Hot topic丨Qualcomm launches the latest Snapdragon chip, turning Arm from a friend into a rival
Focus: artificial intelligence, chips and other industries
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Qualcomm's PC computing platform, Snapdragon X Elite, released last year , successfully landed on the product lines of major notebook brands at the beginning of this year.
As the flagship processor for PC, Snapdragon X Elite is equipped with Qualcomm's self-developed Oryon CPU architecture for the first time, and has attracted widespread attention in terms of PC user experience and battery life.
Today, Qualcomm is introducing this advanced architecture into the mobile phone field.
At a recent summit, Qualcomm launched its flagship mobile chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which uses the second-generation version of the Oryon architecture.
Qualcomm claims that the chip is the most powerful and fastest mobile system-on-chip ever developed by Qualcomm.
The Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition incorporates a number of cutting-edge technologies for the first time, including Qualcomm's second-generation Oryon CPU, Qualcomm Adreno GPU and an enhanced version of Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, all of which have achieved significant performance leaps.
The improvements to the Hexagon NPU are designed to speed up the integration of complex AI models into smartphones and other applications.
According to the benchmark test results shown by Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition performs just as well as the Apple A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max.
Compared with Qualcomm's previous generation mobile computing platform 8 Gen3, the performance of Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition has increased by 62% and the efficiency has increased by 45%.
Qualcomm also works with many partners to promote the development of edge AI. The latest collaboration is with Tencent Hunyuan, which jointly promotes the terminal deployment of Tencent Hunyuan large model 7B and 3B versions based on the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition mobile platform.
Qualcomm also redesigned the ISP for the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition, upgrading it to AI ISP, which has comprehensively improved performance.
ISP throughput is increased by nearly 35% and power efficiency is improved by up to 25%. This upgraded performance allows users to shoot with up to three 48-megapixel sensors simultaneously.
The Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition will be installed in upcoming new phones from ASUS, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Samsung, Vivo and Xiaomi.
To enhance strategic value, Oryon CPU will be decentralized to multiple terminals
The CPUs of the past few generations of Snapdragon processors have all used Arm's IP, which was undoubtedly an extremely suitable choice for Qualcomm at the time.
For Qualcomm, developing its own CPU must carefully consider the input-output ratio.
Designing a completely new CPU just for mobile phones and PCs may not be attractive enough.
However, if the automotive market is taken into consideration, the input-output ratio of self-developed CPUs is expected to be very impressive.
In 2023, Qualcomm chose to launch the first generation of Oryon CPU on PC, which is an extremely wise strategy.
This move will not only make Qualcomm's PC processor famous and attract widespread attention, but also use this product line, which accounts for a relatively small proportion of Qualcomm's revenue, to verify the powerful performance of Oryon CPU in advance.
Then, in 2024, Oryon CPU will be launched into the mobile phone market that Qualcomm is most familiar with.
After being fully verified in the PC market, the application of Oryon CPU in mobile phones will be like a dimensionality reduction attack, showing overwhelming advantages.
By 2025, Oryon CPU will further expand into the automotive market with higher performance and safety requirements.
Qualcomm's self-developed CPU will not only become an important pillar of its business, but will also strongly support its overall corporate strategy.
The Oryon CPU will be updated every year because it will be widely used in mobile phones, cars, PCs and other fields. The Snapdragon processor for PCs is planned to be updated every two years.
Like the Snapdragon 8 Extreme Edition, this new Snapdragon automotive platform also uses the Qualcomm Oryon CPU customized specifically for the automotive industry.
The new platform’s CPU speed is designed to be three times faster than the previous top-level platform, while its AI performance is designed to be up to twelve times faster.
It is particularly worth mentioning that Qualcomm provides a high degree of flexibility and scalability for software-defined cars, allowing automakers to seamlessly run digital cockpits and intelligent driving functions on the same SoC.
In other words, the Snapdragon Cockpit Extreme Edition platform and the Snapdragon Ride Extreme Edition platform share many of the same IPs and have good scalability.
From friends to rivals, Arm and Qualcomm go to court
Qualcomm is one of Arm's important customers. Qualcomm's reduced dependence on Arm will objectively lead to a reduction in Arm's licensing revenue and make Qualcomm a competitor of Arm.
Given that Apple has extensively used custom cores in its M-series chips, Arm clearly doesn't want to see Qualcomm follow in Apple's footsteps.
According to a report by Bloomberg on October 23, UK-based Arm plans to revoke its long-term partner Qualcomm's license to use Arm intellectual property to design chips.
The move marks a further escalation in the two companies' legal dispute over licensing of smartphone chip architecture.
According to relevant documents obtained by Bloomberg, Arm has issued a 60-day formal notice to Qualcomm, requesting to terminate the so-called architecture licensing agreement.
In other words, from the 60-day expiration of the agreement, Qualcomm will no longer be authorized to develop its own chips based on Arm standards.
While Qualcomm can still license Arm design blueprints under other product agreements, this move would cause significant delays and result in the loss of work Qualcomm has already completed.
Arm said that in view of Qualcomm's repeated and serious violations of Arm's licensing agreement, Arm had to take formal measures to require Qualcomm to correct the breaches, otherwise it would face the consequences of termination of the agreement.
Bloomberg predicts that if the agreement is terminated, Qualcomm may have to stop selling products that account for the bulk of its approximately US$39 billion (approximately RMB 277.5 billion) in revenue, otherwise it will face huge compensation.
The two sides are scheduled to go to court on December 16 to resolve Arm's breach of contract claim and Qualcomm's counterclaim.
A lose-lose situation affects both sides
Qualcomm 's acquisition of Nuvia is an important strategic move for it to enter the personal computer market, and Oryon CPU carries Qualcomm's grand blueprint in this field.
Once the design is destroyed, Qualcomm will not only suffer huge investment losses, but also miss the valuable opportunity of rapid growth in the personal computer market, thus falling into a passive position in the competition with Intel and AMD.
Even if Arm wins the lawsuit and obtains compensation, it will pay a huge market price.
First, this move will make Qualcomm more resolute in its decision to break away from Arm;
Secondly, this is a critical period in the development of Arm personal computers. The expansion of the Windows personal computer market will greatly benefit Arm, and any additional market share will bring profits to Arm through royalties.
And because PC processors cost more than smartphone processors, the royalties generated by each PC processor are more substantial.
Ending:
The market generally expects that the two parties will eventually reach a settlement and Arm will not actually cancel its authorization to Qualcomm.
After all, Qualcomm contributed about 11% of Arm's revenue over the past year.
If the two parties suddenly terminate their cooperation, Arm will not be able to bear it. Therefore, the act of revoking the authorization is more like a strategic means for Arm in the bargaining process.
If the judgment is confirmed, it will have serious adverse effects on both Arm and Qualcomm, resulting in a lose-lose situation.
Some references: Geek Park: "Qualcomm, which launched the new Snapdragon chip, exposed its ambition to be the "AI Supreme", Leifeng.com: "Qualcomm's self-developed Oryon CPU allows it to attack and retreat", Zhichanli: "Former allies turned enemies, why did Arm [cut off] supply to Qualcomm?", Cyber Auto: "Qualcomm, the king of cockpits, will fight Nvidia, the king of smart driving", Zhiwei: "ARM is preparing to revoke its authorization to Qualcomm, so Qualcomm can no longer make mobile phone chips?"
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