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Will Chipmakers Make Cuts This Year?
Gartner is warning that worldwide wafer fab equipment spending is on pace to total $33 billion in 2012 which is a decline of 8.9 percent from 2011.
Gartner analysts warned that this is a sign of an industry in downturn and said the market will return to growth in 2013 with WFE spending projected to surpass $35.4 billion, a 7.4 percent increase from 2012. Bob Johnson, research vice president at Gartner said 2012 spending was strong at the beginning of the year, as foundries and other logic manufacturers ramped up sub-30-nm production.
AMD, ARM And Others Form HSA Chip Foundation
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AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, Mediatek and Texas Instruments have signed up to create the Heterogeneous System Architecture Foundation (HSAF).
AMD has been pushing its vision for heterogeneous computing, where CPUs and GPUs can share system resources such as memory allowing developers to treat any processing core as a black box. Now the firm has managed to rope in ARM, Imagination Technologies, Mediatek and Texas Instruments to create the non-profit HSAF.
According to AMD, HSAF will try to define a hardware specification for developers to standardise upon, which should make development quicker and easier.
Phil Rogers, HSAF president and AMD corporate fellow said, “HSA [heterogeneous system architecture] moves the industry beyond the constraints of the legacy system architecture of the past 25-plus years that is now stifling software innovations. By aiming HSA squarely at the needs of the software developer, we have designed a common hardware platform for high performance, energy efficient solutions. HSA is unlocking a new realm of possibilities across PCs, smartphones, tablets and ultrathin notebooks, as well as the innovative supercomputers and cloud services that define the modern computing experience.”
AMD has scored something of a coup by getting big names such as ARM, Imagination and Texas Instruments to back its vision of a heterogeneous system architecture. Although the company has been struggling in outright performance terms against Intel, the idea of a combining CPU and GPU resources and making them appear as one to the application is something that will help it leverage its GPU compute capability against Intel.
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.
Intel Appears To Be Dedicated To Tizen
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As we know Intel is not a total Windows 8 and Android shop. Although MeeGo was abandoned by Nokia in favor of huge investment from Microsoft, but Intel will continue to develop MeeGo and it will also add Tizen to its OS effort.
Tizen is a free open source mobile operating system based on Linux and backed up by Linux foundation. Tizen is planned to work on Atom N2800 and N2600 processors or simply said Cedar Trail platform and it was supposed to be out of Beta by end of Q1 2012. If all goes according to schedule it will reach its gold status by mid of Q2 2012. At some point it will also get an application store too, but release schedule is yet to be set in stone.
Intel believes that Tizen combines the communities and best technologies under one unified environment. MeeGo is supposed to have Strong developer community and LiMo should bring broad service provider support to this marriage. They will have strong support for HTML 5 and WAC (wholesale application community).
Tizen is supposed to work on ARM as well as on x86 and we can expect the first devices, or at least prototypes, to show up by the end of the year. Once it gets out it should cover mobile phones, tablets, netbooks, smart TVs and in-vehicle entertainment systems.
Is Apple Taking Work Conditions Seriously?
February 20, 2012 by admin
Filed under Consumer Electronics
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Apple “takes working conditions very seriously”, the firm’s CEO Tim Cook said at a conference yesterday.
Cook was speaking at a Goldman Sachs technology conference, according to Mac Rumours. He said the company is committed to making sure working conditions are up to standard, and that Apple’s top priority will be to eliminate underage workers. He added, “If we find a supplier that intentionally hires underage labor, it’s a firing offence.”
Cook said, “Apple takes working conditions very seriously, and we have for a very long time. Whether workers are in Europe or Asia or the United States, we care about every worker.”
He added, “I’ve spent a lot of time in factories, personally. Not just as an executive. I worked at a paper mill in Alabama and an aluminium plant in Virginia. Many of our top executives visit factories on a regular basis. We have hundreds of employees based there full time.
“We are very connected to the process and we understand working conditions at a very granular level. I realize that the supply chain is complex and I’m sure that you realise this.
“The issues around it are complex. Our commitment is simple: every worker has the right to a fair and safe work environment, free of discrimination, where they can earn competitive wages and they can voice their concerns freely. Apple’s suppliers must live up to this to do business with Apple.
“No one in our industry is doing more to improve working conditions than Apple. We believe transparency is so very important in this area.”
Yesterday, Apple asked the Fair Labor Association (FLA) to conduct audits at Foxconn’s factories in China. In a statement, Apple said that factories in Shenzhen and Chengdu will be audited at its request. Audits have already begun.
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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RIM’s Playbook Gets Jailbroken
December 7, 2011 by admin
Filed under Consumer Electronics
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Three hackers say they have taken advantage of a vulnerability in Research In Motion’s PlayBook tablet to gain root access to the device, a claim that could damage the BlackBerry maker’s stellar reputation for security.
Root access means a user has permission to change any file or program on a device and can control hardware functions.
In a response to questions concerning the issue, RIM said it is investigating the claim, and if a “jailbreak” is confirmed will release a patch to plug the hole.
The three hackers – who identify themselves as xpvqs, neuralic and Chris Wade – plan to release their data within a week as a tool called DingleBerry.
Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android operating systems are frequently attacked by users who want to run programs that have not been authorized by the manufacturers, but breaches of RIM’s software are more rare.
The PlayBook runs on a different operating system than RIM’s current BlackBerry smartphones. However, the QNX system will be incorporated into its smartphones starting next year.
Is Motorola Mobility A Patent Pimp Too?
November 5, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
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Motorola Mobility has received $228m in patent licensing deals.
Motorola Mobility, which is in the process of being bought by Google, confirmed in its accounts that in June 2010 the firm signed a licensing deal with an unnamed company for which Motorola would receive $175m and future royalties. Those future royalties stacked up to an impressive $228m in just the nine months leading up to 2 October 2010.
Google’s attempt to buy Motorola’s handset division was generally regarded as a move to acquire the firm’s considerable patent portfolio. Motorola’s handset division is widely credited with being one of the major contributors to the development of mobile phones and while the firm’s smartphones might not be as fashionable as devices from Apple, HTC or Samsung, it clearly has patents that can bring home the bacon.
Although Motorola did not disclose the name of the other party in its licensing deal, there is a better than average chance that it is Research in Motion. The two firms came to a “long-term, intellectual property cross-licensing arrangement involving the parties receiving cross-licenses of various patent rights” in June 2010.
RIM’s Troubles May Not Be Over
October 27, 2011 by admin
Filed under Smartphones
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Law firms in the United States and Canada are considering possible consumer lawsuits against Research In Motion Ltd for last week’s BlackBerry outages, which for three days crippled email and messaging for tens of millions of users around the world.
Consumer lawyers say they are investigating whether customers have common claims against the BlackBerry manufacturer and might be able to band together in a single lawsuit.
While the outage did not rise to the level of seriousness comparable to a dangerous medication or tainted food, it inconvenienced and angered customers. Frustrated BlackBerry users, turning to blogs, message boards, Twitter and Facebook, complained about losing important emails and missing meetings last week.
Law firms are considering breach-of-contract or consumer-fraud claims, attorneys said.
A breach-of-contract claim could argue the company failed in its obligations to provide service and could include carriers for BlackBerry service as additional defendants, said attorneys exploring litigation against RIM.