Qualcomm introduces Oryon a new subbrand of CPUs for its Snapdragon family of products. Manufacturers will be able to use the new CPU in products like Windows PCs, smartphones, and other gadgets after its debut in 2023. At its Snapdragon Summit on Wednesday, the firm unveiled the new CPU but offered little details regarding its features.
Since a few years ago, the business has produced Snapdragon-branded chips for Chrome OS and Windows laptops, but it has had difficulty getting these chips into many Windows devices. The few ultraportable laptops that have used Qualcomm’s Arm processors are specialized, pricey products that cater to a particular segment of PC customers but not the general public.
According to Axios, Oryon builds on the technology Qualcomm acquired Nuvia at $1.4 billion, a business founded in 2019 by three-chip experts who had previously worked on Apple’s A-series CPUs. Gerard Williams III, the previous CEO of Nuvia, made the new Oryon brand announcement.
Arm is currently suing Qualcomm and Nuvia on the grounds that they broke the terms of their license agreement. Arm demands that Qualcomm destroy all work produced while utilizing Nuvia’s license, claiming that the license was not intended to be transferable as part of the acquisition. According to Arm, Nuvia’s licenses were revoked in February 2022.
Although Apple’s Arm-based M-series CPUs have outperformed Qualcomm’s Snapdragon line in terms of raw performance, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon line hasn’t been the main deterrent for Windows on Arm devices. Instead, Windows on Arm itself is to blame for the problems, as the platform doesn’t have much software that is specifically designed for it and has trouble running Windows PC apps. As we witnessed in our assessment, the Qualcomm Arm-powered version of Microsoft’s recently released Surface Pro 9 lags behind the Intel-equipped model by a significant margin.
As stated in the brief press release announcing the new brand, Qualcomm’s upcoming generation of processors for Windows computers will likely perform better than its current crop. It promises to deliver “a new level of performance.” But it’s unlikely to make a significant difference unless the platform develops further and receives more support from the application ecosystem.