American semiconductor manufacturer Qualcomm has revealed that it is releasing its own ARM-based Snapdragon-powered Windows 10 PCs later this year. Based on the Snapdragon 835 processor, these new Qualcomm PCs are set for release before the end of 2017, according to the company’s CEO.
Thus far, we’ve only seen Windows 10 feature on x86-based machines. Qualcomm’s new ARM-based Windows PC is thanks to a collaboration between the chip-maker and Microsoft, which will also see them partner on new datacentres.
“[W]e have an opportunity to disrupt the existing suppliers of the PC and the datacenter,” Steve Mollenkopf, CEO of Qualcomm, said during an earning’s call on Wednesday (19th April), courtesy of a Seeking Alpha transcript. “Our Snapdragon 835 is expanding into Mobile PC designs running Windows 10, which are scheduled to launch in the fourth calendar quarter this year. In the datacenter, we announced the collaboration with Microsoft and demonstrated Windows Server Running on our 10 nanometer Qualcomm Centriq processors, the first 10 nanometer server processors in the industry.”
According to PC World, Qualcomm has dubbed the new ARM Windows machines “cellular” PCs, suggesting that they could take the form of laptops or tablets with smartphone-like connectivity features.
“The device will always be connected to a cellular network with a high-speed modem, much like a smartphone,” PC World’s Agam Shah writes. “It will have other wireless connectivity features like Bluetooth 5 and possibly Wi-Gig, which are integrated into the Snapdragon 835 chipset.”
“The cellular PC could also have a long battery life, considering Snapdragon 835 was designed for smartphones,” Shah adds. “Expect the superlight laptops to be 4K video capable with a powerful Adreno 540 GPU in the Snapdragon 835.”
