We don’t know why tech brands love the letter X: MediaTek used to have its Helio X series chips back in the mid-2010s, and Elon Musk even renamed Twitter to simply X. Qualcomm does use the X designation for its Snapdragon modems, and they just confirmed that their ARM PC chips will be called the Snapdragon X series.

Prior to the name change, Qualcomm designated its ARM PC processors with a cx with the Snapdragon 8cx. There were reports of a Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4 in the works early this year, so we presume that processor will be the first one under Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X series.

Qualcomm’s decision to use X as an identifier for its Snapdragon PC chips is meant to give a clear and simplified tiering structure from mainstream to premium products, similar to Apple’s approach with its M-series chips. Since Qualcomm wants to compete with Apple’s own ARM chips, it has to offer performance and battery life that are close to what the current M2 series chips have to offer. From what we know, these ARM PC-focused chips will use Nuvia’s Oryon CPU tech. Making things interesting is that the people behind Nuvia are also the ones who designed Apple’s A-series chips for iPhones and iPads.

Qualcomm will reveal more details about the Snapdragon X series later this year–possibly at the 2023 Snapdragon Summit. So far, we know that it will headline a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that will help in delivering very good performance per watt that can rival what Apple’s M2 series chips have to offer. The said NPU will also be crucial with the Snapdragon X’s generative AI capabilities