This is the new Archos 32 Internet Tablet, with a 800mhz ARM Cortex A8 omap3630 processor based on 45nm process, it playsback all video codecs at up to 720p requiring no video convertions, suport composite video output, bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n, comes with 3.2″ resistive (but good) touch screen.
Category: Chip provider
Archos 32 Internet Tablet, sub-$149 Android 2.2 3.2″ iPod Touch competitor
Posted by – September 2, 2010
Samsung Galaxy Tab at IFA 2010
Posted by – September 2, 2010
This is Samsung’s new 799€ Android tablet. Comes with a glass capacitive 7″ LCD touch screen, a back facing and front facing camera, 1080p video playback support on the HDMI output of the Docking Station connector (codecs and bitrates specifics are to be confirmed). It’s quite compact for a 7″ tablet and it’s quite light at 380 grams.
Here are the full specs of this Samsung tablet:
Network: 2.5G (GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE) : 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
3G (HSUPA 5.76Mbps, HSDPA 7.2Mbps) : 900 / 1900 / 2100 MHz
OS: Android 2.2 (Froyo)
Display: 7.0 inch TFT-LCD, WSVGA (1024 x 600)
Processor: Cortex A8 1.0GHz Application Processor with PowerVR SGX540
Camera: 3 MP Camera with Auto-Focus and LED Flash
1.3MP front camera for Video Telephony
Value-added Features:
■Android Market™ and Samsung Apps for more applications and contents
■Readers Hub, Media Hub, Music Hub, Social Hub (nicht überall verfügbar)
■Adobe Flash 10.1 player support
■Full HD video playback, Thinkfree Office, Swype, Hybrid Widget
Connectivity: 30 pin connector
WiFi 802.11n / Bluetooth® 3.0
Sensor: Gyroscope sensor, Geo-magnetic sensor, Accelerometer, Light sensor
Memory: 16G / 32G internal memory with up to 32G external memory slot
RAM: 512 MB
Size: 190.09 x 120.45 x 11.98mm, 380g
Battery: 4,000mAh (7 hour movie play)
More hands-on videos:
http://www.newgadgets.de/17983/samsung-galaxy-tab-hands-on-video/
Toshiba AC-100 ARM Tegra2 Powered Android Laptop
Posted by – September 2, 2010
This is probably so far the coolest looking ARM Powered laptop to be released broadly on the market. The first ARM Cortex A9 based laptop. Runs an optimized Android OS with custom web browser from Opera Mobile and I am guessing, the full Chrome browser for ARM may be able to run on this eventually as well. This laptop is being released right now for around 299€ or $299 with WiFi and a bit more for the version with built-in 3G modem.
Philips GoGear Connect Android Media Player
Posted by – September 2, 2010
Philips is launching this new Android based media player. It is based on the Freescale i.MX51 ARM Cortex A8 based processor and officially comes with support for the Google Marketplace and is going to be sold for 249€.
Toshiba Folio-100 Android Tablet at IFA 2010
Posted by – September 2, 2010
This is Toshiba’s new 10.1″ capacitive Tegra2 powered Android tablet.
Toshiba Places, content on all screens
A synchronized cloud based content browsing and streaming system that works across set-top-box, laptops both ARM powered and Intel powered, and on Toshiba’s new Tegra2 based Android laptops and tablets.
shanzai.com: HeroTab RK7 Android 2.1 Tablet unboxing
Here’s a new Telechip TCC8902 based Android tablet that can output 1080p video in some limited way. It is still unclear what if any 720p and 1080p video playback limitations Telechips might have. Playback of 1080p MKV H264 high profile with DTS audio at very high bitrates using HDMI output might not be totally smooth. Web browsing isARM11 powered which makes it slower than the ARM Cortex A8 and A9 tablets that are coming out for more expensive prices.
This video was released at http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/bandit-gadgets/tablets/1665
Archos 32 is a sub-$149 ARM Cortex A8 Android 2.2 iPod Touch competitor
Posted by – August 11, 2010
Archos has always been at the forefront of embedded ARM innovations in portable gadgets (full disclosure, I am also the webmaster of ArchosFans.com and Forum.ArchosFans.com). Archos newest generation 8 line of devices is to be announced and released within a month or two from now, which are to include at least 5 tablet sizes, with Android 2.2 compatibility, based on the new Texas Instruments OMAP3630 45nm ARM Cortex A8 processor, same as in the Droid X and Droid 2, to provide even more advanced OpenGL 3D acceleration and improved video decoding and encoding features.
So as at least 5 different skews or sizes of Android tablets are to be released by Archos from 2.8″ to 10″ with planned pricing between $100 and $350 unlocked and out of any required contracts. This is why I think that this new series of Archos Android tablets is probably to be the cheapest ARM Cortex A8 based Android tablets to be available broadly on the market thus far.
This new Archos 32 (8GB), to be priced at and below $149, comes with a 3.2″ 400×240 WQVGA touch screen, WiFi and Bluetooth, composite video output, USB host, support for all video codecs including Mpeg4, H264, WMV, Mpeg2 and more at up to 720p and 12mbit/s bitrates and including audio codecs support such as Mp3, Flac, WMA and Ogg Vorbis. It is I think basically placed as a cheaper alternative to the iPod Touch, using the latest Android and being more opened in the way it interoperates with Windows, Mac and Linux machines not requiring synchronization through a software like iTunes, but connecting as a standard USB mass storage device.
While it would be best for these Archos Android tablets to receive the permission from Google to come with the Google Marketplace pre-installed on them, it may be that Google might still not allow it. Though it is then also very likely that users of the product will easily be able to find a Market4Archos.apk file on the Internet to easily install the full Google Marketplace, Gmail and other Google Apps experiences to this device exactly as if the feature was pre-installed officially. I am still confident that Google will soon expand Google Marketplace to many new types of devices, not only to $500+ Android smart phones, but also to Tablets, Laptops with the Chrome browser icon and Set-top-boxes.
Find more pictures and more descriptions at: ArchosFans.com
You can discuss this at: Forum.ArchosFans.com
Source: fcc.gov
Found via: liliputing.com
Texas Instruments licences ARM Eagle series
Posted by – August 10, 2010
Category: Texas Instruments, Archos
Texas Instruments has had their awesome OMAP3430 series on the market now for around two years in the Archos 5, Archos 5 Internet Tablet, Motorola Droid, Palm Pre and with their new 45nm OMAP3630 version in Archos Generation 8, Droid X, Droid 2 and a bunch of other products to come. The ARM Cortex A9 based OMAP4 is to be expected in products for a bit later, maybe starting next year with amazing 1080p encoding and decoding and with extremely fast multi-core ARM processing built-in.
Building on its rich heritage of collaboration with ARM, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) today confirmed that it was the first company to partner with ARM in the conception and definition of the next generation ARM® Cortex™-A series processor core (also known as “Eagle”) to be announced later this year. TI intends to use the new processor to further strengthen and extend its future OMAP™ platform offerings.
Now, Texas Instruments is the first processor maker to announce that they are licencing ARM’s next generation named the Eagle platform, possibly reaching products within a couple of years.
“We are thrilled to know that our customers will be the first to leverage the new ARM processor core’s far-reaching innovations via our industry-leading OMAP products. Successful mobile industry achievements revolve around the ‘high-performance, low-power’ mantra, and we believe the results of our collaborative effort echo the importance of this must-have balance.”
The names may be ARM Cortex A10 and Texas Instruments OMAP5 series.
What do you think may be the improvements for this ARM Eagle platform? Higher performance quad-core 3ghz 28nm or 32nm High-K Metal Gate processors at even lower power consumption and lower prices? ARM Cortex A8 does 2DMIPS per Mhz (2’000DMIPS at 1Ghz), ARM Cortex A9 does 2.5DMIPS per Mhz (6’000DMIPS at dual-core 1.2Ghz), how high is Eagle going to go? Is it A9 is 3x faster than A8, and Eagle is 8x faster than A8 solutions when running well multi-threaded code? Does Eagle go as high as 15’000 DMIPS on a quad-core design? You can discuss this in the comments.
Source: ti.com
I filmed the Augen $99 smartbook 6 months ago
Engadget and a bunch of other blogs have been reporting these last few days about the cool Augen branded Android Smartbook and Tablets that are being released in the US market at affordable $99 and $149 prices by Super Market chain KMart. I just would like to remind my readers that I posted my video review of the Augen Smartbook 6 months ago on January 29th as it’s based on the Hivision PWS700CA and its cool RockChip ARM9 processor that runs Android in this video: http://138.2.152.197/2010/01/29/android-laptop-review-hivision-pws700ca/
and that the Telechips ARM11 800mhz based Augen $149 7″ Tablet that Engadget and plenty other blogs also are talking about seems to be based on the same 7″ resistive tablet hardware design that I filmed 5 months ago presented by MAG Digital at CeBIT 2010 in this video: http://138.2.152.197/2010/03/02/mag-digital-presents-windows-ce-that-looks-like-android-in-a-tablet/
To let you know my opinion. I think it is fantastic that Augen and KMart are promoting such cheaper Android Laptop and Tablet form factors as alternatives to the much more expensive Apple iPad and Intel Netbooks. Archos has also been selling the similarly priced Archos 7 Home Tablet on the worldwide market which I video reviewed 5 months ago, which is now broadly available in many retail and online stores below $200 for the 8GB version (and the 2GB version originally planned at $149, then $179 but for now they are mostly selling the 8GB version). That Rockchip based Laptop and Tablet platform also being upgraded to 1ghz still ARM9 to support newer Android 2.2 versions.
But as we have heard from Canonical developers and from hearsay and off camera chatter by Google people at the Google Q&A at Computex about Chrome OS on ARM Laptops, although the second generation 45nm ARM Cortex A8 with faster DDR RAM and faster I/O performance can be enough, the coming of ARM Cortex A9 platforms may be preferable to achieve the full desktop web browsing experience that most consumers may require for them to consider the ARM platforms as fully usable alternatives in the Intel/Microsoft dominated Laptop market. And the iPad and the whole bunch of smart phones that are currently spread all over the market, those may kind of set expectations at capacitive and ARM Cortex A8 performance at the minimum. So it will be interesting, capacitive touch screen manufacturers allowing, to see how soon and how cheap those capacitive Android tablet designs at full user interface speeds can reach the market. ARM9 and ARM11 resistive tablets are not bad for a start, they can give the consumers and bloggers a taste of what can be done with Android at retail prices below $200 and even below $100. The ultimate goal should be though that we should have full speed ARM Cortex versions of all these devices in all the stores, with the best capacitive screens for tablets or non-touch screens for Laptops, preferably Pixel Qi screens, and available below $200 without contracts, running free Linux based Android or Ubuntu OSes.
ARM and TSMC develop 20nm High-K Metal Gate process
While the 45nm process such as the TI OMAP3630 (1ghz), Samsung Humminbird S5PC110 (1ghz) and Apple A4 (1ghz) have all just recently been released in the latest bunch of smart phones such as the Motorola Droid X, Samsung Galaxy S and iPhone 4, 28nm was also just recently announced by Global Foundries to be perfected and sampled this year, now also, here’s an announcement by ARM and TSMC working together to accelerate the time to market of the 20nm process designs as well:
TSMC signed up to work with ARM on the 28nm node which is headed toward qualification later this year. ARM will develop IP for at least two 28nm processes: TSMC 28nmHP (high performance, High-K Metal Gate) and 28nmHPL (low power, High-K Metal Gate). But the agreement doesn’t stop there; it commits to work on the 20nm node as well. That’s significant because ARM can begin development work earlier than ever before on a TSMC process. This assures the earliest-possible IP availability to our partners and an easier and faster route to deliver advanced products into the market.
This is going to be awesome in the ARM Cortex A9 processors.
via: engadget.com
source: blogs.arm.com
Boxee on ARM Powered Box coming soon
Posted by – July 17, 2010
This is not Google TV on ARM yet, but this is a major achievement already, Boxee can run the full Boxee software experience on an ARM Powered box. Boxee is considered to be one of the best user interfaces for media streamers and Web TV. I wonder how much would need to change in D-Link’s Nvidia Tegra 2 Powered Boxee Box for them to be able to release a Google TV version of Boxee Box, and have the Boxee video navigation UI functionalities be an app on top of Google TV OS. My guess is the full Google TV experience requires HDMI input and output and an IR blaster (to integrate with existing cable/satellite boxes), thus would require a slightly upgraded version of this hardware.
For users who don’t require the feature of old TV integration with cable/satellite set-top-boxes but who only want the future experience of VOD, media streaming and web TV stuff, it would be cool to know how likely or unlikely it might be to be able to load Google TV OS for ARM once it is open sourced by Google on this Box and have Boxee’s complete set of features and user interfaces as a 3D accelerated app on top of Android. In my video interview with Boxee from CES, the Boxee representatives say that Boxee Box is designed to be open source and hackable:
There is an SD card slot on the side. We know that a lot of developers and hackers really like to side load the OS and have their own apps, so we are trying to make it as developer friendly as possible.
ARM CEO Warren East keynote at Freescale Kinetis Cortex-M4 launch
Freescale is one of the manufacturers partnering with ARM on making the new Cortex-M4 type of processors, Freescale calls them the Kinetis Cortex-M4 Microcontrollers. Cortex-M4 may help to enable to connect all things to the internet, such as the oven, the fridge, motors, medical and industrial applications. It’s something about adding DSP and programmable features into cheap Microcontrollers that may be put into all devices to help connect them to the Internet for cheap. Do you have some good ideas of what Cortex-M4 will be used for in the market? Write in the comments.
Rockchip RK2818 to come at 1ghz with improved DSP
Rockchip may be the new “China Processor”, that ARM Processor coming out of China that can be found in some of the cheap Android Tablets and Laptops. This could be a major part of China’s attempt at providing every component of future low cost computing devices, even the processor. The new version of the Rockchip processor is said to be faster, RK2808 is 600mhz while RK2818 can go to 1ghz. But according to Toms Hardware, this new Rockchip RK2818 might still be ARM926EJ-S ARMv5 based.
In practice, RK2808 reached 1.1 DMIPS per MHz, while a core based on the Cortex A8 is 2 DMIPS per MHz and the recent Cortex A9 is 2.5 per DMIPS MHz. Even at 1 GHz, a Rockchip will be about two times slower than what the Cortex competition offers (at a higher price).
The question might be, how much cheaper are ARM9 based devices? Rockchip might still be only for low-end lower cost devices mostly made by Chinese manufacturers. The good news is this new Rockchip can support Android 2.1 and 2.2 (while RK2808 can only do Android 1.5). It’s got to be thanks to its newer and better DSP graphics accelerator, with screen support at up to 1024×768 which could be great to power cheap ARM Powered laptops and low cost 10″ Android Tablets. Availability may be after September for a bunch of new RK2818 based products or maybe also simply quick upgrades of RK2808 based designs. I wonder if the new 720p video playback on RK2818 may be improved, while RK2808 could only playback H264 MKV 720p at up to 2.5mbit/s.
Source: Toms Hardware France (in french)
Newgadgets.de: Toshiba AC100 Dynabook AZ is Tegra-2 Powered
Wow, the Toshiba AC100 Cloud Companion smartbook is some serious looking ARM Cortex A9 laptop right there, being launched soon! It’s based on Nvidia Tegra 2 1ghz ARM Cortex A9 system on chip, with a nice HDMI output on the side of the device (full 1080p output!), it runs a customized version of Android optimized for the Laptop form factor. It comes with 512MB DDR2 (333 MHz) RAM, 16GB Flash (up to 32GB version available), 2 USB host ports, 10.1″ 1024×600 LED backlit LCD, SDHC card reader, 1.3 megapixel webcam, Bluetooth, WiFi-N and a weight of 870 grams. Toshiba may launch this in Europe in August as a kind of high end thin premium laptop priced 349€ for WiFi-only version and 449€ for the version with built-in 3G HSDPA.
Source: NewGadgets.de, Youtube channel
Canonical explains the status of Ubuntu on ARM Powered Laptops
In this video, Jerone Young, Partner Engineer at Canonical explains the status of software optimizations and development to make ARM Powered Laptops and Desktops a reality. He tells about some of the fascinating challenges where Canonical is working together with the their partners at the Linaro group of companies (ARM, Freescale, IBM, Samsung, ST Ericsson, Texas Instruments…) to realize a full desktop experience on ARM Powered devices, including full and fast web browsing and full access to most of the most useful Ubuntu applications.
It’s about hardware acceleration, about standardization of boot process and other aspects of the ARM platforms, this is about focusing development efforts to solve the most important challenges and provide thus open source and free software tools to be used by all ARM Powered Linux based products. With faster memory bus speeds coming up in the next generation of Desktop-centric ARM Processors, such as support for DDR3 RAM speeds, the implementation of multiple cores as in upcoming ARM Cortex A9 processors, the standardization of how to use graphics and video hardware acceleration to speed up user interfaces, applications and features. Those are the challenges that Canonical and its partners are working very hard on and plan to implement in actual products that can start to be sold to the mass market during these coming months.
As you have been able to see in hundreds of videos here on ARMdevices.net, many, many prototypes of ARM Powered laptops are being shown at trade shows. Huge laptop makers like HP, Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo, Quanta, Compal, Inventec, Pegatron, all of those and many more have shown or have announced ARM Powered laptop projects. Yet to actually launch these to a very large market, the ARM Partners are first collaboratively making sure that those devices provide a user experience that is fast enough for most consumers.
This story as discussed on Slashdot: http://linux.slashdot.org/story/10/07/06/1256252/Surveying-the-Challenges-of-Linux-On-Cortex-A9-Based-Laptops
Technology Editor at EETimes offers impressions from the Freescale Technology Forum
Posted by – June 27, 2010
R.Colin Johnson, Technology Editor at http://eetimes.com offers his impressions on the Freescale Technology Forum. The launch of the new Freescale Xtrinsic sensors, Cortex M4 and more. Check more videos he filmed of the first day keynotes at FTF at his blog: http://nextgenlog.tv
Freescale MMA9550L, the new Xtrinsic family of autonomous sensors
Posted by – June 24, 2010
Imagine not needing a power button to turn on your phone, just pick it up. Imagine cheaper warranty as manufacturers will know when devices were damaged because of usage error such as fall or banging. Imagine new user interfaces that are much more relying on sensors as the new Freescale Xtrinsic sensors can measure stuff 2000 times per second (the bandwidth and architecture being better). Imagine also sensors combining their abilities through fusion, again, no need to wake up the main ARM processor of the device to do all kinds of things! Imagine the device knowing exactly how it is touched, how it is moved, how it is held, the touch is not anymore only on the screen! This means better battery usage, months maybe even years of seamless standby. The new Xtrinsic sensor only needs 12 micro amps of power to be turned on all the time!
Windows CE 7
Posted by – June 24, 2010
So this is what Windows Compact Embedded 7 looks like! The unskinned version of WinCE7 looks basically quite a lot like WinCE6, but perhaps this new version of Windows CE has got some new optimizations to use ARM Cortex A8 and the more advanced hardware acceleration fully. And perhaps Windows CE 7 is meant to receive layers of customized user interfaces put on top of it, like Windows Phone 7 Series and like other potential UIs that partners of Microsoft surely are working on. Can this be considered an alternative to Windows 7 for ARM processors? I don’t know. How much can it really do?
Freescale automotive concept car
Posted by – June 24, 2010
Freescale is one of the leaders in putting processors and technology into cars. Freescale has put as much technology as they can on this concept car to showcase what we might see in the future out of the automotive industry.
