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Qualcomm on Tuesday announced its flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile processor and the Snapdragon X Elite chip, designed for the ‘generative AI’ era. During its Snapdragon Summit in Maui, Hawaii, the chip giant emphasised how its latest chipsets, which power premium Android smartphones and PCs, will place AI at the center of the mobile and computing experiences.
“We’re really entering the era of generative AI. It’s a new age,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said during the Snapdragon Summit. “When we think about what that is driving, it’s going to lead to an unprecedented change in how we use these devices.”
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be the company’s first chipset that will run generative AI models on-device, similar to what Google has been doing with its Tensor 3 – the chipset that powers the latest Pixel 8 series. Qualcomm claims its latest mobile processor can generate an image using Stable Diffusion in under a second.
Both Microsoft and its PC makers such as HP and Lenovo have been eyeing power-efficient chips to better match Apple’s M-series processors. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT and DELL-E have largely been limited to browser windows on desktop computers. But with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm is incorporating Gen AI into its next-generation premium chip, which means artificial intelligence will be embedded at the core of the user experience. Smartphones have had some form of AI experience for a long time, but most of them were limited to tasks such as photo editing and improved autocorrect.
Unlike most tech companies in the AI field, Qualcomm performs sophisticated processing on its devices instead of relying on the cloud, enabling new use cases on smartphones. During the event, the company demonstrated how Qualcomm will leverage Meta’s open-source Llama 2 models to enable an intelligent virtual assistant. Think of ChatGPT, but running “on a device” rather than “in the cloud.” Qualcomm clearly aims to position its processors designed to accelerate AI workloads, sending a message that large language models can run on phones instead of in large data centers. This approach not only has the potential to reduce the cost of running AI models but also to lead to the development of better AI-driven applications designed to run on modern-day smartphones.
“What is fascinating is that we’ve seen exponential growth in use cases,” he continued. “When we start thinking about the role of AI on devices, I would say that about twelve months ago, we had people mentioning just one or two use cases. Now, we can see hundreds of use cases.”
As the smartphone market softens, Qualcomm is betting on AI to supercharge sales of high-end smartphones, a move that will benefit both the chipset maker and its OEMs, such as Xiaomi and OnePlus. “Qualcomm sees AI, including on-device generative AI, as a key differentiator,” says Jon Erensen, Senior Director Analyst at Gartner.
“AI capability is likely to be front and center, but it is not new to Qualcomm,” Geoff Blaber, Chief Executive of CCS Insight, a tech consultancy, adds. The chip maker is assembling the pieces to enable large language models to run locally on the device and unlock the next wave of AI-led experiences. These won’t be possible using the cloud alone due to cost and performance, so having the capability in the device is critical.”
Upcoming high-end Android phones from companies such as Xiaomi, Asus, Sony and OnePlus will be powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
But Qualcomm’s ambitions are far beyond making mobile chips. The company now wants to dominate PCs as well and for that, it is launching a processor which it says outpaces the fastest laptop chips from Apple and Intel. The new chip, dubbed the Snapdragon Elite X, uses the technology from the company’s $1.4 billion acquisition of Nuvia, which was started by former Apple engineers.
Based on ARM, Qualcomm plans to have computers running its new chips available to buy starting in the middle of next year. HP and Lenovo are among the first wave of PC makers to ship PCs with the Snapdragon Elite X processor.
The Elite X can dual-core boost up to 4.3GHz, and it delivers up to twice the performance over competing Intel i7 10-core and 12-core processor-powered laptops while consuming a third of the power, outpacing its 14-core i7. Qualcomm says the Snapdragon X Elite can locally run AI models with up to 13 billion parameters without needing to rely on AI processing in the cloud.
The company showed a graph stating that Qualcomm’s new PC chip outperformed Apple’s M2 and Intel’s i9-13980HX silicon in single-threaded CPU performance, and matched their peak performance at 30 per cent and 70 per cent less power, respectively. In fact, the Elite X chip is capable of a 50 per cent faster peak multithreaded CPU performance over the Apple M2 chip. “There is a new sheriff in town,” Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said, announcing the Snapdragon X Elite.
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The announcement of Qualcomm’s increased focus on the PC market comes at a time when Nvidia and AMD are reportedly developing ARM-based chips for release as soon as 2025. The PC market has traditionally been dominated by Intel and AMD, but Qualcomm and Nvidia entering the PC chip market could represent an interesting development.
“Qualcomm has a long way to go in the PC market but it has focus and is building its understanding of what success will require. It has a deep strategic partnership with Microsoft which is a significant asset,” Blaber added.
The writer is in Maui, Hawaii on the invite of Qualcomm India.
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