How is Qualcomm’s Oryon SoC doing?

Spinning isn’t just for marketers you know

Sep 12, 2023 by

Qualcomm Snapdragon logoSemiAccurate previously told you about Qualcomm/Nuvia’s Oryon SoC that taped out late last year. What we didn’t tell you about is the projected performance and how it is doing now.

Lets start out by saying that as of mid-year the prospects were positive, the SoC had severe issues but those were expected to be cured with a stepping that was in the oven as of Q2. We will ignore Qualcomm’s veiled promises of Oryon being a laptop and phone part which subtly morphed into just being a laptop part for now, it wasn’t by chance.

As we know by now the SoC is the Nuvia core force welded into the Qualcomm uncore, and that is where many of the problems lie. It is a server core and was always meant to be a server core, not a consumer one. Power management is one of the key differences there, and yes we know about the power management die ala Apple’s Monaco but still aren’t clean on the patent situation some have mentioned to us. In short there are a lot of things you can add to a core late in the game, power management is not one of them.

Back to the story at hand we have the now laptop only Qualcomm Oryon part. The core is fine, it hit performance and power targets more or less, and that is good. If you haven’t heard by now, performance is said to be a little better than an Apple M2 and should debut, err, after Apple’s M3. On a brighter note, power is, umm, well it won’t see phone use this generation but somehow this will be spun into a win.

Back to the core/uncore from two different IP ancestries. This is the cause of the major problems that have been dogging Qualcomm for a while now. As of Q2 the device was, umm, not good but the next stepping is intended to cure everything. It is back so how are things now?

Note: The following is for professional and student level subscribers.

Disclosures: Charlie Demerjian and Stone Arch Networking Services, Inc. have no consulting relationships, investment relationships, or hold any investment positions with any of the companies mentioned in this report.

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Charlie Demerjian

Roving engine of chaos and snide remarks at SemiAccurate
Charlie Demerjian is the founder of Stone Arch Networking Services and SemiAccurate.com. SemiAccurate.com is a technology news site; addressing hardware design, software selection, customization, securing and maintenance, with over one million views per month. He is a technologist and analyst specializing in semiconductors, system and network architecture. As head writer of SemiAccurate.com, he regularly advises writers, analysts, and industry executives on technical matters and long lead industry trends. Charlie is also available through Guidepoint and Mosaic. FullyAccurate