Qualcomm will launch its own ARM computer chips in order to combat Apple

Apple's M processors, which the apple company has used for a year on its MAC computers, will soon have competition. Qualcomm, the greatest processor designer for smartphones, plans to create a line of chips with which it becomes "in the power reference within the PC world".

These chips will be designed, like those of their rival, about Architecture ARM instead of using the X86-64 that now dominates most of the market, and which is the one used by the Intel or AMD chips.

Qualcomm already had processors intended for the PC market in its catalog. For years, it has been created special versions of your most powerful mobile chips designed to work on very light laptops. Companies like HP or Samsung have computers equipped with them. Microsoft added support for these ARM architecture processors first in Windows 10 and now in Windows 11, so in principle there is also software for them.

But the number of PC with Qualcomm processors sold in the last 3 years is not very large and there are hardly any programs and applications specifically designed for them (most run under emulation, which remains power).

Nor are they competitive when executing complex applications, such as those required for video editing, 3D modeling, games and more. They are intended, above all, to give computers a great autonomy and offer integrated 5G connection, so these teams are more an alternative to Google Chromebook than a solution designed to compete with the most modern PC equipped with more advanced processors of Intel or AMD.

Apple, on the other hand, has designed the M1 and now the M1 Pro and M1 Max precisely as a direct competition of the most advanced processors and graphic cards in the market. And he has achieved it. Mac equipped with these processors are equal to or more powerful than equipment with the latest generation of Intel Core processors or AMD Ryzen. In addition, thanks to the new architecture, they are also quieter and have greater autonomy.

The goal of Qualcomm, now, is to develop a line of processors capable of competing in that same space, taking advantage of Intel and AMD are ballasting by architecture x86. James Thompson, a technological manager of the company, said yesterday, in an event aimed at investors and analysts, that the company will have the first processors ready for the year 2023. "The transition from the PC to ARM is inevitable and Qualcomm is the best positioned company To take advantage of that transition, "Thompson said.

These chips will be developed by the Nukia team, a company specialized in the design of chips and founded by Apple's former workers who Qualcomm bought in January for 1,400 million dollars.

The chips will not only focus on improving the general process power, Qualcomm will also adapt the design of its Adreno Graphic processors so that future computers can also stand out in tasks such as electronic leisure or video editing.

For Qualcomm, this bet is necessary. It is still the company that supplies from processors to most mobile phone manufacturers but part of their business, it was up to now, also, of the sale of modems (devices that allow smartphones to connect to telephony networks) for the iPhone

The company now expects Apple to internally manufacture 80% of these modems in less than 4 years, so Qualcomm must find new markets to supply those income.