Innovation vs Tradition: The Ongoing Qualcomm’s Oryon CPUs Debate

Qualcomm’s upcoming Oryon CPUs are rumored to compete with Apple’s M-series processors and enhance thin-and-light Windows laptops. That should come as no surprise considering that Nuvia, the company behind the Oryon CPU, employs former A-series chip developers from Apple.

However, there could be an issue. Qualcomm intends to make it mandatory for its next-generation Oryon processors to employ its power management integrated circuits (PMICs), according to a report published by SemiAccurate. (Personal microcontrollers, or PMICs, perform a variety of tasks in battery-operated devices, such as voltage scaling, power sequencing, DC-to-DC conversion, battery charging, and power source selection.)

According to the SemiAccurate research, Qualcomm’s exclusive power management rules require the use of its own PMIC in its System-on-Chips (SoCs). Because of this, PC laptop manufacturers are now required to utilize (and buy) such PMICs in addition to the Oryon CPUs.

With PMICs, PC manufacturers could have chosen to use them or not, and source their own, but Oryon does not allow for that.

A source has noticed that Qualcomm is attempting to sell this notion to its partners, but it appears that this will not be an easy process because the PMICs are geared towards smartphones and may not be suitable for PC use.

The best-case scenario, according to SemiAccurate, would be to optimize the PMICs, but doing so would require a significant investment of capital, increasing the expenses of OEMs when choosing Qualcomm. Furthermore, handling a PC-class SoC and a printed circuit board (PCB) with a 0.6mm pitch HDI would still necessitate the use of numerous PMICs.

PC OEMs have threatened to abandon their Oryon projects due to the PMIC mandate, which might result in higher prices for laptop manufacturers, according to SemiAccurate.

However, according to a number of sources, SemiAccurate also asserts that Qualcomm has paid OEMs to offset the costs associated with constructing Windows laptops with the Oryon processor and mandated PMICs.

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