Oryon (pronounced like “Orion,” the star system) in its initial offering is a 12-core Arm CPU core, custom-designed by Qualcomm, built on 64-bit architecture and 4nm process technology. It’s the successor to the Kryo used in Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 (5nm process) and earlier 8cx efforts.

The overall boost clock on these 12 cores is 3.8GHz, with the ability (a bit like Intel chips with their various Turbo Boost and Turbo Boost Max technologies) to boost just one or two cores to 4.3GHz. According to Qualcomm, this limited acceleration should manifest in faster application launch times, better web browsing responsiveness, and snappier UI. The company also points out that, when in boost mode, these cores are the world’s first 4GHz-capable Arm cores.