AMD and Qualcomm combine Ryzen Mobile with LTE modem for laptops

AMD and Qualcomm offer laptop manufacturers reference platforms with Ryzen Mobile processors and LTE modems from Qualcomm. The partnership is part of Qualcomm’s strategy to bring its LTE modems to more laptops.

Kevin Lensing, of AMD’s Client Business Unit, announced the partnership between AMD and Qualcomm at the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit. “We’ve included Qualcomm Snapdragon lte modems in our reference platform and we’ve collaborated with Qualcomm engineers on testing, validation and optimization of the combination,” the AMD employee said.

AMD and Qualcomm offer the reference platform to laptop manufacturers in the hope that they will base their products on it. Qualcomm’s hope is that more laptops will be equipped with LTE modems by making the threshold as low as possible. Laptops with 4g modems have been around for years, especially business models. In particular, the additional cost is an obstacle for manufacturers to integrate such modems into models. Qualcomm did not provide details on the cost of the LTE modems.

Due to the wide availability of Wi-Fi and the possibility of tethering, there seemed to be little demand for laptops with LTE support until now. Qualcomm wants to fuel that demand with its concept for ‘Always Connected’ laptops. To this end, the company is collaborating with Microsoft, among others, and is pushing its Snapdragon-socs forward for use in laptops.