HDMI 2.1 brings auto low latency mode (ALLM) and variable refresh rate (VRR) gaming here demonstrated on a Samsung QLED TV with a new firmware update to add that functionality support to the Microsoft Xbox One X. For more information about HDMI 2.1 features for gaming see my other video. That VRR functionality of HDMI 2.1 can be considered similar to dynamic refresh rate technologies like AMD’s FreeSync and NVIDIA’s G-Sync which are now popular for gamers buying new gaming PC monitors and new graphics cards, but the target market here for the HDMI 2.1 is also for gamers to be able to enjoy those features on the 4K TVs in the future. So expect upcoming 4K TVs to support it, if not it even being added to the firmware of existing 4K TVs on the market (like possibly as part of an evt firmware update for this Samsung QLED 4K TV), and here also updated with the firmware of gaming consoles like the Xbox One X.
Category: Computex
Analogix 10Gbit/s ANX7440 Re-timer USB Type-C DisplayPort for PC Mode phones, laptops, monitors
Analogix shows their latest ANX7440 solution for 8.1Gbit/s DisplayPort 1.4 for video output and 10Gbit/s USB3 Gen2 data transfer. Now ready for mass production, its ANX74xx family of USB-C re-timer solutions are for laptops, 2-in-1 convertible laptops, desktop PCs, monitors, and USB-C accessories, the Analogix ANX7440 is the first protocol aware re-timing mux bridging DisplayPort and USB 3.1 interfaces for ARM Powered Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Windows 10 laptops like the HP Envy x2, Intel, AMD, and Nvidia CPUs/GPUs to the USB-C connector, is the first USB-C re-timer to pass interoperability at USB-IF and VESA plug-test. They are pure USB-C re-timers using Separate Reference Clock Independent of SSC (SRIS) and Bit-Level Re-timer (BLR) architectures, guaranteeing a loss compensation to recover up to 23dB channel loss for USB 3.1 Gen2 10 Gbps; They are fully compliant to the latest USB 3.2 Appendix E requirements supporting 4-re-timer connectivity, with seamless daisy-chaining of four re-timers, meeting the USB 3.2 CTS requirements; They are complete DisplayPort re-timers with Link Training Tunable PHY Repeater (LTTPR) mode and transparent mode with AUX snooper, guaranteeing a loss compensation to recover up to 20dB channel loss for DisplayPort HBR3 8.1 Gbps.
The ANX74xx product family includes:
ANX7440 – integrated 10 Gbps re-timer and USB-C switch for DisplayPort over USB-C ports;
ANX7430 – integrated 10 Gbps re-timer and USB-C switch for USB 3.1 Gen2 USB-C ports;
ANX7490 – integrated 10 Gbps re-timer for USB 3.1 Gen2 USB Type-A, Type-B, and USB Type-C ports;
ANX7496 – integrated 8.1 Gbps DisplayPort re-timer for mini-DP, standard DisplayPort, and USB-C ports.
19GB/s SSD by Western Digital (Black NVMe), WD MyPassport SSD, portable SSD and more
Western Digital shows their up to 1TB Western Digital Black NVMe SSD storage that can combine 8 of them through two PCI-e splitters to reach up to 19 Gigabytes per second storage speed. Sandisk and WD and Sandisk branded portable SSDs at up to 550MB/s bandwidth. Thunderbolt based portable SSD with up to 2.8GB/s bandwidth. Up to 2TB WD MyPassport SSD to backup SD cards remotely to the built-in SSD with up to 390MB/s bandwidth. Up to 7.8TB desktop SSD drive. WD Black hard drives can do somewhere around up to 250MB/s bandwidth and SSDs can go 10x faster or more. For their UHS-2 SD card at 300MB/s they still only have up to 128GB capacity only. Rockchip RK3188-T on a Beagleboard.
Socionext camera/video AI, IoT, Linaro, processing, low light, security cameras and more
Socionext and partners show their newest solutions featuring the Linaro Edge Box and other of their solutions for camera and video processing, AI, IoT including their Image Signal Processor demonstrations for High-accuracy license plate recognition, High-performance under ultra-low-light conditions, Multi-camera UHD panorama view (four cameras), AR / VR / MR / XR, Video – Hybrid Codec Solution Demos, Socionext’s High-density video transcoding for Cost-saving IP video distribution, Intelligent edge computing, AI / IoT – Edge Computing and High-performance AI inference system for High-efficiency video management systems (VMS) and Power-saving edge.
TechNexion shows worldwide pre-certified IoT modules at Computex 2018
TechNexion shows off their new products at Computex 2018: pre-certified IoT modules, Android Things development kits, IP69K embedded systems and more. The booth tour starts with Android Things development kit PICO-PI-IMX7 live demo, based on NXP i.MX7 Dual applications processor and ARM Cortex-A7 architecture has been the go-to development kit since the official Android Things launch at Google I/O in May. The company also demonstrates PICO-IMX8M SoM based on NXP i.MX8M processor and Cortex-A53 + M4 architectures that delivers a whooping 4K UltraHD video performance with HDR and pro audio fidelity for multimedia applications. TechNexion is also launching CE, ETSI, FCC, IC, RCM and TELEC pre-certified IoT wireless communication modules and development kits: PIXI-9377 based on Qualcomm QCA9377, PIXI-6174 based on Qualcomm QCA6174 that deliver high transmission rates, low latency and improved range in noisy industrial environments. The company is showcasing a fully waterproof TWP-1010-IMX6 HMI based on NXP i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 processor that was specially designed to withstand extreme environments and cleaning with a jet spray. TWP series likewise includes models based on Intel Braswell architecture. TEK5-APL box PC based on Intel Atom x5-E3930, x5-E3940, x7-E3950 and Apollo Lake architecture, enclosed in a fully ruggedized enclosure for use in a vehicle.
GIGABYTE shows Cavium ThunderX2 ARM Server Portfolio
The R181-T90 is a 1U height dual socket general purpose ThunderX2 rack server with 8 channels RDIMM / ECC UDIMM DDR4 memory, 24 x DIMM slots, 1 x 25GbE SFP28 LAN port, 1 x 10GbE SFP+ LAN port (optional), 12 x 2.5” hot-swap HDD bays, 2 x OCP mezzanine slots (PCIe 3.0 x16), Aspeed AST2500 management controller, and 1+1 1600W 80 PLUS Platinum PSU. The R281-T91 is a 2U height dual socket general purpose ThunderX2 rack server with 8 channels RDIMM / ECC UDIMM DDR4 memory, 24 x DIMM slots, 1 x 25GbE SFP28 LAN port, 1 x 10GbE SFP+ LAN port (optional), 24 x 2.5” hot-swap HDD bays, 8 x PCIe 3.0 expansion slots, Aspeed AST2500 management controller, and 1+1 1600W 80 PLUS Platinum PSU. The R181-T90 and R281-T91 will be available to order from July 2018. The H261-T60 is a 2U height 4 node density optimized ThunderX2 server with dual ThunderX2 CN9975 sockets for each node (8 x sockets in total) and rear access to the node trays. The sockets will support a CPU up to 195W TDP. Each node supports 4 channels RDIMM / ECC UDIMM DDR4 memory, with 64 x DIMM slots for the system in total. The system contains in total 8 x SFP28 10G/25G LAN ports, 4 dedicated management ports, 12 x 3.5” SATA/SAS hot-swap HDD/SSD bays, 8 x low profile PCIe Gen3 expansion slots, 4 x OCP Gen3 mezzanine slots, and the system includes Aspeed AST2500 remote management controller and 1 + 1 2200W 80 PLUS Platinum redundant PSU. The H261-T60 will be available for shipping in late September or early October 2018. Find more information on GIGABYTE’s server products at http://b2b.gigabyte.com
QNAP TS-328, affordable 3-bay RAID5 NAS
QNAP TS-328 ($249 at Amazon.com) is the World’s first maybe most cost-effective 3-bay NAS with dual Gigabit LAN that can be used to do a RAID 5 array with the fewest disks for the lowest cost RAID 5 NAS system, powered by Realtek RTD1296 quad-core ARM Cortex-A53, with multimedia support such as H.264/H.265 hardware decoding and transcoding, cross-device file backup, synchronization, storage, backup, file management, sharing and more using the Linux based QNAP QTS 4.3.4 operating system with all sorts of apps that can be used on a NAS you can read more about QTS here Read more about QNAP TS-328 here.
Qualcomm Press Conference at Computex 2018
Qualcomm launches the Snapdragon 850 for Windows 10, with representatives of Microsoft and Samsung participating in the keynote too. You can see my extensive video interview about Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 for Windows 10 Laptops here.
Nvidia Press Conference at Computex 2018
Jensen Huang, Founder and CEO of Nvidia, Announces Jetson Xavier which I have filmed a separate interview about here, he does not launch the rumored GTX2080 or GTX1180 next-gen graphics cards yet, provides update on Max-Q thinner full GPU gaming laptops, talks DGX-2 supercomputer “The World’s Largest GPU” (an update on the DGX which I filmed here) with 2 petaflops of performance in one node, 512GB frame buffer which has set 5 world records: fastest single chip, fastest single node, fastest at scale, fastest inference, and highest inference throughput.
Cavium ThunderX2 benchmarks compared with Intel and AMD
Patrick Kennedy, Editor-in-Chief at ServeTheHome.com talks about the independent benchmarks on ThunderX2 that he published at ServeTheHome.com as Cavium announced General Availability of the ThunderX2 ARM Server at their event in San Francisco last month.
The ThunderX2 family includes over 40 different SKUs for both scale up and scale out applications, ranging from top bin 32 core 2.5GHz parts to 16-core 1.6GHz parts, mapping directly across Intel’s Xeon Skylake server CPUs from highest end Platinum to low end SKUs. With list prices for volume SKUs (32 core 2.2GHz and below) ranging from $1795 to $800, the ThunderX2 family offers 2-4X better performance per dollar compared to Xeon Skylake family of processors. The ThunderX2 family is fully compliant with Armv8-A architecture specifications as well as the Arm Server Base System Architecture and Arm Server Base Boot Requirements standards. The ThunderX2 SoC family is supported by a comprehensive software ecosystem, ranging from platform level systems management and firmware to commercial Operating Systems, Development Environments and Applications. Cavium has actively engaged in server industry standards groups such as UEFI and delivered numerous reference platforms to a broad array of community and corporate partners. Cavium has also demonstrated its leadership role in the Open Source software community driving upstream kernel enablement and toolchain optimization, actively contributing to Linaro’s Enterprise and Networking Groups, investing in key Linux Foundation projects such as DPDK, OpenHPC, OPNFV and Xen and sponsoring the FreeBSD Foundation’s Armv8 server implementation.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 for Windows 10 Laptops
35% performance upgrade compared with Snapdragon 835 Windows 10 Laptops such as the Asus Novago which I filmed here features Qualcomm Kyro 385 which is their customized Octa-core quad ARM Cortex-A75 and quad ARM Cortex-A55, going up to 2.95GHz with less throttling. Samsung announces that they will be making Windows 10 on Snapdragon 850 device. Other manufacturing partners Asus, HP and Lenovo are also going to release new devices featuring this chipset. The Snapdragon 850 features 1.2Gbit/s LTE using the X20 modem on SoC (20% faster than 835), fast Wi-Fi, 3x faster AI performance than 835, up to 25 hours of continuous usage. Qualcomm Aqstic enables virtual surround sound, native DSD support, aptX HD as well as 4K capture (possibly up to 4K video-conferencing possible). Microsoft has published this session video from their recent Build conference explaining how developers can compile, build and optimize ARMv8 versions of any Windows app, on stage they showed how to compile the Windows VLC app for the ARM64 Windows 10 platform. Working with Gemalto, Qualcomm demonstrates Integrated SIM (iSIM) on their Snapdragon 850 trusted secure hardware element, to be able to select, load Telecom packages full securely, perhaps eventually also load and store any SIM card into the device and switch between each one.
ARM Press Conference at Computex 2018, ARM Cortex-A76, Mali-G76, Mali-V76
Here’s my full video in 4K from my front row seat of the ARM Press Conference at Computex 2018. You can also watch my Interview with Nandan Nayampally here.
$1299 Nvidia Jetson Xavier dev kit, 8-core ARMv8, 512-core Volta GPU for AI Robotics
Nvidia launes Jetson Xavier with 20x the performance of Jetson TX2 and 10x the energy efficiency with 512-core Volta GPU with Tensor Cores in an embedded module with more than 9 billion transistors it runs at under 30W, with multiple operating modes at 10W, 15W, and 30W. The Jetson Xavier ARM SoC has 6 kinds of high-performance processors on its SoC, a Volta Tensor Core GPU, an eight-core ARM64 CPU, dual NVDLA deep learning accelerators, an image processor, a vision processor and a video processor. Jetson Xavier has a peak performance of up to 30 TOPS (trillion operations per second) of mixed-precision FP32/FP16/INT8 performance. It can encode dual 4K60 H265 and decode dual 4K60 H265 at up to 12bit. Comes with 16GB LPDDR4x RAM with 137GB/s memory bandwidth, 32GB eMMC storage. It also has a dual NVDLA DL/ML Accelerator Engines which are open source available at http://nvdla.org and a 7-way VLIW Vision Accelerator. Nvidia Jetson Xavier runs using the Nvidia Isaac platform, a toolbox for the simulation, training, verification and deployment of Jetson Xavier. This robotics software consists of: Isaac SDK, APIs and tools to develop robotics algorithm software and runtime framework with fully accelerated libraries, Isaac IMX (Intelligent Machine Acceleration) applications, a collection of NVIDIA-developed robotics algorithm software, Isaac Sim, a highly realistic virtual simulation environment for developers to train autonomous machines and perform hardware-in-the-loop testing with Jetson Xavier. The Nvidia Jetson Xavier developer kit, which includes the Isaac robotics software, will be priced at $1,299, with early access starting in August from distributors worldwide.
ARM Cortex-A76, Mali-G76, Mali-V76
ARM Cortex-A76 is a new microarchitecture based on DynamIQ technology, delivers 35% faster 7nm laptop-class performance (Intel Core-i3, Core-i5 comparable performance) with 40% improved efficiency maintaining the power efficiency of a smartphone. ARM Cortex-A76 also delivers 4x compute performance improvements for AI/ML at the edge. The new ARM Mali-G76 enables higher performance gaming, cross-platform experiences 30% more efficiency and performance density, as the gaming market is expected to reach $137.9 billion in 2018 and possibly as high as $180 billion by 2021 where 60% of that might be on mobile. ARM Mali-V76 support 8K60 video decode, it can also support simultaneous 4K encode and decode for 4K video-conferencing.
Premium HDMI Cable Certification Program
The Premium HDMI Cable Certification Program is the new program from the creators of HDMI technology that encompasses additional and enhanced cable testing as well as an authentication and verification program. Cables are tested to ensure they support the full 18Gbps bandwidth from the HDMI 2.0b specification plus an EMI test to ensure cables minimize interference with wireless signals. The program is designed to give end users confidence when purchasing new HDMI cables for their 4K/UltraHD products that may include features such as 4K@60Hz, BT.2020 and HDR. Participating HDMI Adopters can promote their ATC-tested High Speed HDMI Cables as Premium High Speed HDMI Cables or Premium High Speed HDMI Cables with Ethernet using a unique anti-counterfeiting authentication label on their products which can be checked and authenticated using the app on any smartphone. Also watch my video about the new HDMI 2.1 spec and my video about HDMI Alt Mode for USB Type-C.
faytech at Computex 2017
Latest projects and products at faytech booth at Computex, presented by Serena, Andy and Johanna of faytech. Including the 11.6” Butterfly MX device, one of their projects that focuses on residence management using an app, they have made a video about it working well outdoors in the rain, their 42” Capacitive Touch PC embedded in a mirror designed for retail applications, such as shopping malls, shops, restaurants etc. Right after that, the 84” 4K Capacitive Touch Monitor with optical bonding. Then Serena shows several standard products which earn the reputation for faytech. As well as one of major improvements in this year- capacitive touch panel which is compatible with glove and stylus. At last, Johanna shows me their successful project applied to the Indian public transportation system.
You can find more information about some of the devices showed in the video here:
(0:40) The Butterfly MX and other projects
(2:20) 84” 4K Capacitive Touch Monitor (Optically bonded) and on YouTube
(3:30) 15” IP65 Touch Monitor (used at car wash channel in the US)
(5:06) 10” Resistive touch PC
(8:24) 21.5” Capacitive Touch PC (with stylus and glove) and on YouTube
Cynoware POS are Android ARM Powered
Cynoware is a producer of Android ARM Powered point of sale and cash register devices. By using Android on cost effective ARM systems they are able to offer cloud integration features which offers value for stores and businesses that use point of sale. Cynoware offers many sizes and form factors from 9.7″, 10.1″, 14″ as well as a dual screen system.
Onyx Boox E Ink Notepads at Computex 2017
After the previous videos that I recently filmed with Onyx showing their 1-month battery life E Ink ARM Powered laptop and their new upcoming amazing e-readers which you can see here. At Computex 2017, Onyx demonstrates some of their software features to come with their next generations of large E Ink display notepad reader devices, to come with new faster ARM chipsets (maybe the same new 64bit quad-core Marvell IAP140 ARM Processor which is also in the amazing new Sony DPT-RP1, I’m just guessing). Here their software for example can move and reduce the size of handwritten notes to fit more onto a page and nicely put it on lines for note taking. Onyx is aiming to bring their next generation amazing 10.3″, 13.3″ and 9.7″ devices with also their new software. Onyx is trying to bring in some big educational customers trying to optimize the hardware and software of large E Ink notepads for the education market.
ITRI shows OLED Lighting, Chess playing robot “Turk”
ITRI is the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Taiwan which is one of the world’s leading technology R&D institutions aiming to innovate a better future for society. ITRI shows their solution for controlling Flexible OLED lighting. OLED Lighting offers more natural and more vibrant lighting than conventional lighting. ITRI also shows their sensors which are for example used in shoe pads which generate electricity. ITRI’s Intelligent Vision Robot plays chess seeing all the chess pieces on the board and moving them around. I play a quick game of chess against the robot which sadly I had to concede to the Chess Playing Robot Turk because I didn’t have enough battery in my camera (I think).
Nintendo Switch Extension Dock by Via Labs Multifunction with Integrated Power Bank
Via Labs shows their USB Hub and controller which is in the Nintendo Switch docking station and they show how they make similar hubs for other types of devices as well. The Nintendo Switch uses VLI’s Hub controller (VL210 USB 3.0 1x SS, 3x HS Hub controller) lasts 2.5-3 hours undocked when playing games. In order to extend the playing games time for better gaming experience, VLI has developed an intelligently exclusive turnkey as below:
All-In- One Technology Demonstrator
– Standard USB-C Power Bank: VP242 (USB-C Power Bank DRP Controller)
– USB PD Wall Adapter: VP300 (USB PD Wall Adapter)
– Switch Docking Station: VL212 (USB 3.1 Gen 1 PD Hub (1x SS, 3x HS))
– VP230/VP231 (TCPC for UFP/DFP)
