Qualcomm has announced its flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 mobile processor and the Snapdragon X Elite chip, designed for the ‘generative AI’ era. These chipsets will place AI at the center of the mobile and computing experiences.
“We’re really entering the era of generative AI. It’s a new age,” said Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. “When we think about what that is driving, it’s going to lead to an unprecedented change in how we use these devices.”
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be the company’s first chipset that will run generative AI models on-device, similar to Google’s Tensor 3. Qualcomm claims its latest mobile processor can generate an image using Stable Diffusion in under a second.
Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT and DELL-E have largely been limited to browser windows on desktop computers. But with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm is incorporating Gen AI into its next-generation premium chip, embedding artificial intelligence at the core of the user experience.
Qualcomm performs sophisticated processing on its devices instead of relying on the cloud, enabling new use cases on smartphones. The company aims to reduce the cost of running AI models and develop better AI-driven applications for smartphones.
“What is fascinating is that we’ve seen exponential growth in use cases,” said Amon. “Now, we can see hundreds of use cases.”
Qualcomm is betting on AI to boost sales of high-end smartphones and dominate the PC market. The new Snapdragon Elite X processor outperforms Apple and Intel chips in terms of performance and power consumption. HP and Lenovo are among the first PC makers to use the Snapdragon Elite X processor.
Qualcomm’s increased focus on the PC market comes as Nvidia and AMD are also developing ARM-based chips. This development could bring interesting changes to the PC chip market.
“Qualcomm has a long way to go in the PC market but it has focus and is building its understanding of what success will require,” said Geoff Blaber, Chief Executive of CCS Insight. “It has a deep strategic partnership with Microsoft which is a significant asset.”
The writer is in Maui, Hawaii on the invite of Qualcomm India.