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Qualcomm Previews Snapdragon X Elite SoC: Oryon CPU Starts in Laptops

26 points by paulpan 3y ago

paulpan 3y ago
So this is the long-awaited announcement on the fruits of Qualcomm's Nuvia acquisition a few years ago. The main and only relevant question is how it'll measure up against the Apple M3, AMD Z2, and Intel Meteor Lake chips next year. Interesting that there's no hint of its relative single-thread performance. Wonder how the custom Oryon core stacks up against the ARM vanilla X4.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- beebeepka 3y ago
  If their slides are to be believed, the CPU is going to be competitive with whatever everyone else puts out.
  - hulitu 3y ago
    Do they have a compiler for it ?
Koshkin 3y ago
Windows: mentioned 8 times Linux: mentioned 0 times (not counting Android)
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Naturally, the target market for Qualcomm are Windows ARM laptops that regular consumers can buy at the local shopping mall, or Android devices. With luck, maybe one of the ChromeOS might decide to use it, although given the capabilities of Web based software would probably be a waste in hardware capabilities.
  - halJordan 3y ago
    Not sure where youre getting "chrome os is wasted on high performance" from. Chrome OS still sucks on arm devices and is still bad on celerons. You need an i5 w/8gb of ram just like any other machine.
    - pjmlp 3y ago
      The Web standards only require so much from hardware, the other issues are probably caused by people not learning how to use bookmarks.
- vitorgrs 3y ago
  Actually on the keynote, there was screenshots of these running Debian Trixie/sid (Linux 6.5.0-rc1)
beebeepka 3y ago
These are some bold claims. Higher performance than m2 max, or matching it at 30% less power. I hope it's true because it sounds pretty amazing. AMD may have to release an arm chip too or they will be pushed out of the consumer market
peter_d_sherman 3y ago
Historically, the bottleneck in all CPU's -- has been the speed at which data can be transferred from/to main memory. A large on-board CPU cache -- solves that for smaller programs whose code and data can entirely fit into that cache. But for larger programs whose code and data do not fit entirely into a CPU's cache -- the bottleneck is "how fast does it read/write from main memory?". Here, for the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite -- we are given a figure for that, of 136GB/sec. Is it really that fast? Well, future benchmarking to confirm that number will have to take place. But if it really is that fast -- then that would be pretty respectable for a 2023 consumer CPU...
cherryteastain 3y ago
Do we know if the bootloader will be unlocked? Will we finally get laptops that can run aarch64 Linux distros out-of-the-box? Otherwise, as a Linux user, I'd have to stick with x86.
- kcb 3y ago
  Windows on Snapdragon devices have always been unlocked and use UEFI.
  - cherryteastain 3y ago
    Nice to hear. I remember there were some rough edges with Snapdragon based thinkpads. Hopefully they won't repeat with these CPUs.
ZuLuuuuuu 3y ago
I wish they showed a few new laptop models that will be coming out with this CPU.
apatheticonion 3y ago
Though I know the CPU itself has nothing to do with how the manufacturers build the laptops - I hope to dog that they make laptops that are as nice to use as the MBPs. High quality track pads, great high refresh screens, tiny adapters (or just use your mobile phone charger) and fantastic battery life. First class Linux support would make a "must buy" device. If they deliver on that, other than compatibility, it would be the best portable development environment available. Combine that with FEX and Proton, it might prove to be a competent gaming device. So much potential here, I shouldn't get my hopes up...
- rbanffy 3y ago
  > I hope to dog that they make laptops that are as nice to use as the MBPs. Judging from previous ARM laptops, I can't see that happening. There is no way to make Windows be as nice to use as macOS. > First class Linux support would make a "must buy" device. That'd be my only hope, but I'm not holding my breath. Unless it offers significantly better experience for the same amount of money, as much as I dislike the x86, it's hard to beat. Apple does it by offering exactly that.

26 points by paulpan 3y ago

So this is the long-awaited announcement on the fruits of Qualcomm's Nuvia acquisition a few years ago. The main and only relevant question is how it'll measure up against the Apple M3, AMD Z2, and Intel Meteor Lake chips next year. Interesting that there's no hint of its relative single-thread performance. Wonder how the custom Oryon core stacks up against the ARM vanilla X4.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
beebeepka 3y ago
If their slides are to be believed, the CPU is going to be competitive with whatever everyone else puts out.
- hulitu 3y ago
  Do they have a compiler for it ?

Koshkin 3y ago

Windows: mentioned 8 times Linux: mentioned 0 times (not counting Android)

pjmlp 3y ago
Naturally, the target market for Qualcomm are Windows ARM laptops that regular consumers can buy at the local shopping mall, or Android devices. With luck, maybe one of the ChromeOS might decide to use it, although given the capabilities of Web based software would probably be a waste in hardware capabilities.
- halJordan 3y ago
  Not sure where youre getting "chrome os is wasted on high performance" from. Chrome OS still sucks on arm devices and is still bad on celerons. You need an i5 w/8gb of ram just like any other machine.
  - pjmlp 3y ago
    The Web standards only require so much from hardware, the other issues are probably caused by people not learning how to use bookmarks.
vitorgrs 3y ago
Actually on the keynote, there was screenshots of these running Debian Trixie/sid (Linux 6.5.0-rc1)

beebeepka 3y ago

These are some bold claims. Higher performance than m2 max, or matching it at 30% less power. I hope it's true because it sounds pretty amazing. AMD may have to release an arm chip too or they will be pushed out of the consumer market

peter_d_sherman 3y ago

Historically, the bottleneck in all CPU's -- has been the speed at which data can be transferred from/to main memory. A large on-board CPU cache -- solves that for smaller programs whose code and data can entirely fit into that cache. But for larger programs whose code and data do not fit entirely into a CPU's cache -- the bottleneck is "how fast does it read/write from main memory?". Here, for the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite -- we are given a figure for that, of 136GB/sec. Is it really that fast? Well, future benchmarking to confirm that number will have to take place. But if it really is that fast -- then that would be pretty respectable for a 2023 consumer CPU...

cherryteastain 3y ago

Do we know if the bootloader will be unlocked? Will we finally get laptops that can run aarch64 Linux distros out-of-the-box? Otherwise, as a Linux user, I'd have to stick with x86.

kcb 3y ago
Windows on Snapdragon devices have always been unlocked and use UEFI.
- cherryteastain 3y ago
  Nice to hear. I remember there were some rough edges with Snapdragon based thinkpads. Hopefully they won't repeat with these CPUs.

ZuLuuuuuu 3y ago

I wish they showed a few new laptop models that will be coming out with this CPU.

apatheticonion 3y ago

Though I know the CPU itself has nothing to do with how the manufacturers build the laptops - I hope to dog that they make laptops that are as nice to use as the MBPs. High quality track pads, great high refresh screens, tiny adapters (or just use your mobile phone charger) and fantastic battery life. First class Linux support would make a "must buy" device. If they deliver on that, other than compatibility, it would be the best portable development environment available. Combine that with FEX and Proton, it might prove to be a competent gaming device. So much potential here, I shouldn't get my hopes up...

rbanffy 3y ago
> I hope to dog that they make laptops that are as nice to use as the MBPs. Judging from previous ARM laptops, I can't see that happening. There is no way to make Windows be as nice to use as macOS. > First class Linux support would make a "must buy" device. That'd be my only hope, but I'm not holding my breath. Unless it offers significantly better experience for the same amount of money, as much as I dislike the x86, it's hard to beat. Apple does it by offering exactly that.