Friday, July 9th 2021

Qualcomm Wants to Build an M1-Like Processor for PCs

Qualcomm is trying to get into the PC space with their mobile Snapdragon chips, which offer great battery and decent performance. However, so far only Apple managed to get the right formula for developing custom low-power, high-performance chips. It is exactly Apple's M1 processor in question that Qualcomm intends to mimic. According to the recent interview with Qualcomm's new CEO Cristiano Amon, we are informed that Qualcomm plans to produce laptop chips that would directly compete with Apple's. That means that, despite the ecosystem differences of Apple M1 (macOS) and Qualcomm Snapdragon (Windows-on-Arm), the company wants to deliver equal if not better performance and great battery life.

With the recent acquisition of Nuvia, Qualcomm has a team of very talented engineers to back up its claims. The company also recently hired some of the developers behind Apple's M1 chip. The company notes that it will be using only the best solutions for its upcoming SoC, which will include a 5G modem. Mr. Amon has also noted the following:
We needed to have the leading performance for a battery-powered device. If Arm, which we've had a relationship with for years, eventually develops a CPU that's better than what we can build ourselves, then we always have the option to license from Arm.
Sources: Reuters, via ArsTechnica
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37 Comments on Qualcomm Wants to Build an M1-Like Processor for PCs

#26
DeathtoGnomes
R-T-BBut this isn't CSI. I can't look closely on a bad JPEG, there is no "enhance" friend... lol.
I can loan you my sooper sekrit see-all glasses, but you'd prolly keep them, so NO.

QC would have to open up (bootloaders) otherwise there will very little to work with in a Qc PC, like targeted demographic advertising for males age 20-25, up all night sleep all day, lives in grandmas basement, you get the point.
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#27
R-T-B
DeathtoGnomesQC would have to open up (bootloaders) otherwise there will very little to work with in a Qc PC
They ARE open. It's qualcomms habit of signing boot images and bootloaders that breaks the OSS world.
Posted on Reply
#29
lexluthermiester
R-T-BThey ARE open. It's qualcomms habit of signing boot images and bootloaders that breaks the OSS world.
It's not Qualcomm doing that. It's up to the device vendor to lock the bootloader or not.
Posted on Reply
#30
jaggerwild
Didn't Qualcom get caught doing bad stuff in the 1990S? They had to pay back millions......
Posted on Reply
#31
Aquinus
Resident Wat-man
I welcome this. This should help drive adoption for ARM v8 builds for software, either for OS X, Linux, or Windows. It's nice to see this kind of shift. I almost want to get an M1 mac so I can see how a native JVM build for M1 performs compared to my current machine.
jaggerwildDidn't Qualcom get caught doing bad stuff in the 1990S? They had to pay back millions......
Queue the list of large companies doing shady things. :laugh:
Posted on Reply
#32
r9
I was very skeptical about the M1 chip but from I've seen so far it's a solid product with a lot of potential.
But it's not only about the silicon need to have the right software support Apple did incredible job with Rosetta which is light years ahead of the Microsoft crap support for ARM where you can even properly run a browser let alone any other more demanding software.
I've seen that M1 running Witcher x86 emulated 30FPS which is amazing considering is not a gaming chip plus all the emulation overhead that need to happen for it to run.
M1x should have double the CPU muscle and M1 already destroys both Intel and AMD on the arm optimized software and close on almost everything else.
Also no performance loss when only on battery and exponentially better battery life.
Posted on Reply
#33
R-T-B
lexluthermiesterIt's not Qualcomm doing that. It's up to the device vendor to lock the bootloader or not.
They provide the tools to enable it, but yeah.
Posted on Reply
#34
jared889
NanochipThis statement makes me question whether Qualcomm understands its competitive situation. Even if Qualcomm’s chip does exceed M1’s performance per watt, the chip still will be tied to windows and there are many consumers who don’t want to use windows with its print nightmare security issues. As such, they’d never purchase a laptop with a Qualcomm chip inside.

People that want a Mac know why they want a Mac, it’s more than just M1, it’s also the macOS experience and the Apple ecosystem like iMessages, Final Cut, Airplay and so on. Qualcomm’s chips, no matter how powerful they become, will not enable these users to use macOS.

Qualcomm will be relegated to running windows, and such, its more direct competition will be AMD and Intel x86. And those two companies will be firing on all cylinders. Especially now that we know that Intel and also AMD will be pursuing hybrid architectures. Seems like Qualcomm’s focus should be on supercharged X86, not M1. And as we know, the snapdragon experience on windows currently sucks.
and people who re hungry know why they re hungry..many people buy apple because its trendy and cool.
Posted on Reply
#35
watzupken
Having a good SOC is just part of the winning formula in my opinion. I don't doubt Qualcomm will be able to release an SOC faster than the M1 if they put in the effort since they now have the expertise in the organization. Even if it misses the mark, whether against M1, M1X or M2, it doesn't matter. They will improve and catch up at some point. The elephant in the room here will be Windows OS which is very x86 centric. Heck even MS have given up working on a lighter version that works for ARM SOCs a few times. So I am not expecting this to change even by 2022.
Posted on Reply
#36
crimsontape
I had a thought - it's almost a conspiracy... I'm a little woozy from my 2nd vaccine. Bear with me.

So, I don't think Windows is really the OS we'll be seeing on this M1-like CPU. Someone mentioned ChomeOS and Android - I think this is more so the case.

My gut says there's a link between Web 2.0, advertisement-focused mobile browsing experience that was pushed since the first smartphones, and this response from Qualcomm. It would be in "competition with Apple" but still absolutely complimentary in so far as the web-based services and information collection practices. The best practical example I can think of is watching Youtube on a phone versus a PC

I have a feeling that Intel's x86-based hybrid solution wouldn't be complimentary. Performance aside, it's still x86, and there's a confused incentive to make Windows more like a mobile product, with mobile-oriented advertisement protocols. It's arguably easier (and more profitable to the likes of Google) to just develop an Android OS for an M1 like product with an enhanced application set to compete with MS productivity, and a UX (hardware and software) to match.
Posted on Reply
#37
Harakhti
watzupkenThe elephant in the room here will be Windows OS which is very x86 centric. Heck even MS have given up working on a lighter version that works for ARM SOCs a few times. So I am not expecting this to change even by 2022.
On that note, the native arm64 build of Windows 11 on a Snapdragon 845 phone or the Pi 4 seem to be doing a-OK, and considering how one's not exactly new and the other is the clinical definition of slow, I'm kinda interested in seeing more of these projects with better hardware. And definitely not a fan of the MSRP of the 8cx Gen2 laptops...
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