Qualcomm revamps mobile phone chips for AI, signs Samsung and others

MEDIATEK

21/10/2024 20:00

By Stephen Nellis
       Oct 21 (Reuters) - Qualcomm  QCOM.O  said on Monday it
is bringing technology first developed for its laptop chips to
its mobile phone chips, aiming to make them more powerful for
generative AI tasks.
    The San Diego-based company is the world's biggest seller of
mobile phone chips. In an effort to expand its business, the
company in 2021 hired a group of ex-Apple  AAPL.O  engineers to
help it design laptop chips, which went on sale this year and
are helping power AI features in Microsoft's  MSFT.O  Windows. 
    Now, the technology developed by that team - a set of custom
computing technology Qualcomm has branded "Oryon" - is being put
into the company's mobile phone chips for the first time.
    The company has also re-worked the parts of the chip, which
is called the Snapdragon 8 Elite, to handle tasks such as
generating images and text. Qualcomm will offer software
developers special tools beyond the ones already available in
Alphabet's  GOOGL.O  Android operating system to tap into those
parts of the chip. 
    "AI has been one of those where I think Google is moving
fast, but we have our own technology to offer that end
developer," Chris Patrick, Qualcomm's senior vice president and
general manager for mobile handsets, told Reuters.
    Qualcomm said Samsung Electronics  005930.KS , Asustek
Computer  2357.TW  and Xiaomi  1810.HK , among several others,
will use the new chip.
    

 (Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Bill
Berkrot)
 ((Stephen.Nellis@thomsonreuters.com;))