Currently, most Windows 10 on ARM devices are powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8CX or 8CX Gen 2 SoC. While Windows 10 on an ARM is a relatively late starter, many hope that PCs using Qualcomm's ARM chips will eventually take hold in the market. Intel and AMD have dominated the processor space for years to introduce some competition to keep the market healthy.
According to Winfuture, Qualcomm is working on a successor to the 8CX Gen 2 SoC, known internally as the Snapdragon SC8280.
In its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8CX Gen 2 doesn't offer much of a performance boost over the Snapdragon 8CX, but it does include optional 5G connectivity. While the Snapdragon SC8280 is likely to have a substantial jump in performance, the Snapdragon 8CX / 8CX Gen 2 and the Snapdragon 855 have a lot in standard terms of design, and the Snapdragon SC8280 should be similar in design to the Snapdragon 888 released last year. The Snapdragon 888 uses one Cortex-X1 core, three Cortex-A78 cores, and four Cortex-A55 cores.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon SC8280 will come in two configurations: the base version with 8GB of LPDDR5 memory and the developer version with 32GB of LPDDR4X memory, which has more memory than the Apple M1 chip, which only comes with 8GB or 16GB of LPDDR4X memory. The chip size increased from 20mm x 15mm in the 8Cx Gen 2 to 20mm x 17mm, a 13% increase in area. The new processor is still under development, and performance remains to be seen.
The Snapdragon 8CX Gen 2 is currently powered by the Snapdragon X55 5G modem; it is not known if there will be an integrated solution for the Snapdragon SC8280 this time around. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 888 SoC, released last year, already incorporates the Snapdragon X60 5G modem, so it's only natural to follow the same path with the next Windows 10 on an ARM chip.
It is unknown if the performance of the final Snapdragon SC8280 will be comparable to that of the M1 or even the M2, which is rumored to have more cores.
