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Continue reading ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor to power Nokia’s Windows Phone devices, loosens Qualcomm’s grip

ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor to power Nokia’s Windows Phone devices, loosens Qualcomm’s grip originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:43:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Thought Windows on ARM was snazzy? Have a gander at this. The outfit’s forthcoming ARMv8 architecture, the first ARM architecture to include a 64-bit instruction set, has just been detailed, with a goal to expand the reach of ARM processor-based solutions “into consumer and enterprise applications where extended virtual addressing and 64-bit data processing are required.” The ARMv8 architecture consists of two main execution states — AArch64 and AArch32 — and we’re apt to see the real benefits hit high-end servers first. The ARMv8 architecture specifications are available now to partners under license, with the company planning to disclose processors based on ARMv8 during 2012, with consumer and enterprise prototype systems expected in 2014. Head on past the break for ARM’s take, or meander to the source links for AppliedMicro’s gloating.

Continue reading ARMv8 detailed: 64-bit architecture, AppliedMicro first in line

ARMv8 detailed: 64-bit architecture, AppliedMicro first in line originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You may have noticed a trend recently — pairing slightly less powerful cores that sip power, with more robust ones that can chug through demanding applications. NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 will be packing an underclocked fifth core, while ARM’s big.LITTLE initiative matches a highly efficient 28nm A7 with the beefy A15. Now Freescale is planning to use the same trick, but you won’t find its asymmetrical CPUs in your next tablet or smartphone. Its platform, which marries a Cortex M4 to a Cortex A5, isn’t meant to compete with the latest Snapdragon. These chips will find homes in factories and in-dash infotainment systems which have increasingly sophisticated UIs, but don’t need to push thousands of polygons. Software development tools will land before this quarter is out and the first batch of silicon will be announced in Q1 of 2012. Looks like the era of “dual-core” meaning two identical cores has officially come to an end.

Continue reading Freescale joins ARM A5 and M4 cores at the hip for performance and power savings

Freescale joins ARM A5 and M4 cores at the hip for performance and power savings originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple has boosted CPU and graphics in the MacBook Pro line

Apple has quietly (and quite gently) updated the MacBook Pro lineup. The improvements are solely in the processors and graphics chips, bumping speed slightly, and the smaller models get an increase in storage . Everything else — from screen resolution to memory — remains the same.

To see the differences at a glance, take a look at the screenshot of the old models below and compare to those above (I picked the WayBack Machine’s page as Google’s cache has already been updated. The relevant specs are the same, though).

Only 2.3GHz? Oh man, anyone who just bought this old model must be sick with regret right now

As you can see, the numbers have hardly changed. But if you bought a new MacBook Pro last week, it’s probably enough to drive you crazy anyway.

MacBook Pro comparison [Apple]

See Also:

• MacBook Pro
• Prototype MacBook Pro with Rabbit-Ear Antenna Shows Up on Ebay …
• MacBook Pros, Hit the Bench: The Air Is Gaining Muscle
• New MacBook Pro: 10-Hour Battery, Hi-Res Screen, i7 CPU …
• Clues Hint at Possible MacBook Pro With Core i7 Chip

Fancy a glimpse of the future? That little psychedelic beauty on the right is ARM’s brand new Cortex-A7 processor. Its spec sheet might not seem so colorful at first glance, because it doesn’t really do things any faster than existing high-end smartphone processors. However, this UK-based chip designer isn’t known for bumping its gums, so it pays to look a little deeper. For a start, the Cortex-A7 is built using a 28nm process that makes it five times smaller and more efficient than the current-gen Cortex-A8. It’s also cheap enough to power sub-$100 handsets, so we could be pulling GSII-like tricks on budget phones within a couple of years.

Is that it? Nope, there’s more: perhaps the most important feature of the A7 is that it can be combined with much higher-power cores like the Cortex-A15 side-by-side on the same chip. This allows a super-phone or tablet to switch between two totally different processing units depending on how much power is needed at the time. ARM calls this “Big.LITTLE” computing,” and a similar concept is already in use on NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 (aka Kal-El) SoC, which we’ll see imminently in the next Asus Transformer. However, the Tegra 3 uses five identical Cortex-A9 cores, whereas a device that mix-and-matches the A15 and A7 could potentially deliver higher highs and lower lows, giving you speed when you need it and amazing battery life when you don’t. How cute is that? Full PR after the break.

Continue reading ARM unveils Cortex-A7 processor, ‘big.LITTLE’ computing

ARM unveils Cortex-A7 processor, ‘big.LITTLE’ computing originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 Oct 2011 07:27:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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