Qualcomm Confirms Critical Information About Its Next Flagship Processor

Qualcomm’s President and CEO Christiano Amon has confirmed that the company’s next flagship smartphone processor will be named the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The San Diego-based chipmaker unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 last November, and it is expected to power most of the notable flagship Android smartphones in 2022. Multiple smartphones have already been announced with the new chipset, including the Moto Edge X30, the OnePlus 10 Pro and the Xiaomi 12 series.

Qualcomm is the dominant chip supplier for Android phones for processors and cellular modems. However, it is yet to make inroads into the PC processor market, which continues to be a duopoly of Intel and AMD. Qualcomm, however, is trying to change that, and as part of its plans, the company last year acquired a CPU design company called NUVIA for a reported $1.4 billion.

In the latest episode of the Decoder podcast for The Verge, Qualcomm CEO Amon talked about the change in naming convention for its top-range mobile processor lineup and confirmed that the next chip in the series would be named Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Amon also claimed that the PC processor designed by the acquired Nuvia team will be sampled this year and commercialized in 2023. He also talked about the ongoing chip shortage. The CEO gave a positive spin on it, saying that the shortage signifies how much chips are in demand and how vital the semiconductor industry is. He also expressed hope that the supply constraints will ease and the situation will improve as the year rolls on.

Qualcomm Will Remain Fabless

As the leading supplier of 5G modems for iPhones, Amon also addressed concerns that Apple will soon start manufacturing its own modem, leaving Qualcomm in the lurch. According to him, the company fully expects that to happen next year and is ready for the transition. Talking about why the company is not looking to build its own foundries, Amon admitted that it is not Qualcomm’s strength. Instead, it likes being a fabless semiconductor company and prefers to have its chips manufactured by several third-party foundries, including TSMC, Samsung, Global Foundries, SMIC and UMC.

Amon also emphasized the importance of R&D for Qualcomm and claimed that the company would start working on 6G wireless technology the moment it completes its work on 5G. He also claimed that consumer PCs and workstations would eventually transition to ARM because of high-speed wireless connections. Talking about the company structure, Amon said that Qualcomm employs around 50,000 people globally, the majority of whom are in the United States. It also has over 10,000 staff in India, as well as “several thousands of employees” spread across China, Korea, Japan and Europe.

Source: The Verge