
Qualcomm launches Nuvia-designed, AI-capable PC processor

Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon X Elite claiming it is the most powerful and efficient processor for PCs capable of running artificial intelligence applications.
The Arm-compatible 12-core processor is implemented in a 4nm manufacturing process and is expected to start shipping in Windows computers mid-2024. The CPU core named Oryon was developed by an engineering team from Nuvia Corp. which was acquired by Qualcomm for about US$1.4 billion in 2021.
One consequence of the acquisition is that Qualcomm is in dispute with Arm over its right to use a license to the Arm instruction set architecture (see Qualcomm steps up Oryon battle with Arm).
The 12-core Oryon CPU within Snapdragon X Elite runs at up to a 3.8GHz clock frequency but with 4.3GHz boost mode when it is restricted to one or two cores.
The Adreno GPU provides up to 4.6TFLOPS of performance to support displays with 4K Ultra HD resolution at 120Hz refresh rate.
The Hexagon NPU provides 45TOPS of neural networking inference support for AI applications. Qualcomm’s software AI Engine make use of all the processor resources across CPU, GPU, NPU and micro NPU to obtain 75TOPS to run generative AI models with over 13 billion parameters on-device.
Snapdragon X Elite supports advanced camera, lossless audio, robust connectivity with 5G and Wi-Fi 7, with multi-day battery life and enterprise-grade security.
At the launch Qualcomm rolled out endorsements about how good the Snapdragon X Elite is by exectives from Asus, Lenovo, HP, Samsung and Microsoft.
Just before the launch Reuters reported that Nvidia and AMD would be offering processors for Windows PCs in 2025.
Related links and articles:
News articles:
Nvidia, AMD set to challenge Intel, Qualcomm with Arm-based PC processors
Qualcomm steps up Oryon battle with Arm
Qualcomm hits back at ARM over lawsuit
ARM sues Qualcomm over Nuvia chip designs
Nuvia raises US$240 million to build ARM data centre chip
