Category: ARM TechCon

Nvidia Tegra2 ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core performance for web browsing

Posted by – November 13, 2010

Here’s a demonstration showing that the second core in ARM Cortex-A9 processors allow for at least 50% performance improvement for such applications as the web browser in Android.

ARM CoreLink 400 Series

Posted by – November 13, 2010

This is a Cache Coherent Computer subsystem. Allows to deliver a whole bunch of new use cases, two Quad Cortex-A15 clusters can be fully I/O coherent with the MAli-T604 graphics.

Revo 1 by Revolution Robotics Java Standard Edition based robot

Posted by – November 13, 2010

This is a robot system based on the Marvell Armada plug computer system. Find out more at http://revolution-robotics.com

Java Embedded SE 6u21 synchronized with Java SE

Posted by – November 13, 2010

The latest Java release for ARM Powered devices is multi-processor optimized, allows to fully utilize hardware. All the same Java apps that run on an x86 desktop can now also work on ARM Powered devices.

The video crew from Chip Estimate TV

Posted by – November 13, 2010

Chip Estimate is a company owned by Cadence, among other features of its website are some videos which they produce with a pretty high production value. Watch their videos at their YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/chipestimate

ST Ericsson U8500 ARM Cortex-A9

Posted by – November 13, 2010

Check out the Meego OS running on this nice new super powerful ARM Cortex-A9 processor and some talk with a representative about the performance and potential of this processor platform.

I am interviewed by EE Times about my interest for ARM devices

Posted by – November 12, 2010

Here I am video interviewed by EE Times Editors Brian Fuller and Patrick Mannion on the subject of ARM Powered tablets where I get to talk about Archos and what I think of the tablet industry in general.

You can watch this video at this link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid631791731001?bclid=598319351001&bctid=672346903001

25 ARM Techcon videos still to be uploaded

Posted by – November 12, 2010
Category: ARM TechCon

I had to move hotels for tonight, the Internet upload bandwidth is not enough to upload anything in this random one. Check back tomorrow, I still have about 25 videos that I filmed at the ARM Techcon that I still need to find upload bandwidth somewhere in San Jose tomorrow to upload and publish.

Simon Segars, Executive VP and General Manager ARM Physical IP Division

Posted by – November 11, 2010

An interview with Simon Segars at the ARM techcon 2010 about the status of the ARM industry. He is one of the early employees of ARM, joined in 1991, now member of the board of directors, has led the development on many of the ARM CPU products.

Marvell Armada XP Quad-core ARM Powered Servers

Posted by – November 11, 2010

A discussion with Marvell about their ARM Powered Servers which could take over the whole cloud computing servers market.

Marvell Armada 100 and 600 for Tablets

Posted by – November 11, 2010

Marvell shows the Armada 100 and Armada 600, explains the differences in price, performance, target markets. Also shows off the Marvell 168 powered Gplug D, the first Guruplug with a HDMI output. The big question I have is which platform will OLPC choose to use for the OLPC XO-3 tablet platform, if it will be one of these or if the timing allows for the even newer and more powerful Marvell Armada 628 Tri-Core processor to be used.

Samsung Orion ARM Cortex-A9 and Mali-400 shown for the first time

Posted by – November 11, 2010

This is Samsung’s new ARM Cortex-A9 processor. Probably, I expect, the processor that will be in the next generation of Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab type of products from Samsung and from manufacturers who will want to use Samsung’s processor in their products. My guess is it may also be fast enough to power Samsung laptops with Chrome OS or some other type of embedded Linux. It seems also to be the first demonstration of Mali-400, to be confirmed. Samsung representatives were not able to confirm anything on this processor at this point.

Linaro Graphics Group at ARM Techcon 2010

Posted by – November 11, 2010

An interview with the leader of the Linaro Graphics Group on the status of graphics acceleration in Linaro and how important that is for a smooth experience of advanced user interfaces on ARM Powered devices.

Freescale Kinetis Tower System now sampling

Posted by – November 11, 2010

The Freescale Tower systems are development kits providing for many of Freescale’s sensors and processing features in a cube. The new Freescale Kinetis ARM Cortex-M4 processor and this Kinetis Tower System just started sampling now.

Linaro CEO George Grey at ARM Techcon 2010

Posted by – November 11, 2010

Linaro’s goal is to make it easy for manufacturers to make ARM based devices, from smart phones, tablets, set-top-boxes, cars, even desktops, laptops and servers.

MDK-ARM and ULINKpro at ARM Techcon 2010

Posted by – November 11, 2010

ULINKpro, together with MDK-ARM, provides extended on-the-fly debug capabilities for Cortex-M devices.

John Bruggeman of Cadence on EDA360 at ARM Techcon 2010

Posted by – November 10, 2010

John Bruggeman of Cadence and Simon Segars of ARM just hosted a pretty awesome fireside chat at the ARM Techcon (full length video of which I will link to here once it is up). discussing areas in which ARM industry should cooperate more and where they can differentiate themselves and push the technology forward faster. Cadence is an EDA provider which means they provide software tools for designers of ARM Processors. The fireside chat includes discussions on standardization of Linux on ARM, supporting drivers, implementing security at the hardware level (see my video of ARM TrustZone), and how John Bruggeman thinks competing EDA providers should agree on how to collaborate on certain areas to focus on competing on others and bring the industry forward faster. Cost of designing a new ARM Processor should be cut by a factor of 5 he says if these industry players could figure out to better collaborate on the core tools. The goal is for companies that provide solutions and tools that enable always cheaper ARM Powered devices to consumers, that cost to build basic things should be built collaboratively so suppliers can save money on basic stuff and focus on differentiation. $100 Android phones and $400 HDTVs should still allow device makers and the industry that supports the creation of these tools to make a profit. In a constantly disruptive industry with cheaper and cheaper ARM Powered devices, but at the same time with more and more complicated, more advanced, soon reaching Nanotechnology scales ARM Powered devices, it is interesting to imagine how all these companies plan to continue to make a profit.

VisualOn provides ARM Powered video playback without hardware acceleration

Posted by – November 10, 2010

VisualOn is demonstrating that they can provide solutions for ARM9, ARM11 and ARM Cortex-A8 and -A9 processors, where the playback of all video codecs, in certain cases at up to 720p can be supported by using the ARM part of the processor only, not even needing to use a DSP to hardware accelerate the video playback. It is still to be confirmed exactly what resolutions and bitrates are supported for each specific level of ARM Processor performance. For uses like adding support for RMVB, WMV and certain types of video streaming on top of regular HD decoding hardware, then this could be a good solution for those types of people. It integrates seemlessly as a Native SDK based application on top of Android.

I am video-blogging ARM Techcon starting tomorrow

Posted by – November 9, 2010
Category: ARM TechCon

I have arrived here in Santa Clara California, just a few kilometers from Google’s Mountain View, Yahoo and Cisco are the other side of the street, Apple is in the next city 10 minutes from here. This is the Silicon Valley. Tomorrow starts the ARM Technology Conference here at the Santa Clara convention center. I will be video-blogging perhaps as many as 30 videos during these next few days. Make sure to often refresh my RSS feed during these next few days (starting Tuesday November 9th Pacific Time) and check back for lots of awesome ARM related videos coming up!

Just few days before the rumored Nexus Two and Gingerbread (I may have seen a couple of engineers waving it around a bar in Mountain View just a couple of hours ago..), within a couple weeks from the rumored Chrome OS ARM Powered laptops, TI, Nvidia and others have ARM Cortex-A9 devlopment kits and actual products hitting the market now or soon, the ARM Cortex-A15 was just announced! I expect there will be a lot of fascinating videos to film, demonstrating the products and technologies, interviewing engineers and specialists from ARM and from all the companies making ARM Processors and products!

I want to learn more about the performance of ARM Cortex-A9 for full desktop/laptop computing. Is full web browsing speed going to happen soon? What specific kinds of faster I/O and faster memory designs are required for ARM Powered laptops and desktops to hit mass production and usage by all consumers?

Which are the best ARM Powered tablet platforms? How are they customizing Android for tablets or which other software solutions and hardware acceleration is being worked on?

What is the status of Linaro, is it going to support a software foundation for full desktop/laptop computing on ARM Powered devices? What are going to be the hardware requirements?

Do ARM Powered solutions support full 1080p video decode and encode, at full high bitrates with high profile encodes of most requiring MKV containers with all the required codecs? If so, what’s needed for ARM to power the Google TV? How soon will ARM be usable for Google TV based devices?

What’s up with the next generation of 1080p camcorders, will their encoding qualities be increased (better encoding quality at lower bitrates) and can ARM Powered solutions be used for the most cost effective HD video-conferencing solutions?

How are the ARM chip providers designing those processors? How do they manufacture them? How do they plan to make them faster, smaller, cheaper and better? How long does it take to integrate them in products that can be mass manufactured and sold to consumers?

What would you like me to ask the people representing these ARM related companies during this conference? Post your questions in the comments and I will try to ask them directly to the engineers in charge of all the aspects of the ARM industry! Do you want to ask anything to ARM, Freescale, TI, Samsung, Marvell, Qualcomm and any of the other attendees or exhibitors at this conference? Let me know what I should ask and who I should Interview! You can also let me know what I should film at my email charbax@gmail.com and to my phone number while I am in the USA: +1 (702) 238 8630