The smartphone industry is currently locked in an aggressive arms race. As manufacturers push for higher clock speeds to outperform the competition, they are hitting a physical wall: heat. According to the latest reports, Qualcomm is looking toward a Samsung-made specialized cooling solution called Heat Pass Block (HPB) technology to handle the thermal demands of its upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6.
For years, smartphones have relied on vapor chambers and graphite sheets to keep internal temperatures in check. However, these passive cooling systems are reaching their limits. There are rumors about Qualcomm testing its next-generation performance cores to hit a massive 5GHz. So, the “old ways” of cooling simply won’t cut it anymore in the cramped interior of a modern phone.
Qualcomm to adopt Samsung’s HPB cooling tech in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 6
Samsung originally developed its Heat Pass Block system for the Exynos 2600. To understand its importance, we have to look at how phones are currently built. In traditional designs, the RAM chip sits directly on top of the processor. This makes a “heat trap” that makes it hard for the SoC to breathe.
The HPB approach changes the layout entirely. It uses a copper-based heatsink placed directly onto the silicon die, moving the DRAM chip to the side. Since copper is an exceptional conductor, this allows heat to escape the processor much more efficiently. Early data suggests this method can improve thermal resistance by about 16%. This margin could be key when dealing with high-performance hardware.
The reported 5GHz will require better cooling
Qualcomm’s current flagship, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, is already a powerhouse, but it achieves its top scores by consuming significantly more power than its rivals. If the rumors of a 5GHz clock speed for the Gen 6 are accurate, the power draw—and the resulting heat—will be even more intense.
Moving to a 2nm manufacturing process helps with efficiency. But lithography alone cannot solve the thermal issues caused by such aggressive performance targets. By potentially adopting Samsung’s HPB technology, Qualcomm could potentially allow the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chip to maintain those high speeds for longer periods, all without the device becoming uncomfortably hot or the system forcing a performance drop to protect the hardware.
If the leak is true, it will mean better sustained performance during gaming or heavy multitasking. As we move closer to the end of the year, all eyes will be on whether this new cooling architecture can truly handle the ambitious 5GHz milestone.
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