Qualcomm announced on Monday that it is integrating technology initially developed for its laptop chips into its mobile phone processors, with the goal of enhancing their capabilities for generative AI tasks. The San Diego-based company, known as the largest seller of mobile phone chips globally, had hired a team of former Apple engineers in 2021 to help design laptop chips, which became available this year and are currently enabling AI features in Microsoft‘s Windows operating system.
The custom computing technology created by this team, branded as “Oryon,” will now be used in Qualcomm’s mobile phone chips for the first time. The newly introduced Snapdragon 8 Elite chip has been re-engineered to support AI-related tasks such as generating images and text. To help software developers take full advantage of the chip’s new capabilities, Qualcomm plans to provide specialized tools that go beyond what is currently offered in Android’s default development environment.
Chris Patrick, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and general manager for mobile handsets, stated that while Google is advancing rapidly in the AI space, Qualcomm has its own technology to offer developers, reinforcing its position in the market. The company also revealed that several major manufacturers, including Samsung Electronics, Asustek Computer, and Xiaomi, will incorporate the new chip into their devices.
Featured image courtesy of MEXEM
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