If you listen to Qualcomm as it sings the praises of its new Snapdragon X series of laptop processors, Arm is the second coming of PC hardware. So if that’s the case, why not stick it into desktops too? They will, in fact. According to a presentation at Computex in Taipei, Qualcomm is bringing its Arm-based CPUs to “all form factors.”
That includes conventional all-in-ones with built-in screens, tablets, and small form factor machines a la the Mac Mini, at least going by the demo slide presented by Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon (see above). It also includes conventional stand-alone desktops in full-sized cases…though an example was conspicuously absent from the slide. He also said that the heavy hitters of the PC industry are all working with Qualcomm, including “Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, Microsoft, and Samsung,” according to Tom’s Hardware.
It seems like a safe bet that if you want a Snapdragon-powered Windows machine in a specific style sometime in the near future, you’ll have that option.
What does it mean for PC users who prefer to roll their own machines? That much isn’t clear. Arm CPUs and the Snapdragon X line in particular are generally soldered in place, requiring them to be shipped with specific motherboards. But there’s no technical barrier keeping them from using other user-replaceable components, like PCIE-standard graphics cards and storage, DDR memory, and a wide array of cooling and connective tech.
Whether anyone will be interested in selling off-the-shelf components for Arm-based PC hardware is anyone’s guess. The momentum behind x86/x64 hardware spans decades, so it would be an uphill battle to get gamers and power users to switch, no matter how widespread Qualcomm’s processors become in the consumer market.