Based on a new commit in the Chromium source code for Chrome OS, it looks like a Qualcomm Snapdragon 845-powered device may be in on its way. The commit refers to a new board that is powered by the 845, which was reveled earlier this month. During that event, Microsoft committed to having an always connected Windows laptop based on the Snapdragon 845 and it would seem that previous challenges between Qualcomm and Google have been overcome.
The new commit clearly calls out the “qc845” processor on the “cheza” board with references to it made in the chipset-qc845/profiles/base/make.defaults section of the notes. It calls out the ARM processor 64-bit kernel configuration and architecture.
#CHROMEOS_KERNEL_SPLITCONFIG=”chromiumos-qualcomm64″
CHROMEOS_KERNEL_CONFIG=”arch/arm64/configs/defconfig”
CHROMEOS_KERNEL_ARCH=”arm64″
Further, the notes call out the “qc845” as the processor to be used.
What makes this interesting are two points. First, there hasn’t been an LTE option in a Chromebook since 2015. Secondly, Qualcomm has been for an extended period of time, reluctant to build the drivers necessary to go upstream on Linux devices. Remember, Chrome OS is more-or-less Linux. This latter point seems to have changed with this commit by the Chromium team.
For end users, this means that we could see, perhaps as early as mid-2018, a Snapdragon 845 powered Chromebook that has always-on connectivity via LTE support in the SoC.
That said, don’t hold your breath for too long. While it is an encouraging sign to see commits made by the Chromium team, there are still plenty of hurdles, the least of which are the previously mentioned drivers which will require Qualcomm’s input.
