A few weeks ago, Microsoft unveiled Copilot+, its new AI technology for Windows 11 which caused a lot of talk. The first processors compatible with this technology are the Qualcomm Snapdragon. Well, the TUXEDO Computers company has just announced its own laptop based on Qualcomm chips and will work with Linux.
Regarding the Snapdragon X Elite, it is a Qualcomm build focused on laptops. These include NPU cores for artificial intelligence with a power of up to 45 TOPS, fully compatible with Copilot+.
The advantage of these chips based on ARM architecture is that they can work with any operating system. Microsoft offers native ARM support in Windows 11. Additionally, any Linux distribution can be installed, which is quite user-friendly for this architecture.
First laptop with a Snapdragon
These new Qualcomm processors have very interesting features. Above all, they offer excellent general performance and functionality, as well as low consumption. Two aspects that make these processors in high demand among laptop manufacturers.
At the moment, all the laptops we’ve seen with a Snadragon X have shipped with Linux. Now, TUXEDO Computers has introduced a laptop with these processors but with a Linux operating system. At the moment it is a prototype, but it seems to be a more than interesting solution.
This system would be based on the Snapdragon X Elite X1E80100 processor. This chip has a total of 12 cores and an Adreno GPU, which is nothing to write home about. The manufacturer indicates that it will have a 14-inch IPS type screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1600, a brightness of 400 nits and 100% sRGB coverage.
He highlighted TUXEDO that this system will have up to 32 GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a PCIe Gen4 SSD slot.
The manufacturer of this portable system commented the following:
We have been working for some time with a first prototype, which will soon be replaced by a second. Development is still in the alpha phase as there are still a few drivers missing that will hopefully be available with the next two kernel releases.
It’s quite possible that an ARM laptop from TUXEDO will be under your Christmas tree in 2024. However, there are still too many pieces of the hardware, software, and deliverability puzzle missing to even begin to nail down a release date. TUXEDO for ARM is coming, but we don’t know exactly when yet.
The company has revealed the roadmap of aspects it wants to enable in Linux. These being:
- End-to-end hardware video decoding in Firefox and Chrome.
- Implementation of the libcamera-SoftISP camera solution.
- GPU and CPU performance optimizations.
- Energy optimizations (Suspension/DCVS).
- Make our firmware openly available (on Linux firmware).
- Access to simple installers (Ubuntu and Debian).
TUXEDO did not give an approximate launch date for this laptop based on Snapdragon X Elite chips. It presents itself as an interesting and alternative solution for those who do not want to be forced to use AI functions or who want greater privacy.
