Hasta La Gadget!

When Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa was announced, it was believed to be compatible with 3G networks only. As such, the HSPA+ (global) version of the Galaxy S 4 was the only handset to feature the company’s eight-core SoC — the LTE model shipping with Qualcomm’s 4G-capable, quad-core Snapdragon 600 instead. That’s apparently changed, with the Korean giant tweeting that the Exynos 5 Octa now supports LTE on 20 bands. So why even make a Snapdragon 600 version of the Galaxy S 4, then? Perhaps Samsung can’t produce as many chips as Qualcomm to meet the upcoming worldwide demand for its new flagship. This appears likely, with inews24 and new-samsunggalaxys4 reporting that the Exynos 5 Octa with LTE is currently reserved for Korean models only (SHV-E300S, SHV-E300K and SHV-E300L, to be exact). So, anyone fancy a trip to Seoul in the near future?

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Samsung

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Via: GSMArena

Source: SamsungExynos (Twitter)

If you’ve been following NVIDIA’s news blasts this past week, you know that they’ve revealed their next-generation chipset to be working with CUDA-capable GPUs. What’s more, you’ll have a bit of an idea what that means for mobile devices, the computing power they’ll have extremely soon, and you’ll be pumped up about that power coming to smart vehicles through their new developer program. This new developer kit goes by the name NVIDIA Jetson Development Platform – available to you right this minute!

This new platform is a big ol’ amalgamation of metal and plastic, power and next-generation precision. What developers in the smart segment of the next generation of our everyday road-ready vehicles will be doing with this beast is optimizing their ideas for the processing power of NVIDIA’s Tegra processors. Automakers will be able to work with this proof-of-concept in a tiny 1-DIN form that fits in a car stereo slot.

Jetson Development Platform package:

• Jetson main board
• Tegra VCM with automotive-grade Tegra 3 mobile processor
• Embedded Breakout Board (EBB) with a wide range of connectivity options
• NVIDIA CUDA-capable discrete GPU
• Wi-Fi, Bluetooth module, and GPS antennas
• 64 GB mSATA Drive
• Touchscreen display and cables
• Power supply and cables
• USB cable (mini-USB to USB)
• HDMI to DVI cable

With the 1-DIN model of the Jetson, you’ll have the performance of a beastly NVIDIA Tegra VCM combined with the excellence of a Kepler-glass GPU. This GPU supports CUDA as well as OpenCV so any and all developers creating software for this setup will be able to do so with the following visual-based technologies:

• Pedestrian Detection
• Lane Departure Warnings
• Collision Avoidance

This development kit is made not just to make the developer’s job awesome with the processing power of Tegra and Kepler, but to make their job as easy as possible so they can concentrate on what matters most – making their ideas a reality. Jetson is designed to help automakers overcome three key challenges, too, each of them allowing for quicker and easier implementation of forward-thinking technologies.

NVIDIA’s Jetson Development Platform does the following:

1) Simplifies and streamlines the development of advanced driver assistance and connected car technologies.

2) Accelerates the transition to each new generation of mobile SoC, enabling automakers to better keep pace with the rapid innovation cycle in consumer electronics.

3) Reduces the number of processors and independent silver boxes needed to develop infotainment, navigation, computer vision and driver assistance capabilities.

Sound pretty good to you? Have a peek at the timeline we’ve laid out below for all the NVIDIA action you can handle from this past week alone! NVIDIA is ramping up for not just GPUs in your most masterful gaming desktop computers, not just for some of the most powerful mobile processor architectures in the mobile universe for your superphones and tablets, but for next-generation smart vehicles of all kinds, soon and very soon!

NVIDIA Jetson Development Platform hits smart cars with CUDA and Kepler power is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

ARM’s new CEO will resist the siren call of acquisition, chasing smaller, more ubiquitous chips rather than a lucrative pay out from Apple or other 300 licensees of the widespread SoC technology. Currently president of the firm, Simon Segars told the Guardian that ARM would cling resolutely to independence no matter how big the wallet waved under its nose, describing the strategy as “the right model” in a market that demands confidentiality.

ARM is privy to the roadmaps and product plans of hundreds of companies, Segars pointed out, many of whom are arch rivals in the marketplace. “They rely on the neutrality of our position” he insists, a continuation of the strategy of outgoing CEO Warren East. East will step down from his role in July, ending twelve years in charge of the chip tech firm.

However, while ARM’s current good fortune is on the back of smartphones and tablets, such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Segars isn’t in idle. The company is looking to the so-called “internet of things” – every device having a web connection, and able to intercommunicate its status – where it envisages the the next surge in growth.

ARM chips “could be embedded in lightbulbs, the concrete of the road you’re driving on, in the bathroom scales” Segars explains, or “in your refrigerator working out when the milk is going to go off.”

Some of the company’s biggest licensees, such as Texas Instruments, have already thrown their weight behind the internet of things. The OMAP manufacturer will backtrack from smartphone chips and instead look to embedded SoCs, it announced back in September 2012, with a new line of low-power wireless options.

Meanwhile, ARM is also looking to crank up the pressure on Intel, with plans to push its chip technology into what would traditionally have been considered the domain of x86 processors. Servers and mainstream PCs are another target for ARM, with 64-bit models in the pipeline.

However, it’s the potential for a big name like Apple to jump ship from Intel and instead use low-power, efficient ARM-based chips that has many tongues wagging in the industry. That has prompted speculation that Apple might try to invest or even acquire ARM outright, something though that does not look likely with Segars at the helm.

New ARM CEO: We’ll resist buyout offers, Apple or otherwise is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Though the details were a bit less than solid in the official Samsung releases over the past 24 hours, today Qualcomm has confirmed that the GALAXY S 4 will indeed be carrying the all-powerful Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor onboard. This processor is the same motor that runs the HTC One and the LG Optimus G Pro, devices you may have seen SlashGear work with before. This detail adds to the ever-growing list of specifications that the GALAXY S 4 has the same as one of its biggest competitors in the HTC One, and should prove to create an interesting set of benchmarks for comparisons between the two.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 is one of two monstrously powerful quad-core processors the company has revealed this year alone. The other is the Snapdragon 800, a System-on-Chip that’s only thus far been revealed to be carried by the ZTE Grand Memo, a device whose USA release schedule is still not quite solidified. You’ll find more information on the Snapdragon 800′s implementation on the ZTE Grand Memo in our Mobile World Congress 2013 report.

The Snapdragon 600 and 800 were revealed back in the first week of 2013 in a full report detailing how they’ll be appearing on smartphones (and perhaps tablets) throughout the year. As in previous iterations of the Snapdragon SoC, image processing continues to be a high point – have a peek at our LG Optimsu G Pro Photo Tour from Barcelona during Mobile World Congress 2013 as well for a view of how well the device does with the big Q under the hood.

As for the Samsung GALAXY S 4, the Snapdragon 600 will be appearing with a fantastically large performance increase over its predecessors. Compared to the Snapdragon S4 Pro, Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 600 offers a whopping 40% performance increase – the previous Galaxy smartphone had the Snapdragon S4 dual-core processor, a step below the S4 Pro, so you can imagine this GALAXY S 4 will be delivering quite the beastly bump compared to last year.

“ The Snapdragon 600 processor helps consumers do more on their mobile devices, providing seamless app switching, high-speed Web browsing, email connectivity, GPS, multimedia, fast gaming, social networking and 4G/LTE connectivity.” – Qualcomm

As it was with the Samsung Galaxy S III, this GALAXY S 4 model will be coming out with different processors in different regions. Inside the USA you’ll be seeing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor while in most (if not all) regions outside the states you’ll find the Samsung Exynos “Octa” processor with 8 CPU cores (4 active, 4 backup). We’ll be interested to see how these two builds compare to one another once they’re both out on the market without a doubt!

Have a peek at the timeline below to see additional insight on the release of the Samsung GALAXY S 4 as well as a set of hands-on experiences and comparisons to other recent smartphone hero models. Stay tuned for more on Qualcomm as well in our fabulous Qualcomm tag portal, too!

Qualcomm confirms Snapdragon 600 for Samsung GALAXY S 4 is written by Chris Burns & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The developers at Panic didn’t start their days with the intention of ripping open a Lightning Digital AV Adapter, but that’s exactly what happened once they suspected it held some secrets. At first, the group hooked the cable up to various iOS devices expecting 1080p mirroring, but were greeted with 1,600 x 900 as the highest possible resolution. A bit bewildered, they noticed MPEG artifacts, which led them to believe the dongle was acting as a small AirPlay-like receiver that supports streaming and decoding. Now entirely suspicious, the team tore the cable asunder and exposed an ARM SoC apparently packing 256MB of RAM. According to the devs, it’s possible that the Lightning connector’s small number of pins prevented Cupertino from delivering raw HDMI output, so they were forced to improvise with the added silicon. We’ve reached out to Apple to nail down just how the cable works.

Filed under: Peripherals, Apple

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Via: Apple Insider, The Next Web

Source: Panic Blog