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Qualcomm Chip Issues Should End By December
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Qualcomm said it believes TSMC’s 28nm supply issues will continue until year end.
Qualcomm, which relies solely on TSMC for its 28nm chips, said it believes the supply of chips will improve, but the firm expects its 28nm supply not to be back to normal until the end of 2012.
Previously Qualcomm had poured scorn on TSMC by telling investors it is looking at rival wafer fabs to avoid supply issues in the future. Qualcomm’s CEO Paul Jacobs told Reuters once again that the firm is looking to other foundries for extra capacity, adding, “The goal is to get enough supply for everyone.”
TSMC’s 28nm process node has been tapped by a number of big name customers including AMD, Nvidia and Qualcomm, with the chip fab unable to meet demand. Since Qualcomm made the rare public admission that it wasn’t happy with the state of TSMC’s 28nm chip supply, the smart money has been on Globalfoundries picking up the slack, however nothing specific has been announced by either firm.
Qualcomm Updates The S4 Series
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon S4 chips are proving to be quite a coup for the company. They are faster than anything the competition has to offer, more power efficient and some versions include integrated LTE. The only problem is that Qualcomm is having trouble meeting demand.
Qualcomm announced four new S4 chip series aimed at wildly different market segments, all based on the very successful Krait architecture.
Snapdragon S4 Prime chips will target smart TVs and similar applications. The first Prime part is the MPQ8054, a 1.5GHz quad-core with Adreno 320 graphics. Qualcomm promises “leading” audio/video capabilities and low power consumption, although we are not sure efficiency very important in TVs.
Meanwhile Snapdragon S4 Pro parts sound like all-rounders. They also feature Adreno 320 graphics and the S4 Pro tier includes the APQ8064 quad-core and MSM8960T, the Pro version of MSM8960. Pro parts are likely to end up in tablets, hybrids and other “ultra-thin and sleek” devices.
S4 Plus parts are geared towards the traditional mobile market, smartphones and tablets, ranging from the low-end to the high-end. Processors in the S4 Plus tier include MSM8960, APQ8060A, MSM8660A, MSM8260A, APQ8030, MSM8930, MSM8630, MSM8230, MSM8627 and MSM8227.
Is Qualcomm A Threat To Intel?
Intel tried to do gaming graphics cards and it failed, but when it comes to CPUs for desktop and notebooks, it is currently dominating the market. Even the graphics used in Intel’s latest integrated CPUs these days are quite decent for multimedia and even some basic gaming.
Still, Intel is now shifting its focus and it sees Qualcomm as its main competitor in years to come. We heard this from high ranked sources from within Intel who believe that Qualcomm is the only ARM company that has it all, and Intel wants to take it on.
Intel is carefully watching Nvidia and Texas Instruments, again two strong ARM players, but it still thinks Qualcomm has better time to market, more customers and a much stronger portfolio.
Intel should start shipping Medfield just in time for Windows 8, and in case you’ve missed it, Medfield is a SoC (System on Chip) platform that should find its place to a few tablets and probably even some phones next year. Since Intel is trying to speed development up and put as much pressure on ARM players as possible, its next generation SoC will also come before the end of 2012, and it will use the advanced 22nm process, something we won’t see in ARM chips next year.
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Intel, Samsung Behind New Phone OS
October 3, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
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Two Linux software groups have decided to collaborate, they said on Wednesday, to develop a new operating system for cellphones and other devices in partnerships with Intel and Samsung Electronics.
However, analysts said the new Tizen platform is likely to struggle to attract wider developer and manufacturer support to compete with the dozen or so other mobile operating systems in a market dominated by Apple and Google’s Linux-based Android.
Even industry majors Nokia and Hewlett-Packard have canceled their mobile platforms this year.
“The best hope for them is that big operators get worried by Android’s increasing smartphone dominance and decide to consciously switch their allegiances to rival platforms to restrict Google’s huge influence over the mobile market,” said analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics.
LiMo Foundation and the Linux Foundation said the new Tizen platform is an open-source, standards-based software platform that supports multiple devices including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle ‘infotainment’ systems.
The initial release is planned for the first quarter of 2012, enabling the first devices using Tizen to come to market in mid-2012, the two groups said.
RIM Heads To The Cloud
August 31, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
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Canada’s Research In Motion (RIM) will take the wraps off of a new cloud-based social music sharing service called BBM Music, as companies begin to bet on entertainment delivered over the Internet that incorporates social networking features.
Research in Motion, the maker of BlackBerry phones, said select music from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music and EMI would be available for the users.
A closed beta trial of the BBM Music service is starting on today in Canada, the United States and the UK, the company stated.
The music service is expected to be commercially available to customers later this year for a monthly subscription of $4.99 in a number of countries, it said.