Qualcomm has held a longstanding exclusivity agreement for providing Arm processors to the Windows PC market. According to a recent report, indications are emerging that both Nvidia and, surprisingly, AMD, are poised to enter the scene once the exclusivity agreement concludes
The news comes on the eve of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit, held in Maui, where Qualcomm has said previously that it would disclose more about its Snapdragon Elite platform and the Oryon processor.
Nvidia was actually an early player in the Arm processor game, supplying the Arm chip that powered the early Microsoft Surface RT. Over time, however, Microsoft moved away from Arm chips and to X86 chips manufactured by Intel and AMD. It has continued developing Arm processors, just not for Windows PCs, recently unveiling the massive “Grace Hopper” super chip for use in AI and high-performance data center workloads.
“From an AMD standpoint, we consider ourselves sort of the high-performance computing solution working with our customers, and that that is certainly the way we look at this,” AMD chief executive Dr. Lisa Su told a JPMorgan analyst event in 2021, according to Tom’s Hardware. “And if it means Arm for certain customers, we would certainly consider something in that realm as well.”
