Why did Microsoft customize a chip?

Latest update time：2019-10-04

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Source: Content from "CNET", thank you.

We knew Microsoft announced a ton of new laptops at its Surface event on Tuesday. What we didn't know was that they also brought a new Microsoft processor, a Qualcomm-derived chip called the SQ1. The chip, which is packed into the new Surface Pro X, is a message from Microsoft: It's time for laptops to get all-day battery life like phones, but if it means sacrificing processing power to get there, then it's not time.

Microsoft's Surface products and their integrated hardware and software serve a dual purpose. First, they are a serious business at Microsoft. Second, they also allow the company to show consumers and other computer manufacturers how Microsoft sees the future of personal computing.

SQ1 gives Microsoft more control over that future, while telling software makers they'd better use the program, too.

It could give Apple better competition, as Apple has tightly integrated its influential designs. The iPhone and iPad use Apple's own A-series ARM processors, and its future MacBooks are rumored to feature Arm chips, too.

Forrester analyst Frank Gillett said that for Microsoft, controlling its own chip design "is critical to maximizing user experience and battery life, as Apple has demonstrated over the past decade with its custom iPhone chips, " he stressed.

Arm PCs are inherently flawed

So far, PCs based on Arm processors have not attracted much attention, even though they have better battery life and can connect to mobile networks. But they can't match the performance of Intel and AMD's x86 series chips, and there are software compatibility issues because mainstream software for x86 chips can't run on Arm machines.

But Microsoft isn't worried about improving performance this time around.

The SQ1 gives the Surface Pro X "incredible power," said Yusuf Mehdi, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Modern Life, Search and Devices group. "We have amazing graphics processing capabilities. We're going to do AI on the chip."

The two companies didn’t share many performance metrics, though. Qualcomm says its graphics performance is twice as good as the eighth-generation Intel Core processor from two years ago or last year’s Qualcomm 850 smartphone chip. And Microsoft preferred to focus on efficiency rather than raw performance when comparing the Surface Pro X to the Intel-powered Surface Pro 6.

"This product has three times the performance per watt of Surface Pro 6, " Microsoft Chief Product Officer Panos Panay said at the event. The older Microsoft laptop uses Intel's eighth-generation Core processors.

Intel remains a close ally of Microsoft

Microsoft has barely abandoned its business partner Intel for decades. Indeed, both new Surface designs rely on Intel chips. Ice Lake chips for this year's premium laptops like the 13-inch Surface Laptop 3 and Lakefield chips for next year's fancier dual-screen Surface Neo. Microsoft has also teamed up with perennial Intel rival AMD, opting for its mobile Ryzen chips for the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3.

But figuring out how to get Arm chips into Microsoft's products so mainstream PC users benefit from battery life that means they can leave their chargers at home is a big challenge for all of the entrants.

Arm opens chip design licenses and allows others to build compatible models of their own design and add a rich library of options to "intellectual property" under industrial licensing terms. This flexibility allows many Arm licensees to customize chips for different products, prices, performance and power consumption levels.

Now it was Microsoft's turn to do the tailoring. "We brought the engineering expertise and, together with the Qualcomm team, brought the IP to build essentially a new chip, " Mehdi said .

Techsponential analyst Avi Greengart said the move was "really smart." He said Arm-based laptops are available from companies such as HP, Lenovo, Asus and Samsung. "It hints at unique capabilities, and it allows Microsoft to avoid direct comparisons with other Qualcomm-based products. "

How is SQ1 different?

Qualcomm says the SQ1 is based on Qualcomm's mainstream offering for PCs, the Snapdragon 8cx, but it's not the same chip used in 8cx-based laptops. For one thing, the graphics processing unit (GPU) is different.

“The GPU and its cores are optimized for Surface Pro X specifically to enhance performance and user experience for graphics-rich applications, ” Qualcomm said . “Microsoft wanted a truly mobile experience, from long battery life to a rich display to LTE connectivity and, of course, ‘instant’ boot-up like a smartphone. ”

Real World Tech analyst David Kanter said improving graphics performance is a good idea.

"Qualcomm's GPU can run Windows, but it's weaker than Intel, AMD, and Nvidia graphics," he said. This is especially true for the critical Windows DirectX driver, the software that applications use to control graphics hardware, he said.

Qualcomm says the SQ1 includes specialized hardware: a fourth-generation AI engine also used in the flagship Snapdragon 855 processor. The accelerated AI enhances software that uses brain-like processing to accomplish tasks such as understanding human speech, identifying people in photos or automatically editing videos.

Attracting software makers to join the Arm PC camp

One of the big hurdles to Arm PCs is software incompatibility, but the Surface Pro X and the fact that Microsoft is willing to co-design special chips for it could help Microsoft attract those developers.

One of the biggest challenges is Adobe, maker of Photoshop, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, Illustrator and dozens of other apps used by creative types. But Adobe shared the stage with Microsoft to show off its new Fresco drawing app on the Surface Pro X, and promised to bring more of its Creative Cloud software suite along, too.

“Surface is an important platform for Creative Cloud and will become even more important in the future,” said Scott Belsky, Adobe’s chief product officer for Creative Cloud . He said more than half of today’s Surface customers are also Creative Cloud customers, leading Adobe to decide to bring “large portions” of its software suite to Arm-based Surface machines.

"We're working to bring other key parts of Creative Cloud to Surface Pro X as quickly as possible, " Belsky said . Adobe declined to provide details about which apps beyond Fresco would be included, though.

Software support is the ultimate key to the success of the Surface Pro X and other Arm-based laptops, Forrester's Gillett said. "It all depends on developers and whether the Windows team at Microsoft can make the experience work without using an x86 processor."

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