In fact, according to the different tests that Qualcomm has announced in the months prior to the celebration of this event, this new processor, headed by the Snapdragon X Elite It is superior to Intel’s latest generation laptop processors. In addition, they have a dedicated NPU to perform Artificial Intelligence tasks locally, without depending on an Internet connection.
But of course, these are two completely different architectures, so applications designed to work on x86 and x64 processors They are not compatible with ARM architecture. Microsoft’s solution is the same one that Apple used when it launched the M1 processor with the same architecture as Qualcomm’s: use an emulator until the developers create a natively compatible version.
The different performance tests published by both Microsoft and Qualcomm show how this emulator does its job very efficiently, in fact, it does it so well that it is capable of running next-generation games without problems like Baldur’s Gate 3although only at 3o fps.
Opera is now compatible with ARM
Chrome has been the second browser, after Edge, to launch a version of its browser compatible with ARM processors and managed by Qualcomm. It should be remembered that Chrome was already available for macOS with the same processor architecture, although it took a long time to launch it on the market.
The third browser that has also jumped on the ARM bandwagon is Opera, a browser that in recent years has included a large number of functions that make it one of the best options available today since it allows you to manage both communications through messaging applications and browsing from the same place.
Opera is based on Chromium, so once the base was compatible with ARM, it was a matter of time before the rest of the browsers, including Opera, updated their application to be natively supported and thus be able to get the most out of these processors.
This new version of Opera for ARM processors is up to 4 times faster than the version for x86 processors, both from Intel and AMD, and is designed to offer the best user experience on portable devices without giving up any of the functions it offers. . At the moment, this new version is in beta phase, but the company’s plans are to launch it on the market in mid-June.
Mid-June is when the first Microsoft Surface with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon