SoCs
For our second keynote of the day for Computex, we have the 4th Musketeer of the great PC powers, Qualcomm. Slated to be the most PC-focused of the four keynotes, company CEO Cristiano Amon will be presenting a keynote entitled “The PC Reborn.” And while Amon is no stranger to giving keynotes, this is slated to be his most PC-centric keynote yet, giving Computex attendees a clearer idea of how focused Qualcomm will be on the PC market with their new Windows-on-Arm SoCs. The big focus for today's keynote is expected to be the Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus SoCs, which Qualcomm announced over half a year ago, and has been touting ever since. Now, the first consumer devices based on these chips are...
TI Joins the Windows RT Demo Fray
Not one for being left out, TI had a demo of Windows RT running on its OMAP 4470 reference tablet. Microsoft instructed its partners not to show off anything...
14 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/8/2012Qualcomm's Snapdragon S4 Running Windows RT
Last night we saw NVIDIA running Windows 8 RT via ASUS' Tablet 600, and today we got a glimpse of Qualcomm doing the same. Qualcomm's reference tablet features an...
9 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 6/5/2012Samsung Galaxy S III Performance Preview: It's Fast
Earlier today Samsung unveiled its Galaxy S III, at the heart of which is Samsung's new Exynos 4 Quad SoC. Fortunately we got a ton of hands on time...
94 by Brian Klug & Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/3/2012Exynos 4 Quad 1.4 GHz 32nm HKMG Announced for Next Galaxy Smartphone
Just a week before its Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 event where it will announce "the next galaxy smartphone," Samsung has officially announced what SoC will be inside. The answer...
44 by Brian Klug on 4/25/2012NVIDIA Plots Mobile SoC GPU Performance, Surpassing Xbox 360 by 2014
Qualcomm was the first to tell us that it expects to offer console level GPU performance in the not too distant future, generally hinting that its Adreno 3xx GPUs...
51 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/19/2012Apple's iPad 2,4 also uses 32nm A5 S5L8942 SoC
Through Chipworks, we recently learned that Apple's revised A5 SoC (S5L8942) is built on a 32nm Samsung HKMG process. While its presence in the Apple TV (3rd generation) which...
28 by Brian Klug on 4/11/2012Apple TV A5 SoC is 32nm, Harvested dual-core A5
The 3rd generation Apple TV ships with what Apple tells us is a single-core A5 SoC. After delayering the chip to the transistor gate layer in the new Apple...
10 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 4/11/2012The Apple iPad Review (2012)
It has a display resolution that dwarfs most high-end desktop displays. The panel also puts a real emphasis on quality, not just resolution. For a computing device targeted squarely...
234 by Vivek Gowri & Anand Lal Shimpi on 3/28/2012Apple TV 3 (2012) Short Review - 1080p and better WiFi
The iPad (3) took front row during the recent launch extravaganza, however Apple also refreshed their Apple TV with a new model sporting a single core A5 SoC and...
37 by Brian Klug on 3/21/2012Apple's A5X Floorplan
Apple's A5X SoC Today has been pretty exciting. Not only did we confirm the die size of Apple's A5X SoC (162.94mm^2) but we also found out that it's still built...
18 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 3/16/2012Apple A5X Die Size Measured: 162.94mm^2, Samsung 45nm LP Confirmed
Contrary to what we thought yesterday based on visual estimation of the A5X die, Chipworks has (presumably) measured the actual die itself: 162.94mm^2. While the A5 was big, this...
46 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 3/16/2012Apple's A5X Die (and Size?) Revealed
iFixit saved us all a whole lot of trouble and performed a teardown of the new iPad announced last week. The internals were mostly what we expected, down to...
45 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 3/15/2012TI Brings OMAP 5 to MWC
A month ago we saw weeks old OMAP 5 silicon running at CES. Earlier this week we got a chance to see TI's OMAP 5 reference platform playing back...
10 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/29/2012The Portland Group Announces OpenCL Compiler for ST-Ericsson ARM-Based NovaThor SoCs
Amidst all the major hardware announcements at MWC2012 there are also some announcements coming out of the software side. The Portland Group (PGI) sent word this afternoon that their...
2 by Ryan Smith on 2/28/2012Apple iPad 3 Event Scheduled For March 7th In San Francisco
It's not like we weren't expecting it, but Apple's now made it official. The event is scheduled for March 7th at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in...
52 by Saumitra Bhagwat on 2/28/2012ST-E Will Have FD-SOI Based U8540: 35% Lower Power, Much Higher Frequencies
There's a close relationship between process technology and performance/power consumption, and it's about to get even more important in mobile. We've already seen that with the transition to 40nm...
4 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/28/2012ST-Ericsson's NovaThor L8540: 28nm Cortex A9 SoC with Integrated LTE
ST-E is currently laying out its strategy for the company going forward, having suffered a tremendous reduction in revenue as the mobile market has changed dramatically over the past...
5 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/28/2012Intel Continues Its Smartphone March: Lava & ZTE Partnerships Announced
Intel had two more announcements yesterday about its Atom smartphone progress. The first was a partnership with Lava, an Indian mobile handset manufacturer. The Lava Xolo X900, a rebranded...
2 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/28/2012Intel Goes Higher & Lower End With Atom SoCs: Z2580 & Z2000 Announced at MWC
Intel had a few updates about its Android SoC strategy for us at MWC this week. The first is a spec revision. The Atom Z2460 we talked about in...
25 by Anand Lal Shimpi on 2/27/2012