Sizzling on the heels of yesterday’s announcement of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 cell chipset, Qualcomm has adopted up with its first devoted chipset for augmented actuality headsets: the AR2 Gen 1.
The chip inherits its complicated title (no, we don’t know what that ‘2’ is there for both) from the present Snapdragon XR2 and its follow-up XR2+ Gen 1, that are designed for extra highly effective combined actuality and digital actuality headsets just like the latest Meta Quest Professional.
In contrast, the AR2 Gen 1 will function in light-weight AR gadgets, the kind designed to feel and appear extra like conventional eyewear than a cumbersome headset.
Assist for the chip has already been promised by firms starting from smartphone giants Xiaomi and Oppo via to XR specialists Pico and Nreal.
Not like some present AR techniques, the AR2 Gen 1 is cut up into a number of components. The 4nm principal processor can sit in a single arm of the glasses, with a connectivity unit on the opposite aspect and a smaller co-process within the central bridge.
Qualcomm
Qualcomm says this design reduces the variety of wires that must cross via every hinge – one of many greatest elements in how cumbersome and heavy AR glasses are likely to get. It additionally retains the primary processor 40% smaller than on the XR2, one other step in direction of smaller glasses total.
Smaller batteries ought to be an choice for producers too, with the AR2 Gen 1 optimised for low energy use, theoretically enabling glasses that run on simply 1W of energy.
After all, augmented actuality remains to be ready for the buyer increase promised years in the past by the failed Google Glass, although industrial use circumstances have confirmed extra in style.
This new chip seemingly gained’t be sufficient to spark the fledgling market into life – it’d take Apple’s long-rumoured AR glasses to try this – but it surely’s a step in the precise route, and additional cements Qualcomm’s lead available in the market.
Alongside the AR2 Gen 1 platform, Qualcomm additionally introduced a pair of latest audio chipsets for headphones and Bluetooth audio system – the S5 and S3 Gen 2 – alongside a tease of a brand new CPU line, Oryon, the primary output from its buy of CPU designer Nuvia final 12 months. Which will herald extra formidable plans for laptops and even desktops, however with solely the title introduced to date, we’ll have to attend till the primary product bulletins subsequent 12 months to search out out extra.