Qualcomm says it will have a serious competitor for Apple Silicon ready by 2023

[nanoguy]

In brief: Apple’s M1-series chipsets have impressed with their performance and energy efficiency, so much so that Qualcomm is looking to offer a similar solution for Windows laptops. The chipmaker says it expects the first commercial devices powered by this new chip to land in 2023.

MediaTek is slowly eating away Qualcomm’s share of the mobile chipset market, but the latter isn’t particularly worried about it. Qualcomm is more concerned about making laptop processors that could compete with those made by Intel, AMD, and Apple.

During the Investor Day 2021 event, the chipmaker announced that its next-generation Arm-based SoC is on track to launch in 2023. Dr. James Thompson, Qualcomm’s chief technology officer, said the new chip is designed “to set the performance benchmark for Windows PCs” and offer comparable value to that of Apple’s M-series chipsets.

Qualcomm’s new silicon is being developed by Nuvia, which it acquired earlier this year for $1.4 billion. The Nuvia team is led by three former Apple employees that previously worked on A-series chipsets for iPhone and iPad. Before joining Qualcomm, Nuvia was testing a prototype “Phoenix” CPU core that was supposedly capable of delivering up to two times the performance of the most efficient x86 CPU core for laptops within a power envelope of 4.5 watts.

Competing with Apple’s M-series chipsets will also require a beefier GPU. Qualcomm says it will be scaling up its Adreno GPU design to offer desktop-class gaming performance on laptops. The chipmaker also promises sustained performance on battery power, comparable to the Apple M1, M1 Pro, and M1 Max chips.

Qualcomm plans to have samples of the new chip for PC manufacturers sometime next year and expects the first devices powered by it to launch in 2023.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/92245-qualcomm-have-serious-competitor-apple-silicon-ready-2023.html

 

[Dimitriid]

I believe Qualcom could progress that much but I seriously doubt Microsoft can improve ARM support that much in just 2 years: You'll need to run Linux on those.

 

[brucek]

You can never tell but I'd hope x86 designs from Intel and AMD to have moved the goalposts beyond Apple silicon by then anyway.

 

[Mr Majestyk]

You can never tell but I'd hope x86 designs from Intel and AMD to have moved the goalposts beyond Apple silicon by then anyway.

Assuming Apple is stagnate, which they won't. I think the Apple M1 chips are the kick in the @rse AAMD and Intel needed and will see them take this threat seriously. AMD is also moving to Big.little with Zen 5 and Raptor Lake will bring good efficiency gains over Alder Lake and double the E-core count. Apple has a huge lead in power usage, but I think AMD and Intel will be competitive on that front in a few years too.

 

[umbala]

I'm no fan of Apple, but if there's ever a competitor to their chips it won't come from Qualcomm. I'm sure they will release a good chip, but it won't be on the same level as Apple's offering.

 

[zamroni111]

Qualcomm should stop force feeding cellular modem into its laptop processors.
MacBook shows that it even doesn't need to be built in the laptop.

 

[Puiu]

I believe Qualcom could progress that much but I seriously doubt Microsoft can improve ARM support that much in just 2 years: You'll need to run Linux on those.

I agree. Windows on ARM has been a huge failure.

 

[theruck]

And what does Apple say where will they be by 2023?

 

[Cubi Dorf]

Microsoft will needing to make a Rosetta2 for Windows if they want this to being success on Windows. It would be great battery lifes. It would be great linux laptop.

 

[Red34jfp]

Qualcomm should stop force feeding cellular modem into its laptop processors.
MacBook shows that it even doesn't need to be built in the laptop.

Why? Apple doesn't put modems into their laptop SoCs because they can't, not because they don't want. They have separate (Qualcomm) modems even on their iPhones and they've been working for some time on integrating the Intel 5G modems that they've acquired.

 

[Chunkypops]

So basically they are saying that in 2 years they will have a chip that is on par with M1. This happening on Windows, which is laughable.

Not considering the compatibility issues of the multitude of hardware that is available on windows machines, Apple has its own soc, os and already released 2 generations of products.

I was an apple hater for their agressive monetization, but this switch in tech and with the new vision, makes it a clear winner for next 5 years.