Technology

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and Elite chips for PCs stretch up to a record 5 GHz — 3nm Arm chips sport new Oryon Prime cores

Source

Tom's Hardware

Published

Sep 24, 2025

TL;DR

AI Generated

Qualcomm unveiled its new Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme chips for PCs at its Snapdragon Summit, boasting up to 5 GHz speeds and 18 cores. These chips, made on a 3nm process, promise significant performance gains and power efficiency. The Elite Extreme variant stands out with higher clock speeds and core counts. The new chips also feature a faster Adreno GPU and NPU for improved performance. Qualcomm anticipates devices with these chips to hit the market in the first half of 2026, potentially offering strong competition in the laptop market against rivals like Apple, AMD, and Intel.

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SiPearl unveils Europe's first dual-use sovereign processor with 80 cores — expected in 2027 for government, aerospace, and defense applications

SiPearl has unveiled Athena1, Europe's first dual-use processor with up to 80 cores, catering to government, aerospace, and defense applications. The CPU, based on Arm’s Neoverse V1 architecture, is set to be available in various core configurations by the second half of 2027. SiPearl's Athena1, an enhanced version of its Rhea processor, boasts advanced encryption and security features suitable for tasks like encrypted communications and intelligence analysis. The processor, manufactured by TSMC, aims to bolster Europe's technological sovereignty in the face of geopolitical challenges.

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MIT Technology Review

Designing CPUs for next-generation supercomputing

Despite the hype around GPU-powered AI breakthroughs, CPUs remain crucial for high-performance computing, supporting the majority of scientific, engineering, and research workloads. Recent innovations in CPU technology, such as high-bandwidth memory (HBM), are leading to significant performance improvements without the need for costly architectural changes. Evan Burness from Microsoft Azure estimates that CPUs still handle 80% to 90% of HPC simulation jobs. This resurgence in CPU development is highlighted in a new report by MIT Technology Review's custom content arm, emphasizing the ongoing importance of CPUs in next-generation supercomputing.

MIT Technology Review•

8 months ago

Qualcomm’s 18-core Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme dominates in first benchmarks – 18 cores and 48GB of on-package memory on a 192-bit bus look tough to beat

Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme chips with impressive specs like 18 cores and 48GB of memory on a 192-bit bus. Early benchmarks show significant performance gains compared to previous-gen chips, with the Extreme model outperforming competitors like AMD and Intel in CPU, GPU, and AI tests. The X2 Elite Extreme is poised to dominate the mobile chip market when it launches in the first half of 2026, but real-world performance may vary based on device configurations and competition from other tech giants like Apple and Intel. Pricing is expected to be higher than previous models, likely exceeding $1,000 for the Extreme version.