Qualcomm announced a partnership with tech giant Microsoft at CES 2022 to develop a new, customized Snapdragon augmented reality chip that will power future augmented reality glasses in Microsoft's ecosystem. While Qualcomm offers the Snapdragon chip from Microsoft's latest HoloLens 2 headset, the two companies now say they plan to work more closely together on components of future AR devices.
It is reported that the custom AR chip is a custom augmented reality Snapdragon chip developed for the next generation, energy-efficient, ultra-light AR glasses, mainly used in the Microsoft ecosystem, developers can use this chip to create a virtual world, allowing users to work and play in the virtual world.
In addition, the announcement also revealed Microsoft's plans to integrate with Qualcomm's Snapdragon Spaces XR development tool to help perform basic AR functions, such as drawing physical spaces to superimpose digital objects on top of them, and hand tracking so that users can manipulate those digital objects through gestures.
Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm, said: "The Qualcomm Snapdragon Spaces XR development platform will be fully integrated into Microsoft Mesh, which will be available for the next generation of lightweight eyewear. ”
By leveraging its expertise in smartphone chip design, Qualcomm has established itself as an early leader in the growing field of XR, which now powers most of the leading standalone XR devices.
On the face of it, the company already has an XR3 chip in development, so it's unclear whether a custom AR chip means Microsoft has more say in the final look of the XR3, or whether it will get its own custom chip dedicated to devices like the HoloLens 3.