A Lenovo update hints at Nvidia Arm CPUs coming soon
The transition from x86/x64 architecture (what has powered desktop and laptop computers for decades) to Arm architecture (what is most commonly found in smartphones) was supposed to be a massive change for Windows. That’s certainly not the case, at least not with the first two generations of Qualcomm chips. But Nvidia has been waiting in the wings and it looks like Nvidia’s Arm chips are almost here.
At least that seems to be the case if you look closely at a new update text from Lenovo. Several undisclosed laptops from the IdeaPad, Yoga, and Legion (gaming) lines include “N1” and “N1X” in their full product names, spotted by a data miner on Twitter (via VideoCardz.com). You don’t even have to dig deep into the hidden files to see it: there’s a “Legion 7 15N1X11″ mentioned in the latest Legion Space game management software update. This laptop, likely similar to existing Legion 7 models (16-inch gaming laptops with Intel and AMD options), doesn’t officially exist yet.
The N1 and N1X are known quantities. You can now get them in some extremely expensive devices, like the Jetson Xavier Compute Module and the DGX Spark Mini PC. But these things are designed for industrial applications and the development of “AI”. The DGX Spark costs $4,000, featuring 128GB of unified system memory and a custom Grace Blackwell GPU. Nvidia’s partners Acer, Asus, Dell, Gigabyte and, yes, Lenovo all offer similar industrial systems, or if they don’t, they will soon. These are all things that the vast majority of consumers probably don’t want and certainly don’t want to pay for.
But an Nvidia-powered, Arm-based gaming laptop? This might be a different proposition. Gaming has been an Achilles heel for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips, although they excel in single-process performance and battery life. This has less to do with the actual capabilities of the hardware and more to do with the fact that Windows games simply aren’t designed for non-x86/x64 systems. But if anyone can overcome this problem – and probably pair it with serious gaming power – it’s Nvidia. (Meanwhile, Microsoft is also making big overtures to Windows games on Arm.)
Previous reports indicated that the N1 and N1X chips were expected to arrive at just about any time, although the RAM crisis may have changed a few numbers. (This wouldn’t be the first Nvidia product affected.) Lenovo’s inclusion of Nvidia in upcoming laptop products certainly indicates they’ll be arriving sooner rather than later.
That said, none of this is verified. It’s possible that Lenovo has an internal system with N1 and N1X applied by chance. It’s also possible that these Nvidia laptops will be ready to work but delayed or even canceled due to RAM issues…the same ones, ironically caused by the AI industry that Nvidia is courting with these N1 mini PCs.
