomm and China Telecom have achieved a downlink peak throughput of over 5.5Gbps, laying a solid technological foundation for exploring the application potential of high-value scenarios such as high-end manufacturing, naked eye 3D, ultra high definition live streaming, and cloud gaming. Targeting high-density and high mobility wireless communication scenarios in subways, Qualcomm and China Telecom have successfully implemented a pilot project for ultra high speed data transmission on subways using millimeter wave technology. Both parties are also collaborating on 5G-A enhanced calling, bringing users a new high-definition, immersive, and interactive calling experience.
In addition to the aforementioned joint innovations, Qualcomm also showcased a number of cutting-edge connectivity technologies and product demonstrations at its booth, including 5G RedCap modules that can be applied to various industry terminals, millimeter wave testing terminals equipped with Snapdragon X75, 5G-A cutting-edge technology research results, etc. At the same time, it showcased Wi-Fi7 terminals created by partners such as Xiaomi, Asus, and JD.com.
The focus of attention in the industrial chain is the unprecedented innovation brought about by the dual empowerment of 5G-A and AI. This will redefine the terminal experience and continue to widen the boundaries of industrial transformation. When looking forward to the future of innovation and cooperation, Meng Pu, Chairman of Qualcomm China, said, "We look forward to deepening cooperation with ecological partners such as China Telecom, embracing the unlimited opportunities brought by 5G-A and terminal AI, jointly exploring new spaces for digital technology development, and jointly building a new ecosystem of digital technology cooperation