CEO of Nvidia, Jen-Hsun Huang, recently said at their GPU technology conference that some of the reason for Tegra 2 tablets delay has been the OS and software integration (my guess: possibly something to do with optimizing existing Android source code for Nvidia’s ARM Cortex A9), that several companies have needed to collaborate to reach “Windows 95” level in terms of software integration, once the investment has been made to realize the horizhontal infrastructure behind these upcoming tablet, it will allow for the fast innovation curve that’s about to arrive when hundreds of companies can innovate faster in the tablet market. He hopes the Tegra 2 tablets will arrive to market by the end of the year, they are in the “home stretch”.
Sharp previously released the Interesting PC-Z1 mini Ubuntu laptop, the PC-T1 same Ubuntu but in Tablet form factor and the IS01 Android form factor, all mainly released only on the Japanese market. Now Sharp is announcing their custom high pixel density screens on their new 5.5″ 1,024×600 and 10.8″ 1,366×800 Android tablets which they position as e-books. It seems to me though that no matter what back lit LCD resolution is used, a tablet cannot really be used for reading text for hours at a time such as e-books as people do comfortably using e-ink. Sharp should I think manufacture Pixel Qi Screens with a back light switch providing fully reflected e-reading experience if they really want to call those e-readers.
dual stream 1080p 3D video and 3D graphics performance with quad unified shaders for 200 million triangles per second delivered on ultra-low-power, long battery life smartphones and tablets
1080p dual stream 3D video applications (30 FPS, multi-format)
By supporting 1080p 3D at 30 FPS, does that mean normal non-3D 1080p at 60fps High Profile H264 also can be played back flawlessly?
The new ARMADA 628 tri-core processor incorporates a number of advanced processing and power management features. The tri-core design integrates two high performance symmetric multiprocessing cores and a third core optimized for ultra low-power. The third core is designed to support routine user tasks and acts as a system management processor to monitor and dynamically scale power and performance. The tri-core architecture provides superior performance and lower power over dual-core designs while maintaining industry compatibility and leadership — ensuring a richer, faster and smoother experience than any other ARM-based processor available today.
That sounds like Marvell is awesomely at work using its ARM Architecture licence, customizing their processors as much as they can to design those processors how they think is best with their expertise and 5000 employees.
The ARMADA 628 is also designed to be the first mobile CPU to provide high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity, which offers 10x faster performance than USB 2.0.
Hmm nice, I can’t wait to be able to transfer those terrabytes of data from one hard drive to the other faster that tens of hours.
The ARMADA 628 is based on a Marvell-designed ARM v7 MP compatible CPU offering 1.5 GHz performance. It offers support to use LP-DDR2 or DDR3 memory up to 533 MHz, a highly flexible display controller capable of driving four simultaneous displays at up t o 2K x 2K resolution, and a highly robust security subsystem that includes a secure execution processor. An integrated 3D engine renders 200 million triangles per second for an immersive game play experience and a multi-format video engine supports dual stream 1080p video for a true 3D visual experience. In addition, the ARMADA 628 supports DirectX, Open GL ES 2.0, and Open VG 1.1 – ensuring complete compatibility with the most hotly anticipated mobile game titles. ARMADA 628 supports RIM OS, Android™, Linux, Windows Mobile, and full Adobe Flash.
Key Features
World’s first “tri-core” application processor
Up to 1.5 GHz for the two main cores and 624 MHz for the third low power core
“Heterogeneous multiprocessing” with “hardware-based Cache Coherence”
1 MB System Level 2 Cache
I am really looking forward to see some devices using this new processor.
I’ve said it before, I am an Archos fanboy, and I am really looking forward to their 5 new tablets coming out on the worldwide market during these next few weeks. I briefly filmed those tablets at IFA, see my videos of the 101, 70, 28, 32 and 43 tablets. Here is the full keynote video of Archos CEO Henri Crohas, showing the Gen8 Archos Android Tablets a couple of weeks ago in Beijing China:
$299 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz omap3630 10.1″ WSVGA capacitive Android 2.2 tablet 8GB. $349 for 16GB version
$275 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz omap3630 7″ WVGA capacitive Android 2.2 tablet 16GB, $349 for 250GB version
$199 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz omap3630 4.3″ FWVGA resistive Android 2.2 tablet 16GB
$149 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 800mhz omap3630 3.2″ WQVGA resistive Android 2.2 tablet 8GB
$99 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 800mhz omap3630 2.8″ QVGA resistive Android 2.2 tablet 4GB, $119 for 8GB version
I think those new Archos Android tablets are very good value for money. Google Marketplace can very likely be installed on all of them as the previous Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android which was released October 2009, got the Google Marketplace on it through a solution released since November 2009 in the http://forum.archosfans.com
No matter what Google or anyone else says, Android 2.2 is great for tablets, most of the apps from the Google Marketplace, probably 99% of them will work just fine on the Archos series of Tablets, apps requiring a back-facing camera, GPS/Compass, 3G or hardware buttons are a minority. Archos can playback most video formats, including h264 MKV high profile at up to 720p with high bitrates (to be tested and confirmed if that reprensents more than 90% of all 720p movies currently traded on p2p networks).
Archos also released this animation illustrating their advantages in hardware design over the iPad:
This keynote presentation is available as a slideshow with prompter subtitles at: http://www.archos.com/_pres_hc.html Here are a couple of some of the best slides:
HP is releasing this Freescale i.MX51 Powered $399 Android 2.2 Tablet which includes a “full function” color printer, with scanner and WiFi internet connection. The Android OS has been customized by HP to include only apps for printing stuff, the idea being that you can carry around this Android tablet and launch a bunch of prints wirelessly and dock it to your printer for charging. This may be the first Yahoo customized Android device, it doesn’t include Google apps/email/maps/marketplace but uses exclusively Yahoo apps and widgets.
Pixel Qi is the singlemostrevolutionaryLCDscreentechnology, adding the benefits of low power, reflectivity, long form and outdoor readability all the while providing a switch on the side of the device to provide full color backlight mode to the screen as well. Thus combining Tablets with E-readers, making 50-hour tablet battery runtime without increasing battery size a possibility and bringing full color video, web browsing and full Android UIs to E-readers. The 10.1″ screen will be announced soon for more products than just Notion Ink and Innoversal:
We will be announcing other products carrying Pixel Qi screens here in this blog; stay tuned.
Pixel Qi provides some insights into the reason why several tablet projects including the ones to use Pixel Qi have been delayed because of the success of the disruptive iPad:
Tight supply chain and 100% factory usage this spring and summer coupled with Apple’s disruptive iPad effectively had a 1-2 punch impact: delaying most tablet makers from coming to market as early as they wished. The situation has eased: the supply chain is more robust and factory capacity is widely available. Many of our device makers used this downtime to refine their designs with the result being even more exciting offerings that are highly differentiated from the iPad with options well beyond ATT for carriers. These device maker partners will be making more announcements coming this fall.
We are developing a 7” screen for tablets and ereaders that is planned for mass production in H1 2011. Samples will be available earlier, perhaps by late Q4 2010.
In my opinion, everyone in the industry with 7″ and 10.1″ LCD tablet projects, all need to be a part of this revolution and need to use this amazing screen. Hopefully with mass manufacturing and large serious orders, the screen will be cheap enough to be close to the price of a normal LCD, hopefully the yield and the long term performance in use will be just as good as normal LCD.
I asked T-Mobile and Vodafone at IFA 2010 in Berlin, they both confirmed that their retail price for the Samsung Galaxy Tab when bought without the 2-year 40€/month contract, is going to be 799€. Thus the price is 1359€ with 2-years of 5GB/month contracts at 40€/month including the 200-300€ purchase price for the device. 5GB/month can otherwise also be had for 15€/month in Germany without contracts using Aldi and 20€/month without contract with Tchibo SIM cards.
So by signing up for a 2-year contract for a Samsung Galaxy Tab, the actual cost for the device is higher at 1000€ since 15€ x 24 months only amounts to 360€ and that the 15€/month for 5GB/month with Aldi can actually be stopped at any time as it does not have to be on a contract.
My point? The Samsung Galaxy Tab is really expensive. Samsung really sees an opportunity to make a lot of money for themselves and for their carrier partners by selling this device to as many people as possible. The high price of the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy Tab I think are great opportunities for other players to provide lower cost tablet alternatives to the market.
Smit has previously presented Samsung ARM11 powered Android tablets, now they plan to release Telechips based ones with Android 2.1 support. In the coming weeks they will also be working on the next generation ARM Cortex A8 processor from Telechips as development boards are being made available. I previously posted the web’s most popular Smit Android tablet videos: Smit MID-560 at IFA 2009, Smit MID-560 at CES 2010
Cyber1 Ltd is releasing this full Windows 7 Home Premium tablet on a Intel Pineview N450, 11.6″ capacitive touch screen tablet, 1GB/2GB RAM, 32GB/64GB SSD, priced similarly to the iPad, release October. 1080p video support, video-chat, 2 USB host, HDMI output, SD card reader, optional 3G sim slot.
Universal Microelectronics Co. Ltd. is making this range of Android Tablets based on the Freescale i.MX51 ARM Cortex A8 processor, with capacitive touch sensors for the Android hardware buttons, volume, channels and power. See how far they have come since my previous video of what they were showing at IFA last year: http://138.2.152.197/2009/09/05/720p-android-on-a-video-phone-by-universal-microelectronics-co-ltd/
This company is making a bunch of interesting Android tablets, based on the Telechips ARM11 processor, with 1080p video playback support, built-in HDMI outputs, resistive screens for now and cheap prices.
Interpad is a German brand releasing this 10.1″ capacitive ARM Cortex A9 Tegra2 based Android tablet design for 399€ all over Europe. This tablet design is manufactured by chinese manufacturer Malata as you can see from my Computex video filmed last June: 10 Inch Capacitive Android Tablet by Malata.
