Qualcomm Snapdragon Category - CNX Software

January 7, 2026 by Debashis Das - 4 Comments

Snapdragon X2 Plus 6-core and 10-core processors target low-power Windows Copilot+ PCs

After announcing the high-end Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and X2 Elite processors last year, Qualcomm has now introduced the mid-range Snapdragon X2 Plus platform at CES 2026. While the Elite SKUs target premium laptops, the X2 Plus series is designed for affordable, mainstream Windows 11 Copilot+ PCs. The new lineup includes the X2P-64-100 (10-core) and the X2P-42-100 (6-core), both manufactured on a 3nm process. What’s interesting is that they share the same 80 TOPS AI accelerator, 9523 MT/s LPDDR5x memory support, Snapdragon X75 5G modem, and FastConnect 7800 WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 as the flagship Elite models. This means that the X2 Plus reduces CPU core counts and GPU frequencies to maximize battery life for thin-and-light Windows 11 Copilot+ laptops, but it does not compromise on I/O, media capabilities, or AI performance, as it features the same USB4, PCIe Gen5, and AV1 video support as the top-tier models. Snapdragon […]

December 31, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Year 2025 in Review, CNX Software stats, and looking ahead to 2026

Time for the last post of 2025, as the year is almost over. I’ll look back at key developments and notable products launched in 2025, share some CNX Software website traffic statistics, and look ahead to 2026. Year 2025 in Review After 22 product releases in 2024, Raspberry Pi calmed down a little bit in 2025, and the highlights of the year included the Raspberry Pi 500+ mechanical keyboard, the 5-inch variant of the Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2, and a Raspberry Pi 5 1GB RAM. What didn’t quite stop were the accessories from third parties for Raspberry Pi SBC and Raspberry Pi Pico boards. The most exciting Arm SoC release of 2025 was probably the 12-core CIX P1 Armv9 SoC found in Radxa Orion O6 SBC, MINISFORUM MS-R1 Arm mini PC, and Orange Pi 6 Plus board, but while performance was fine, it was overhyped in 2024, and software […]

December 2, 2025December 2, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Advantech SOM-6820 COM Express module is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite Arm SoC

Advantech SOM-6820 is a COM Express Type 6 Compact Computer-on-Module powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC with up to twelve 64-bit Arm Oryon cores, instead of an x86 processor from Intel or AMD, more commonly found on COM Express modules. The COM also features up to 64GB LPDDR5 memory, two MIPI CSI camera connectors, an RTL8153B USB 3.0 Gigabit Ethernet controller, and a TPM 2.0 security chip. All I/Os are exposed through two standard 220-pin B2B connectors, including DisplayPort and LVDS/eDP interfaces for up to four 4K displays, up to four SATA III for storage, twelve USB 3.0/2.0 interfaces, multiple PCIe Gen4/3 interfaces, and more. With up to 45 TOPS of AI performance, the SOM-6820 is especially well-suited to medical imaging and machine vision applications as well as mission-critical systems and humanoid robots. Advancec SOM-6820 specifications: Snapdragon X Elite SoC variants (one or the other) X1E-00-1DE 12-core up […]

December 1, 2025December 12, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Linux 6.18 LTS release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linus Torvalds has just announced the release of Linux 6.18 on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML), which will likely become the next LTS kernel [update: it’s now official]: So I’ll have to admit that I’d have been happier with slightly less bugfixing noise in this last week of the release, but while there’s a few more fixes than I would hope for, there was nothing that made me feel like this needs more time to cook. So 6.18 is tagged and pushed out. Most of the last-minute fixes are minor fixes to drivers, with some random noise elsewhere (bluetooth, ceph, afs..). Nothing strikes me as standing out, but hey, there’s a shortlog appended if you want to see the details. And this obviously means that the merge window will open tomorrow, and I already have three dozen pull requests pending. Thanks. And as I already mentioned a couple of […]

October 2, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and X2 Elite processors target high-end Windows PCs

Qualcomm has recently announced the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) and Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-88-100 and X2E-80-100) processors for Windows PCs, which the company claims are the “Fastest and Most Efficient” for laptops. All three 3nm parts are equipped with six Performance cores clocked at up to 3.6 GHz, six or twelve Premium cores clocked at up to 5 GHz (single core) or 4.4 GHz (multi-core), an Adreno X2-85 or X2-90 GPU, an 80 TOPS Hexagon NPU for Copilot+, and an LPDDR5x memory interface for up to 128+ GB memory with up to 228GB/s bandwidth. Other highlights include the Snapdragon X75 5G modem, FastConnect 7800 WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 chipset, 4K video resolution for built-in and external displays, USB4, PCIe Gen5 interfaces, and more. Let’s check the full specifications and differences between the three Snapdragon X2 Elite devices in the table below. Qualcomm claims the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme […]

September 29, 2025November 6, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Linux 6.17 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.17 has just been released on LKML: No huge surprises this past week, so here we are, with kernel 6.17 pushed out and ready to go. Below is the shortlog for just the last week – not the full 6.17 release – as usual. It’s not exciting, which is all good. I think the biggest patch in there is some locking fixes for some bluetooth races that could cause use-after-free situations. Whee – that’s about as exciting as it gets. Other than that, there’ the usual driver fixlets (GPU and networking dominate as usual, but “dominate” is still pretty small), there’s some minor random other driver updates, some filesystem noise, and core kernel and mm. And some selftest updates. This obviously means that the merge window for 6.18 will open tomorrow, and I already have four dozen pull requests pending. Thanks to the proactive people – you know who […]

September 25, 2025September 25, 2025 by Sponsored Post - 2 Comments

5 Ways Embedded AI Processors are Revolutionizing Device Performance (Sponsored)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is moving from cloud-first architectures to edge-first designs, so more processing now runs on phones, cameras, and embedded controllers. Running inference on-device cuts latency and keeps sensitive data local. This momentum is reshaping product roadmaps, all due to different revolutions driven by edge AI. The Core Revolutions Driven by Edge AI Instead of routing every model and signal to the cloud, devices are processing more data locally to act faster and protect sensitive information. Because edge AI is changing where intelligence runs, IDC estimates global spending on edge computing reached about $261 billion in 2025. This rapid enterprise investment is due to several reasons. 1. Enabling Real-Time, On-Device Decisions Eliminating the cloud round-trip lets devices turn sensor input into action in milliseconds. This capability is essential for industrial automation and control loops because embedded AI processors run optimized models on-device, so decisions happen continuously. 2. Strengthening Privacy […]

August 21, 2025 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Snapdragon W5+ and W5 Gen 2 wearable platforms gain NB-NTN satellite support

Snapdragon W5 Gen2 features NB-NTN satellite

Qualcomm Snapdragon W5+ and W5 Gen 2 are new wearable platforms adding NB-NTN satellite support for emergencies to the Snapdragon W5+/W5 wearable platforms introduced in 2022, and found in various WearOS smartwatches and the Beacon W5 SoM. The W5+/W5 Gen 2 platforms still feature a 1.7 GHz quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, an Adreno A702 GPU, an AON QCC5100 ML co-processor (W5+ Gen 2 only), MIPI DSI and MIPI CSI interfaces, cellular connectivity, dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.3, GNSS, and optional NFC support. The main changes are NB-NTN support, an upgrade to 3GPP Rel 17 with Cat 1Bis, a 20% (or 30% depending on where you read) smaller RF frontend, and 50% more accurate GPS in urban or deep canyon areas. Snapdragon W5+/W5 Gen 2 specifications: SWS5100 SoC CPU – Quad-core Cortex-A53 processor @ up to 1.7 GHz GPU – Qualcomm Adreno A702 @ up to 1 GHz with OpenGL ES 3.1 API […]