MediaTek has launched its Dimensity CX C10 Max, a 3nm laptop processor aimed at premium Googlebooks and stuffed with dedicated AI hardware.
According to MediaTek, the chip is the first member of the outfit’s new Dimensity Compute Experiences family, marking another attempt by Arm silicon to nibble away at the traditional x86 laptop market.
MediaTek has built the C10 Max on TSMC’s 3nm process and given it an eight-core All Big Core CPU design. An 11-core GPU handles graphics, while an NPU 890 handles the inevitable local AI work.
That NPU delivers up to 55 TOPS, putting it firmly into the territory expected of modern AI PCs. MediaTek said it has been designed to run Gemini Intelligence features locally, offering faster responses while keeping more data on the machine.
What users will do with 55 TOPS of Gemini before lunch remains a question for software developers and marketing departments to answer. The company is pitching the C10 Max at thin, light and potentially fanless systems. It claims the platform can provide all-day battery life, although useful numbers will have to wait until actual machines reach reviewers’ hands.
Graphics are handled by an 11-core Arm GPU which can drive an internal display at up to 4K and 60Hz while supporting two external 4K monitors. MediaTek has thrown in hardware decoding for AV1, HEVC, AVC and VP9 video at up to 4K60, which should make the chip reasonably comfortable with streaming and media workloads without making the CPU do unnecessary work.
The integrated Imagiq 1090 image signal processor supports camera sensors up to 32 megapixels. MediaTek said it can handle HDR video, electronic stabilisation and automatic zoom, largely aimed at improving video conferencing. Networking comes through Wi-Fi 7 with claimed speeds of up to 7.3Gbps, accompanied by Bluetooth 6.0.
MediaTek senior vice president and Data Centre and Computing Business general manager Vince Hu said the processor was designed for the “next wave of intelligent computing”, combining performance with power efficiency.
“Bringing these capabilities to Googlebook builds on our leadership in Android computing and continues our long history of collaboration with Google,” Hu said.
The Googlebook connection is significant because MediaTek already has plenty of experience supplying Arm processors for Chromebooks through its Kompanio range. The CX branding gives it a fresh platform for Google’s newer laptop push rather than starting from scratch.
MediaTek has confirmed that the C10 Max will appear in an upcoming premium ultra-portable Googlebook, but it has not named the manufacturer, price or launch date.
That leaves Intel and Qualcomm with another Arm-based competitor sniffing around premium laptops, while MediaTek gains another market to sell silicon originally developed from its mobile computing expertise.
