Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Thursday October 03 2019, @02:09AM   Printer-friendly
from the I-want-one-in-my-RPi dept.

Microsoft's new custom Surface processors with AMD and Qualcomm: an inside look

Microsoft has just announced its new Surface Laptop 3 and Surface Pro X devices, and neither will come with an Intel processor. The software giant is diversifying its silicon for Surface this year by partnering closely with AMD and Qualcomm, respectively, to create custom processors for its Surface line.

The Surface Laptop 3 has a custom Ryzen Surface Edition processor on the 15-inch model, while the Surface Pro X goes the ARM-powered route with a new SQ1 processor co-engineered with Qualcomm. It's a big change for the Surface line, even if Intel will still power the Surface Pro 7 and the smaller 13-inch Surface Laptop 3 models.

On the AMD side, this Ryzen processor will be available exclusively in the 15-inch model of the Surface Laptop 3, a notebook that also has a metal finish instead of the fabric we've seen on previous Surface Laptop models. Microsoft has worked closely with AMD to add an additional graphics core on the 12nm Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 Surface parts that are built on Zen+, and to optimize the chip to fit inside the slim-and-light chassis it uses for the Surface Laptop 3.

The Ryzen Surface Edition is a Ryzen 7 3780U, a Zen+ APU with a 15W TDP and better performance than a Ryzen 7 3700U. There is also a cheaper Ryzen 5 3580U, a variant of the Ryzen 5 3500U.

The Microsoft SQ1 is a customized Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx with 8 ARM cores, with 4 of the cores clocked at 3.0 GHz. It also has acceleration for "AI" rated at 9 trillion operations per second.

Other models, such as the Surface Pro 7, will continue to use Intel chips.

Also at AnandTech.

See also: AMD scores a big marketing win with Ryzen-powered Microsoft Surface
AMD Scored Big Points Against Intel in Microsoft Surface Battle


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 03 2019, @06:12PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday October 03 2019, @06:12PM (#902380) Journal

    there's a smell of impeding layoffs at Intel.

    Oh, please, I hope so.

    It's long past time for that abomination of an ISA to just die die die !!!

    And I blame IBM for picking that abortion of a processor for its PC. A processor that inflicted at least one if not two or more decades of segment registers upon the world. With numerous 64 K limitations in the PC world for the longest time. Saddled with layers of new improvements, but maintaining backward compatibility to 8086 16-bit.

    If only the whole thing could be buried in the deepest hole and then nuked from orbit with a vat of acid poured in afterward !!!

    That's just a calm, dispassionate opinion.

    --
    People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2