The 1GHz smartphone has arrived. A Japanese telecommunications carrier is the first to launch a device based on Qualcomm's much-anticipated Snapdragon processor.
The Toshiba-Docomo T-01A uses Qualcomm's 1GHz Snapdragon chip.
(Credit: Docomo)Docomo is now offering the T-01A in Japan, while Microsoft is pitching the phone on its Japanese Web site.
This would mark the first commercially available product using the Snapdragon chip, a Qualcomm spokeswoman confirmed Monday. The chip's claim to fame is that it's an ARM design running at 1GHz. Typical ARM architecture chips used in mobile phones, such as the iPhone 3G S, peak at about 600MHz.
A legion of other chip suppliers offer ARM-based chips for mobile devices, including Texas Instruments, Freescale Semiconductor, Samsung, Nvidia, STMicroelectronics, and Broadcom.
The Toshiba-Docomo T-01A--which will be offered outside of Japan as the TG01--runs Windows Mobile 6.1 and is designed to take on the iPhone. Only 9.9mm thick, it uses a 4.1-inch WVGA 800x480 384k pixel resistive touch screen and comes with support for 3G HSPA, Wi-Fi, GPS and assisted-GPS.
The TG01 is also slated to be available in Europe this summer.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon silicon supports high-definition (720p) video decode, 3D graphics (up to 22M triangles/sec), XGA display support, a 12-megapixel camera, and mobile broadcast TV.
Qualcomm has been talking up the Snapdragon (aka QSD8250) since November 2007, when the company announced initial sample shipments of the chipset.
And Qualcomm won't stop at 1GHz. The San Diego-based company has demonstrated Netbooks running a 1.3GHz Snapdragon processor and will eventually push the chip to 1.5GHz.
The future Qualcomm QSD8672 will be a dual-core Snapdragon that features two CPU computing cores and will include HSPA+, up to 28Mbps download speeds, 1080p high-definition video, Wi-Fi, mobile TV, and GPS. The graphics core is based on Advanced Micro Devices' ATI unit's technology.
Pricing is not immediately available.
(Via Engadget)
A mobile Internet device buoyed by some pre-sales buzz is slated to go on sale July 6. Will consumers notice?
Mobile Internet devices, or MIDs, have been around for a while but never triggered anything near the buying frenzy of Apple's iPhone or the Palm Pre.
Viliv X70 mobile Internet device
(Credit: Dynamism)On July 6, the Viliv X70, based on the Atom Z520 processor, will go on sale in the U.S. from reseller Dynamism. This could prove to be another litmus test for this tweener category of devices.
MIDs look a lot like the iPhone but aren't phones. They're mini PCs. The screens are bigger (a 1024 x 600, 7-inch display in the case of the X70, about twice the size of the iPhone's) and they are designed to offer everything a buyer would expect in a PC: that is, Windows running on Intel processors.
Like PCs, traditionally, MIDs have connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi only.
The Viliv X70 will break the mold by offering the option for 3G (HSPA). Though this won't make it an iPhone, it will give more credence to the "mobile" part of the category name "mobile Internet device."
There will also be an option for a 128GB solid-state drive--something a buyer cannot get on an iPhone or Pre. (X70 video here.)
There's some small print about the 3G worth noting. After the ad copy stating that "you can enjoy broadband Internet anytime on a 3G network," Dynamism points out that "customers in the United States can simply stop into an AT&T store to sign up for service" but that the "T-Mobile network will not support 3G speeds with this device."
Spurious battery life claims are common from all manufacturers. It remains to be seen if the X70 lives up to its claims of 5.5 hours of video playback or 4 hours of live-streaming TV from the Web.
Viliv is manufactured by Korea-based Yukyung Technologies. (See CNET Review's coverage of the current Viliv S5.)
And the price? This may be a deal breaker for some. It starts at $599 for the basics but jumps to $879 with an Atom 1.3GHz Z520 Atom processor, 1GB of memory, a 32GB solid-state drive, GPS, Windows XP Home, and a built-in HSPA modem.
Microsoft has confirmed that the Nvidia "Tegra" chip is inside the upcoming Zune HD, a big win for Nvidia.
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Microsoft Zune HD
This was reported earlier at Engadget and follows reports earlier this week.
"There's been a lot of chatter about us possibly putting the Nvidia Tegra chip in the Zune HD," Matt Akers, software development engineer in test at Microsoft, said in a June 19 podcast. "Well, we're going to go ahead and confirm that. Yes, the Zune HD does have the Tegra chip in it."
He added: "So much better battery life, graphics acceleration. This thing's like a mini laptop in your hand."
Tegra is the first processor Nvidia has built for power-frugal handheld devices, a major departure from the large, power-hungry graphics processors that it sells to the gaming rig and workstation markets.
The system-on-a-chip (SOC) uses less than 0.5 watts of power, an attribute the main Tegra processor inherits from its power-stingy ARM parentage. (And a tiny fraction of the 50-watt-plus ratings of the chipmaker's desktop graphics silicon.) The defining feature of the Tegra SOC, however, is the Nvidia GeForce graphics chip.
Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said at the company's analyst day on Tuesday that the Tegra processor is expected to account for half of Nvidia's business in a few years.
The rumors about Microsoft and Tegra go back to November. The first round of rumors put Nvidia's Tegra in a Microsoft phone (which some analysts still believe is a possibility).
To date, Tegra has 42 design wins, ranging from media players to smartphones to Netbooks, according to Michael Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia's mobile business unit, who spoke during Analyst Day. Out of those 42, about 18 are smartphones, he said. "You'll start to see those show up toward the end of this year."
The Zune HD--due later this year--comes with a 3.3-inch, 16:9 OLED (480x272 resolution) screen. And also includes an HD (high-definition) radio, HD (720p) video out, Wi-Fi, a Web browser (with tap-to-zoom technology), built-in accelerometer, and a touch-screen QWERTY keyboard.
Updated on June 19 at 12:15 p.m. PDT: adding Apple processor discussion in addition to earlier iFixit photo update.
What makes the iPhone 3G S tick, and why is it the "fastest iPhone ever"? Rapid Repair and iFixit tear down the iPhone in Paris and London, respectively, providing some clues.
First, a quick glance at Apple's claims for the iPhone 3G S. The ad copy on Apple's Web site claims that it launches applications faster and that Web pages "render in a fraction of the time." Apple doesn't stop there: "Improved performance and updated 3D graphics deliver an incredible gaming experience, too," according to Apple.
Apple iPhone 3G S disassembled
(Credit: Rapid Repair)Rapid Repair said Thursday night that the 3G S uses a 600MHz Samsung processor based on the ARM Cortex A8 design. The iPhone also integrates a PowerVR SGX graphics chip from Imagination Technologies, according to Rapid Repair.
This, not surprisingly, beats the iPhone 3G (sans "S"), which uses an older ARM design--that runs at about 400MHz--and a prior-generation graphics chip.
The iFixit team also has done a teardown of the iPhone 3G S, with further analysis to follow.
Though the markings on the main Apple processor do not readily identify the chip, both Rapid Repair and iFixit say it is the Samsung S5PC100. Both sites confirmed this in response to e-mail queries.
The "Samsung ARM Cortex A8-based S5PC100 Mobile Application Processor...adopts a 32-bit ARM Cortex A8 RISC microprocessor and a 64/32-bit internal bus architecture, and operates up to 833MHz," according to documentation on Samsung's site.
The chip is also capable of high-definition (HD) 720p video, Samsung states.
iPhone 3G S main circuit board with Apple-branded processor
(Credit: iFixit)CNET Reviews has validated Apple's speed claims, saying "for most native applications that don't depend on a cellular or Wi-Fi connection, the iPhone 3G S was consistently faster."
The review continues: "The iPhone 3G S opened the iPod player almost 5 seconds faster, and it was much quicker at loading some notoriously slow apps. For example, Bejewled 2, which can take up to 12 seconds to load on the iPhone 3G, started in just 5 seconds on the 3G S."
And: "The iPhone 3G S also started up much quicker than the iPhone 3G--we were up and running in 26 seconds instead of 50 seconds."
The Palm Pre also uses a Cortex A8 application processor from ARM and the PowerVR SGX graphics from Imagination.
The rumors appear to be true: Microsoft's Zune HD media player will use Nvidia's Tegra, a processor that will play a pivotal role in the chip supplier's future.
Microsoft Zune HD
(Credit: Microsoft)PC Perspective reported Tuesday that the Zune chip had been confirmed by Nvidia "staff" at Computex, earlier this month.
Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said at the company's analyst day on Tuesday that the Tegra processor is expected to account for half of Nvidia's business in a few years. If this prediction comes true, Nvidia will bear little resemblance to the company it is today: a maker of large, power-hungry chips for gamers and professionals.
Tegra is the polar opposite of the hot, heat-sink-clad graphics processors that power the fastest gaming rigs today. Tegra uses less than 0.5 watts of power (compared, for example, with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 295, which is rated at 289 watts), an attribute the chip inherits from its power-stingy ARM parentage.
Tegra packs two ARM chips. One is the main application processor--based on the ARM11 core--which runs the operating system. Tegra's defining feature, however, is the Nvidia GeForce graphics chip: this is what likely caught Microsoft's eye. In total, Tegra integrates eight independent processors, according to Michael Rayfield, general manager of Nvidia's mobile business unit, who spoke during Nvidia's Analyst Day.
Audio codec technology has been developed by PortalPlayer, which Nvidia acquired in 2006, Rayfield said.
To date, Tegra has 42 design wins, according to Rayfield. "They range from media players to smartphones to smartbooks to Web pads," he said. Out of those 42, about 18 are smartphones. "You'll start to see those show up toward the end of this year," he said.
The smartphones are "household names, household carriers. Names you'll recognize," he said, possibly alluding to Microsoft, among other major brands. A total of 27 manufacturers are working on devices, he said.
Not everybody is impressed, however. "It's surprised me that it's taking as long as it is to get to tier-one (telecommunications carriers)," said Doug Freedman of Broadpoint AmTech. "Tegra has been available for over a year."
The Zune HD--due later this year--comes with a 3.3-inch, 16:9 OLED (480x272 resolution) screen. And also includes an HD (high-definition) Radio, HD (720p) video out, Wi-Fi, a Web browser (with tap-to-zoom technology), built-in accelerometer, and touchscreen QWERTY keyboard.
Updated at 12:15 p.m. PDT: adding Centrino and Deborah Conrad discussions.
Intel has spelled out its branding for the upcoming Core series of processors including the "Lynnfield" and "Clarksfield" chips. The chipmaker also said that "Centrino" will be phased out as a PC brand.
In a post Wednesday on Intel's Web site, spokesman Bill Calder wrote that the branding will be "simplified into entry-level (Intel Core i3), mid-level (Intel Core i5), and high-level (Intel Core i7)."
Calder added that it is "important to note that these are not brands but modifiers to the Intel Core brand that signal different features and benefits."
The upcoming Lynnfield chip (desktop) will be available as either Intel Core i5 or Intel Core i7 depending upon the feature set and capability, Calder wrote. Clarksfield (mobile) will have the Intel Core i7 name.
Deborah Conrad, vice president and director of corporate marketing at Intel, talks about new branding strategy via video on Intel Web site
Arrandale (32-nanometer mobile) will appear as the Core i3 but will ultimately span the Core brand to include Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7. Clarkdale (32-nanometer desktop) will be available under the Core i3 and Intel Core i5 brands, Calder said.
The widely-used Centrino moniker will be phased out as a PC brand, according to Calder. Centrino "will be used as a name for Wi-Fi and WiMAX products" and "still be in market on mobile PCs into next year," he said. But eventually will be discontinued.
"In the back half of this year you'll begin to see Core i5 and more Core i7s coming to market. Then by the first part of next year you'll begin to see Core i3, and i5, i7," said Deborah Conrad, vice president and director of corporate marketing at Intel, speaking in a video posted on Intel's Web site. "Then the old names will get retired as those products get phased out," she said.
Intel also disclosed other branding. "We will still have Celeron for entry-level computing at affordable price points, Pentium for basic computing, and of course the Intel Atom processor for all these new devices ranging from netbooks to smartphones," according to the post. "For PC purchasing, think in terms of good-better-best with Celeron being good, Pentium better, and the Intel Core family representing the best we have to offer," he wrote.
"We are focusing our strategy around a primary 'hero' client brand which is Intel Core. Today the Intel Core brand has a mind boggling array of derivatives (such as Core 2 Duo and Core 2 Quad, etc). Over time those will go away and in its place will be a simplified family of Core processors," Calder wrote.
Calder continued: "This will be an evolutionary process taking place over time, and we acknowledge that multiple brands will be in the market next year including older ones, as we make the transition."
Updated at 4:30 p.m. PDT adding Tegra, Intel, and Ion discussions.
On Tuesday, Nvidia Chief Executive Jen-Hsun Huang said at the company's analyst day that the graphics processor will be an equal partner with Intel processors, citing Apple as an early trendsetter.
On other fronts, Huang said that the ARM-based Tegra processor is expected to account for half of Nvidia's business in a few years. He also repeated claims about Intel crimping the success of its Ion processor in Netbooks.
Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang
(Credit: Nvidia)Huang said that "CPU-GPU co-processing" is the future of computing. (CPU stands for central processing unit. GPU for graphics processing unit.)
"Apple is an early indicator," Huang said during his opening remarks that were streamed over the Web, referring to the importance that Apple is placing on the graphics processor. "The MacBook Pro to the MacBook Air has a GPU," he said. And he waxed eloquent about how the performance and power efficiency of the updated version of the Air has benefited by having co-processors: an Intel CPU and Nvidia GPU.
"Doing the right job with the right tool is more efficient," he said, referring to the Air, which Huang claims runs longer and cooler with a GPU. Typically, ultra-thin laptops like the Air don't have a discrete (separate) Nvidia or ATI graphics processor.
Apple currently uses Nvidia GPUs across its laptop product line and touts the potential for GPUs on its Web site. "OpenCL (Open Computing Language), makes it possible for developers to efficiently tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit," according to a statement on Apple's Web site.
And at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, an Apple executive expanded on this theme, explaining how Mac OS X will support GPGPU--general-purpose graphics processing unit--which lets a graphics chip run some computing jobs in addition to its ordinary job displaying graphics.
Huang also addressed its Tegra chip, which is an ARM-based design that integrates an Nvidia GeForce processor. Tegra is targeted at smartphones and Netbooks. Responding to a question from an analyst, he said that in a few years Tegra may represent half of its business, with the rest divided up between the professional (Tesla, Quadro) and the consumer GeForce markets.
Huang also repeated his assertion that Intel is using pricing--what he called "subsidies"--and "MDF" (market development funds) to prevent Nvidia from selling more of it Ion processors to customers. He claimed the success of the Ion processor would be two to three times greater without Intel interference.
Moore's Law may lapse by 2014, according to iSuppli. The high cost of chip manufacturing--not just the impossibly smaller geometries--may be the biggest threat.
Gordon Moore, former chairman and CEO of Intel
(Credit: Intel)Moore's Law, named after Intel co-founder Gordon Moore, states that the number of transistors that can be placed on an integrated circuit doubles roughly every two years. For more than four decades, chip geometries have gotten smaller and smaller, allowing Moore's Law to remain on track.
By 2014, however, the high cost of semiconductor manufacturing equipment will threaten Moore's Law, "altering the fundamental economics of the industry," according to a report released on Tuesday by iSuppli.
"The usable limit for semiconductor process technology will be reached when chip process geometries shrink to be smaller than 20 nanometers (nm), to 18nm nodes," said Len Jelinek, director and chief analyst, semiconductor manufacturing, for iSuppli. "At those nodes (levels), the industry will start getting to the point where semiconductor manufacturing tools are too expensive to depreciate with volume production, i.e., their costs will be so high, that the value of their lifetime productivity can never justify it."
While further advances in shrinking process geometries can be achieved after the 20-nanometer to 18-nanometer level, Moore's Law will no longer drive volume semiconductor production, iSuppli said.
As a yardstick, Intel is currently in the process of moving to a 32-nanometer manufacturing process. While Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC)--the world's largest contract chip manufacturer--has moved to 40-nanometer for chips it makes for companies such as Nvidia.
There are examples of companies that have already found chipmaking prohibitively expensive. Facing possible bankruptcy, Advanced Micro Devices eventually spun off its chipmaking operations. Some Asia-based memory chipmakers have also faced possible extinction because they couldn't invest the staggering sums of money necessary to update production facilities.
The end of Moore's Law has been prophesied more than a few times in the past but chip equipment cost isn't the only thing conspiring against the law. Exponential growth in every industry eventually has to come to an end, according to an April EE Times report quoting IBM Fellow Carl Anderson. He cited railroads and speed increases in the aircraft industry as examples where exponential growth eventually petered out.
"A generation or two of continued exponential growth will likely continue only for leading-edge chips such as multicore microprocessors, but more designers are finding that everyday applications do not require the latest physical designs," Anderson said in the EE Times' report.
Until 2014, however, the race continues. Globalfoundries, the joint company owned by AMD and Abu Dhabi-based Mubadala Development, said Tuesday that "the semiconductor industry is celebrated for overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds to continue the trend toward smaller, faster, and more energy-efficient products" and, in partnership with IBM, announced research that will enable the continued scaling of semiconductor components to the 22-nanometer level and beyond.
And Intel on Thursday will show off new research that will demonstrate the company's latest advancements with its chip manufacturing technology.
Android running on devices at Computex was "snappy," while Windows 7 less so, according to a Gartner report published Monday. The report concluded that there is momentum behind the ARM chip platform.
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"Android is the first Linux OS backed by a strong consumer brand--Google," write analysts Christian Heidarson and Ben Lee in Gartner's Semiconductor DQ Monday Report.
Though they stopped short of endorsing the platform--saying that Android is a work-in-progress--they did offer some hope for future Android-based devices running on ARM processors versus Windows 7-based Netbooks running on Intel's Atom processor. "There is a sense among PC manufacturers that although Android is not ready for prime time today--or tomorrow--it will inevitably get there," they wrote.
The report continued. "When Android did work, we found that the user interface was very snappy on relatively low-performance ARM processors, more so than on Windows 7 on (Intel's) Atom. What we learned about support from critical software vendors convinced us that there is momentum behind ARM in the PC industry, enabled by Android."
In an interview last month, Michael Rayfield, general manager of the mobile business unit at graphics chipmaker Nvidia, echoed this sentiment. "Android has got a roar ahead of it," he said. But he added: "I think it's three of four quarters from a large-screen device." Nvidia is developing its ARM-based Tegra chip platform for Android as well as Windows CE.
Other chipmakers such as Freescale Semiconductor are also touting the potential for Android on ARM-based chips. "The potential that Google has--this has got everybody's attention," said Glen Burchers, director of global consumer segment marketing at Freescale, in an interview last month.
The Gartner report was cited earlier by IDG News.
Updated on Monday, June 15 at 2:20 p.m. PDT: adding multi-core discussion to earlier Windows update.
It's been four years this month since Apple announced it would drop the PowerPC architecture and switch to Intel's x86 design. One person involved in the back-and-forth between Apple and IBM at the time provides some insight into why it happened.
Apple laptop using the PowerPC G3 processor
(Credit: CNET Networks)When Apple made the watershed announcement in June 2005 ending its longstanding relationship with IBM and Motorola, Apple CEO Steve Jobs attributed the switch to a superior Intel roadmap.
"Looking ahead Intel has the strongest processor roadmap by far," Jobs said in a statement at the time. "It's been ten years since our transition to the PowerPC, and we think Intel's technology will help us create the best personal computers for the next ten years."
One oft-cited reason was that Apple didn't believe it could get the requisite performance per watt from processors being supplied by IBM and Freescale--formerly Motorola's chipmaking arm. Translation: Apple was worried about IBM's and Motorola's ability to deliver competitive processors for laptops. (Update: Another reason often put forward is that Apple simply wanted to be able to run Windows.)
A former IBM executive, who worked at IBM at the time and was involved in discussions with Apple, offered his perspective in a conversation we had during dinner at a recent technology conference. Let me emphasize that this is one person's opinion, not necessarily the gospel truth. I will not publish his name or title.
While he acknowledged the public reasons put forward by Apple, there was more to it--not surprisingly--than that. The upshot: Apple wanted better pricing, according to this person.
Apple was paying a premium for IBM silicon, he said, creating a Catch-22. IBM had to charge more because it didn't have the economies of scale of Intel, but Apple didn't want to pay more, even though it supposedly derived more from an inherently superior RISC design as manifested in the PowerPC architecture.
Here's what Jobs said in 2003: "The PowerPC G5 changes all the rules. This 64-bit race car is the heart of our new Power Mac G5, now the world's fastest desktop computer," Jobs said in a statement. "IBM offers the most advanced processor design and manufacturing expertise on earth, and this is just the beginning of a long and productive relationship." (Sounds suspiciously similar to what Jobs said about Intel after Apple made the switch.)
Despite the praise heaped on IBM's technology in 2003, Apple believed, by 2005, that it couldn't compete on cost, according to this person.
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