It’s increasingly looking like the future of computing lies on ARM processors. With Apple having transitioned to its own M-series silicon and increasingly more Windows laptops using ARM CPUs, that’s certainly the direction we’re heading in. Qualcomm has been developing chipsets for ARM-based Windows laptops for a while, most recently under the Snapdragon 8cx name, but they’re lagging far behind Apple’s chips and have confusing branding. Qualcomm is now going to fix at least one of those problems.
Qualcomm has introduced a new naming scheme for its PC platform chips: the Snapdragon X Series. The company says that X SoCs are aimed at revolutionizing the next generation of PC experiences. The Snapdragon X series is what was previously known as the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx series, and with this, the company really wants to let you know it’s serious about this whole thing here. The chips build on Qualcomm’s expertise in engineering heterogeneous compute architectures, and the new X chips will integrate the next-generation custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU for enhanced performance and power efficiency.
The new naming convention, marked by the X identifier, distinguishes PC platforms from other Snapdragon product categories. If you noticed (you probably have), the naming convention for its desktop SoCs is actually pretty similar to the naming convention it uses for smartphone chips, and this causes user confusion. It used to be even worse — years ago, Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 850, which was a laptop chip and not a chip in between the Snapdragon 845 and the Snapdragon 855, both smartphone chips.
The company has looked for ways to separate its smartphone and laptop chips as much as possible, and with Snapdragon X, that problem should be fixed. We will also have new logos and platform badges incorporating the iconic Snapdragon fireball, so that’s something you can look forward to as well.
As for when Snapdragon X chips will be released, we expect Qualcomm to show more about how this will land in the market once the Snapdragon Summit comes around later in October. Qualcomm is also likely to reveal the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 smartphone chip at that event.
Source: Qualcomm