Qualcomm yesterday introduced Snapdragon Flight, a chip designed for consumer drones and robots.
Flight is based on the smartphone Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor. The company hopes the 58x40mm board with robust connectivity, advanced drone software and development tools will create a new class of consumer drones.
"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," says Raj Talluri, Qualcomm senior VP.
"The Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight brings together the technologies that have defined the mobile industry onto a single board, enabling original equipment manufacturers to build drones that are lighter, smaller, easy to use and affordable, with long battery life and superior functionalities."
The Snapdragon Flight features 4K high resolution camera support, advanced communication and navigation (WiFi and Bluetooth, among others), camera and sensor support, and Qualcomm Quick Charge Technology.
"Flight aims to simplify drone development by giving companies a single board for dealing with drone communications and camera technology. That's pretty similar to Qualcomm's strategy in the smartphone arena," reports Engadget.
The LG G4, HTC One M9, Samsung Galaxy Note Edge and BlackBerry Passport all have a Snapdragon 801 processor.
Snapdragon Flight is expected to be commercially available in drones next year.