Over the years, Qualcomm would usually introduce a new Snapdragon Compute Platform for Windows on Snapdragon devices at its annual Snapdragon Summit. However, that didn’t happen during this year’s edition although the company still have something under its sleeves in the form of the Oryon CPU.
On target for rollout in 2023, Oryon is expected to replace the Kryo CPU that Qualcomm has been using on Snapdragon products since 2015. Made its debut through Snapdragon 820, Kryo has ushered Snapdragon into the 64-bit era by replacing the previous 32-bit Krait CPU.
Aside from its name and 2023 release window, Qualcomm did not reveal any further details regarding the CPU although the company’s SVP for Engineering, Gerard Williams has pointed out that Oryon’s journey will start with the PC segment. This might be the reason why the teaser took place during the keynote session that covered Qualcomm’s Compute family.
Gerard has also said that Oryon will be making its way to a variety of Snapdragon-powered products including smartphones, digital cockpits, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), extended reality (XR), and infrastructure networking solutions.
Oryon is the first major result from Qualcomm’s acquisition of Nuvia which took place last year and came at the cost of USD1.4 billion to the company. Nuvia-designed processors were originally expected to be available within this year but the release window has since shifted to next year.
As key individuals behind Nuvia including Gerard were responsible for the Apple A and M-series processors, many saw the acquisition as Qualcomm’s effort to increase the capability of its Windows on Snapdragon processors. This way, the company can also improve their chances to go against the critically acclaimed Apple Silicon releases.
Considering the fact that the first Nuvia-designed processors will only be out next year while the next generation Apple M-series processors are likely already in development, it remains to be seen whether things will go Qualcomm’s way or otherwise. Nevertheless, it seems that 2023 is set to become an interesting year for the company.
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