AMD Partners With Qualcomm For Always Connected Ryzen Mobile PCs With Snapdragon X16 LTE Modems

Qualcomm had a busy day yesterday. For one, the company announced a new flagship mobile processor, the Snapdragon 845, that will end up in high-end smartphones. It also unveiled always-connected Windows 10 PCs running Snapdragon 835 hardware, with the likes of ASUS and HP joining the fun. And if all that were not enough, Qualcomm has partnered with AMD to support always-connected PCs on Ryzen mobile platforms, with its Snapdragon X16 LTE modem.

Qualcomm
Image Source: Wikimedia Commons via Maurizio Pesce

"Both AMD and Qualcomm have shown a consistent commitment to delivering products that redefine next-generation mobile user experiences," said Kevin Lensing, corporate vice president and general manager, client computing, AMD. "OEMs around the world will now be able to combine the recently announced AMD Ryzen mobile processors with Qualcomm Technologies' leading wireless solutions via their Snapdragon LTE modem family to achieve new levels of performance, connectivity and capability for ultrathin notebook PCs."

The collaboration with AMD could lead to some real powerhouse machines that combine AMD's Zen CPU architecture with Vega graphics, and blazing fast 4G LTE download speeds courtesy of Qualcomm's LTE chip.

Qualcomm Modem

"Qualcomm Technologies believes the always-connected PC is the future of personal computing, and we are working with AMD to bring each company's expertise to bear for these exciting products," said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager, mobile, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Combining AMD processors with our cutting-edge LTE connectivity technology results in always-connected client notebooks for consumers in a mobile-first future."

Granted, LTE connectivity in a notebook is not exactly new. It is something Intel has been doing for quite some time now, and can be found in some Chromebooks as well. But adding AMD to the mix is noteworthy, especially with its recently launched Ryzen mobile platform, which is intriguing even without gigabit LTE added to the mix.

There are also some questions to be answered. One of them is cost, as not all Ryzen mobile laptops will have LTE connectivity. Power consumption is another topic, and so is carrier partnerships. AMD and Qualcomm have not addressed those topics yet, but likely will in the coming weeks.

Thumbnail Image Source: Flickr (Quintin Lin)