Qualcomm and Microsoft are teaming up to develop a new Snapdragon chip. This should power the next generation of AR glasses.
Qualcomm is partnering with Microsoft to build a new AR chip tailored to AR glasses compatible with Microsoft’s ecosystem. That’s what Qualcomm announced at CES. The chip in question will be a variant of the company’s Snapdragon SoCs. Among other things, the thing should be very efficient and light. The new chip will play nicely with both the Microsoft Mesh platform and Qualcomm Snapdragon Spaces XR. Spaces will also be fully integrated with Microsoft Mesh.
Previous collaboration
The collaboration is not really surprising. The Microsoft Hololens 2, for example, is already powered by a Snapdragon 850, and Microsoft also already collaborated with Qualcomm to develop an ARM chip for the Surface Pro X. Qualcomm chips also already power other hardware, such as Meta’s Oculus Quest 2.
The integration of Spaces XR with Mesh is certainly equally interesting. The two solutions aim to bring VR and AR across devices to users. The collaboration expands the ecosystem the two parties can address. Both Microsoft and Qualcomm believe strongly in digitally augmented experiences, and want to reach as many people as possible. AR and VR technology is getting broad support from technology giants, even if adoption in the wild remains limited for now.