Brand Strategy Revealed Ahead of April 24 Announcement
PC and MR Snapdragon X Launch Expected
Targeting PC Market Beyond Communication Chips
Two Years of Intensive Development After Acquiring Apple Chip Design Talent
Chip Supply Anticipated for Apple VisionPro Competitor
Qualcomm, a specialist in communication semiconductors, unveils its secret weapon 'Snapdragon X' prepared to enter the mobile computing field. Attention is focused on whether the expansion of PCs and mixed reality (MR) devices using this chip will bring significant changes to the mobile computing market.
On the 11th (local time), Qualcomm announced through its blog that the name of the PC chip to be unveiled on the 24th will be Snapdragon X. By utilizing the name of Qualcomm's smartphone application processor (AP) Snapdragon and adding the letter 'X,' it is interpreted as an attempt to showcase even more powerful performance.
Qualcomm introduced that through years of research, it has prepared the Snapdragon X platform in the form of a system-on-chip (SoC) integrating a central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU), and neural processing unit (NPU). It also supports artificial intelligence (AI) functions through the NPU.
The core of Snapdragon X is the newly applied 'Orion' CPU core. Orion, based on ARM design, was developed by the personnel of 'Nuvia,' a company founded by Apple semiconductor developers and acquired by Qualcomm. Qualcomm acquired Nuvia in 2021 and has been preparing to target the mobile computing market following smartphones.
Through the acquisition of Nuvia, Qualcomm aims to introduce high-performance, low-power chips to compete against Apple's M-series chips. CPUs based on x86 architecture, dominated by Intel, have the disadvantage of high power consumption. Intel is also preparing a counterattack. With plans to supply the latest Meteor Lake chips starting this December, the competition among Apple, Qualcomm, and Intel in the mobile PC market is expected to intensify. Apple has continuously increased its market share by removing Intel chips from its PCs and using the M1 chip unveiled in 2020. Intel is trying to shed its reputation for relatively low performance per power consumption with the latest Meteor Lake chips in response to the offensives from Apple and Qualcomm.
A Qualcomm Korea official explained that this brand announcement is intended to build pre-release momentum ahead of the official unveiling on the 24th, but the company's expectations are higher than ever. Don McGuire, Qualcomm Vice President, emphasized through the blog, "Snapdragon X is a revolution for the next-generation PC experience. It will be a turning point in the PC market."
Qualcomm is expected to support companies preparing products to compete with Apple's 'Vision Pro' in the MR device field. Samsung is collaborating with Qualcomm to build an MR platform. Apple will use the PC M-series chip, not the smartphone A-series chip, in the Vision Pro launching next year. Meta also uses Qualcomm chips in its MR devices but has faced concerns about the chip's performance being inferior compared to Apple's.
Qualcomm is the absolute leader in 5th generation (5G) communication chips. Although Apple is trying to use its own developed chips instead of Qualcomm's, it has failed for years. It is reported that Qualcomm's 'X70' 5G modem chip was used in the iPhone 15 as well.
There are also concerns. Recently, ARM, a British semiconductor design company listed on the US stock market, filed a lawsuit claiming that Qualcomm's use of chip designs provided to Nuvia is unfair.
Meanwhile, Qualcomm will also unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip, expected to be used in Samsung Electronics' strategic smartphone Galaxy S24, on the 24th along with Snapdragon X.
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