In late 2020, Apple announced their revolutionary M1 chip for computers, which is based on the same ARM architecture found in mobile chips.
The M1 chip has some speeds and energy efficiency that no other company can compete with now, not even heavyweights such as Intel and Qualcomm.
Qualcomm’s new CEO Cristiano Amon is willing to change that situation. He doesn’t just hope to match the M1 chip, he hopes to beat it.
This would mean that we could see speeds similar to the M1 chip on Windows laptops and PCs equipped with Qualcomm chips.
Instead of waiting for Arm to design a chip that outperforms the M1, Qualcomm has already hired a team of former Apple engineers to work on this.
“We needed to have the best performance for a battery-powered device,” Said Amon. “If Arm, with whom we have a long-standing relationship, ends up developing a better CPU than we can build ourselves, we always have the option of getting a license from Arm.”
Qualcomm obtained these engineers from Apple through the acquisition of a company called Nuvia, founded by engineers who worked on Apple’s M1 chip development. Qualcomm says it plans to sell chips based on Nuvia’s designs starting in 2022.