George Grey welcomes the 400 Linaro engineers and Connect attendees at the Budapest 2017 Linaro Connect, announces Google to join Linaro as Club Member (with access to all Linaro Segment Groups). Check back during this week for many 4K Interviews with the engineers at Linaro Connect, and also check back for the Live Streams here every day at 8:30AM or 9AM CET Hungarian Time until Friday 10th March, check the schedule here.
SD Card Association, the standard organization of SD cards, just released two new specification meeting new market needs.
The first is Application Performance Class 2 (A2) – a new performance class that consider Random & Sequential performance meeting the new need of storing and running applications from cards allowing means to consumers which cards to purchase in point of sale meeting their products needs. Coming after A1, introduced last November, A2 is a higher level of performance enabled by new features supported now by SD – like command Queuing and Cache.
The second enhancement of the standard is UHS-III. It is enhanced physical interface that enables byte rate of up to 624MB/s!
I am hoping that some device makers will implement devices with 2 or more microSD slots to increase the total available maximum capacity and even doubling the speed if a parallel access can be allowed.
Rockchip made the OP1 the world’s most optimized Chromebook processor. OP1, also known as RK3399-C, Hexacore dual ARM Cortex-A72, quad ARM Cortex-A53 with Mali-T860MP4 GPU. Rockchip is the only chip maker which has been optimizing processors for Chromebooks over the past 3 years, with all the lessons they learned with the RK3288 quad-core ARM Cortex-A17 which shipped in several Chromebooks in 2015, they were able to improve on that, optimize every detail and in collaboration with Google and Samsung.
Interview with the Gemini PDA team of Planet Computers at MWC 2017, presenting the awesome looking Gemini PDA, designed by the PSION designer Martin Riddiford, with fully integrated tactile QWERTY keyboard, Android 7 and Linux dual-boot. 4G LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, dual USB Type-C. They’ll have 2 versions, one WiFi only starting at $299 and the other fully equipped with WiFi and 4G starting at $349 on Indiegogo. the final retail price might be more if they can get support to get it mass manufactured, perhaps at around $599. With the giant 8000mAh battery, it will have two weeks of stand-by time or 12 hours of talk time. With the fully tactile keyboard that is recognised as the smallest keyboard for finger touch typing. Dual side mounted speakers, Integrated Voice Assist button, SD card slot. The display will be a 5.7″ 2880×1440, 564ppi, 18:9 aspect ratio display (the same that LG is using in the LG G6).
At the Vernee booth, as Vernee is the first to announce their upcoming 10nm Vernee Apollo 2 smartphone, running on the Helio-X25 in the Vernee Apollo, they are introducing their French startup software partner Auxens presenting the OXI Android OS Android Continuum platform! OXI is a slightly modified Android OS (adding in a few extra APIs to the normal Android firmware), it can display a desktop-like user interface with multitask features such as multi resizable windows, desktop, notifications, “Start menu” and more. It can also display this interface on the external display using DisplayLink, wireless (miracast or chromecast) or by mhl or slimport. Meanwhile the smartphone screen is still completely usable and independent, with regular Android. OXI is compatible with any current Android app. It doesn’t require any specific action from the apps developers.
MediaTek’s Tri-Cluster 10-core design features dual-core ARM Cortex-A73 at up to 2.5GHz, quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 at up to 2.2GHz and quad-core ARM Cortex A35 at up to 1.9GHz, with some really interesting features including low heat, high performance, 4K HDR, 4G LTE-Advanced WorldMode modem that uses 3x Carrier Aggregation with performance of 450MBit/s.
MediaTek Helio X30 increases performance by up to 35% and saves power by up to 50% over the MediaTek Helio X20.
CorePilot 4.0 with Centralized, Intelligent Task Scheduling, Thermal The 10nm fabrication by TSMC increases performance by up to 22% and saves power by up to 40% versus 16nm.
The 450MBit/s with 3x Carrier Aggregation downstream and 150Mbit/s with 2x Carrier Aggregation upstream for high volume content streaming and reliable connectivity. Category 10 4G LTE-Advanced WorldMode modem features new ETM 2.0 and TAS 2.0 technologies that saves battery power in everyday use by up to 35%, and up to 45% on multimedia specific scenarios.
X30 features Imagiq 2.0 with two 14-bit ISPs supporting 16+16MP dual camera functionality allows such as wide+zoom combination lenses allow real-time depth of field effects, fastest auto exposure, improved real-time denoise in low-light conditions. X30 Vision Processing Unit (VPU) paired to the Image Signal Processors (ISP) that provides a dedicated processing platform for numerous camera features, freeing up the CPU and GPU and saving power. Key advantages include:
– Programmability and Flexibility: The VPU provides a platform that allows brands the ability to customize camera functionality and drive product differentiation.
– Huge Power Reduction: The VPU is a dedicated camera-assisting hardware unit it has the ability to perform real-time processing functions, that were typically assigned to CPU or GPU, with only 1/10th power usage.
– Performance Boost: The VPU can still be used in isolation or as part of a team with the CPU/GPU, employing heterogeneous computing on same memory subsystem for advanced system or multi-application/function tasks.
The Helio X30 is the World’s first mobile SoC to bring a power efficient, hardware-based HDR cinema viewing experience to mobile devices. While other newly announced 4K HDR Smartphone SoCs might be doing the 4K rendering work in software, the X30 does it in hardware. 4K HDR10 standard offers a dynamic range of up to 10,000 nits. Paired with the latest, premium display technologies yields a never-seen-before quality and a true-to-life viewing experience.
Imagiq’s Dual Camera Zoom offers 2x optical zoom in a super slim form factor.
ClearZoom and Temporal Noise Reduction (TNR) technologies enable a sharp, crisp digital zoom up to 10x magnification.
Works for both video and photography.
MiraVision EnergySmart Screen is MediaTek’s advanced power saving technology for mobile displays, reducing power consumption (up to 10% of device’s total power or up to 25% of panel power, depending on brightness) while preserving viewing experience.
Instant AE
MediaTek Instant Auto Exposure (AE). The dedicated Camera Control Unit (CCU) hardware delivers considerably faster, automatic exposure adjustment when environmental lighting conditions change suddenly. AE convergence speed is up to twice as fast as competitive auto exposure performance.
Up to 8GB LPDDR4X
4×16-bit LPDDR4X 1866MHz memory is up to 50% more power efficient than previous generation LPDDR3, while also delivering up to 50% more performance.
Unique GPU Design: Deep MediaTek-Imagination Co-operation
The fully customized IMG PowerVR 7XTP-MP4 @ 800MHz is designed for lowest power usage while still delivering incredible performance. It saves up to 60% power versus while increasing performance by up to 2.4 times compared to the Helio X20.
Deep Learning
Access to MediaTek’s deep learning SDK featuring support for Caffe and Google’s TensorFlow frameworks, opening up the latest in machine intelligence to developers.
Masayoshi Son is the CEO of SoftBank, owner of ARM since September 2016, he answers few of my questions about the future of ARM, R&D investments to come, the excitement for the future technological developments to come. That was on the way out of his Keynote speech, video of which I will post a bit later tonight.
Jonathan Schipper of Gemsense shows their Smart Chair made in partnership with Nowy Styl of Poland. They have integrated 14 sensors into the office chair, motion sensors, Gyroscope, Magnetometer, temperature, humidity and more. It can be used to expand the VR gaming experience. Gemsense partners with DSP Group to use their Ultra-Low Energy (ULE) System-on-Chips (SoCs) wireless chipset solutions to power the new Navigo Smart connected chair by Nowy Styl Group, maker of furniture solutions for office and public spaces. The Navigo Smart chair is further enhanced by the RED AMBER sensor IoT platform by Gemsense. You can also watch the interview filmed by Android Authority here
GeorgeAgainstTheMachine spent 60+ hours making this 8 minute video edit about the Acorn Archimedes A4000, using clips from my Interviews with Sophie Wilson (Part 2, Part 3) and Steve Furber talking about how they designed the first ARM Processor and the worlds first System on a Chip (SoC). Looking through my extensive interviews with them both, he was able to edit Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber reminiscing together, TV Documentary style. Subscribe to GeorgeAgainstTheMachine on YouTube, follow georgeagainst on Twitter.
I hope somehow I can get my Chromebook Plus before MWC. Seems unlikely, Amazon.com and B&H don’t have any in stock (I need it shipped here to Europe, I should probably have ordered it on Samsung.com or Bestbuy.com and forwarded to Europe using Borderlinx or another similar package US-to-Europe forwarding service, but it seems too late). Samsung seems slow at getting these out to the world. Here’s what needs to happen with the OP1 RK3399-C Chromebook platform:
– Make these available worldwide. $299, $349, $449, $549 with different skews from FHD 4GB RAM 32GB Flash at $299 to 2400×1600 8GB RAM 128GB Flash at $549. Samsung, Asus, Acer, Lenovo, HP, all need to get in on the OP1 flip platform.
– Make sure there are 10-20 perfectly optimized apps for productivity covering all the basics people need on a Laptop. At least a few apps that cover “what people need on Windows/Mac” need to work on the Chromebook with OP1, make sure there is 3 perfectly optimized Office apps (Microsoft Office included), 3 perfectly optimized video and image editing apps (should be good enough for semi professionals to do fast rendering smooth 4K video editing and “anything that’s done with Photoshop/GIMP”), 3 perfectly optimized Chat/Video-conferencing apps including Skype, Whatsapp, Hangouts, few more “Facebook Messenger”, “Snapchat”, whatever young people use.. Just make sure there is a good range of very well optimized apps, that will show the way for other developers to also optimize thousands among the 2 million Android apps best suited for productivity. Have 10 “Nintendo-quality” awesome games work perfectly also, for optional gamepad bluetooth gameplay on large display or with any cheap $10 Type-C to HDMI on a HDTV. Google can offer “free” app re-optimization support to the developers who have promizing Android apps that just need to be slightly upgraded to work great on large display and well optimized also for keyboard/mouse usability.
– Nougat multi-window resizable. All the features of Remix OS, Phoenix OS, nicely resizable multi-window Android framework needs to be there.
– App/extension for perfect stylus annotation collaboration, annotate any webpage, any article, any document, and have collaborators over Google Drive. We also need a perfect community(ies) for “the annotated web”, when you select any text and you type in your comment/annotation on the keyboard. Needs to be ultra smooth and easy to use to make this revolutionary for productivity. It has to be a must-have for any student, for any professional and for any creative. If you select any text on any article on any webpage that has a comment section, then that selected section is automatically “quoted” when you type your comment, hit enter to post your comment about that selected quote. Or easily Google+1/tweet/blog, write your comment and link when you highlight a text. Thus different configurable modes/features for that pop-up menu when the stylus is taken out of its slot. Some will always want to annotate docs to collaborate in Drive, others will always want to auto-share quote and link article to Google+ or to Blog with typed comment, and easy switch between Stylus modes, should work with any content. Just only being able to annotate/scribble on a screenshot is too basic.
– Maximum dual display (external display) productivity, using Type-C to HDMI dongles/docks, it needs to be super easy to “open link in new highlighted or background tab in other window on other display” or to tab browse on one display while Android multi-window apps run on the other display.
– Android for productivity on these Chromebooks obviously has to be a taster of what can become available with “Android Continuum” once Android super phones dock with external displays and Lapdocks using DisplayLink, MHL, Slimport or a Chromecast-Continuum background app with Nougat/Miracast. Somehow, I wish the OP1 Chromebooks Type-C port would also allow for Lapdock functionality, to use your external superphone on Kirin 960 or Snapdragon 835 to “speed up” your OP1 Chromebook performance, somehow. Perhaps run some tabs/apps on the OP1 while others can be accelerated by your external phone which might have a more powerful ARM Processor. All the while the OP1 Chromebook also charges your phone by that same Type-C port. Somehow combine the Hexacore ARM Cortex-A72/A53 of your OP1 Chromebook with the Octa-core ARM Cortex-A73/A53 of your phone, also combine the GPUs, to have all these 14 ARM cores work nicely over that Type-C cable or even wirelessly (especially if your phone is the LTE hotspot for your Chromebook) for your optimal productivity.
Seriously Google, partner with Microsoft, pre-load Microsoft Office with some amount of included free months of trial for Office 365, pre-load Skype, help Microsoft make a perfect LinkedIn app, and also partner with Adobe pre-load some perfectly optimized Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premiere for Android, need to be VERY usable, very optimized for Android productivity and also include the Adobe Creative Cloud trial on there. Do this Google. And people will be impressed. No need to “force people to use Google Drive and Google Photos only”, you can bundle free trials for your services too (consumers will prefer Google apps anyway if those are better), just make sure the advanced apps people “need on Windows/Mac”, that those, even for semi professionals/enthusiasts, that those already work good BUNDLED on Chromebook with OP1. Close the gap and shut down any argument people might have against the Chromebook. Wanna do even more? Convince Apple to pre-load fully optimized iTunes and Garageband on the Chromebook with OP1 also (I’m sure Apple already has secret betas for these apps for Android, ready to release “just in case”). Don’t you know how to convince Apple this is a good idea? Let me know, I’ll tell you how. Shame them if they don’t.
Before the end of 2017, Google needs to “open up” the marketing angle on Chromebooks (basically fully supported (same auto security/feature updates) Chromium OS rebrand service for Chrome OS for any competitor), so Microsoft, Apple, Baidu/Tencent, Yandex and Adobe/Salesforce/others will be shipping customized Chromebooks with their apps/shortcuts defaults pre-installed. Don’t force anyone only ship with Google apps/shortcuts/search, let the consumers change those defaults if Google is better. Login should not only be using Google account, let users login with any other Microsoft/Apple/Baidu/Tencent/Yahoo/whatever user account. Let your competitors ship your free and open source software and with your usual Chrome OS support when it comes to security/speed/feature updates), help subsidize/promote the platform. Let competitors submit improvements/patches to the platform. Before the end of 2017, sub-$100 ARM Chromebooks need to reach every child in the world, just as OLPC intended more than a decade ago.
Don’t make OP1 Chrome OS exclusive, let it nicely run anything else. Let people boot into any Linux or into any other OS from MicroSD card or from a simple Type-C Flash memory dongle. So if Microsoft wants people to dual-boot or to replace Chrome OS with Windows 10 (with x86 win32 app emulation support) they should be able to do it. If Apple wants consumers to dual-boot or replace Chrome OS by a new Mac iOSX UI, let them do that. If consumers want to dual-boot or replace Chrome OS by Ubuntu or any other Linux, let them easily do that. Even have staff of Google employees support that and “recommend” stable OSes that work nicely. Always stable “factory reset” to manufacturer’s shipped official or custom Chrome OS no matter what would be ok, if there is a memory for that.
TF Massif shows off their beautiful interactive posters using E Ink and LEDs, entering potential massive success to revolutionize the poster/advertising business, with Large Area Thin Film Circuits, TF Massif has capabilities to produce flexible circuits at 50in x 144in and 60in circuits are also available. Using their proprietary Large Area Control Deposition (LACD) they can produce the most cost effective large area flexible circuits in the world. Target markets are anything Big. TF Massif is the winner of the “Best Product Award” at the IDTechEx Show!
For over 50 years, Hitachi Chemical has been focused on R&D that has driven technological breakthroughs enabling their customers to manufacture thinner, lighter, and high volume products. Here also showing their low temperature sintering, smart gel, memory shape polymer. As a result, their materials are currently in a vast number of today’s highly reliable and durable wearable devices. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show!
TNO is a major player in a growing international network comprised of leading scientific institutes, companies with ambitious development profiles, universities and other partners in knowledge. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show!
Founded in 1973 in Hawthorne, N.J. to manufacture high precision square wire for connectors and electronic components, Fisk Alloy invented PERCON in the 1990ies, a family of environmentally friendly copper alloys combining high conductivity with high tensile strength. The cool thing about PERCON it that it was RoHS compliant well before the EU directive came out.
Fisk Alloy’s products can be found in all demanding markets where failure is not an option and who require high performance components: Aerospace, Medical, Robotics, Automotive and E-Textiles.
Fisk Alloy PERCON alloys are so good and homogeneous in their composition that we draw them to ultra-fine gauge sizes, AWG 56 being currently the finest size which corresponds to 12 microns or a third of a human hair. They combine these single-end wires to stranded constructions, 7-ends, 19-ends as well as rope-lay conductors putting up to 1000 single-ends together.
The main advantages of Fisk Alloy PERCON alloys are superior flex life for all cables in movement, excellent softening resistance when exposed to high temperatures as well as opportunities for size and weight saving thanks to great strength without sacrificing conductivity. A few years ago they invented Percon 28, unique in its capability of combining 80 KSI tensile strength with 85% electrical conductivity in a soft-annealed condition. No other alloy world-wide is able to match these properties.
E-textiles is an ideal market for PERCON and especially Percon 28, as their wire can be woven, knitted and embroidered invisibly into the fabric, allowing signal transmission for various data-sensing and monitoring purposes.
Sensor Films Inc. is an additive manufacturing solutions provider that is changing the way electronic products are manufactured. Sensor Films designs and builds digital manufacturing and printing systems equipped with integrated pre- and post-printing processes enabling customers to make electronic product assemblies used in a wide variety of consumer and industrial products. The technology efficiently prints functional and decorative inks on flexible and rigid substrates in a platform scalable to high throughput production. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show!.
Myant designs, develops and produces smart clothing considering fashion design, chemistry, physics, software development and engineering, they are based in Canada. Filmed at the IDTechEx Show!.
You can buy the $449 Samsung Chromebook Plus Powered by 64bit ARM OP1 Hexacore RK3399-C dual ARM Cortex-A72 and quad ARM Cortex-A53 with Mali-T860 GPU shipping out on Sunday at Amazon.com
As Intel’s usual tactic when feeling under threat by disruptive ARM Powered technology, Intel is trying to confuse consumers by shipping out their buggy Intel core-m3 Samsung Chromebook Pro version to reviewers here, here, here, here and here.
TheVerge reports that Android apps support on Intel is horrible compared to the ARM Powered OP1 Chromebook:
consider that this ARM processor may do a better job of running most Android apps than the Intel processor on the Chromebook Pro. Those apps need to be translated from ARM code to x86 to run on Intel machines. However, the Android beta on the Chromebook Pro is in such a sorry state that I can’t really judge. Google promises that it’ll all be fixed by April, when the Pro launches. Right now, the Plus handles Android apps much better than the Pro.
The situation on the Plus is miles better than the situation on the Intel-based Chromebook Pro right now, which is so riddled with bugs and issues that I declined reviewing it in favor of this Plus. I describe in more detail the situation in another article, here.
OP1 is optimized for the Chromebook market, with optimal performance, power consumption and price point. Optimized for smooth performance on high resolution display, dual USB Type-C, reliable Wi-Fi, 4K playback, it uses GPU Compute to optimize the performance of every aspect of the Chrome OS web browsing UI. Fonts, scrolling, displaying images, animations, video, all is optimized, improved and accelerated also by the Mali-T860 GPU. Unlike Intel x86 Chromebooks, I believe that the OP1 platform runs all Android apps natively without emulation, that is especially important for running advanced Android apps optimized for productivity, such as Microsoft Word, Excell, Powerpoint, OfficeSuite, PDF Editor, Free Office, Docs to Go, Google Drive, Polaris Office, Quip, WPS Office and thousands of other productivity apps already available on Android, and thousands of advanced games on Android, all these apps are optimized for ARM, with Native Code in them that just runs better on ARM. I would guess that running any of these thousands of advanced Android apps might consume half the power to run on ARM compared with x86.
BrightVolt develops flexible batteries using solid state thin film lithium polymer, Polymer Matrix Electrolyte (PME) for batteries enabling new small IoT devices, smart clothing, healthcare and more. Filmed at the IDTechEx tradeshow.
