CES 2013: Qualcomm Launches Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 800 SoCs
Subject: Mobile | January 11, 2013 - 09:05 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: SoC, qualcomm 800, qualcomm 600, qualcomm, krait, ces 2013, CES, arm, adreno 330, adreno 320
Qualcomm introduced two new high end mobile processors at CES earlier this week. Known as the Snapdragon 600 and Snapdragon 800, the new SoCs take the company’s Krait CPU cores to the next level. Both of the new chips are based on a 28nm HPm manufacturing process and feature faster (and more efficienct) CPU and GPU portions.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 is SoC with four Krait 300 CPU cores clocked at 1.9GHz along with an Adreno 320 GPU, and 4G LTE modem. The Snapdragon 600 also supports LPDDR3 RAM. The Adreno 320 GPU features suport fro OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL, and Renderscript Compute technologies. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 600 is 40% faster than the Snapdragon S4 Pro processor used in devices like the Google Nexus 4 smartphone. Also, the Adreno 320 GPU is up to 3-times faster than the previous-generation A225.
The Snapdragon 600 SoC is inteded for smartphones, and we should start to see the new processor shipping with new devices by Q2 2013.
Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 800 processor takes performance up yet another notch over the company’s existing chips. The new SoC includes four Krait 400 CPU cores clocked at 2.3GHz, an Adreno 330 GPU, support for 2x32-bit LPDDR3 at 800MHz (12.8Gbps), and a 4G LTE modem. The chip also features two image signal processors (ISP) that can handle up to four cameras and 55MP (total) resolution. Devices with the Snapdragon 800 processor will be able to record 1080p30 video as well as encode and decode stored videos with up to 4K resolutions. As far as wireless, the Snapdragon 800 includes a 4G LTE modem and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. The upcoming SoC can handle 4K video output and HD audio in the form of DTS-HD, Dolby Digital+, and 7.1 Surround Sound.
The Adreno 330 GPU in the Snapdragon 800 chip also supports OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL, and Rednderscript Computer technologies. It can output 4K video and reportedly offers up to twice the compute performance versus the Adreno 320 GPU in the Snapdragon 600 processor.
According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 800 processor as a whole is up to 75% faster than the Snapdragon S4 Pro SoC. Qualcomm is aiming this processor at “premium” high end devices including Smart TVs, tablets, consumer electronics devices (ie: blu ray players with apps), and smartphones. Qualcomm expects to see devices powered by the new SoC become available sometime around the middle of 2013 (1H’13).
The new chips appear to offer up some noticeable performance and efficiency improvements over the current generation of Snapdragon processors. The Snapdragon 800 in particular is an impressive-sounding design. I am interested to see how it stacks up against competing chips such as NVIDIA’s Tegra 4, Samsung’s next-gen Exynos lineup, and whatever chip Apple has up its sleeve for the next iPad/iPhone refresh. This year is shaping up to be an exciting year for ARM-based SoCs!
If you are interested in the new silicon, Qualcomm has teased a few more details on its blog.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Canonical Shows Off Ubuntu OS For Smartphones
Subject: Mobile | January 10, 2013 - 03:22 PM | Tim Verry
Tagged: ubuntu for phones, ubuntu, linux, ces 2013, CES, canonical
Earlier this month Canonical showed off a new version of its Ubuntu operating system intended for mobile phones. The Ubuntu for smartphones operating system is meant to extend the Ubuntu UI and UX to the smartphone screen. Canonical wants its OS to span from servers to phones and Ubuntu for phones is the latest step in that plan.
While there is no official hardware yet, the new operating system will be aimed at both low-end and high-end smartphones alike. It will support the standard array of smartphone functions–phone, sms, email, web browsing, and apps–along with the familiar Ubuntu user interface that is navigated by touch gestures. Ubuntu for phones will run on x86 and ARM hardware and is compatible with the Android Board Suppot Package. That means that users can actually run Ubuntu on many existing smartphones which are currently running Google's Android OS. Unlike Android, there is no Java VM, and the Ubuntu for phones operating system can run both HTML5 and native applications. At CES, Canonical demonstrated the OS using a Galaxy Nexus smartphone.
Ubuntu smartphones will feature a familiar Unity-like user interface with a number of tweaks to make it easier to navigate using a touchscreen. The OS will use a feature called Edge Magic, which includes swipe gestures inwards from each side of the phone to open applications, read notifications, change settings, and return to the home screen. Users can also use voice and text commands to control the smartphone. For example, users can swipe left to open the application launcher, drag from the left side to the right side of the screen to display all currently running apps, and drag up from the bottom to open application-specific settings. Swiping from the right acts as the 'back' function while dragging down from teh top opens the notifications and device-wide settings. There are no hardware buttons with Ubuntu for smartphones, and Canonical founder Mark Shuttlework has stated that keeping UI elements hidden until needed was a priority with Ubuntu for phones.
Ubuntu for phones is aimed at a wide range of smartphone hardware. On the low end, Ubuntu needs at least a dual-core ARM Cortex A9, 1GB of RAM, and 4GB of internal storage. The budget smartphones will run native apps (ideally) faster than similar code on Android due to the apps being closer to the hardware. Multitouch will be supported but the destkop functionality when the phone is docked is not available. On the other hand, high end smartphones will be able to access a full Ubuntu desktop when the phone is docked along with a mouse and keyboard.
Additional features of Ubuntu for smartphones include global search of applications, content, and products, Deep Content Immersion, and personalized artwork on the welcome (lock) screen. Further, Ubuntu One cloud storage, enterprise management tool compatibility, and regular updates are also rolled into the operating system. Ubuntu does include scopes which are similar in function and aesthetics to desktop Ubuntu. The scopes include a list of applications, contacts, videos, and music (among others).
The following chart lists the recommended/referrence specifications for budget and premium smartphones running the Ubuntu mobile OS.
| Entry Level | High End | |
| SoC | dual core Cortex A9 | quad core Cortex A9 or better |
| RAM | 1GB preferred | minimum of 1GB |
| Storage | 4-8GB eMMC + SD card | min 32GB eMMC + SD card |
| Display Resolution | WVGA 800x400 | 720p or 1080p |
| Multi-Touch | Yes | Yes |
| Desktop | No | Yes |
| Convergence | No | Yes |
Interestingly, users of the Galaxy Nexus smartphone will be able to test drive Ubuntu for smartphones later this year by flashing their device with the new OS. As far as retail hardware with Ubuntu pre-installed, Canonical is reportedly working on developing partnerships with handset makers. Canonical hopes to being shipping devices begining in Q4'13 or Q1'14.
From the various video demonstrations of the Ubuntu for smartphones operating system, it appears extremely slick and user friendly. Curiously, Canoncial was not willing to let CES attendees go hands-on with the reference phone, which may mean that the operating system is not quite ready for prime time. Despite that hesitation, I do think that Ubuntu for smartphones shows a lot of promise as a mobile, touchscreen-controlled operating system.
It is certainly a project that I will be following closely. With the untimely hardware failure of my Nokia N900, I am in need of a new power user-friendly smartphone. And an Ubuntu-powered mobile sounds like the perfect upgrade for me!
What do you think about Canonical's latest venture?
ModdEverything checks out Ubuntu running on a smartphone at CES 2013.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Nokia Sold 4.4 Million Lumia Phones in Q4’12
Subject: Mobile | January 10, 2013 - 11:23 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: wp8, nokia, microsoft, lumia
Finnish handset manufacturer Nokia has released a preliminary report on last quarter’s WP8 handset sales. There is good news and bad news.
On the positive side of things, Nokia managed to sell approximately 4.4 million Lumia-series smartphones running the Windows Phone OS. While not spectacular, it is a healthy ramp-up in Lumia phone sales versus previous quarters. For example, in Q4 of 2011 the company sold 1 million Windows Phone handsets, and then it managed to sell 2.9 million in Q3 of 2012 resulting in both year over year and quarter over quarter growth. Another interesting figure from the report is that Nokia has sold a total of 14.3 million Lumia smartphones to date. Lumia sales in Q4 2012 have also managed to surpass the company’s 2.2 million Symbian OS phone sales in Q4’12.
And now for the slightly-less-good news. The Lumia series (and Windows Phone 8 OS/handsets in general) continue to occupy the spot of ‘mobile OS underdog’ by a significant margin. To put the Lumia/WP8 sales in perspective, according to Android Authority, Samsung made $8.1 billion through sales of approximately 65.7 million Android smartphones. On the other hand, Nokia’s sales of Windows Phone hardware has surpassed its sales of phones powered by Symbian OS (at 2.2 million in Q4’12).
The numbers do seem to suggest that the market for Nokia Lumia handsets is slowly growing so it will be interesting to see sales figures a few years down the road. (Note that historic growth does not necessarily equal future growth. It does suggest that it is on the rise though. heh).
CES 2013: Samsung Teases Eight Core Exynos Octa SoC
Subject: Mobile | January 10, 2013 - 06:29 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: SoC, Samsung, exynos octa, exynos, ces 2013, CES, big.little, arm
Samsung talked up a new ARM SoC during CES that will become the new high-end part of its Exynos 5 lineup. The Samsung Exynos 5 Octa is, as the name suggests, an eight core processor. It is built on a 28nm manufacturing process and employs ARM's big.LITTLE architecture.
While Samsung is not ready to share all the detailed under-the-hood details, the Exynos 5 Octa has four Cortex A15 cores clocked at 1.8GHz paired with four Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.2GHz. With big.LITTLE, the SoC has both high performance, high powr cores and lower power cores. The configuration is invisible to the end user, and the chip will use the Cortex A15 cores when in 3D applications or other CPU load intensive applications. Then, while the phone is idle or simply running background applications (notifications, checking email, updating twitter and facebook feeds, ect), the SoC will power down the Cortex A15 cores and use the lower power-drawing A7 cores. Ideally, this will give users a "best of both worlds" situation and a balance of performance and battery life.
Samsung claims that the Exynos 5 Octa offers up to twice the 3D performance of other existing current-generation SoCs. However, we do not yet have details on the GPU improvements (if any) over Samsung's other Exynos 5 chips much less benchmark-able products running this chip yet so it is difficult to say whether that statement is true or not. Also, Samsung claims as much as a 70% improvement in power savings over its dual core Exynos 5 processor, which is certainly a bold claim.
According to Engadget, Samsung plans to reveal all the nitty-gritty details on the eight-core Exynos 5 Octa SoC at the International Solid State Circuits Conference on February 19, 2013. It should give NVIDIA's "4+1" core Tegra 4 a run for its money, at lest on the CPU front (and maybe 3D graphics as well, but it's hard to say at this point).
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: Firefox OS Coming to Low-End Smartphones Later This Year
Subject: Mobile | January 10, 2013 - 04:23 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: zte, smartphone, mozilla, html5, Firefox OS, ces 2013, CES
Mozilla has been interested in smartphones for awhile now. The Boot2Gecko project has since transitioned to Firefox OS, and now the company is nearly ready to officially release the code and begin getting it onto smartphones and competing with the current giants of Android, iOS, and WP8. According to The Verge, who talked with the company at CES, Mozilla’s mobile operating system will be released within the next two weeks.
The Verge checks out a prototype phone running Firefox OS.
The mobile OS is coded in HTML5 and uses HTML5 applications. While Mozilla plans to introduce an app store to curate things, currently users are able to find run web apps on the Internet. Do not expect Firefox OS to take the smartphone world by storm this year, however. Mozilla will reportedly restrict the mobile OS to low end hardware, with up to 800MHz single core ARM processors. Further, no OEM phones are scheduled for a US release this year (so far). ZTE has confirmed that it is pursuing handsets with Firefox OS pre-installed. Currently, the company is planning at least one low end smartphone release in Europe late this year. US residents will likely not see Firefox OS shipping with phones until next year at the earliest, depending on how well the phones do in the developing markets and when Mozilla opens up the hardware restrictions to higher-end devices.
Until then, you can check out Firefox OS for yourself in a simulator using the Firefox web browser and a browser add-on called the Firefox OS Simulator. To test it out, open up a Firefox browser window and install the add-on from this webpage. Then click the Firefox button and navigate to Web Developer > Firefox OS Simulator. Then, on the left hand side of the window that opens, click the stopped button to start the simulator. A new window will open running the mobile operating system.
The Dialer, Messages, and Web Browser apps in Firefox OS.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: MSI Slidebook S20 to Debut This Month for $1299
Subject: Mobile | January 10, 2013 - 02:37 AM | Tim Verry
Tagged: windows 8, tablet, slider s20, slidebook, msi, ces 2013, CES
MSI first showed off its Slider S20 Windows 8 convertible tablet with slider hinge at Computex, and now it is making a new showing at this year’s CES. It has updated specifications, a slightly tweaked name, and an official release date later this month. The Slider S20 is now known as the Slidebook S20 and is classified as a convertible ultrabook.
The Tech Report goes hands-on with the Slidebook S20.
The Slidebook S20 is a convertible tablet where the display can slide upwards to reveal a physical keyboard. Then, the display can swivel upwards to act as a notebook. The display is an 11.6” IPS display with a resolution of 1920x1080 and 10 point multi-touch input. It has a single horizontal hinge to attach the display to the keyboard instead of the traditional single-point swivel hinge on tablets like the Dell Latitude XT series. The Slidebook S20 measures .8” thin and is estimated to be around 2.5 lbs.
Internal specifications include an Intel Core i5 Ivy Bridge processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB solid state drive. Further, the system runs the full version of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system.
The S20 tablet features a mini HDMI video output, two USB 3.0 ports, a single headphone jack, and a DC input jack on the right side. The left side of the tablet includes an Ethernet jack and the back edge of the tablet includes a volume rocker and orientation switch.
According to MSI, the Slidebook S20 will be available later this month for $1299 with 8GB of RAM. It is a neat form factor and the sliding hinge should make the S20 fairly sturdy. Even so, it does lack a touchpad and the price ended up being higher than the rumored sub-$1000 mark that I was hoping for. I do worry that the S20’s keyboard will suffer the same fate as other smartphones, where the top row of keys will be difficult to hit as the display is positioned right up against them. (At least the number keys are cushioned by the F1-12 keys, so it is less of an issue heh.)
MSI shows off the Slidebook S20.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013 Video: AMD Temash Prototype plays DiRT Showdown at 1080p
Subject: Mobile | January 9, 2013 - 08:22 PM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: video, z-60, vizio, Temash, ces 2013, CES, APU, amd
While Josh taps away on a story about the updates to AMD's roadmap announced at CES this week, we stopped by the Experience Zone to see what demonstrations we could get our hands on. We ran into Chris who showed us two new interesting products. The first was an AMD Z-60 based tablet from Vizio running Modern Warfare 2 at high image quality settings compared to a currently selling Intel Clovertrail design. Where the AMD system had no issues and could play the game very smoothly, the other was running at an awful frame rate and with obvious visual glitches.
Secondly, and maybe more impressive, was the prototype tablet AMD showed using the upcoming Temash APU. Due out in Q2 of this year, Temash is an APU based on Jaguar CPU cores and GCN GPU cores - the first GCN based APU. They demoed an early unit running DiRT Showdown at 1080p (at low quality settings) and I found the visuals to be quite impressive! It looks like 2013 might turn out to be a better year for AMD in the mobile space than many expected.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
CES 2013: WonderMedia Dualcore PRIZM SoC
Subject: General Tech, Mobile, Shows and Expos | January 9, 2013 - 07:35 PM | Scott Michaud
Tagged: WonderMedia, ces 2013, CES
WonderMedia, a subsidiary of VIA Technologies, designs low-cost ARM processors. Like many chip designers such as NVIDIA, they do not have their own fabrication capabilities. Still, companies such as TSMC are almost always happy to fulfill orders for interested parties.
Vis-à-VIA
While the majority of CES hype is about the devices, they would literally be pretty dumb without logic behind them. WonderMedia is hoping to power your cheap tablets and set top boxes and in the process bring them up to Android 4.2. The System on a Chip (SoC) also supports Miracast in hopes to bring wireless display technologies down to an even cheaper price point.
The PRIZM WM8980 is currently available for sampling with mass production shipments in Q1 2013.
Check in after the break for the press release.
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
Ring! Ring! Lenovo-phone!
Subject: Mobile | January 9, 2013 - 01:45 PM | Jeremy Hellstrom
Tagged: Lenovo, Ideaphone K860, ice cream sandwich, android 4.0, Exynos 4412
The Exynos 4412 powered Lenovo Ideaphone K860 sports very nice 720 x 1280 IPS screen which takes up most of the body of the phone thanks to the thin bezel on the phone. The Inquirer were impressed with the performance of the phone as well as the custom interface Lenovo demonstrated, running Ice Cream Sandwich. They also felt that the phone felt somewhat more rugged than it's competition the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, check out the full preview here.
"We were shocked to discover the size of the phone too, as it didn't feel as big as 5in when held in the hand. That's not to say it's a tiny phone, as with dimensions of 143.5 x7 4.4 x 9.6mm it won't squeeze easily into your skinny jean pocket, However, Lenovo designed the phone with a narrow bezel around the screen, which means it doesn't waste valuable space with white plastic."
Here are some more Mobile articles from around the web:
- Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon Ultrabook Review @ Hardware Canucks
- Dell Precision M6700 review: the ultimate portable workstation @ Hardware.info
- Asus S46CA-XH51 Review @ TechReviewSource
- MSI GX60 Review @ TechReviewSource/A>
- Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Touch Review @ TechReviewSource
- Acer Aspire S7 Ultrabook @ AnandTech
- Mobile GPU Comparison Guide @ TechARP
- Atom vs Tegra in Windows 8: battle of the mobile chips @ Hardware.info
- LG Optimus L7 Smartphone @ Tweaktown
- AT&T MiFi Liberate 4G LTE Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot Review @ Legit Reviews
CES 2013 Video: Intel Demonstrates Power Efficiency of Clovertrail, Tegra 3 and Krait
Subject: Mobile | January 9, 2013 - 11:18 AM | Ryan Shrout
Tagged: video, tegra 3, qualcomm, power, nvidia, krait, Intel, clovertrail, ces 2013, CES
One of the more interesting demonstrations from CES thus far has come from Intel in the form of power consumption comparisons between three of the current tablet SoC solutions. Intel pits the Clovertrail SoC against NVIDIA's Tegra 3 and Qualcomm's Krait in a battle of power efficiency during video playback. What you'll see is that Intel's test shows the Clovertrail processor able to not only run near but surpass the power efficiency of the ARM-based processors shown.
This is an incredibly powerful collection of tools that Intel has presented and we are hoping to be able to dive into a similar level of detail in the future. By utilizing direct monitoring of power VRMs on the processor we could even see the power consumption of the CPU cores in comparison to the GPU cores and even against the L2 cache in some instances.
Intel is on a mission to prove that they are not only competitive today in the tablet SoC market but that they are a leader in the market. More to follow!!
PC Perspective's CES 2013 coverage is sponsored by AMD.
Follow all of our coverage of the show at http://pcper.com/ces!
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