Qualcomm Acquires Nuvia: Why it matters

 

News broke on March 16th, 2021, that Qualcomm has finally completed its acquisition of chip design company, Nuvia. Usually, these deals mean general integration with Zero change. However, in the press release, Qualcomm offers a look at what this acquisition will be used for in the future. This is an acquisition that matters: here's why.  

 
 

So, in the Qualcomm press release we see how Qualcomm paid 1.4 Billion for Nuvia with three separate statements on how it will be used. The first statement is: 

“The world-class NUVIA team enhances our CPU roadmap, extending Qualcomm’s leading technology position with the Windows, Android and Chrome ecosystems,” - Cristiano Amon, President and CEO-Elect, Qualcomm Incorporated

This is the usual mumbo-jumbo that means "we're going to use the IP". However instead of just saying Android and Windows, Chrome is also included. I assume this is Chrome OS and this might mean future support for Chrome OS with only one Chromebook with Snapdragon to date. I also must assume this also a response to MediaTek's growing market share in Chrome OS, a ton of MediaTek Chromebooks are available right now, even my Duet runs on MediaTek. It's nice to see them investing in Chrome OS along with reassurance on the Windows side. 

Image Credit: Android Authority 

Our Second statement:

“The broad support of this acquisition from across industries validates the opportunity we have to provide differentiated products with leading CPU performance and power efficiency, as on-demand computing increases in the 5G era.”  - Cristiano Amon, President and CEO-Elect, Qualcomm Incorporated

It wouldn't be Qualcomm without some mention of 5G. Just some ramblings about better CPU's, efficiency, and on-demand computing. The usual jargon that usually doesn't mean anything.  

Our Third statement:

"Qualcomm Technologies expects to integrate next generation CPUs across a wide portfolio of products, including powering flagship smartphones, laptops, and digital cockpits, as well as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, extended reality, and infrastructure networking solutions. 

The first Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ platforms to feature Qualcomm Technologies’ new internally designed CPUs are expected to sample in the second half of 2022 and will be designed for high performance ultraportable laptops." - Qualcomm 

The first part of the statement describes the wide extent of the integration of IP from Nuvia, but it also shows how software and hardware goes into Chip design. Things such as "Driver Assistance systems" and "networking solutions" are going together with one being software and the other being hardware; both being improved by this Nuvia acquisition. We also see how Nuvia is basically taking over Qualcomm's whole stack with the statements saying phones + laptops and everything else they work on. The second part is the most important of this entire press release.   

 

Image Credit: PC World

 

Qualcomm is finally investing in laptops with internally designed CPUs expected to release in 2022. Look, ARM holdings are not making cores for laptops, so Qualcomm needs to make their own cores and designs specifically for laptops. The Nuvia acquisition finally gives them what they need to get started. Regular ARM cores are not optimized for high-performance in the sense of laptops, phones are not laptops and what is considered "efficient and high-performance" with phones doesn't translate to laptops. We need cores that can sustain performance and get hot (but not too hot), we also need cores that can sip battery life when you're watching a movie, while crunching graphics during a video export, and right now regular ARM cores in the 8cX just can't do any of that very well.  

 
 

If you wanted low-performance, high battery, Chromebooks are much better suited for regular ARM cores, Chrome OS lightweight enough to manage resources and stay speedy whilst keeping battery as a priority. WoA is still trying to capture that type of functionality, what they've yet to realize is that Windows 10 will never be what they want it to be, and so far, Windows 10 is still performance hungry. Fighting fire with fire is what works, and we've seen it work with ARM devices such as the M1. Even X86 AMD and intel are both able to have exceptional performance with impressive battery life.  

 
 

Qualcomm's finally taking steps to fix their laptop strategy. 

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