It is said that Qualcomm is testing the Snapdragon SC8280, which has a new high-performance core and NPU

There were reports at the beginning of the year that Qualcomm was testing a product called SC8280 internally, which could be regarded as a competitor to Apple’s M1, which will power future Windows 10 laptops as the successor to the 8cx Gen 2 SoC.

This Snapdragon series product, which has not yet officially confirmed its name, maybe Qualcomm's first product to give up the combination of high performance and high energy efficiency. It adopts a strategy of running high-performance cores at different frequencies and has a higher performance improved core "Gold+". According to WinFuture reports, this product called SC8280 is currently configured with 4-core "Gold+" and 4-core "Gold" with frequencies of 2.7GHz and 2.43GHz respectively, and is currently undergoing testing.

The Snapdragon SC8280 is closely related to the Snapdragon 8cx SoC. Since the M1 SoC easily defeated the Snapdragon 8cx SoC, if there is no significant improvement, the performance is still incomparable. Qualcomm even tried to test samples at a frequency of 3GHz, probably to determine the limit of its performance without considering battery life. In addition to performance, battery life is also a big test, and the Apple M1 has left a deep impression on users in this regard.

In addition to configuring the new core, Qualcomm has also adopted other methods to improve operating efficiency, cleverly adjusting its performance and efficiency curves. It is said that this is due to an integrated NPU, which can provide 15 Teraflops of computing power. For the time being, no manufacturer has determined to use this new Snapdragon product or which device to use to demonstrate its performance. It is understood that Qualcomm is currently using a 14-inch laptop for testing, and the configured memory is 32GB, and it probably hopes to be applied first on the laptop.