Category: Chip provider

Augmented Reality on the ST-Ericsson U8500 platform

Posted by – February 19, 2011

ST-Ericsson are showcasing their performance for augmented reality, tracking at 30fps and rendering at 60fps. There are more and more applications for augmented reality and the new ARM Cortex-A9 processors such as the ST-Ericsson U8500 that includes Mali-400 graphics make this even more usable.

HTC Desire S and HTC Incredible S

Posted by – February 19, 2011

HTC’s replacement for their best selling HTC Desire phone, which was released also under the names Nexus One and Droid Incredible. It features HTC Sense 2.0. The HTC Incredible S has a slightly larger 4″ Super LCD and slightly better cameras. Those are using the Qualcomm MSM8255 1Ghz single-core processor.

HTC Flyer Android Tablet

Posted by – February 19, 2011

HTC’s first Tablet, it’s got a 7″ 1024×600 capacitive touch screen, it’s 420gr, 1GB RAM and runs a 1.5Ghz Qualcomm processor. HTC implemented some kind of special external stylus feature that allows for scribbling on top of a snapshot of the screen, so one can scribble on top of anywhere within Android, but the actual integration of that touch screen handwriting technology with the Android apps is still to be seen, and the stylus has to be slotted in an external leather case.

HTC Wildfire S

Posted by – February 19, 2011

HTC’s new lower cost, more compact Android Smartphone, the Wildfire S includes a Qualcomm MSM7227 ARM11 600Mhz processor, 512MB RAM.

ST-Ericsson U4500 to power sub-$100 ARM Cortex-A9 smartphones!

Posted by – February 19, 2011

The idea is to provide better than Nexus One like performance early 2012 in low cost Android smartphones that could be sold by then for as little as below $200 even at below the $100 price point. ST-Ericsson U4500 is a single core ARM Cortex-A9 processor, that could be clocked at around 600mhz to achieve a similar performance to the 1Ghz Nexus One that was released early 2010. The idea is to bring that level of performance to potentially hundreds of millions of more people. Also check out my video on the ST-Ericsson A9500 development board to be released around May this year.

Nvidia shows project Kal-el Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9

Posted by – February 19, 2011

Nvidia Kal-el is now sampling, demonstrated here at Mobile World Congress 2011, to be in commercial products already in August this year. Nvidia goes on showing the first Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 sample, getting those samples to their partners and planning for commercial launch by August this year already. This is impressive stuff, web browsing speed is doubled.

ZTE Skate 4.3″ Android Smartphone

Posted by – February 19, 2011

Comes with a nice 4.3″ capacitive touch screen, and is designed to potentially reach a sub-$200 price point when sold unlocked and/or on a pre-paid plan.

HP Touch Pad WebOS

Posted by – February 19, 2011

HP bought Palm to use WebOS as their upcoming proprietary platform for HP branded phones and smartphones. Here’s a demonstration of that OS.

Freescale talks i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 platform at Mobile World Congress 2011


Freescale announced their ARM Cortex-A9 Dual-Core and Quad-Core processor platform. Here´s an interview with Freescale about their performance and features.

Dialog Semiconductor real-time 2D to 3D conversion

Posted by – February 16, 2011

This is the first real-time 2D to 3D video conversion in silicon presented by Dialog Semiconductor at Mobile World Congress 2011, it may be useful for the upcoming glasses free 3D screen devices that are coming out. I am not sure though how they analyse the video to “guess” the 3D features in the images, do they analyse each static image or do they process frames before and after to determine 3D space based on the motion?

ST-Ericsson A9500 ARM Cortex-A9 Development Board

Posted by – February 16, 2011

This is the SKY-S9500-ULP-CXX aka SNOWBALL, the ST-Ericsson ARM Cortex-A9 development board, they put in there all the memory and everything needed to hack together end user products. It will be sold for about $200 from around April or May, it runs Android, Ubuntu and Meego thus far. You can find more information at http://igloocommunity.org

Blackberry Playbook to get Android Dalvik engine support?

Posted by – February 16, 2011

Here’s an interview with Blackberry about the Playbook, topics include the QNX software, the potentiallity for Android apps support through integrating the Dalvik engine, productivity apps on tablets, and a brief history of Blackberry and where it’s going.

Meego on Freescale i.MX51

Posted by – February 16, 2011

This is my first experience with Meego, it´s running on the Freescale i.MX51 development board presented by Nomovok at Mobile World Congress 2011, it may be one of the first ARM Powered Meego implementations to take advantage of hardware acceleration.

LG Optimus Pad

Posted by – February 16, 2011

The new tablet from LG, Honeycomb on Tegra2 powered, comes with LG´s built-in 3D camera, to allow consumers to make more 3D contents for their 3D HDTVs. It uses a 8.9″ capacitive touch screen, hdmi output, no usb host.

Mobile High-Definition Link (MHL)

Posted by – February 15, 2011

New standard first used in the Samsung Galaxy S2 to output HD and charge at the same time through the Micro-USB connector, it also allows for some data to be sent back from HDTVs such as using the TVs standard remote control to also remote control the device. The MHL 1.0 spec for now does not transmit Gigabit Ethernet or USB 3.0 Host functionality.

Sub-$200 4.3″ capacitive Android Smartphone

Posted by – February 15, 2011

Yuhua Teltech released this Marvell powered Android Smartphone they call the Touchstone. It’s basically like one of those HTC HD, Droid X, except it costs less than $200 instead of the $500+ that the big brands such as HTC and Motorola are selling those form factors for. It runs on the Marvell PXA935 processor (also known as Tavor P65), same as in the Dual SIM clam-shell Dion MID from Shenzhen ACT that I filmed at CES and which Yuhua Teltech is also manufacturing as well. This device has been sold in China, India and some other emerging markets for 6 months already, Yuhua Teltech wants to bring this device to the European and US market, and they are announcing their next generation Gemstone design which will have a faster Marvell processor and dual-sim support.

Malata releases new Tegra2 Tablets

Posted by – February 15, 2011

Their designs are used by ViewSonic, Interpad, HiSense and others. Now they use a better screen with 1280×800 resolution and wider viewing angles. They are also making a version with a new 9.7″ 4:3 aspect ratio.

Texas Instruments talks OMAP5, OMAP4

Posted by – February 14, 2011

Texas Instruments OMAP Product Line Manager Brian Carlson presents the amazing OMAP5 ARM Cortex-A15 processor, to sample this year, ship in products next year, and OMAP4 devices that are about to ship, what kind of performance can be expected.

Honeycomb on the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

Posted by – February 14, 2011

Honeycomb is simply awesome. It’s the first OS ever made really designed for tablets. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 runs on the Nvidia Tegra2 processor and has a really cool new design.

Texas Instruments OMAP4 runs Android and Ubuntu at the same time


Texas Instruments is showcasing that the OMAP4 ARM Cortex-A9 development platform can run full Android on the built-in LCD and Ubuntu on the HDMI output both at the same time, this is awesome. It shows how Texas Instruments OMAP4 can be used to power the upcoming all-in-one ultimate ARM Powered devices that combine Laptop and Media player functionality into the Smartphone.