Today, as part of Computex 2017, Qualcomm and Microsoft are joint announcing the next steps for their Windows on Snapdragon strategy. As previously reported, Qualcomm and Microsoft have collaborated to emulate x86 on the Snapdragon 835 SoCs to the extent where Windows 10 is now functional for devices to come to market.

ASUS, HP and Lenovo will be the first OEMs to adopt the platform, which means we will see devices (laptops, clamshells, 2-in-1s) with Windows 10 but running on ARM. Qualcomm notes that the ubiquitous connectivity akin to smartphones is becoming an important aspect to how users use their computers as well as consume content – introducing the Snapdragon 835 on a productivity platform combined with the integrated Gigabit LTE baseband (Qualcomm’s X16) is a step in that direction along with mobile SoC levels of power draw.

When we first heard about Windows on Snapdragon, we instantly thought that Qualcomm and Microsoft would be going after the Chromebook market but the announcement today is clear that both companies are going for something a bit more substantial along with all-day battery life. The official press release states that ‘Sleek, thin and fanless PCs running a Windows 10 experience’, with the 10nm SoC, sounds something more than a basic Chromebook.

One might suggest that the Snapdragon 835 is a premium SoC, and Qualcomm certainly wants to promote their hardware in high-end premium devices. With Snapdragon 835 in high-end smartphones, one of the elements Qualcomm is promoting is the fact that their SoC solution has a smaller PCB footprint: OEMs can use the extra space and weight for extra battery. This is part of the story which Qualcomm states allowing a ‘truly always on’ device such that updates can run in the background when the system is in sleep modes.

Part of the demonstrations at the Computex show floor, Qualcomm was showing Windows 10 being used with UWP applications but also some non-UWP apps being used, such as 7-zip. The OS element is something we’re likely to hear during Microsoft’s announcements during the week, which I feel might be a tipping point for these sorts of platforms. I’ve been using the MateBook X this week during Computex, and the battery life is actually fairly decent for an 1800 Euro ultraportable with a 15W CPU: but there’s still a small amount of battery anxiety for sure, especially during network use. Qualcomm’s value-add is their baseband experience, which they say is a big plus on this new platform.

Having a proper productivity device is a plus, but big questions still surround performance, especially when emulating x86. It’s a problem that has been tackled and failed several times before. The Qualcomm issue here is somewhat smaller than previous attempts, because as far as we understand it only has to target Windows 10, and they’ve worked directly with Microsoft in order to support it. Qualcomm and Microsoft say that this combination is now a solved problem with minimal overhead.

The carousel image at the top shows the S835 compared to a 14nm equivalent, showing the ‘board space’ savings of up to 30%. Qualcomm is keen to point out that a competitor’s platform will need things like M.2 in order to add storage, which they say also take up board space compared to a Qualcomm solution.

Gallery: Qualcomm Announces First OEMs for Windows 10 on Snapdragon 835

Footprints

As part of our briefing, Qualcomm showed off an example reference PCB design that might go into the devices that they are targeting. 

On the left is an Intel solution, with on the right being from Qualcomm: 96.1cm2 compared to 50.4cm2 respectively. Here’s a closer image of the Qualcomm solution (click through for high resolution):

The SoC is on the top right, with storage and memory to the left. It’s worth noting on the far right is a USB Type-C connection, which would be the power input as well as how to connect other devices. There is no SIM card, as Qualcomm is integrated a multi-region eSIM which is activated at the time of purchase.

Source: AnandTech – Qualcomm Announces First OEMs for Windows 10 on Snapdragon 835

Wrapping up just a bit ago was AMD’s annual Computex press conference. AMD brings their A-game to Computex, and for a good reason: as a PC focused show, it gives them great exposure, but it also allows them to promote their OEM relationships, the latter of which are crucial to AMD’s survival as the CPU underdog. Computex in turn isn’t a venue for deep technical announcements, but it’s a good place to get clarity on AMD’s CPU roadmap.

Starting things off then, let’s talk about ThreadRipper. AMD’s previously announced many-core CPU for the high-end PC desktop and workstation market was first announced at Financial Analyst Day a few weeks back. AMD is now in the process of slowly releasing information about the chip to build up interest ahead of its launch – which, before you ask, hasn’t been set yet and is still “this summer”.

At today’s press conference, AMD has confirmed that the 16 core processor will for most purposes be half of an Epyc processor. This means that the two die MCM chip will feature 4 DDR4 channels and a whopping 64 lanes of PCIe, with all 64 lanes being enabled for all ThreadRipper SKUs. This will be broken up into 60+4: 60 lanes directly from the CPU for feeding PCIe and M.2 slots, and then another 4 lanes going to the chipset (with an undisclosed number of lanes then coming off of it) to drive basic I/O, USB, and other features. AMD seems to be particularly relishing the point on PCIe lanes in light of the yesterday’s Intel HEDT announcement, which maxes out at 44 lanes and no chip below $1000 actually has all of them enabled.

The launch chipset for ThreadRipper will be the X399 chipset (ed: at this point AMD and Intel are literally trying to one-up each other). No details have been released on it thus far, so we’ll have to see what AMD has up their sleeve. But coming so close to the Ryzen launch, it doesn’t sound like it’ll be radically different. Otherwise we’re hoping to grab some pictures of X399 boards at the show today, as those should be on display. The ThreadRipper/Epyc socket in particular should be interesting; the chip is nothing short of massive, and in the one photo AMD has released so far of an Epyc motherboard, the socket looks equally huge.

Finally, not to be outdone, AMD’s 32 core & 128 PCIe lane Epyc CPU for servers has also received some news of its own. AMD’s first promising product in the server space in nearly half a decade will be launching on June 20^th.

Source: AnandTech – AMD CPU Updates: 16 Core ThreadRipper w/64 PCIe Lanes This Summer, Epyc Launching June 20th

With Computex in full swing this week, AMD’s press conference just wrapped up for the morning. While the bulk of the news in the conference was on AMD’s CPU and APU plans – where the company continues to roll out new Ryzen products – the company’s CEO, Dr. Lisa Su did have a bit to say on the GPU side of matters.

First off, the previously announced Vega Frontier Edition card will be available on June 27^th, just making AMD’s previous H2’17 commitment for Vega. The Frontier Edition is AMD’s first batch of Vega-based cards, and is being marketed specifically towards early adopters in the professional segment. A price has not been announced, but expect it to be high.

Second up, Lisa promised more information on the Vega-based Radeon Instinct MI25 on June 20^th. This is when the company will be launching their Epyc processor for servers, so they are aligning server/datacenter announcements across product lines. Instinct won’t be launching here, but we should get at least a few more details on configurations and positioning.

Finally, in the piece of news that pretty much everyone has been on the edge of their seats for, AMD has finally announced a date where they’ll announce the consumer-oriented Radeon RX Vega. The mythical card’s launch will be taking place at SIGGRAPH this year, the Association for Computing Machinery’s annual graphics conference. SIGGRAPH is an interesting choice for a venue, as it’s not a consumer event (as opposed to say E3 or IFA), but AMD is no stranger to the show, having launched their Radeon WX professional products there last year. SIGGRAPH runs from July 30^th to August 3^rd, so it’s almost exactly 2 months out.

For anyone looking for any further details on RX Vega however, you’re out of luck. To AMD’s credit, they are clearly well aware of pent-up consumer interest in the card and they did show a demo of CrossFired RX Vegas playing Prey at 4K, but they are not revealing any additional information on the card or its specifications at this time. This information is presumably all going to come at the same time at SIGGRAPH. The million dollar question now being whether the SIGGRAPH event is a hard launch, or whether AMD will unveil the products and then have them ship a few weeks later, which would be similar to how the Polaris launch went down.

Source: AnandTech – AMD Vega Updates: Vega Frontier Edition Available June 27th, Vega RX to be launched at SIGGRAPH at end of July

Hot off the heels of NVIDIA announcing the GTX Max-Q design, ASUS is announcing the latest laptop in their Republic of Gamers lineup, with the ROG Zephyrus GX501VI and GX501VS featuring an Intel Core i7-7700HQ and NVIDIA GTX 1080 Max-Q in a design which is less than 1.7 cm thick, and weighs in at only 2.2 Kg. Although not everyone needs to go thin and light, those that do will appreciate even more performance in a new slim laptop.

ASUS has a great lineup of gaming laptops, with everything from low cost, to desktop replacement designs. The ASUS ROG Zephyrus takes the high performance premium segment to a smaller, lighter design. Thanks to the GTX Max-Q GPU launch from NVIDIA, some better binning, coupled with lowered GPU frequencies, bring most of the performance of the GTX 1080 to even smaller notebooks, which would have struggled to dissipate the heat generated by this graphics solution without the larger volume for cooling a larger, heavier laptop provides.

ASUS isn’t the only one to bring GTX 1080 to a thin and light design, of course, and the key will be their cooling implementation. ASUS is touting its Active Aerodynamic System (AAS) to keep the laptop cool and quieter, and when the Zephyrus is opened, the chassis actually opens up slightly to allow greater airflow in without sacrificing the laptop thickness when it’s closed for travel, and ASUS says it allows 20% more airflow with this flexible design. Other thin and light GTX 1080 designs have been pretty loud though, so hopefully the combination of Max-Q and AAS can keep the noise levels under control.

The ROG Zephyrus features a 15.6-inch display, with a 1920×1080 resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate, and it features NVIDIA G-SYNC. Honestly, at this resolution, the GTX 1080 is generally overkill, but at least the high refresh panel should help it there. ASUS claims 100% sRGB coverage, although they tend not to worry much about panel accuracy and grayscale, so hopefully we can check it out.

The rest of the laptop is what you’d expect with plenty of mobile performance. Intel’s Core i7-7700HQ provides the processing grunt, and ASUS will pair it with up to 24 GB of DDR4-2400. Storage is all M.2 PCIe based SSDs with 256GB/512GB/1TB options.

ASUS has been big on the Thunderbolt train, and it’s nice to see that the Zephyrus continues this trend with one USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 Gen2, and because that’s more the future and less the present, they also include four USB 3.1 Type-A ports. HDMI 2.0 is also available so this laptop should be VR ready if you’re into that.

ASUS has moved the keyboard to the front of the notebook, which helps with their cooling and makes it feel more like a desktop system, and the keyboard features RGB lighting which appears to be in zones rather than per-key, although they do have customizable effects for the WASD and QWER key groups. As a gaming notebook, it also features anti-ghosting keys which can support up to 30 keys pressed at the same time, in case you sprout a whole bunch more fingers.

The ROG Zephyrus will be available at the end of June in the USA and Canada. The GX501VI model will start at $2699 USD, and the GX501VS will start at $2299. ASUS doesn’t specify what the two models designate, but the VS likely downgrades the GPU to a GTX 1070.

Source: ASUS

Source: AnandTech – ASUS Reveals The Ultra-Slim ROG Zephyrus Laptop With GTX 1080 Max-Q