adreno

Adreno is Qualcomm’s brand of mobile graphics processing units (GPUs) used in Snapdragon system-on-chips. Adreno GPUs provide acceleration for 3D rendering, image processing, and general compute tasks on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices, supporting games, user interfaces, and multimedia workloads.

The Adreno line traces its origins to ATI Technologies’ mobile graphics products. In 2009, Qualcomm acquired ATI’s handheld graphics assets and rebranded the technology as Adreno for Snapdragon SoCs. Since then, multiple generations have followed, delivering higher shader throughput, improved texture rendering, and better power efficiency across a broad range of devices.

Architecture and APIs: Adreno GPUs are tightly integrated with the Snapdragon SoC, sharing memory bandwidth and display pipelines. They support standard mobile graphics APIs such as OpenGL ES and Vulkan, with compute capabilities available on devices that expose the corresponding drivers and runtimes. Newer generations bring enhancements in shading, geometry processing, texture compression, and multimedia support to balance performance with energy use.

Market presence and characteristics: Adreno GPUs are widely used in Android devices from many manufacturers, competing primarily with ARM Mali and PowerVR designs. Qualcomm emphasizes performance-per-watt, robust driver support, and seamless integration with the Snapdragon platform, including features for high-refresh-rate displays and on-device media processing that leverage the GPU alongside other system components.

Variants and evolution: The Adreno line advances with each new Snapdragon generation, continuing to evolve in performance and API support to meet requirements in gaming, augmented reality, and mobile computing.