Qualcomm might announce new Snapdragon X series chipsets next month, according to a report. The chipmaker introduced its Snapdragon X series processors in April, and currently, it is the only chipset available for consumer laptops that meets the specifications required for Copilot+ PCs. This is because the dedicated Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU) in the chipset is said to capable of 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS), and Microsoft qualifies laptops with at least 40 TOPS as Copilot+ PC. It is not known whether the new X series chips will beat the NPU performance of the company’s existing processors.
New Snapdragon X Series Chipsets Could Debut Next Month
At its Snapdragon India event held earlier this week, Qualcomm showcased the capabilities of its X series chipsets and introduced the 5G-enabled Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 mobile platform. During the event, Kedar Kondap, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Compute and Gaming, Qualcomm hinted that more X series chipsets might be announced in September.
According to a report by FoneArena, Kondap might be alluding to the upcoming Internationale Funkausstellung (IFA) 2024 event in Berlin, which is a consumer electronics trade show. The chipmaker could reportedly introduce new variants of the Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite chips. The publication claims that while new chip models are unlikely, new stock-keeping units (SKUs) of existing processors could be unveiled.
There are three existing SKUs for the Snapdragon X Elite — X1E-78-100, X1E-80-100, and X1E-84-100. Each chip has minor performance and efficiency differences, while the cost of each chip also varies. As per the speculation, more SKUs in the Elite and Plus tier can be introduced at the Berlin event.
Apart from this, the company is also expected to announce the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 mobile platform in its annual event in October. Qualcomm has revealed that the chipset will use its in-house Oryon CPU and will feature a dedicated NPU. An earlier report claimed that the chipset could feature a significant improvement in the Adreno 750 GPU’s power efficiency, but may only get a single-digit CPU performance increase.