During a January 31 Earnings Call, Cristiano Renno Amon (President and CEO of Qualcomm) discussed the upcoming launch of his company's Snapdragon X Elite processor—an ARM-based SoC that is built "for AI" on next generation tablets, notebooks and ultra-slim laptops. The twelve onboard custom Oryon cores are part of a package that will become (in marketing terms): "the most powerful, intelligent, and efficient processor ever created for Windows in its class. With cutting edge responsiveness, navigate demanding multi-tasking workloads across productivity, creativity, immersive entertainment, and more..." Amon and his executive colleagues are targeting a middle-of-2024 launch of Snapdragon X Elite-powered devices, he also mentioned a next-gen version of Microsoft's operating system in the same sentence: "We're tracking to the launch of products with this chipset tied with the next version of Microsoft Windows that has a lot of the Windows AI capabilities. We're still maintaining the same date, which is driven by Windows, which is mid-2024, getting ready for back-to-school."

The rumor mill has "Windows 12" marked down for a summer 2024 launch period—last December, Taiwan's Commercial Times reported on a number sources within the PC manufacturing industry—alluding to a June release date. Intel Chief Financial Officer Dave Zinsner relayed a similar schedule to a Citi interviewer (reported by PC Gamer): "We actually think '24 is going to be a pretty good year for client, in particular, because of the Windows refresh. And we still think that the installed base is pretty old and does require a refresh and we think next year may be the start of that, given the Windows catalyst. So we're optimistic about how things will play out beginning in '24."

In 2024, the tech industry remains steadfastly focused on AI, with the continued rollout of advanced AI chips leading to significant enhancements in processing speeds. TrendForce posits that this advancement is set to drive growth in both DRAM and NAND Flash across various AI applications, including smartphones, servers, and notebooks. The server sector is expected to see the most significant growth, with content per box for server DRAM projected to rise by 17.3% annually, while enterprise SSDs are forecast to increase by 13.2%. The market penetration rate for AI smartphones and AI PCs is expected to experience noticeable growth in 2025 and is anticipated to further drive the average content per box upward.

Looking first at smartphones, despite chipmakers focusing on improving processing performance, the absence of new AI functionalities has somewhat constrained the impact of AI. Memory prices plummeted in 2023 due to oversupply, making lower-priced options attractive and leading to a 17.5% increase in average DRAM capacity and a 19.2% increase in NAND Flash capacity per smartphone. However, with no new applications expected in 2024, the growth rate in content per box for both DRAM and NAND Flash in smartphones is set to slow down, estimated at 14.1% and 9.3%, respectively.

Cristiano Renno Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm, discussed the successful launch of his company's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile platform during a January 31 Earnings Call—expectations have been set high for the flagship smartphone chipset: "(bringing) a new standard for on-device gen AI experiences for premium smartphones and powers all through flagship Android devices launched and launching this fiscal year." Amon highlighted Samsung's recently rolled out Galaxy S24 Ultra range, that makes use of a special "For Galaxy" Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. Industry watchdogs have continued to question Samsung's reliance on third-party processor solutions (including MediaTek Dimensity parts), despite having access to plenty of "worthy" in-house technology. Their flagship Exynos 2400 chip has been deployed with the Galaxy S24 Plus range, but Qualcomm Snapdragon-equipped devices offer better performance and efficiency.

The picky segment of Samsung's smartphone userbase will be pleased to hear about a renewed agreement between it and Qualcomm, which includes a trickling down to mid-range offerings—Amon made a big announcement during the late January conference call: "We're also announcing that we extended a multi-year agreement with Samsung relating to Snapdragon platforms for flagship Galaxy smartphone launches starting in 2024. The extended agreement demonstrates the value of Snapdragon 8, our technology leadership and our successful long-term strategic partnership with Samsung. In the quarter, we also announced the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 mobile platform, which brings leading gen AI capabilities to high-tier Android smartphones and is a category leader in both experiences and performance." Going forward, Samsung is likely sticking with its current operating model of peppering a mix of Snapdragon and Exynos chipsets throughout its Galaxy Z, S and A product ranges.

Qualcomm and its smartphone manufacturer partners are reported to be in a rush to get the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset released later this year—Digital Chat Station believes that a pioneering mobile device could enter a mass production phase around September of this year. Prototype devices are allegedly up and running—the tipster's insider sources have alluded to engineering samples being capable of reaching 4.0 GHz clocks on a high-powered Big Core (Nuvia's Oryon or Phoenix). Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC was revealed last October, and working hardware is slowly trickling out via retail avenues in early 2024—Digital Chat Station does not provide any reasoning behind the race to get the successor across the finish line within the same year.

An unnamed smartphone manufacturer is said to have outfitted a "dual-curved screen" model with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset—Wccftech's report suggests that Xiaomi usually gets first dibs on cutting edge Qualcomm processor tech. The Nuvia engineering team has likely got their custom Oryon cores running to more than satisfactory levels—the article points out that: "a previous Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core leak revealed that the (3 nm) Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 competes with Apple's M3 and is 46 percent faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in multi-threaded workloads." Qualcomm is facing fierce flagship chip competition in 2024—MediaTek's Dimensity 9400 SoC could arrive at a cheaper price point, while offering comparable performance and efficiency.

Qualcomm Incorporated has announced the appointment of Akash Palkhiwala to the expanded role of Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer. In addition to his CFO responsibilities, as COO, he will now have oversight for the global go-to-market organization and operations, and IT. Palkhiwala's appointment will be effective immediately and he will continue to report directly to Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm Incorporated. "I'm pleased to expand Akash's CFO role to include that of Chief Operating Officer as Qualcomm executes on its growth and diversification strategy," said Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm. "Akash has played a key role in the execution of our business strategy as Qualcomm has expanded into new end markets, and is ideally positioned to further align the company's operations to capture future growth opportunities. I am thrilled to congratulate Akash on this expanded role."

Palkhiwala has served as Chief Financial Officer since 2019. Previously, he was Senior Vice President and finance lead for QCT, Qualcomm's semiconductor business. Palkhiwala joined Qualcomm in 2001, and during this time has held several finance leadership roles including Treasurer, Financial Planning & Analysis, and Corporate Development. Palkhiwala holds an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from L.D. College of Engineering in India and an M.B.A from the University of Maryland.

Digital Chat Station has seemingly received insider information regarding the performance of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 mobile chipset—their source reports that a probable engineering sample is already exceeding its predecessor's Big core (Cortex-X4) maximum limit of 3.3 GHz. The rumor mill has Nuvia's custom Oryon cores linked to the next generation mobile processor, although some experts think that the Phoenix design was selected for Gen 4. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite notebook SoC was unveiled last October—this ARM-based solution is set to deliver "a dramatic leap in innovation for computing" thanks to Nuvia's custom Oryon technology. Kedar Kondap, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Compute & Gaming stated that the Snapdragon X Elite offers: "super-charged performance that will delight consumers with incredible power efficiency and take their creativity and productivity to the next level."

Digital Chat Station's brief assessment of the prototype Snapdragon 8 Gen 4's Big core prowess is also glowing: "4.0 GHz is no longer a dream" on smartphones. Past reports have Qualcomm signed up with TSMC for an unspecified 3 nm production process—next generation silicon will benefit greatly in terms of power efficiency, with custom Oryon or Phoenix cores (allegedly) achieving greater clock speeds thanks to some extra headroom. As mentioned above, the previous-gen Kryo Prime core—using TSMC's advanced 4 nm node—is factory restricted to 3.3 GHz. Tipsters reckon that efficiency cores are not part of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 design, due to the innate benefits of 3 nm—according to Digital Chat Station, MediaTek is taking similar steps with its upcoming Dimensity 9400 SoC.

MediaTek revealed its (now current generation) flagship Dimensity 9300 flagship mobile processor last November, but we are already hearing about its successor's foundation. Digital Chat Station published some early insights on their Weibo micro-blog—the tipster appears to have an inside track at MediaTek's system-on-chip R&D department. The imaginatively named "Dimensity 9400" chipset is reportedly earmarked for mass production chez TSMC, with the foundry's second generation 3 Nm process being the favored node—this information aligns with official announcements as well as industry rumors from last autumn. MediaTek's Dimensity 9300 sports a "one-of-a-kind All Big Core design," with no provision for puny efficiency units—built on TSMC's third generation 4 nm process with four ARM Cortex-X4 cores (going up to 3.25 GHz) and four Cortex-A720 cores (maximum 2.0 GHz).

Digital Chat Station reckons that the 9300's All Big Core configuration will carryover to its next generation sibling, albeit with some major upgrades. MediaTek hardware engineers are alleged to have selected ARM's latest and greatest CPU and Mali GPU designs—the Cortex-X5 core could be a prime candidate in the first category. The rumor mill has the next batch of flagship Exynos SoCs utilizing ARM's fifth generation design. Digital Chat Station proposes that more smartphone manufacturers could adopt a top-flight Dimensity 2024 chip, if its performance can match the closest rivals. Industry experts posit both MediaTek and Qualcomm choosing TSMC's N3E process for their upcoming flagship chipsets—this node apparently "offers improved cost-effectiveness and superior yields" when compared to the first generation N3B process (as ordered by Apple for its latest M and B-series SoCs). Dimensity 9400 is expected to take on Snapdragon 8 Gen 4—this could be a tough fight, given that Qualcomm's offering is set to debut with custom Oryon cores.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced that the premium Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform for Galaxy is powering Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s latest flagship Galaxy S24 Ultra globally and Galaxy S24 Plus and S24 in select regions. The Samsung Galaxy S24 series introduces Galaxy AI, taking advantage of the new and enhanced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, the titan of intelligence and leader in performance and power efficiency.

"We're proud to continue working alongside Samsung to lead this new era for the mobile industry and provide consumers with extraordinary premium experiences," said Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handset, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy instills its advanced AI capabilities in the Galaxy S24 series, to enable new experiences with AI features to empower users' everyday life. It also fuels advanced professional-quality camera, gaming experiences and ultra-fast connectivity including Wi-Fi 71, plus offers one of the most reliable authentication solutions available with our Qualcomm 3D Sonic Gen 2 technology."

Samsung Electronics today unveiled the Galaxy S24 Ultra, Galaxy S24+ and Galaxy S24, unleashing new mobile experiences with Galaxy AI. Galaxy S series leads the way into a new era that will forever change how mobile devices empower users. AI amplifies nearly every experience on Galaxy S24 series, from enabling barrier-free communication with intelligent text and call translations, to maximizing creative freedom with Galaxy's ProVisual Engine, to setting a new standard for search that will change how Galaxy users discover the world around them.

"The Galaxy S24 series transforms our connection with the world and ignites the next decade of mobile innovation," said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics. "Galaxy AI is built on our innovation heritage and deep understanding of how people use their phones. We're excited to see how our users around the world empower their everyday lives with Galaxy AI to open up new possibilities."

New York-based security firm Trail of Bits has identified a security vulnerability with various GPU models, which include AMD, Qualcomm, and Apple. This vulnerability, named LeftoverLocals, could potentially allow attackers to steal large amounts of data from a GPU's memory. Mainstream client-GPUs form a sizable chunk of the hardware accelerating AI and LLMs, as they cost a fraction of purpose-built data-center GPUs, and are available in the retail market. Unlike CPUs, which have undergone extensive hardening against data leaks, GPUs were primarily designed for graphics acceleration and lack similar data privacy architecture. To our knowledge, none of the client GPUs use virtualization with their graphics memory. Graphics acceleration in general is a very memory sensitive application, and requires SIMD units to have bare-metal access to memory, with as little latency as possible.

First the good news—for this vulnerability to be exploited, it requires the attacker to have access to the target device with the vulnerable GPU (i.e. cut through OS-level security). The attack could break down data silos on modern computers and servers, allowing unauthorized access to GPU memory. The potential data breach could include queries, responses generated by LLMs, and the weights driving the response. The researchers tested 11 chips from seven GPU makers and found the vulnerability in GPUs from Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm. While NVIDIA, Intel, and Arm first-party GPUs did not show evidence of the vulnerability, Apple, Qualcomm, and AMD confirmed to wired that their GPUs are affected, and that they're working on a security response. Apple has released fixes for its latest M3 and A17 processors, but older devices with previous generations of Apple silicon remain vulnerable. Qualcomm is providing security updates, and AMD plans to offer mitigations through driver updates in March 2024.

Sennheiser introduced its fourth generation Momentum True Wireless flagship earbuds at CES 2024, next to ACCENTUM Plus headphones and the heart rate sensor-equipped MOMENTUM Sport model. The German audio equipment specialist has implemented over a dozen enhancements and further enhanced sound properties with the addition of the MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 to their portable product line. They reckon that the most picky of audio snobs will be pleasantly surprised by a larger-than-life sound profile, improved ANC abilities, as well as an impressive roster of connectivity built on Qualcomm's S5 Sound Gen 2 platform, and Snapdragon Sound Technology for aptX lossless sound quality and ultra-low latency.

Pre-orders are scheduled to open up internationally on February 15th—priced at $329.95 / £259.99 / €299.99 according to official press material. The MOMENTUM True Wireless 4 earbuds offer Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity, and support for Auracast. Upgraded battery tech provides up to "7.5 hours of continuous audiophile-inspired listening," coupled with a Qi quick charging case. Three color schemes will be rolled out at launch: black copper, metallic silver, and graphite. Please refer to TPU's photo set below, and note the many packs of alcohol prep pad wipes in the background! Checking out the latest audio tech at trade shows can be a dirty job.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 is here, introducing powerful new features that boost Wi-Fi performance and improve connectivity across a variety of environments. Cutting-edge capabilities in Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 enable innovations that rely on high throughput, deterministic latency, and greater reliability for critical traffic. New use cases - including multi-user AR/VR/XR, immersive 3-D training, electronic gaming, hybrid work, industrial IoT, and automotive - will advance as a result of the latest Wi-Fi generation. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 represents the culmination of extensive collaboration and innovation within Wi-Fi Alliance, facilitating worldwide product interoperability and a robust, sophisticated device ecosystem.

Wi-Fi 7 will see rapid adoption across a broad ecosystem with more than 233 million devices expected to enter the market in 2024, growing to 2.1 billion devices by 2028. Smartphones, PCs, tablets, and access points (APs) will be the earliest adopters of Wi-Fi 7, and customer premises equipment (CPE) and augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) equipment will continue to gain early market traction. Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 7 pushes the boundaries of today's wireless connectivity, and Wi-Fi CERTIFIED helps ensure advanced features are deployed in a consistent way to deliver high-quality user experiences.

Acer today announced two new gaming routers, leveraging the power of the Qualcomm Immersive Home Platform and tri-band Wi-Fi 7 for stable connections and enhanced wireless gameplay. The Predator Connect X7 5G CPE unleashes blazing-fast internet speeds through 5G and Wi-Fi 7, along with dual WAN connectivity to minimize disruptions. Fast, reliable, and vast network coverage is provided by the Predator Connect T7 Wi-Fi 7 Mesh Router with the expandability of its multi-link Wi-Fi mesh system, making wired-level latency possible in a mesh setup.

Powered by Qualcomm Technologies' advanced quad-core processor, the X7 and T7 provide gamers and streamers with accelerated online experiences, improved Spectrum Utilization with Wi-Fi 7, as well as enhanced MU-MIMO and OFDMA across connected devices.

LG Electronics (LG) is ready to unveil its innovative smart home Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent at CES 2024. LG's smart home AI agent boasts robotic, AI and multi-modal technologies that enable it to move, learn, comprehend and engage in complex conversations. An all-around home manager and companion rolled into one, LG's smart life solution enhances users' daily lives and showcases the company's commitment to realizing its "Zero Labor Home" vision.

With its advanced 'two-legged' wheel design, LG's smart home AI agent is able to navigate the home independently. The intelligent device can verbally interact with users and express emotions through movements made possible by its articulated leg joints. Moreover, the use of multi-modal AI technology, which combines voice and image recognition along with natural language processing, enables the smart home AI agent to understand context and intentions as well as actively communicate with users.

Semiconductor industry players Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, Nordic Semiconductor ASA, NXP Semiconductors, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., have formally established Quintauris GmbH. Headquartered in Munich, Germany, the company aims to advance the adoption of RISC-V globally by enabling next-generation hardware development.

The formation of Quintauris was formally announced in August, with the aim to be a single source to enable compatible RISC-V-based products, provide reference architectures, and help establish solutions to be widely used across various industries. The initial application focus will be automotive, but with an eventual expansion to include mobile and IoT.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger considers NVIDIA "extraordinarily lucky" to be leading the AI hardware industry. In a recent public discussion with the students of MIT's engineering school to discuss the state of the semiconductor industry, Gelsinger said that Intel should be the one to be leading AI, but instead NVIDIA got lucky. We respectfully disagree. What Gelsinger glosses over with this train of thought is how NVIDIA got here. What NVIDIA has in 2023 is the distinction of being one of the hottest tech stocks behind Apple, the highest market share in a crucial hardware resource driving the AI revolution, and of course the little things, like market leadership over the gaming GPU market. What it doesn't have, is access to the x86 processor IP.

NVIDIA has, for long, aspired to be a CPU company, right from its rumored attempt to merge with AMD in the early/mid 2000s, to its stint with smartphone application processors with Tegra, an assortment of Arm-based products along the way, and most recently, its spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to acquire Arm from Softbank. Despite limited luck with the CPU industry, to level up to Intel, AMD, or even Qualcomm and MediaTek; NVIDIA never lost sight of its goal to be a compute hardware superpower, which is why, in our opinion, it owns the AI hardware market. NVIDIA isn't lucky, it spent 16 years getting here.

TrendForce reports that 3Q23 has been a historic quarter for the world's leading IC design houses as total revenue soared 17.8% to reach a record-breaking US$44.7 billion. This remarkable growth is fueled by a robust season of stockpiling for smartphones and laptops, combined with a rapid acceleration in the shipment of generative AI chips and components. NVIDIA, capitalizing on the AI boom, emerged as the top performer in revenue and market share. Notably, analog IC supplier Cirrus Logic overtook US PMIC manufacturer MPS to snatch the tenth spot, driven by strong demand for smartphone stockpiling.

NVIDIA's revenue soared 45.7% to US$16.5 billion in the third quarter, bolstered by sustained demand for generative AI and LLMs. Its data center business—accounting for nearly 80% of its revenue—was a key driver in this exceptional growth.

GIGABYTE released the GC-WIFI7, a WLAN card in the PCIe add-on card form-factor, which, as its name suggests, gives your desktop the power of Wi-Fi 7. Given how the new wireless networking standard is exotic and provides a more than 2.2x gain in Wi-Fi bandwidth over Wi-Fi 6E, GIGABYTE decided to give this accessory its coveted AORUS Gaming branding and product design. The card supports tri-band, and a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 5800 Mbps, with support for 320 MHz and 160 Hz channels. The card also supports MLO, in which it simultaneously connects to a 2.4 GHz and 5/6 GHz network. The card comes with a stylish antenna array that supports up to 5 dBi signal strength. Besides Wi-Fi 7, the card also provides Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity.

The most interesting aspect about this product is that it has three hardware revisions at launch. The Rev 1.0 card is based on a Qualcomm chipset; Rev 1.1 is based on a MediaTek chipset, and Rev 1.2 is based on Intel, all three offering identical hardware specs and performance levels. Rev 1.0 is based on a Qualcomm QCA FastConnect 7800 controller; Rev 1.1 rocks a MediaTek MT7927 controller; while the Rev 1.2 uses an Intel BE200. All three revisions are sold under the same SKU, and it's only in a brick-and-mortar store that you can figure out what you want by looking closely at the barcode sticker, where the revision is mentioned. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Microsoft is preparing a big update for its Windows operating system. Currently at version 11, the company is gearing up for the launch of Windows 12, which is supposed to bring a monumental shift in the tectonic plates of the regular PC user experience. Enhanced by AI, the Windows 12 OS should utilize many features like generative AI, large language models, some GPT integration, and many other tools that could benefit AI, like photo editors. The confirmation for the Windows 12 launch coming in 2024 is sourced from the Taiwanese Commercial Times, which analyzed comments from Barry Lam, the founder and chairman of PC contract manufacturer Quanta, and Junsheng (Jason) Chen, the chairman and chief executive of Acer.

Both of them underscored the importance of AI and that AI PCs are coming with the next version of Windows. Supposedly, the launch date for Windows 12 is set for June 2024. In that timeframe, hardware vendors should roll out their SoCs embedding AI processing elements at every silicon block. Qualcomm is set to debut its Snapdragon Elite X SoCs in mid-2024, aligning with the alleged release schedule of Windows 12. With more players like NVIDIA, AMD, and others planning to utilize an Arm instruction set for their next-generation PC chips, we expect to see Windows 12 get full-fledged support for Arm ISA and treat it like a first-class citizen in the OS.

EarFun's development kitchen remains hot. Delivering their first IEM and portable USB-C DAC just this past month, the awarded audio brand will be releasing the next generational leap from their current lineup, the Free Pro 3.

Revolutionizing True Wireless Audio and Noise Cancelation
The new true wireless earbuds are the first pair of earbuds that combine Snapdragon Sound Certification, Hi-Res audio, Qualcomm's QCC3072 SoC, the latest v5.3 Bluetooth certification, Low-Energy Audio protocol, and aptX Adaptive technology. It will also feature EarFun's proprietary QuietSmart 2.0 technology for active noise cancellation up to 43dB, and 6-mic cVc call noise-reduction. It will boast a generous battery life of up to 33 hours, an IPX5 certification, wireless charging, and multipoint connectivity. The Free Pro 3 will make use of EarFun's customizable audio app for total user configuration.

According to the latest Canalys forecasts, worldwide PC shipments are on the verge of recovery following seven consecutive quarters of decline. The market is expected to return to growth of 5% in Q4 2023, boosted by a strong holiday season and an improving macroeconomic environment. Looking ahead, full-year 2024 shipments are forecast to hit 267 million units, landing 8% higher than in 2023, helped by tailwinds including the Windows refresh cycle and emergence of AI-capable and Arm-based devices.

"The global PC market is on a recovery path and set to return to 2019 shipment levels by next year," said Canalys Analyst Ben Yeh. "The impact of AI on the PC industry will be profound, with leading players across OEMs, processor manufacturers, and operating system providers focused on delivering new AI-capable models in 2024. These initiatives will bolster refresh demand, particularly in the commercial sector. The total shipment share of AI-capable PCs is expected to be about 19% in 2024. This accounts for all M-series Mac products alongside the nascent offerings expected in the Windows ecosystem. However, as more compelling use-cases emerge and AI functionality becomes an expected feature, Canalys anticipates a fast ramp up in the development and adoption of AI-capable PCs."

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform to amplify immersive experiences and bring premium performance to consumers' everyday life. The upgraded platform delivers across-the-board advancements to ignite on-device AI, fan-favorite mobile gaming, a creativity-charged camera and powerful 5G connectivity. The new platform is fully equipped to enable exciting new use-cases including up to 2.63 GHz peak CPU speeds, over 50% faster GPU performance, and 60% improved AI performance per watt while still delivering incredible power efficiency.

"Intelligently designed to balance performance and power efficiency, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 Mobile Platform delivers a selection of premium experiences that are brand new to the Snapdragon 7-series," said Christopher Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "By working closely with our OEM partners, we're able to help make the next generation of in-demand features, such as enhanced AI and extraordinary camera capabilities, more widely accessible to consumers." Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 will first be adopted by key OEMs including HONOR and vivo with the first device expected to be announced this month.

Creative Technology today announced the release of the much-anticipated Creative Aurvana Ace and Creative Aurvana Ace 2, the latest true wireless earbuds featuring the groundbreaking solid-state, all-silicon MEMS-based drivers. The Creative Aurvana Ace series, powered by xMEMS drivers, has been expertly tuned to deliver remarkable audio clarity with a wider frequency response ranging from 5 Hz to 40 KHz. With this comprehensive range, users will get to enjoy a truly immersive and lifelike audio experience, whether it's for music, movies, or conference calls.

These latest wireless earbuds also feature LE Audio with LC3 codec, Bluetooth 5.3, and Hybrid Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) plus Ambient Mode, along with up to 24 hours of total playtime, making them the definitive choice for audio enthusiasts seeking the very best in true wireless earbuds.

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) is an open-source resolution upscaling technology that takes lower-resolution input and uses super-resolution temporal upscaling technology, frame generation using AMD Fluid Motion Frames (AFMF) technology, and built-in latency reduction technology to provide greater-resolution output images from lower-resolution settings. While the technology is open-source, it battles in market share with NVIDIA and the company's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS). However, in the mobile space, there hasn't been much talk about implementing upscaling technology up until now. According to a popular leaker @Tech_Reve on X/Twitter, we have information that AMD is collaborating with Samsung and Qualcomm to standardize on upscaling technology implementations in mobile SoCs.

Not only does the leak imply that the AMD FSR technology will be used in Samsung's upcoming Exynos SoC, but some AMD ray tracing will be present as well. The leaker has mentioned Qualcomm, which means that future iterations of Snapdragon are up to adopt the FSR algorithmic approach to resolution upscaling. We will see how and when, but with mobile games growing in size and demand, FSR could come in handy to provide mobile gamers with a better experience. Primarily, this targets Android devices, which Qualcomm supplies, where Apple's iPhone recently announced MetalFX Upscaling technology with an A17 Pro chip.

Qualcomm Snapdragon X is out to change the thin-and-light notebook market, and is out to eat the lunches of U-segment and possibly P-segment processors from Intel and AMD. The Arm based processor promises to be a competitor to Apple's M2 and M2 Max SoCs powering the latest generation of Macbooks, so Windows 11 and Chrome OS-based thin-and-lights could offer similar levels of performance and battery life. Geekerwan put the Adreno iGPU of the Snapdragon X Elite through a couple of benchmarks to show how they compare to the iGPUs of contemporary 15 W to 28 W class SoCs across Arm and x64 machine architectures, and a discrete NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU.

In the 3DMark Wildlife Extreme benchmark, designed for graphics solutions of this class, the Snapdragon X Elite scored 39.2 FPS (average), compared to 60 FPS of the Apple M2 Max, 40 FPS of the Apple M2. The Core i7-13700H "Raptor Lake" is a 45 W mobile processor with an Intel Xe-LP based iGPU that has 96 EU. This chip scored just 22.5 FPS in this test. The surprise here is the Radeon 780M, the iGPU of the AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS, based on the latest RDNA3 architecture, with 12 compute units (768 stream processors). This chip did just 28 FPS, falling behind even the M2. The other benchmark is "Control" at 1080p with its lowest graphics settings, and here the results are fundamentally different. With "Control," we see the Snapdragon X Elite post a respectable 53 FPS, which is almost as fast as the 56 FPS by the Radeon 780M powering the Ryzen 7 7740HS, but ahead of the 43 FPS put by the Apple M2, and a whopping 145 FPS by the M2 Max.