Qualcomm combines Snapdragon 8cx for laptops with 5g modem

Qualcomm introduces the Snapdragon 8cx 5G Compute Platform. The platform consists of the 8cx-socs for laptops announced last year and the X55 modem, Qualcomm’s second 5g modem. At the beginning of 2020, devices with the hardware will be released.

Qualcomm will announce the arrival of the Snapdragon 8cx 5G platform at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Devices with the new hardware are not yet available, but the combination of soc and modem is intended for laptops. The platform should be available at the beginning of 2020 and manufacturers can use it. Lenovo has indicated that it is working on a laptop with the 8cx 5G platform.

In fact, the 8cx 5G platform is a combination of previously announced hardware. In December last year, Qualcomm presented the Snapdragon 8cx-soc. That’s a 7nm soc for laptops, with eight fast Kryo 495 cores. Those cores are faster than the Kryo 485 variants that are in the Snapdragon 855 soc for smartphones.

The X55 modem was presented by Qualcomm last week. It is the successor to the X50, which is now in many of the first 5G smartphones. The new modem can handle higher speeds and also supports 4G networks. The 5G peak speed is 7Gbit/s and with 4G networks it is 2.5Gbit/s.

The 8cx 5G platform is planned to come to the so-called Always Connected PCs. Under that name, Microsoft and Qualcomm are working on Windows 10 devices with an ARM processor, built-in modem and a long battery life.