But things are reportedly a bit different with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, the company's newest offering headed to premium smartphones. For one, it's using the Oryon CPU that debuted in X Elite chips for laptops last year, according to a leaked slide from Videocardz. That helps the Snapdragon 8 Elite deliver 45 percent faster single and multi-core performance while using 27 percent less power than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. While we're still waiting for more details on the Snapdragon 8 Elite at Qualcomm's Snapdragon Summit later today, there's still a lot we can learn from that single leaked slide. As expected, the company is doubling down on its generative AI capabilities, with a 45 percent faster NPU (neural processing unit) than before, and gaming performance will also see a 40 percent boost.

If you're not interested in a midrange smartphone but don't want to pay flagship prices either, Qualcomm has a possible solution. The company just unveiled the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 processor that offers flagship features, but performance just below the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. It's built using a 4-nanometer (nm) process with a 1 4 3 core setup (one prime ARM Cortex X4 at 3.0GHz, four performance cores at 2.8Ghz and three 2.0GHz efficiency cores. That compares with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3's 1 5 2 setup, so the "s" model swaps a performance core for an efficiency core. The prime core on the flagship chip also runs a bit faster at 3.4Ghz. The chip uses a previous-gen X70 5G modem, though it still offers Wi-Fi 7 support.

Lenovo announced several new business laptops and hybrids at this year's MWC conference, including refreshes in the ThinkPad T-series and the ThinkBook line. The company's calling them "AI PCs" because they all feature a dedicated Microsoft Copilot button that offers immediate access to the digital assistant. The just-announced models include the ThinkPad T14 Gen 5, ThinkPad T16 Gen 3, ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 and ThinkBook 14 2-in-1 Gen 4. These computers are powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra processors, which has come to be expected with new Lenovo computers. The ThinkPad X12 Detachable Gen 2 boasts a durable 3:2 display with Corning Gorilla Glass and the whole thing's powered by an Intel Core Ultra U processor. The detachable backlit folio keyboard boasts a three-button TrackPad and the tablet includes a front-facing 5MP camera and an 8MP rear-facing camera.

Qualcomm just unveiled the latest mobile chipset to join its armada, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3. Obviously, this is a refresh of the mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 and brings some new features to the table. We've long known that Qualcomm chips were about to get on-device AI integration, and the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 is no exception. Nearly every aspect of this chip seems to have been designed with artificial intelligence in mind, with Qualcomm saying that the components "deliver across-the-board advancements to ignite on-device AI." This should significantly speed up generative AI applications, with advertised benchmarks of just one second to create Stable Diffusion images from a text prompt. Of course, a mobile CPU is more than just AI, despite what marketing wants you to believe, and the 7 Gen 3 seems powerful for a mid-range chipset.

The company claims much improved performance and power consumption over last year's Dimensity 9200, and performance on par with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor in some key benchmarks. That makes three flagship mobile system-on-chips launched in the last month (including Google's Tensor G3), showing some healthy competition in the high-end mobile processor space. The Dimensity 9300 has what MediaTek calls an "all-big core architecture" oriented toward performance, with four ultra-large cores and four big cores, making eight altogether. That compares to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which comes with a single ultra-large Cortex-X4 core, along with 5 big Cortex-A720 cores and 2 smaller Cortex-A520 cores to balance energy savings and performance. With all that, it delivers 15 percent more performance than the Dimensity 9200 at the same power level, or 33 percent power draw at the same performance.

At its annual Snapdragon Summit on Tuesday, Qualcomm revealed its latest mobile chipset. Perhaps the biggest change in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is the introduction of on-device generative AI (akin to Google's Tensor G3). The chipset's AI Engine supports multi-modal generative AI models and what Qualcomm claims is the world's fastest Stable Diffusion system with the ability to generate an image in under a second. So, you should be able to whip up backgrounds and images for social media posts in a flash. Because GAI requests are handled on-device, Qualcomm says they remain private.

Unlike Apple's M1 MacBooks, ARM-based Windows on Snapdragon laptops haven't enjoyed quite the same level of success or popularity. But Lenovo is hoping to change that – at least for enterprise customers – with the new ThinkPad X13s. The ThinkPad X13s' secret weapon is its Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chip, which Lenovo says is the first time Qualcomm's newest laptop processor has been featured in a commercial device. By leveraging improved energy efficiency and a low-power 400-nit 13.3-inch display, Lenovo says the ThinkPad X13s can last up to 28 hours on a single charge. That said, I'm going to want to confirm this myself, because I've definitely been burned by shorter-than-expected longevity on previous Windows on Snapdragon machines.

On Wednesday, Qualcomm launched the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 processor platform for PCs, claiming that the chip will offer up to 85 percent more performance than the prior generation. That's good, given that the pandemic severely undercut the value proposition of Snapdragon-powered PCs--long battery life and always-on mobile connectivity--as office work life moved to the home office desk and couch. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 arrived this past spring at about the performance of the original Microsoft Surface Laptop, though with substantially higher graphics chops. Qualcomm's aggressive performance predictions about the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 are based on its new process shrink--from 7nm in the Gen 2 to a new, aggressive 5nm node in Gen 3. In all, Qualcomm believes that the chip will offer 85 percent more CPU performance than the prior generation, and 60 percent additional GPU performance. "We focused on really driving these features and capabilities in the mainstream PC segment," said Miguel Nunes, vice president of product management for Qualcomm, in a briefing with reporters.

In a steamy basement garage in San Francisco's Soma neighborhood, Cruise Automation CEO Kyle Vogt shows off the Generation 3, a car that looks like the electric Chevrolet Bolt, but which Vogt is calling the first production model self-driving car in the world. At least, it will be, once he and his team figure out the hard part. Conquering self-driving car is about the car, sure. Predictions vary wildly, but it feels safe to say that at some point in the next 50 years, an automotive company will need to roll driverless-ready vehicles off production lines, and at a clip. That's why Cruise and parent company General Motors showed off the Generation 3 on Monday, built in GM's Orion assembly plant in Michigan.

This column was originally published on Jeff Neal's blog, ChiefHRO.com, The government is sitting on a treasure trove of HR data that it does not typically use. For example, agencies have data about performance, and data about where they recruit and what kinds of questions they ask in job announcements. I do not know of a single agency that is comparing the questions they ask to the performance they get from the selectees. There are so many possibilities to use the data to produce actionable information that would help agencies do better hiring, get better performance, and use their resources more wisely.