AMD To Bring “Arm” Action To Microsoft’s Surface Laptops With Soundwave APUs In A Bid To Tackle MacBook Neo at Competitive Price Points

AMD’s first Arm-based CPUs in over a decade, codenamed Soundwave, are heading to Surface laptops from Microsoft.

AMD Soundwave APUs To Bring Arm’s Competitive Value To Surface Laptops As Apple’s Pressure Mounts on Microsoft

The AMD Soundwave SoCs were first spotted back in 2024, when they were listed as a next-generation 3nm APU design. Few details were known back then, but a year later, we learned about Soundwave being AMD’s attempt at the Arm ecosystem.

Initially primed for a 2026 launch for Microsoft’s 2026 Surface lineup, the plans changed a bit. Currently, Microsoft is powering its Surface lineup with Snapdragon X2 and RTX Spark SoCs. The former is featured on 12- and 13-inch mainstream platforms, while the latter recently launched & brings high performance to 16-inch designs.

Soundwave SoCs are said to be based around the BGA 1074 “FF5” socket in a 32x27mm package, as revealed in shipping…