It seems that NVIDIA is actively preparing to enter the market of processors with ARM architecture for portable systems. Developers already have experience working on such chips – Tegra X1 is still used for Nintendo Switch game consoles. But this time, NVIDIA’s ambitions are much bigger. With the introduction of the “AI PC” concept and its active support by Microsoft, which offered Windows 11 for ARM chips, there are great prospects here. So it is clear that Qualcomm, which has already offered the Snapdragon X Elite, will have a very serious competitor here.

As a reminder, ARM has developed powerful Cortex-X5 computing cores with the new BlackHawk architecture, which will be used for top mobile SoCs. Mediatek Dimensity 9400 chips will be one of the first practical implementations.

It is likely that Cortex-X5 computers will become the basis for future NVIDIA processors, which the company will position as PC solutions. By the way, during the development of SoCs, NVIDIA may well cooperate with Taiwan’s Mediatek, which began active cooperation last year, in the preparation of the Dimensity Auto Cockpit platform for the automotive market. It’s hard to say whether NVIDIA developers need additional third-party expertise, but some experience with the nuances of the new ARM architecture could be useful.

NVIDIA ARM

As for the graphics subsystem, it will probably use a Blackwell architecture solution, so the SoC will obviously support the most advanced technologies and NVIDIA will probably try to emphasize iGPU performance.

To comply with AI PC, the system will need an AI accelerator. NVIDIA may offer its own NPU (Neural Processing Unit), but we should not exclude the option when AI computing is performed by a powerful graphics core with tensor units.

The upcoming NVIDIA chip is also likely to have an LPDDR6 memory controller. This standard is expected to be approved by the end of this year, which coincides with potential plans for future SoCs from NVIDIA. The chips will be manufactured using a 3-nanometer process. It seems that there is no final decision on which factories will be used to grow the crystals. Most likely, it will be TSMC N3P, although the option of Intel’s 3 nm process is also mentioned.

The company should offer new processors in 2025. This was indirectly stated by Michael Dell during a joint interview with Jason Huang for Bloomberg.

When a journalist asked the NVIDIA CEO about the company’s role and place in the new “AI PC” ecosystem, Michael Dell immediately added intrigue by suggesting that the topic would be revisited next year. Jason could only answer with generalities about the use of GPUs for AI computing in different classes of solutions.

The seriousness of NVIDIA’s intentions regarding ARM chips for PCs is evidenced by the fact that two years ago, the company intended to acquire ARM itself for $66 billion, and the main reason for the deal’s cancellation was the warnings from antitrust regulators. However, it seems that NVIDIA has not abandoned its powerful expansion into the laptop/tablet processor market, and the general concept of AI PC may be very appropriate for such plans.