Meta and Qualcomm team up to make custom chips for the next generation of headsets VR. The partnership is described as a “broad, multi-year strategic agreement” that will involve both companies’ product and engineering teams. This collaboration will enable the development of the next generation of chips Snapdragon XR.
Mark Zuckerberg said the chips will be used “for its future Quest product roadmap”. However, Qualcomm confirmed that the chips will not be exclusive to helmets of Meta. Thus, rather than a strategy aimed at differentiating Meta Quest other Android-based headsets, such as the pico of ByteDance, this partnership could aim to compete Apple. An in-depth report published by The Information last May asserted that the helmetApple would be equipped with the chip M2 used in the last Macbooks. Earlier this week, a company linked to Apple filed a trademark application called “Reality Processor”.
As a reminder, the Meta Quest 2 currently uses the Snapdragon XR2 of Qualcomm (renamed XR2 Gen1 from)a variant of the chip Snapdragon 865 for smartphones, delivered for the first time in early 2020. However, no new chip XR has not been created since.
According to rumours, the soon-to-be-launched Quest Pro would use the same chip XR2 Gen 1, but with a higher frequency. Import reports suggest that this chip is paired with twice as much RAM. This new partnership could allow future headsets to use newer chips to deliver more faithful experiences and more advanced features.
If you haven’t taken the plunge yet, you can treat yourself to a Oculus Quest 2 to the Fnac, Darty or Amazon for €449.99. You can also find good PCs for gamers there.