What you need to know
- Microsoft and AMD are reportedly working together to make an Arm processor for laptops.
- The resulting laptops would be much more powerful than previous Windows on ARM devices.
- The rumored chip would not be exclusive to Microsoft hardware and could appear in laptops from other companies.
Microsoft and AMD are working together to create an Arm processor for laptops, according to recent leaks and reports. Established leaker FrontTron shared information about the rumored chip based on a report from Clien. The reported partnership between AMD and Microsoft could pave the way for more powerful laptops running Windows on ARM.
The resulting laptops from this partnership will be much more powerful than other Windows on ARM laptops like the Surface Pro X and Samsung Galaxy Book Go. FrontTron states that performance of laptops with the new chipset will be lower than laptops with the GTX 1050 but "much better" than Qualcomm chips made on older architecture. The targetted performance mentioned by FrontTron is for GPUs.
The exact configuration of the rumored chipset isn't known at this time, but it's said to use the Cortex-X1 core. The SoC will reportedly use an mRDNA 2 GPU similar to that on the Exynos 2200, and 8 compute units. The chip will also support 5G connectivity thanks to an Exynos modem.
AMD is collaborating with Microsoft to equip powerful ARM laptop processor in Surface.
Target perf: lower than GTX1050 class but much better than Qualcomm chip that uses the old arch. and in the overall lightweight ARM laptops.
GPU: 4WGP, 8CU
(1/2)
Sourcehttps://t.co/ktt0SfgWjV https://t.co/vqkzQEwEjxAMD is collaborating with Microsoft to equip powerful ARM laptop processor in Surface.
Target perf: lower than GTX1050 class but much better than Qualcomm chip that uses the old arch. and in the overall lightweight ARM laptops.
GPU: 4WGP, 8CU
(1/2)
Sourcehttps://t.co/ktt0SfgWjV https://t.co/vqkzQEwEjx— Tron ❂ (@FrontTron) October 1, 2021October 1, 2021
NotebookCheck speculates that Samsung could be involved in the partnership as well. If that is the case, Samsung will likely be involved in designing the chip, which will reportedly be built on TSMC's 5nm node. FrontTron states that the processor was recently switched from Samsung's tech to the TSMC 5nm node due to low yields.
FrontTron's tweet was in response to a piece from our executive editor Daniel Rubino about why we haven't seen a 'Surface Go X' yet. In that piece, Rubino discusses the future of the Windows on ARM platform, including rumors that Samsung may make Exynos chips for laptops.
The rumored processor that comes from the partnership of AMD and Microsoft won't be exclusive to Surface hardware, according to FrontTron. That means that other manufacturers like Samsung could use the chip to create more powerful Windows on ARM laptops.
