For over half a century, computers based on the x86 architecture have dominated the market, especially the "Wintel" combination of Windows operating system and Intel processor, which has swept the PC market. With the vigorous development of mobile internet, intelligence, and 5G technology, today's consumers have higher demands for laptops, with the most important three requirements being high performance, long battery life, and instant connectivity, often needing to be balanced simultaneously. However, the high power consumption of the x86 platform architecture has become a major constraint, and the Snapdragon PC computing platform based on ARM architecture may shake up the traditional market landscape of mobile processors.
At the Snapdragon Summit held in October 2023, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon X Elite computing platform. Featuring cutting-edge 4nm process technology, significantly enhanced CPU and GPU performance, exceptional energy efficiency, and robust AI capabilities, along with lightning-fast network connectivity. Unlike traditional X86 processors, it offers a transformative experience for mobile PCs, signaling the future direction of mobile PC development.
Compared to Apple's M series chips and Intel's Core Ultra on the X86 platform, as well as AMD's Ryzen 7000 series processors, the Snapdragon X Elite outperforms in both multi-core performance and energy efficiency. The Snapdragon X Elite is a product designed for top-tier computing platforms. In order to further enrich consumer choices, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon X Plus platform in April this year, which also boasts high energy efficiency and outstanding AI computing capabilities.
The Snapdragon X Plus features the same 4-nanometer process technology as the Snapdragon X Elite, with 10 high-performance Oryon CPU cores clocked up to 3.4GHz, boasting a total cache of 42MB. It offers LPDDR5X memory bandwidth of up to 136GB/s, supports PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, and the Adreno GPU delivers speeds of up to 3.8TFLOPS. In terms of NPU, it provides the same 45TOPS computing power, supports Wi-Fi 7, and offers a maximum 5G connection speed of 10Gbps. It comes with an integrated 18-bit dual ISP, audio support including the leading Snapdragon Sound feature with Bluetooth 5.4, and is compatible with various product forms.
In Geekbench tests, the Snapdragon X Plus outperforms the Apple M3 by 10% in multi-threaded CPU performance. Compared to the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, it consumes 54% less power to achieve the same peak performance and leads by 37% in CPU performance at the same power consumption, showcasing remarkable energy efficiency.
The NPU's performance is truly outstanding, leaving traditional laptop competitors far behind. The Snapdragon X Plus boasts a 100-fold increase in computing power compared to its rivals, reaching 45 TOPS, making it the world's fastest NPU for PCs. This is crucial for enabling a range of AI applications on AI PCs.
It's easy to see that the advantages of the Snapdragon X Plus are precisely the capabilities modern mobile PCs need. Higher energy efficiency achieves a balance between high performance and low power consumption, providing laptops with longer battery life. The unprecedented AI computing power forms the foundation for the widespread adoption of AI PCs. The super-fast 5G and Wi-Fi 7 connectivity capabilities enable computers to connect instantly like smartphones, achieving seamless connectivity at all times, significantly enhancing the PC experience.
AI is becoming increasingly integrated into our lives. Just like its applications on smartphones, from facial recognition to taking photos and videos, from scanning a QR code to every internet connection, AI is omnipresent. The powerful computing and storage capabilities of PCs, along with their rich interactive features and wide range of applications, make them the ideal platform for hosting large models and spreading AI to everyone. The strong computing power of the Snapdragon X Plus has become a crucial platform for accelerating the popularization of AI large models on PCs.
Similar to the third-generation Snapdragon 8s tailored for smartphones, the outstanding AI capabilities of the Snapdragon X Plus empower users with various features needed in daily life. It can rapidly extend the AI large model capabilities of top platforms to more devices, enabling manufacturers to create more AI terminals. This allows a broader range of users to quickly enjoy the benefits of generative AI and brings endless possibilities to mobile PCs.
The software ecosystem is crucial for the popularization of AI PCs. Qualcomm is empowering industry ecosystem innovation through comprehensive software and hardware strategies. To support developers, Qualcomm has introduced the Qualcomm AI Stack and AI Hub. The Qualcomm AI Hub offers over 75 optimized AI models for Snapdragon and Qualcomm platforms, helping developers shorten product time-to-market. This enables the advantages of edge AI to be leveraged in applications, allowing developers to easily run these models on cloud-managed terminals powered by Qualcomm platforms with just a few lines of code.
By leveraging the Qualcomm AI software stack, developers can create, optimize, and deploy AI applications on Qualcomm hardware. With just one coding effort, they can deploy solutions using Qualcomm chipsets across different products and specialized fields.
Using the development kit based on the Snapdragon computing platform and the dedicated Qualcomm AI engine on the terminal side, ISV vendors like Adobe can enhance terminal AI performance in creative workflows and tasks. This includes features such as super-resolution, background removal, color enhancement, and on-the-go content editing, enabling a better unleashing of creativity on Snapdragon computing terminals.
The Snapdragon X Plus, with its outstanding energy efficiency, powerful AI capabilities, and 5G connectivity, significantly enhances the experience of mobile PCs. It emphasizes experiential improvements brought by the hardware, especially with vast possibilities for AI applications, guiding the direction of the next generation of mobile PC development.
At the Lenovo Tech World event held in Shanghai on April 18th, Qualcomm's President and CEO, Amon, was invited to give a speech, sharing Qualcomm's industry-leading advantages in AI on the terminal side and the shared vision of AI PCs with Lenovo. Both parties look forward to delivering a superior user experience through innovative AI PCs.
Amon stated, "Hybrid AI is the future of AI. Hybrid AI can utilize AI on both the terminal side and the cloud simultaneously, allocating and coordinating workloads through high-performance connections to provide a more intelligent personalized user experience. Therefore, industry-leading connectivity and high-performance, low-power computing become crucial. As a leading enterprise in terminal-side AI, Qualcomm previously launched the Snapdragon X Elite, a leading platform for terminal-side and hybrid AI, with up to 45 TOPS of computing power, making it the world's fastest NPU for PC platforms."
It is reported that Qualcomm will participate in the international computer expo in Taipei in June, where Amon will also deliver a keynote speech on the latest developments of the Snapdragon X series products. Several Snapdragon X Elite laptops from manufacturers like Lenovo and Samsung have already been revealed, generating anticipation.
