Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 850 SoC at Computex 2018, designed for the Always On, Always Connected Windows PC category. Now Qualcomm is reported to be working on a new chip intended for PCs from the ground up. This chip will compete directly with Intel's low-end Y and U series of Core processors. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000 is reportedly under construction, and the company is even looking for employees to test the chip. Separately, multiple code submissions suggest of an upcoming 2-in-1 Chromebook running on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 SoC.
German site WinFuture.de suggests that Qualcomm is working on SDM100, possibly called Snapdragon 1000 for PCs. The report, citing information from import databases, claims that the chip would reportedly consume 12W of power (thermal design power/ TDP) across the entire system-on-a-chip, and come integrated with large ARM processors. The size is expected to be at 20x15mm, and while it's larger than other Snapdragon chips, it is still smaller than Intel chips (45x24mm) in the Core series with 15W TDP. The Snapdragon 1000 will reportedly support up to 16GB of LPDDR4X RAM, and two 128GB UFS 2.1 storage modules onboard. It will support Gigabit WLAN, a new socketed chip design, and new power management techniques. This chip is expected to power Windows 10 PCs with ARM-based architecture in the future; however the exact timeline remains a mystery.
For now this seems to be a work-in-progress, and Winfuture.de is also citing a Qualcomm job listing on LinkedIn looking for a Microsoft Windows Multimedia Project Engineer to manage all operations of a Qualcomm SDM845 and SDM1000 for desktop, HoloLens, and Andromeda. For those unaware, Andromeda is Microsoft's project of building a hybrid PC, smartphone, and laptop device. The company has been recently rumoured to release an Andromeda device this year.
Separately, XDA Developers reports that multiple code submissions suggest that a 2-in-1 Chromebook running on Snapdragon 845 SoC is also in the offing. Apparently, a new Chromebook codenamed Cheza is in the works with a 2560x1440 pixels display, Gigabit LTE Qualcomm X20 modem, and Adreno 630 GPU. Internal code also suggests that Chromebook will have a detachable design that will let users click the keyboard out of the display for tablet-like use. The report says that Cheza may launch this fall.
Let us know what you think of Qualcomm's foray into varied device segments in the comments below.
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