- ⏰ 3 hours ago
- Medhi Naitmazi
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Qualcomm’s answer to Apple’s custom silicon will be available in early devices by the end of 2023, the company’s CEO said earlier this week, as reported by Tom’s Hardware. It was on the occasion of the call to investors which followed the publication of the results of the second fiscal quarter of the company.
A slight delay for Qualcomm chips
Last November, Qualcomm announced plans to manufacture next-generation systems-on-chips (SoCs) based on Britain’s Arm architecture, specifically to compete with Apple’s MX chips, for the PC market. These chips are “designed to set the performance benchmark for Windows PCs” and are developed by the Nuvia team. Qualcomm said it will directly compete with Apple’s M chips, including the M1, M1 Pro and M1 Max, and hopes to lead the industry in “sustained performance and battery life”. In the meantime, Apple has released the even more impressive M1 Ultra which is still way above the competition.
During the company’s latest earnings conference call, Qualcomm Chairman and CEO Christian Amon said the Nuvia team is making progress toward its goal of developing a significant leap forward for Arm processors. Mr Amon added that the first processor designed by Nuvia “will be high performance” and Windows laptops to take advantage of it should be available to customers in late 2023.
The timeline seems to indicate a slight delay from the original 2023 deadline set by Qualcomm last year. The company previously said Nuvia chip samples would be available to device makers by August 2022, but that forecast has been expanded to the second half of 2022, with a particular focus on the launch of the first consumer Nuvia devices at the market. “end” of 2023.
Qualcomm acquired Nuvia, a startup founded by ex-Apple chip designers, for $1.4 billion in January 2021. Former Apple engineers wanted to create Arm-based SoCs specifically for servers and target the always-connected PC (ACPC) market with a chip that could compete with the M1, but now the team’s goals seem to have been broadened considerably.
Apple will not let it count
By the end of 2023, Apple should be well advanced with its M2 series of chips that are expected in the next few weeks on the first Macs. The company may even have introduced the first M3 chips by the time the first Nuvia chips hit the market. As a result, the gap could still be considerable with Qualcomm’s products, the latter also providing the 5G modems for the current iPhones.