Earlier this year in May, Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek announced a new 7nm 5G SoC with a Helio M70 modem, ARM Cortex-A77 CPU, and Mali-G77 GPU. The new 5G SoC from the company is the first chipset to feature a 5G modem on-die, rather than having a discreet modem like the Snapdragon 855 or the Exynos 9820. While the chipset is yet to make an appearance on a production smartphone, it may soon land in the next generation of Intel-powered PCs.

MediaTek has today announced a partnership with Intel to bring the new 5G modems to PCs. As part of the partnership, Intel has already started work on a 5G solution for key consumer and commercial laptops. MediaTek, on the other hand, is further developing its 5G modem and working with partners to manufacture the solution. According to a press release, Dell and HP are expected to be the first OEMs to ship laptops with Intel and MediaTek's new 5G solution, with the rollout scheduled for early 2021.

Speaking of the partnership, MediaTek's President Joe Chen was quoted as saying, "Our 5G modem for PCs, developed in partnership with Intel, is integral to making 5G accessible and available across home and mobile platforms...5G will usher in the next era of PC experiences, and working with Intel, an industry leader in computing, highlights MediaTek's expertise in designing 5G technology for global markets. With this partnership, consumers will be able to browse, stream and game faster on their PCs, be we also expect them to innovate with 5G in ways we have not yet imagined." As mentioned earlier, the new 5G modem for PCs is based, in part, on MediaTek's Helio M70 5G modem.