Qualcomm showcases new PC chip with features aimed at business market  

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By Stephen Nellis

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -Qualcomm on Wednesday announced a suite of new chips for PCs and phones, including a PC chip with a new security feature for businesses that analysts say is likely the first of its kind.

San Diego-based Qualcomm is one of the world’s biggest sellers of the chips at the heart of mobile phones, connecting them to wireless data networks. But for the past two years, the company has been pushing into the PC market, where it competes against Apple to sell energy-efficient chips for laptops and PCs that run the Windows operating system.

Qualcomm’s newest laptop chip, called the Snapdragon X2 Elite, which it said will start shipping next year, will include a new feature called Guardian aimed at corporate buyers of desktops and laptops.

Kedar Kondap, senior vice president of gaming and compute at Qualcomm, said during a keynote presentation Wednesday that the feature will allow corporate information technology departments to securely connect to the machines to install updates or provide tech support, even if the machine is turned off.

Intel, which still has the majority of the market for corporate computers, has had similar features to help businesses manage fleets of PCs for more than a decade. But Qualcomm plans to pair its security features with its modem chips that connect to 5G and mobile networks, meaning that the corporate owner of a machine will be able to keep tabs on it nearly anywhere in the world with cell reception.

“Nobody else can offer something like that,” said Ben Bajarin, chief executive of technology consultancy Creative Strategies. “I can actually see that being attractive for a portion of the workforce and something that will get stronger interest in Qualcomm for enterprise fleets.”

(Reporting by Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Leslie Adler)