Qualcomm has built much of its success on the ARM architecture, which it has used to design some of the most successful chips in smartphone history. Obviously it is not the only manufacturer of SoC for smartphones and tablets, but it has managed to become the most recognized and associated with the top of the range of many manufacturers. And it is understandable, because integrated as its Snapdragon 888 are an example of good work.
It is known, however, that Qualcomm has not been satisfied with its position in the market for smartphones and tablets for a long time, and that it intends to make the leap into the world of the PC. Back in 2019 the company presented its Snapdragon 7c, which this 2021 has found its continuation in the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2, confirming that its sights pointed to a space dominated until now by Intel and AMD, and more recently also by Apple, with its platform.
And precisely the leap from Apple to ARM may have a lot to do with Qualcomm’s last steps in this regard, since those of Cupertino have finished confirming something that Microsoft has already begun to draw with its Surface Pro X : that ARM has a lot to do with it. say in the world of the PC, now that the development of this architecture has evolved what is necessary to offer the performance demanded by computers, whether laptops or desktops, such as the new iMac.
It was clear, therefore, that Qualcomm would not stay in these first approaches, and according to Reuters Agency, they are already working on a chip that is capable of competing with Apple’s M1, with the segment of laptops with connectivity at the point of sight. And the reference to the M1 is not ours, but the new CEO of Qualcomm, Cristiano Amon, who proposes 2022 as the time horizon for his company’s entry into this market with his new chips.
The big surprise comes from the fact of what technology Qualcomm will use to make this leap. You may not remember it, but in January of this year the company acquired Nuvia, a startup dedicated to the design of chips for servers. This, of course, made us think that Qualcomm’s plans were to address this market, but surprisingly it seems that the company’s plans, at least for the moment, do not go through that market, but through the consumer market, using technology for this. produced by Nuvia.
We do not know, at the moment, anything else. There are no dates, there are no specifications, there is not even an approximation to the technology that Qualcomm is working on, beyond that it will obviously be based on ARM. And even so, the announcement is already promising enough that many expectations have been generated in this regard, waiting for the company to decide to provide more information about it. However, it is most likely that we still have to wait a few months to have some more concrete data, and begin to know how this expected movement of Qualcomm is shaping up, as well as the responses of Intel and AMD to it. Qualcomm is working for it’s best processor.