{"id":13817,"date":"2022-09-03T14:50:13","date_gmt":"2022-09-03T14:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/09\/03\/metas-chip-deal-with-qualcomm-may-reflect-its-unrealized-vr-ambitions\/"},"modified":"2022-09-03T14:50:15","modified_gmt":"2022-09-03T14:50:15","slug":"metas-chip-deal-with-qualcomm-may-reflect-its-unrealized-vr-ambitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/09\/03\/metas-chip-deal-with-qualcomm-may-reflect-its-unrealized-vr-ambitions\/","title":{"rendered":"Meta\u2019s chip deal with Qualcomm may reflect its unrealized VR ambitions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/9\/2\/23334656\/meta-qualcomm-quest-vr-ar-snapdragon-xr-custom-chips<\/a>
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Qualcomm and Meta have signed a multi-year agreement promising to team up on custom versions of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR chips for the “future roadmap of Quest products” and “other devices,” as Mark Zuckerberg put it<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While, in some ways, the move is business as usual \u2014 the Quest 2 is powered by the Snapdragon XR2 chipset \u2014 it could provide insight into Meta’s compromises as it faces declines in revenue and tries to keep the spiraling expenses of Mark’s metaverse project in check.<\/p>\n

What the Qualcomm deal shows is that Meta’s upcoming headsets, which reportedly include a high-end headset codenamed Cambria<\/a> and, later, new versions of its cheaper Quest headset<\/a>, won’t run on completely customized Meta-designed silicon.<\/p>\n

This is despite competing companies like Apple<\/a>, Amazon<\/a>, and Google<\/a> making product decisions around custom chip designs like M2, Graviton3, and Tensor \u2014 and the fact that Meta’s had a team dedicated to doing the same<\/a> since 2018. This press release says the chips will be “customized” for Meta’s needs. Still, we don’t know how much space that can put between its “premium” devices and other manufacturers’ hardware that hews closely to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon XR reference designs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In April, The Verge<\/em> reported<\/a> that Meta employees were working with semiconductor fabs \u2014 the companies that actually produce the physical chips \u2014 to make custom chips for its as-of-yet unannounced AR headset. That same month, The Information<\/em> reported<\/a> that some of Meta\u2019s efforts to create custom chips were hitting roadblocks, pushing it to use a Qualcomm chip for its second-gen Ray-Bay smart glasses instead of its own silicon.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n\"Qualcomm<\/p>\n

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Qualcomm reference designs for wired and wireless smart glasses<\/em><\/figcaption>Qualcomm<\/cite><\/p>\n

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