Microsoft Job Listing Hints At Snapdragon 845 Powered Surface Tablet Or Surface Phone
Through its human resources service provider, Microsoft has posted a job listing that suggests its collaboration with Qualcomm will not end with shoving the company's Snapdragon 835 processors into its Surface laptops running Windows 10, but will extend to the Qualcomm's next-generation flagship SoC (system-on-chip), Snapdragon 845. That chip has not yet been released, but is next in line and will find its way into phones like Samsung's Galaxy S9.
The job listing is for a "Hardware Test Engineer / Manufacturing Engineer," and specifically one who is an expert in Wi-Fi technologies and manufacturing. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience designing and delivering test solutions to production in consumer products, and also have experience in design of RF test stations, to name just some of the desired qualifications.
Where things get interesting is in the "must-have hard skills" section of the listing. Microsoft is after an individual with hands-on experience with Qualcomm's MSM8998, which is the chip maker's Snapdragon 835 SoC, and also Qualcomm's SDM845, the internal codename for its Snapdragon 845 SoC.
Unfortunately the listing does not go into detail about the project, so we don't know what kind of device Microsoft has in mind for Qualcomm's upcoming flagship processor. It could be a new generation Surface tablet, or even a Surface smartphone, should Microsoft want to go down that path again. Microsoft has largely abandoned the smartphone market, though the company maintains it has an interest. Earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company will continue to produce handsets, but wants to do something different with future models.
"What we've done with Surface is a good example. No-one before us had thought of 2-in-1s, and we created that category, and made it a successful category, to the point where there are more 2-in-1s coming, and that's what we want to do. So, in a sense, when you say 'Will we make more phones?', I'm sure we will make more phones, but they will not look like phones that are there today," Nadella stated on Marketplace.org's Make Me Smart podcast.
The listing also mentions traveling to China four or five times to "oversee the JDMI1 manufacturing deployment." The JDMI1 plant is where Taiwanese manufacturer Pegatron operates and builds Surface tablets and Xbox One consoles.
The job listing is for a "Hardware Test Engineer / Manufacturing Engineer," and specifically one who is an expert in Wi-Fi technologies and manufacturing. The ideal candidate will have demonstrated experience designing and delivering test solutions to production in consumer products, and also have experience in design of RF test stations, to name just some of the desired qualifications.
Where things get interesting is in the "must-have hard skills" section of the listing. Microsoft is after an individual with hands-on experience with Qualcomm's MSM8998, which is the chip maker's Snapdragon 835 SoC, and also Qualcomm's SDM845, the internal codename for its Snapdragon 845 SoC.
Unfortunately the listing does not go into detail about the project, so we don't know what kind of device Microsoft has in mind for Qualcomm's upcoming flagship processor. It could be a new generation Surface tablet, or even a Surface smartphone, should Microsoft want to go down that path again. Microsoft has largely abandoned the smartphone market, though the company maintains it has an interest. Earlier this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said the company will continue to produce handsets, but wants to do something different with future models.
"What we've done with Surface is a good example. No-one before us had thought of 2-in-1s, and we created that category, and made it a successful category, to the point where there are more 2-in-1s coming, and that's what we want to do. So, in a sense, when you say 'Will we make more phones?', I'm sure we will make more phones, but they will not look like phones that are there today," Nadella stated on Marketplace.org's Make Me Smart podcast.
The listing also mentions traveling to China four or five times to "oversee the JDMI1 manufacturing deployment." The JDMI1 plant is where Taiwanese manufacturer Pegatron operates and builds Surface tablets and Xbox One consoles.
