Items tagged with SoC

At Google's I/O conference, held late this week, Qualcomm announced that the next-generation Project Tango platform is going to sport its Snapdragon 810 processor, which packs in the very capable Adreno 430 GPU. As we've covered before, Project Tango is Google's upcoming smartphone and tablet platform that revolves around using the device for 3D purposes. With it, you could capture and turn the environment around you into a 3D model, something that multiple cameras and infrared sensors would help with. With its Snapdragon 810 processor, Qualcomm says that it will allow Project Tango to deliver...Read more...

MediaTek introduced the first true octa-core mobile processor back in 2013 at a time when most flagship Android smartphones were packing quad-core processors. Today we’re learning that, just as today’s Android flagships have come around to octa-core power (HTC One M9, Samsung Galaxy S6/Galaxy S6 Edge), MediaTek is preparing to launch a 10-core mobile processor later this year. That’s right, ten friggin’ cores for your smartphone or tablet. Remember, Apple’s iPhone 6/iPhone 6 Plus and the iPad Air 2 are still rocking dual-core and triple-core processors respectively, and definitely hasn’t limited...Read more...

As part of its 'Make it Digital' campaign, the BBC will be giving a staggering 1 million mini DIY PCs, called 'Micro Bit', to year 7 (sixth grade) students across the UK later this year. The goal is to help students become familiar with product development, which will be aided by the launch of coding-based programs at the same time. These Micro Bit PCs are similar in context to the Raspberry Pi, although they are much simpler in design. That being the case, the BBC is not considering it a competitor to existing products, but instead something that might spur kids to want to make the jump to more...Read more...

Many of the higher end and flagship devices on tap for the coming weeks and months will sport Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810 processor inside, a 64-bit System-on-Chip (SoC) featuring quad-core ARM Cortex A57 and A53 CPUs. But what's potentially even more exciting is a cognitive platform Qualcomm is working on that will be supported by its forthcoming Snapdragon 820 processor. More on that in a moment, but first a few details about the chip itself. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 is being designed on a leading edge FinFET process node, though the company didn't say if it's using TSMC's 16nm manufacturing process...Read more...

Qualcomm is launching four new SoC SKUs today in an effort to add increased performance and beefed up functionality for mid-range smartphones. The new SoCs include the Snapdragon 415/425 and Snapdragon 618/620. The Snapdragon 415 and 425 are based on an octa-core Cortex A53 architecture and bring 64-bit support, ARMv8 instructions, and Quick Charge 2.0 support to the table. On the graphics side of things, the Snapdragon 415 and 425 now pack in an Adreno 405 GPU. The Snapdragon 415 and 425 seem pretty evenly matched up until this point, but there is one spec that differentiates the two SoCs: LTE...Read more...

Apple and Samsung will probably never be friends, and truth be told, the former doesn't even want to be business partners with the latter. Nevertheless, Apple isn't going to let its contempt for Samsung get in the way of a good business decision, and so it will again rely on the South Korean electronics giant to supply custom chips for its next iPhone, according to multiple reports.This is an ongoing arrangement between the two, though with each new generation of iPhone, there's always talk that Apple is trying to sever ties with Samsung. To an extent, it finally happened with the iPhone 6 -- Apple...Read more...

Where DIY PC boards are concerned, Raspberry Pi was an undeniable spearhead. As soon as the original unit came out, a flurry of competitors came to the surface, each with their own little twist. That's great for the consumer, but not great for RPi, which persisted for a couple of years without releasing a substantial update. Well, with the just-released RPi 2, we're brought back up to speed (no pun), and there's more than one reason to get excited: RPi 2 isn't just faster, it also brings Windows 10 support. Oh - and because of the class of device this is, a copy of Windows 10 will be free. On the...Read more...

For the last few years, NVIDIA has used the lead-up to the Consumer Electronics Show to announce new Tegra-related products and technologies. This year is no different. Earlier today, we got together with representatives from NVIDIA to talk about the company’s upcoming Tegra X1 system on a chip (SoC) and see the reference platform in action, running a variety of benchmarks and demos. NVIDIA Tegra X1 System On A Chip At last year’s CES, NVIDIA announced the Tegra K1 featuring a Kepler-derived GPU, which has since found its way into the excellent SHIELD Tablet, Google’s Project Tango device,...Read more...

When Apple debuted its A8 SoC, it proved to be a modest tweak of the original A7. Despite packing double the transistors and an improved GPU, the heart of the A8 SoC is the same dual-core Apple "Cyclone" processor tweaked to run at higher clock speeds and with stronger total GPU performance. Given this, many expected that the Apple A8X would be cut from similar cloth -- a higher clock speed, perhaps, and a larger GPU, but not much more than that. It appears those projections were wrong. The new A8X chip inside Apple's new iPad Air 2, is a triple-core variant of the A8, with a higher clock speed...Read more...

Apple knows better than to cut off its nose to spite its face, as the saying goes, hence why it still contracts Samsung to build the custom System-on-Chips (SoCs) that end up in iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. Will that relationship continue between these two bitter rivals? It would appear so, based on comments made by Kim Ki-nam, present of Samsung's semiconductor business. Ki-nam told reporters that once Samsung begins to supply Apple with SoCs using its latest technology, profits "will improve positively," ZDNet reports. While that's not an outright confirmation that Samsung will have...Read more...

The trickle-down effect has applied to technology for some time, but this feels more rapid than usual. Just a few years after LTE was introduced, and reserved only for flagship phones, Qualcomm has introduced a new SoC that could bring LTE access to millions of new users. The new Snapdragon 200 tier (namely the Snapdragon 210), will offer integrated multimode 3G/4G LTE and LTE Dual SIM for entry-level smartphones. QTI also today unveiled the company’s first LTE-equipped tablet reference design, enabling OEMs and ODMs to create and introduce a new class of multimode 3G/4G LTE connected tablets....Read more...

Applied Micro is betting big on microserver use in the HPC market, and to help things along, it's just begun shipping its new X-Gene processors, based on ARM's v8 64-bit architecture. In late June, the firm revealed a number of partners that would be shipping servers with its X-Gene chip inside, and one similarity amongst them all is that they also bundle in NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators. It's no secret that ARM's v8 architecture isn't as full-featured as Intel's, with its Xeon chips, but in some cases, that might be just fine. For the hardcore data-handling, the GPU could step in. On Tuesday,...Read more...

A couple of weeks back, we got the chance to get some hands on time with AMD’s upcoming mainstream and low-power APUs (Accelerated Processing Units), codenames Beema and Mullins. These APUs are the successors to last year’s Temash and Kabini APUs, which powered an array of small form factor and mobile platforms. With this release, however, AMD was laser focused on improving power consumption and efficiency, expanding the platform’s capabilities through both hardware and software tweaks, and of course improving performance over the previous generation. Beema and Mullins are based...Read more...

A couple of weeks back, we got the chance to get some hands on time with AMD’s upcoming mainstream and low-power APUs (Accelerated Processing Units), codenamed Beema and Mullins. These APUs are the successors to last year’s Temash and Kabini APUs, which powered an array of small form factor and mobile platforms. With this release, however, AMD was laser focused on improving power consumption and efficiency, expanding the platform’s capabilities through both hardware and software tweaks, and of course improving performance over the previous generation. Beema and Mullins are based...Read more...