Qualcomm announced on Monday its plans to enhance its mobile phone chips by incorporating technology originally developed for its laptop processors, aimed at boosting performance for generative AI applications.
As the world’s largest supplier of mobile phone chips, Qualcomm is leveraging expertise gained from a team of former Apple engineers hired in 2021 to design its laptop chips, which were launched earlier this year and are now powering AI features in Microsoft’s Windows, according to CNBC.
The newly branded “Oryon” custom computing technology, developed by this team, is being introduced into Qualcomm’s mobile chip lineup for the first time.
The flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite chip has been redesigned to efficiently handle complex tasks, such as image and text generation.
To support developers, Qualcomm will provide specialized software tools in addition to the existing resources available through Alphabet’s Android operating system, allowing them to fully utilize the enhanced capabilities of the Snapdragon 8 Elite.
The senior vice president and general manager for mobile handsets of Qualcomm, Chris Patrick, said, “AI has been one of those where I think Google is moving fast, but we have our own technology to offer that end developer.”
Qualcomm stated that several major companies, including Samsung Electronics, Asustek Computer, and Xiaomi, will incorporate the new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip into their devices.
