Nice looking 7″ 1280×800 IPS tablet with the Allwinner A31 inside. Selling for about $129 (800rmb) in Shenzhen China.
Konka 50″, 65″ and 84″ 4K screens
Posted by – April 11, 2013
Konka is showing their latest 4K screens, at 50″, 65″ and 84″ sizes.
Vivo X1S, MT6589 ultra-thin 6.55mm for $403
Posted by – April 11, 2013
This is perhaps the best looking MediaTek MT6589 quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 phone that I have seen yet out of China. I don’t know where the Vivo brand comes from, but this phone is kind of impressive although it is kind of expensive for a MT6589 phone. It includes DAC audio using on-board Cirus Logic chip which provides quite high quality sound.
AU Optronics 5″ 1080p OLED and other LCDs including 4K 55″ and 65″
Posted by – April 11, 2013
AUO debuts their 5-inch FHD OLED smartphone display with a 443ppi pixel density, as well as they are showing off a full range of smartphone displays from 5″ to 5.7″ adopting AHVA technology with LTPS production process, or Hyper LCD technology, with resolutions of 1080p, 720p, providing super narrow bezel with 1mm-width from display area to touch panel border. AUO is also some of their latest transparent and mirror displays for digital signage applications, for smart vending machines and other. For better touch screens, AUO is introducing One Glass Solution Touch, integrating the cover lens and sensor glass into the ultra slim and light module. The direct bonding manufacturing process simplifies the production procedure of the integration of the touch structure, panel and backlight to provide slimmer and lighter, high optical and anti-glare performance LCD modules.
Nubia Z5, APQ8064 ultra-thin
Posted by – April 11, 2013
ZTE’s new brand Nubia releases this ultra-thin Z5 Android phone on the Qualcomm APQ8064 processor.
Skyworth 4K 50″ sells for $1453 in China
Posted by – April 10, 2013
You can now buy this Skyworth 50E780U 4K HDTV in China for under $1500. It’s for sale right now. $1453 (8999rmb) is just the official suggested retail price, it seems to be sold for as cheap as $1323 (8198rmb) online at taobao (which I think is kind of China’s Amazon).
This 4K display is made by Taiwanese Chimei Innolux, it’s sold by the Skyworth brand, the number 1 TV brand in China (in front of Samsung in China). The only sad thing about this 4K display is that you are only getting a 50″ size, not 55″ nor 65″, I have been talking about my wish of seeing sub-$2000 4K 55″ during 2012/2013, now we’ve got sub-$1500 4K, but for now it’s 50″. I’m seriously considering buying one of these for myself, if I can somehow have it safely shipped to myself in Europe with UPS or some other shipping method, do you think that would be a good idea or will I regret not having at least a 55″ screen size for my 4K home screen resolution? Maybe if I wait another 2-3 months, sub-$2000 55″ 4K screens are going to be broadly available? I am very excited about the possibilities of 4K displays, simply because the demonstrations of 4K at trade shows that I have seen over the past few years have always been the highlights of the shows for me. 4K is way, way more interesting than 3D. I also expect to be able to buy sub-$2000 4K camcorders later this year, maybe Panasonic is working on a GH4 with 4K high bitrate video recording resolution. And I am convinced that YouTube, BitTorrent and other online sources for above 16mbit/s compressed 4K video streaming or downloading can provide for awesome 4K video content online in the months and years to come. So I am not worried about 4K content. I am sure Hollywood already has digitized most of their movies in 4K resolution and it wouldn’t be hard for them to release them all in 4K as soon as the home movies industry decides how to release them, I’d say they should just turn on 4K video-on-demand right now. $20/month for unlimited 4K movie streaming/downloading/progressive-downloading, I’d pay for that Hollywood! To save on bandwidth costs, Hollywood should just use BitTorrent for their 4K VOD movie distribution. All 8 megapixel pictures can already provide for great 4K slideshows today. I would consider placing my 4K display on an adjustable arm that easily allows the display to be used for office use, home cinema use and when raised a bit higher it can be a constant amazing 8 megapixel slideshow display in the living room. I wonder though what will be with the 30fps limitation of HDMI 1.4a that is the 4K interface used by these new 4K displays, I wonder if a firmware update can transform those to a possible HDMI 1.5 with at least 60fps or maybe 120fps support and maybe also higher bitrate if needed. I’m also worried about the built-in ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core M-star processor system not being user-replaceable once faster processors get available, because the solution to the limitation of HDMI 1.4a would be to directly stream all the contents from Ethernet or USB, but if the built-in processor needs update for the user interfaces, the 4K Google TV UI that I am expecting and perhaps especially the video decode performance being upgraded in the future. There, I’d prefer if the ARM SoC platform was easily user replaceable in all new 4K TVs, that I think would make the 4K panels more future proof regardless what happens with the eventual limitations of HDMI. What do you think is the future-proof 4K solution to the current 30fps@4K limitation of current HDMI 1.4a?
Check back for more than 100 videos from Shenzhen and Hong Kong in the next few days
Posted by – April 9, 2013
Get ready to reload my website several times a day over the next few days to discover tons and tons of new videos of the latest best value ARM Powered devices out of China that I am about to video-blog here in Shenzhen at the Shenzhen Electronics Fair, then China Sourcing Fair and mostly at the HKTDC Electronic Fair here from April 10-16th, then April 17-21th I’ll video-blog some more in Shenzhen China. Let me know in the comments if you’ve heard about some awesome new devices by Chinese companies which you know are exhibiting at these trade shows or who have something to show on video in Shenzhen China.
Get ready for tons of new quad-cores, ARM Cortex-A9, A7, A5, check back for the markets latest best value tablets, smartphones, set-top-boxes, HDMI Sticks. If you have any requests for Shenzhen Factories and Shenzhen companies which I should interview at and film factory tours at, let me know in the comments!
If you have any tips for what I should video-blog these next 11 days, let me know here in the comments or to my email charbax@gmail.com thanks!
I can also be reached by mobile phone in China: +86 13247632620 (April 10-11th, 17-21th) and my Hong Kong phone number: +852 9555 7482 (April 11-17th).
Alldocube RK3188 Tablet Factory Tour Part 3/3: Assembly
Posted by – April 9, 2013
Welcome on this 23-minute tour at the Alldocube RK3188 Tablet assembly line. See how Shenzhen Cube assembles about 2-3 million Android Rockchip tablets a year, expecting to double their output each year.
[s2If !is_user_logged_in()]
| Logged-in Members of ARMdevices.net ($50/year) can see the full contact information for this company from the business card here. Become a Member Now! |
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]
[/s2If]
Be sure to have seen all my 21 Shenzhen Factory videos in my YouTube playlist for Shenzhen Factory videos, more to come in the days/weeks to come! Check back!
Alldocube Tablet Factory Tour Part 2/3: SMT workshop
Posted by – April 9, 2013
Here’s a look at Alldocube‘s SMT line in their Shenzhen Headquarters.
[s2If !is_user_logged_in()]
| Logged-in Members of ARMdevices.net ($50/year) can see the full contact information for this company from the business card here. Become a Member Now! |
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]
[/s2If]
Alldocube RK3188 Tablet Factory Tour Part 1/3: Headquarters
Posted by – April 2, 2013
Category: Tablets, Smartphones, Factory Tours, PCB Design House, Exclusive videos, Members Content, Rockchip, Android
Welcome on my full tour (Part 1 of 3) at the Alldocube Tablet Factory in Shenzhen China. This is the tour at the Alldo Cube Headquarters, featuring their R&D office, design, testing, component storage, component quality control and the device repair/support area. Alldocube in Shenzhen is finalizing the testing and is beginning mass production of the Rockchip RK3188 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 28nm HKMG based tablets. Full mass production of the new RK3188 Quad-core Tablets is expected for the middle of April 2013. Check back in the next days for the Parts 2 and 3 of this Factory Tour, to feature the Alldocube SMT Line and Assembly lines next.
[s2If !is_user_logged_in()]
| Logged-in Members of ARMdevices.net ($50/year) can see the full contact information for this company from the business card here. Become a Member Now! |
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]
[/s2If]
Tom Gall on the Linaro Graphics working group
Posted by – April 2, 2013
Category: Exclusive videos, Linaro Connect
Tom Gall talks about the wide variety of graphics related optimizations that the Linaro Graphics working group works on, activities within the Kernel layer for panel and kernel device drivers, user space optimizations for libraries important for the graphics stack including audio-visual libraries for multimedia type applications, optimizing using NEON, starting to look at using GPGPUs, doing general purpose computing on a GPU device.
Vincent Guittot on the Linaro big.LITTLE MP work
Posted by – April 2, 2013
Category: Exclusive videos, Linaro Connect
Vincent Guittot, Linaro assignee from ST-Ericsson, talks about the work that is being done at Linaro to Extend the Linux kernel to support ARM’s big.LITTLE MP architecture, building on the features provided by the big.LITTLE Switcher project. The most powerful use model of big.LITTLE is called MP and enables the use of all physical cores at the same time. Threads with high priority and/or computationally intensive can in this case be allocated to the A15 cores while threads with less priority or less computationally intensive such as background tasks can be performed by the A7 cores.
I am the new CEO of Intel
My non-disclosure agreement expires today, you can read the official press release at http://intel.com/press
SANTA CLARA, Calif., April 1, 2013 – Intel Corporation’s board of directors has announced that it has selected Charbax to be its new CEO effective May 23rd 2013. Charbax is being given full control over the company, tasking Intel’s engineers to design and release ARM Processors in the months to come, the new company motto is to supply market demands instead of trying to control them. More information about Intel’s new corporate priorities to follow in the next few weeks.
I’m excited to announce that the Intel board of directors has named me to be their new CEO. As I have been noticing from looking at my visitor statistics, hundreds of Intel employees have been visiting my blog at least weekly for over a year, they tell me that many of my posts have been sent around their executive offices and that they have then thought about considering me in their search for a new CEO.
I was surprised to hear Intel would hire someone like me as CEO of a $105 Billion Silicon Valley company. My background is just being a technology video-blogger, but the board of directors have convinced me, they are giving me complete freedom in choosing what to do with all engineering and fabrication resources at Intel corp. And I am also allowed to continue to blog on http://ARMdevices.net at the same time, so you can expect me to post more videos here, not fewer.
Here are my priorities for Intel to be enacted as soon as possible (expect official press releases to come in the next 2-3 weeks):
1. Intel to announce Licencing of the ARM Architecture, as well as licencing of ARM Cortex-A15/A7, Mali-T600 series GPU and ARM Cortex-A57/53. Intel is going to dedicate most R&D resources into making the worlds best ARM Processors.
2. Intel Fabs are hereby going to be optimized at making ARM Processors for third party companies. Apple has expressed interest in having Intel fabricate the Apple A6X and future Apple ARM Processors. Intel will do its best to supply Apple and anyone else with some of the worlds most advanced ARM Processors. 22nm ARM Process node manufacturing is available within the next 3 months, 14nm FinFet process node manufacturing of ARM designs to be in full mass production in Intel’s Fabs by the end of the year.
3. Intel Ultrabook to be renamed the Intel Ultra Expensive Notebook division. Intel does hereby invest in ARM Powered Chromebook. Intel to provide full featured ARM Cortex-A15/A7 big.LITTLE designs in mass production within 3 months from today targetted at $199 ARM Powered Chromebooks. Customers Lenovo, HP, Asus, Acer are to announce ARM Chromebooks using Intel’s ARM big.LITTLE processor. Intel expects the ARM Chromebook to overtake x86 Laptop shipments by the middle of this year and Intel is going to do its best to supply to a majority of those ARM Powered laptops.
4. Intel to invest $1 Billion in the ARM Powered One Laptop Per Child project. Official apology letter sent to the One Laptop Per Child foundation with the title: “We are sorry to have delayed the distribution of laptops to children in developing countries around the world”.
5. Intel to use own ARM Architecture licence to optimize ARMv8 64bit design for ARM servers. Intel is going to deliver mass production of 64bit ARM Server designs by the end of this year.
6. Intel allows Microsoft rename Windows RT into Windows 8 Value Edition. Intel will aim at supplying a new range of Windows 8 Value Edition ARM laptops at sub-$299 by the middle of this year. Intel recommends Microsoft open source and free the Windows 8 Value Edition source code, to optimize their chances in gaining market share, but that decision is up to Microsoft. Expect more on this to be announced by Microsoft in the weeks to come.
7. Proprietary projects Thunderbolt and Intel Wireless Display are abandoned, all in favor of USB 3.0 and WiHD open standards.
8. Intel to appologize to AMD and Nvidia for last decades of anti-competitive behavior. Promises to not use anti-competitive behavior going forward.
This is a major pivot for Intel’s business model, the board of directors have full confidence in me being able to guide them through this major inevitable change. Supplying market demands and not trying to dictate and control market trends is hereby Intel’s future role in this industry.
Lenovo to design own ARM processors
Posted by – March 31, 2013
Category: Opinions
Eetimes reports that Lenovo is getting a team of 100 chip designers together (60 in Shenzhen, 40 in Beijing) to design and integrate their own ARM Processor designs.
Because Samsung may not agree to provide them with the latest fastest Exynos designs and because Lenovo needs own differentiation in this market.
I expect Lenovo to use ARM in ThinkPad Laptops soon also, using Chrome OS in priority.
Karim Yaghmour talks Linux Trace Toolkit, Embedded Linux and Embedded Android
Posted by – March 25, 2013
Karim Yaghmour talks to Zach Pfeffer about the Linux Trace Toolkit, the Embedded Linux book and now he’s releasing the Embedded Android book. At Linaro Connect Asia 2013, Karim Yaghmour presented 4 sessions on Embedded Android which I filmed in their entirety which you can watch here:
Karim Yaghmour Presents Embedded Android Session 1: Android Internals
Karim Yaghmour Presents Embedded Android Session 2: Working with the AOSP
Karim Yaghmour Presents Embedded Android Session 3: Native Android user-space
Karim Yaghmour Presents Embedded Android Session 4: Using and Customizing the Android Framework
Adam Conrad talks to Zach Pfeffer at Linaro Connect Asia 2013
Posted by – March 25, 2013
Adam Conrad, Software Engineer at Canonical talks to Zach Pfeffer about his experiences developing and optimizing Linux on 68k then on ARM.
Cole Crawford, COO at the Open Compute Foundation
Posted by – March 25, 2013
Open Compute is a project originally started by Facebook as “Project Freedom”, turned into a big community movement that is going to redefine how consumers consume enterprise hyperscale infrastructure.
Daniel Lezcano of the Power Management Team at Linaro Connect Asia 2013
Posted by – March 25, 2013
Category: Exclusive videos, Linaro Connect
Daniel Lezcano talks about CPU idle optimizations, trying to power down the different peripherals of the ARM SoC, consolidating the drivers by changing the way they are managing the different peripherals.
Qun Fa E2001 5.7″ 720p MT6589 phone for $187
Posted by – March 25, 2013
Here’s the 5.7″ 720p E2001 phone on the MediaTek MT6589 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 sold for $187 in Shenzhen China.
[s2If !is_user_logged_in()]
| Logged-in Members of ARMdevices.net ($50/year) can see the full contact information for this company from the business card here. Become a Member Now! |
[s2If is_user_logged_in()]
[/s2If]
Zopo Libero HD ZP800H, 5″ 720p IPS, MT6589
Posted by – March 25, 2013
Sold for 1799rmb ($290) in Shenzhen China, battery capacity is 2000mAh, 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, dual-sim on the MediaTek MT6589 Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 processor.
