Hasta La Gadget!

Up until now, a shroud of mystery has surrounded Apple’s custom engineered A4 system-on-chip; we know it’s clocked at 1GHz, likely tied to Apple’s prior acquisition of P.A. Semi and manufactured by Samsung. Outside of that, the only other knowledge we’ve gained has come not from the mouth of Cupertino, but from the extracting wizards over at iFixit. The A4 contains at least three layers of circuitry layered on top of each other, though it’s packaged just like the iPhone processor: microprocessor in one package and two memory modules in the other package. We also learned that the iPad RAM is actually inside of the A4 processor package, and we’re expecting to learn even more from those folks in the coming days. All that said, there’s still much debate on whether Apple’s own silicon can stand up to Qualcomm’s heralded 1GHz Snapdragon, the chip powering Google’s Nexus One among other things. AnandTech pitted their iPad against the iPhone 3GS (600MHz ARM Cortex A8) and the aforesaid Nexus One (1GHz Snapdragon QSD8250), using a number of website loads as the primary benchmark. Overall, the A4 proved to be around 10 to 30 percent faster, though it’s impossible to say what effect the operating system has on things. Have a gander at that source link for more — we get the feeling the competitions have just begun.

Apple’s A4 SoC faces Qualcomm Snapdragon in knock-down-drag-out benchmarking test originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 04 Apr 2010 01:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It looks like a smartphone, it has a smartphone’s form factor, operating system, and an extra-slim slideout QWERTY keyboard, yet Inbrics still insists on calling the M1 a Mobile Internet Device instead. When the company’s not busy sinking its own battleships, it appears to be doing actually beneficial stuff, such as cramming a new 1GHz Samsung CPU inside its device. The original 800MHz unit was the thing that worried us most during our otherwise praise-filled hands-on experience with the M1 at CES, so it’s a good sign to see it getting a bit of extra brawn ahead of launch. The software has also moved with the times, with Android 2.1 being the current OS on tap, which should look rather nice on that 3.7-inch OLED display. The M1 will have WiFi, but no cellular connectivity is planned just yet. It’s all dependent on having a Western vendor pick up the hardware and infuse it with its own requirements. Although at CES we were told to expect the M1 in March, the current timetable is for a July launch in Korea and US availability by the end of the year, provided Inbrics finds a partner for the device. Netbook News have also finally squeezed a price out of the company and have been told to expect it in the “low $200” range. Sounds kinda promising, don’t you think?

Inbrics M1 gets Android 2.1 and CPU bump to 1GHz, insists on being called a MID originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 24 Mar 2010 08:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While the verdict is still out with regard to consumer appetites for a 3rd portable computing device, PC makers are betting the farm on consumer interest in tablets that fill the gap between small-screened smartphones and bulky (by comparison) netbooks/laptops. We’ve already seen an uptick in tablet devices on display at the big CES and CeBIT trade shows, now tablet and MID device vendors look ready to blow out Computex when it kicks off on June 1st in Taipei. According to Roy Chen, ARM’s ODM manager for worldwide mobile computing, more than 50 ARM-based tablet PCs will launch in 2010 starting in Q2 with “a lot more” landing in the third quarter — a date that just happens to line-up with the most optimistic Chrome OS launch schedule. ARM’s seeing so much interest that it had to rent additional floor space to show off the devices. Chen said that many of the tablets are slated for China although all of the world’s top 10 carriers have signed up as well. ARM was showing off two Android based tablets at the press event, including the 7-inch Compal device (pictured above) we gave a whirl at CES. Let’s just hope that tablet makers have plans for some compelling content and service hook-ups with a focus on the user experience — 50 near-identical slabs of touchscreen computing won’t generate much enthusiasm around here.

Over 50 ARM-based tablets launching this year originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:38:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The early belief that the PSN was spreading a brickitis infection to PS3s around the world has turned out to be not quite accurate. Yes, PSN was inaccessible over that extremely stressful day (for PS3 owners, the rest of us have been quite fine, thank you), but we’re hearing from Eurogamer that the villain in this story was an ARM chip inside the console — the very same one, in fact, that led to a few Zunes losing their minds back in 2008. The big problem here was simply a bit of hardware that couldn’t get its bearings straight after expecting 2010 to be a leap year, and the arrival of March 1 “fixed” everything for all eight affected PS3 SKUs (of a total of eleven). That leaves Sony with four years to make sure this problem isn’t heard from again, and if it doesn’t, we’ll be placing blame for the real 2012 apocalypse firmly on Howard Stringer‘s shoulders.

The apocalyPS3 ends in global resurrection, ARM chip at fault originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 04:17:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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A faster processor from chip maker Freescale could help cut down the cost of components for e-readers, paving the way to a $150 device later this year.

Freescale’s latest system-on-chip, called the i.MX508, integrates an ARM Cortex A8 processor with a display controller from E Ink. It will have twice the performance at a significantly lower cost, Freescale claims.

“This is the first chip that has been designed just for e-readers,” says Glen Burchers, director of marketing at Freescale. “Earlier, we had general-purpose processors being used in e-readers so they were not completely optimized.”

From the Kindle to the Sony Reader, Freescale’s chips power most e-readers today. The chipmaker claims to have nearly 90 percent of the market share among the burgeoning e-reader market. Research firm Forrester estimates 3 million e-readers were sold last year and sales are expected to double this year.

But the high cost of e-readers has kept many consumers from rushing to stores to get the device. An Amazon Kindle costs $260, which is what most such readers cost. The cheapest e-reader currently on the market, from Sony, is still $200. And that doesn’t include the price of buying e-books. Another limiting factor has been kludgy user interfaces and displays that are slow to turn from one page to the next, which has turned off some potential users.

Freescale’s latest chip has an ARM core running at 800MHz and can render electronic ink pages at almost twice the speed of earlier e-reader processors, the company says. This results in faster page turns and a more snappy feel to the device.

“Today page flips on a Kindle are in the range of 1.5 to 2 seconds, while the Nook (which uses a processor from Samsung) it can take up to 3 seconds for a page turn,” Burchers says. “With our new processors, that can be cut down to about half a second.”

In Wired’s testing, page turns on the current-model Kindle took about half a second while the Nook took about one second.

The increased processing capability also gives e-reader makers greater computing power so they can add better touch capability and run more apps on the device, says Freescale.

For consumers, all this could come with some cost savings. Freescale’s chip could reduce the overall cost of materials because the chip itself will cost about $10 when ordered in large volumes (greater than 250,000 units). Overall, this could reduce the price of an e-reader by at least $30-$50. The most expensive component in an e-reader, however, remains the E Ink black-and-white display.

E-readers based on the new Freescale processor are expected to be available in the third quarter of the year.

See Also:

• Plastic Logic Aims New Que E-Reader at Business Users
• Slim, Large Screen E-Reader Skiff to Debut on Sprint
• Dual-Screen Device Combines E-Reader, Netbook
• 5 Things That Will Make E-Readers Better in 2010
• Why E-Books Are Stuck in a Black-and-White World
• Qualcomm Aims to Bring Color, Video to E-Readers

Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com