8-core mobile processor Samsung called defective product

Qualcomm called gimmicky official announcement of eight-core Samsung Exynos 5 Octa for smartphones and tablets. Head of the company is convinced that the Koreans introduced misleading the public by promoting the mobile processor with 8 cores, which in reality is a "defective product."

Samsung announced its new processor Exynos 5 Octa at CES 2013. Argued that developing the chip, the company has focused on multi-tasking and graphics performance boost, but try to reduce the power consumption of the chip. In an 8-core processor Samsung combined 4 high on the architecture of the core Cortex-A15 and four energy-efficient architecture for core Cortex-A7. All are made on a common substrate.

As the general director of Qualcomm, the chip Exynos 5 Octa though called an eight, but all 8 cores will never work together. He believes that with the second 4-core unit Samsung decided to mask the defective chip with high power consumption, non-optimized for use in smartphones and tablets. Thus, Koreans just added four low-power core, which will absorb the bulk of the work, and called a hybrid 8-core processor.

According to the head of Qualcomm, the industry's often the case when the problem with the product is converted to the next marketing achievement. And Samsung has introduced all astray, focusing on the actual fact of the 8-core, and not the power of the chip.

In Qualcomm noted that smartphone users should not care how many cores is mobile processor. The main thing is that your smartphone or tablet offers high performance and at the same time had a maximum duration of battery life.

Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, a tablet for developers CPU APQ8064 costs $ 1299

Qualcomm has officially released its new tablet aimed at developers and revolutionary platform with the Snapdragon S4 Pro , inside we find the new chipset Quad-Core APQ8064 able to impose a new standard in performance and performance made ​​in Qualcomm with the first synthetic benchmarks we show below.

At the hardware level as a Mobile Development Platform include:

• 10.1-inch WXGA display.
• Processor Quad-Core Snapdragon S4 Pro, 1.5 GHz frequency.
• Android Ice Cream Sandwich.
• 32GB of internal memory.
• Adreno 320 GPU.
• 2GB of RAM.
• 13 MPXl camera.

The tablet also comes with a convenient charging base, has two USB 2.0 ports, HDMI and Ethernet , standard sensors and 7 microphones scattered throughout the body that would represent a second Qualcomm news in audio capture. But we look at comparisons with their top range products available today.

From the graph we can see how the APQ8064 delivers almost 50% more performance in virtually all areas compared to the Tegra 3 of HTC One X and Asus Transformer Prime , while further down we find marked differences depending on the device.

Interesting results also with regard to these series of tests, where even the performance Exynos 4412 Quad-Core comes out from different points spaced and generally chipset APQ8064 shows you a step above the competition.

Qualcomm seems to want to impress once again, having churned out a great product with the dual-core Snapdragon S4 segment is directed now to the hi-end solution with its quad-core at least for the first test results are truly amazing port.

The price to pay to start developing the new platform, Qualcomm is not exactly cheap, are in fact required $ 1299 and waiting times are already in the order of 2-3 weeks, however, that costs will decrease with time, gaining more visibility and business partners.  on & off

Qualcom shows how the CPU S4 has an excellent thermal efficiency

We know that there are several hardware devices currently on the market for top of the range. The main CPU or SoC: Tegra, Exynos, Qualcomm and TI-OMAP, all very similar in architecture and very powerful, but all that changes in both process and production optimization and energy efficiency as well as number of cores.

When we think of mobile processors, the first thing that comes to mind is the battery life of a device, the Achilles' heel of current smartphones. Hardly, however, is thought to ' thermal efficiency is an aspect that can have an equally significant impact on the quality of the user.

As we can see from this curious video, Qualcomm remains committed to the Snapdragon processors maintain the right temperature when their performance reaches its peak. The movie compares a HTC One S4 S processor, a Motorola Razr with TI-OMAP processor and a processor-S2 Galaxy Exynos. All the solutions mentioned are similar to and then Dual Core architecture. Sadly, there is a similar comparison with the new Quad Core that was definitely just as interesting from the aspect of thermal efficiency.

New HTC J with Price and Specification in Japan

After showing at the Salone International del Mobile in Milan, the smartphone with the clock , KDDI in Japan is launching a new HTC. This is the model ISW13HT , called HTC J .

It will be available only in Japan (yet?) through subscription with an operator KDDI . And the price will be soon. The HTC J has nothing to envy to the top of the range-One series, although it will not have LTE as the future AT & T HTC X One LTE , but will support WiMAX . Here are all of the officers:

• OS: Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 MSM8660A dual-core 1.5GHz
• GPU: Adreno 225
• RAM: 1GB
• ROM: 16GB
• Dimensions: 132 × 66 × 10mm
• Weight: 142g
• Resolution: 4.3-inch QHD, QHD 960 × 540 :
• UI: HTC Sense 4.0
• Camera: 8mp with LED flash , front camera 1.3mp
• Communications package: WiMAX, EV-DO Rev.A
• Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0
• Sensors: GPS, digital compass, proximity sensor, light sensor
• External outputs: microSD (32GB), microUSB, 3.5mm audio jack
• Battery: Li-Ion 1810mAh
• Other: Audio Beats in-ear headphones , Dropbox support

Qualcomm and Nvidia at loggerheads with TMSC, next to 28Nm chips entrusted to Samsung?

Two of the largest U.S. chipmaker, Qualcomm and Nvidia , are beginning to reckon with a poor yield of the production 28Nm carried out by TMSC , Taiwanese semiconductor company to which they refer many organizations in the field. Already last month came forward signals determined by Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang, who said in Forbes hope that establishments Intel could "accommodate" the production of the next (SoC Tegra 4) and Kepler GPU to 28Nm. Vain hope given the response of the lapidary home in Santa Clara:

Thanks, but no thanks

TMSC has therefore serious problems in the manufacturing shift to a more sophisticated architecture and is the right partner with which to face future challenges in the mobile industry. For this reason the search started for an alternative that may provide greater safety and the names circulating are the United Microelectronics, Global Foundries and even Samsung , which relies on the structures of Austin, Texas, in the further modernization and expansion.

Be noted that Nvidia stands to lose more with Tegra SoC and 4 GPUs Kepler just waiting to start production for a market introduction in early next year as announced on the roadmap . A delay would be really catastrophic and would leave the field open to emerging reality with better means as Intel , colossus that may rely on its facilities and is already producing in large volumes to 22Nm. No small advantage.

TMSC, meanwhile, is investing huge sums to adapt to the situation and, if it has to deal with the discontent of Nvidia and Qualcomm, can also enjoy the positive approach of recent Apple and AMD obviously aim at different targets. The chipset market will be even more busy in the months and Intel, which is emerging only now seriously in the mobile sector, could be a real thorn in the side.

Freedreno: an open source driver for the GPU from Qualcomm

Even better news for all owners of Android smartphone made ​​by Qualcomm Adreno GPU: after the release, tightly closed source, optimized drivers for Ice Cream Sandwich is CPU-ARMv6 that ARMv7 , required the manufacturer to great acclaim from users of devices based on these architectures, is now the turn of a new project, this time completely open-source, Freedreno . As can easily be inferred from the name, it is a driver for GPU Adreno completely free.

At present the majority of the Snapdragon-based devices using Android or Windows Phone: availability of a good open source drivers would however also possible to install different operating systems based on Linux, in addition to allowing you to update the phones in a more simple and without the constraints imposed by the availability of drivers created by the manufacturer, to ensure for many devices currently on the market a support unofficial much higher than they would otherwise have on the record.

The project started with less than a week and is still in its infancy, yet it is already present 2D graphics acceleration support .

TSMC is having difficulty with the release of 28-nanometer production

According to industry sources, the world's largest contract manufacturer of semiconductor products TSMC is having difficulty meeting demand for 28-nanometer products. The main customers are companies TSMC Qualcomm, AMD and NVIDIA. It is believed that the situation will improve in the third quarter of this year.

However, Qualcomm agreed to transfer part of their orders for ARM processors for the company United Microelectronics (UMC), because the volume of products manufactured by TSMC, is not enough for the rapid market of smartphones and tablets.

AMD has introduced the first graphics accelerator based on a 28-nanometer GPU at the end of last year, but shipments family of video cards Radeon HD 7000 is still quite small.

NVIDIA has managed to release two cards based on 28-nanometer GPU Kepler: GeForce GTX 680 desktop PCs and GeForce GT 640M mobile, but, apparently, will also be forced to postpone plans.

For this reason, TSMC is considering the expansion of production . Construction of a new line in the factory Fab 14, which works with 12-inch (300 mm) plates, will begin April 9. Total for the year 2012 the company plans to increase production by 10%.

Qualcomm will release a four-core chips, as opposed to developments S4 Apple and Intel

ARM architecture is strongly associated in the minds of users solely for smartphones and communicators, but times have changed and now Qualcomm decided to produce a computer based on Windows 8.

A prototype of such a device was created in February, but now have more information about this. According to company representatives, Qualcomm expects the second half to release laptops based on the 4-core chip Snapdragon S4. According to the vendor, such decisions will precede the line MacBook Air and a series of ultrabook from Intel, received a fourth-generation network support and a separate kernel for processing three-dimensional graphics.

S4 will be made on 28-nanometer technology with high power efficiency and performance compared to previous versions of the Snapdragon. In addition, the promise and longer battery life than competing solutions.

Also in Qualcomm reported a modification of the processor S4 for 64-bit version of Windows 8, but as yet unknown, will be released when ready devices based on such chips. The company plans to stand out among competitors enhanced support for multimedia and mobile communication based on the Snapdragon.