Qualcomm Unveils New Hexagon NPU for Always
Qualcomm has introduced its next-generation Hexagon NPU, featuring an 'Element Accelerator' and increased shared memory to support agentic AI on mobile devices. The new architecture allows for the efficient processing of Mixture-of-Experts models with up to 30 billion parameters directly on smartphones.
Why it matters
Advancements in mobile AI hardware enable more complex, context-aware AI assistants to run locally, improving privacy and reducing latency.
Qualcomm unveiled its next-generation Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU) on Sept. 10, designed to keep agentic artificial intelligence (AI) running continuously on mobile devices.
Qualcomm Hexagon is a mobile NPU used in Snapdragon platforms. The new Hexagon introduces an Element Accelerator, 50% more shared memory and support for Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) architectures for the first time.
The key focus is optimizing agentic AI that understands a user's situation and context, reasons across multiple applications and performs tasks on the user's behalf.
Adds AI Accelerator and Expands Shared Memory
The Element Accelerator is specialized for neural-network transformer model workloads. Transformers are neural-network algorithms that process relationships among words and data in context and form the backbone of generative and agentic AI.
The Element Accelerator works alongside Hexagon's scalar, vector and matrix extensions. It accelerates large language model (LLM) computation while helping maintain power efficiency on mobile devices.
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