Qualcomm, Microsoft announce Snapdragon 835 PCs with gigabit LTE

Enlarge / Qualcomm's prototype of a Snapdragon 835 motherboard has an area of 50.4 square centimetres. (credit: Qualcomm)

Qualcomm's Snapdragon ARM-based systems-on-chips are mainstays of the smartphone world, but the company is now positioning them as more than just smartphone processors: in conjunction with Microsoft and the new Windows 10 for ARM processors, Qualcomm is now pitching the chips as components of a new PC platform that brings together the best of the PC and the smartphone.

The Snapdragon 835 chip, incorporating Qualcomm's latest X16 LTE modem, forms the basis of the Snapdragon Mobile PC Platform. Qualcomm claims that using the Snapdragon platform will offer a combination of the PC form factor and breadth of software with features that are standard in smartphones: on-the-go connectivity, light weight, silent operation, long battery life, and no fan.

Qualcomm says that PCs built using the new chips will offer up to 50 percent more battery life than x86 systems, with four- to five-times longer standby times. They'll take the Connected Standby capability already found in some Windows PCs-this allows the system to do things like sync mail and receive notifications even when "sleeping"-and make it better, thanks to their LTE connectivity.

Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments