Qualcomm OpenGL driver turns 2D games into 3D

Taking a page from the “PC development” book, Qualcomm was demonstrating its latest Open GL driver which can turn 2D games into 3D without intervention from the developers. This demo is running with an Adreno 225 GPU, which can now be commonly found in high-end smartphones like select HTC One handsets or Samsung Galaxy SIII handsets in the USA. In this demo, the Adreno 225 powers a 1080p glasses-less 3D tablet display from master image, which looks much better than their 720p equivalent. When it comes to glasses-less 3D, resolution does matter a lot. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: More work required for LTE roaming, says Qualcomm CEO, Qualcomm pitches Snapdragon S4 and S4 Pro to developers at Uplinq,

Samsung pushes LPDDR3 memory into next-gen devices

At Uplinq I met representatives of Samsung who are promoting the LPDDR3 memory designed for the next-generation smartphones and tablets. LPDDR is also known as “mobile DDR” and it is a type of memory that can consume 10X less power in standby mode, when compared to typical “PC” DDR3 memory. Obviously, this is a big deal because most of the time, your smartphone is in standby mode, doing very little. Many smartphones currently use LPDDR2.

This type of memory consumes less power because they have a special design which requires a lower voltage, a slower refresh rate and they also have a mode where they don’t even have to keep their content. The design works for mobile devices, but the extra cost is not justifiable (yet!) on regular PCs and laptops which have components that consume much more juice anyway (display, CPU, GPU). (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Qualcomm OpenGL driver turns 2D games into 3D, More work required for LTE roaming, says Qualcomm CEO,

More work required for LTE roaming, says Qualcomm CEO

Dr. Paul Jacobs addressing a question about 4G LTE roaming

Dr. Paul Jacobs, the CEO of Qualcomm, was holding a press conference just now and one of the very interesting questions that he addressed was: “when will we be able to roam from one LTE network from one carrier to another?” This is a reasonable question as LTE network are still relatively thin, and international travelers are very much concerned by inter-operability.

It is not very hard to roam with 3G networks and their HSPA+ derivates because they use a fairly limited number of bands. For example, a phone like the GSM Galaxy Nexus can work worldwide, including on most HSPA+ networks such as T-Mobile, AT&T and others in the world. To achieve this, the Nexus handset is compatible with 5 bands (it is a “penta-band” phone), which is relatively rare. Most GSM smartphones are quad-band. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Qualcomm OpenGL driver turns 2D games into 3D, Qualcomm pitches Snapdragon S4 and S4 Pro to developers at Uplinq,

Qualcomm pitches Snapdragon S4 and S4 Pro to developers at Uplinq

Today is rich in development news with Google IO (San Francisco) and Uplinq (San Diego) happening at the same time in California. Both overlap on the Android front, but Qualcomm had a message of its own to developers who attended the company’s Uplinq conference in San Diego: “Snapdragon is the processor of choice for developers” – that’s basically what Qualcomm’s CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs was going for. Qualcomm had some facts to backup their claim: most LTE smartphones in the USA are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 chip, and we expect this to last for the remainder of 2012. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: More work required for LTE roaming, says Qualcomm CEO, Samsung pushes LPDDR3 memory into next-gen devices,