Android, Windows Phone 7 and Windows Mobile

The Chip Battle at CES 2013

The Chip Battle at CES 2013

Here is the summarized information about the new mobile processors from NVIDIA, Intel and Qualcomm presented at CES 2013:

• NVIDIA Tegra 4: Cortex-A15 based, 4-Plus-1 Core Design, 72-Core GeForce GPU, fastest LTE and lots of power saving abilities.
• Intel Dual Core Cover Trail+ and Quad Core Bay Trail: Atom based with 22nm micro architecture, 2x performance and better battery life.
• Qualcomm Snapdragon 800:  Krait 400 based, up to 2.3GHz Quad-Core, 4K UHD video support, Adreno 330 GPU, 800MHz LPDDR3 memory, great LTE and performance capabilities.

What’s next? Stay tuned for more information!

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Rumors about the HTC One XXL

HTC One XXL

A lot of people have a hard time understanding the tendency to put more and more cores into the mobile processors, but after all this is one of the easiest ways for smartphone manufacturers to make their products more desirable, so they’re probably going to keep on doing it. This is also proven by the rumors about HTC’s next high-end smartphone – the One XXL, which is said to use a quad-core processor from Qualcomm – the most powerful S4 up to date, which is going to go with an Adreno 320 GPU and 2GB of RAM turning the device into a real powerhouse. Some of its other specifications include a 4.7″ display with a 720p resolution, LTE capabilities and two cameras (8.1MP on the back and 1.8MP on the front). Overall the device can be thought of as a (very powerful) successor of the One XL. B. A.

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Asus reporting shortage of Snapdragon processors

Qualcomm already announced, that they might have troubles supplying enough of their mobile processors, but back then most people though it would be quite a while before this shortage was felt on the smartphone/tablet market. Asus, though, have already confirmed, that there are not enough processors currently available and that has even forced the company to push back the release of the PadFone yet again.

This may turn out to be just the beginning, though, because about 40% of the smart mobile devices, which are currently on the market, are using Qualcomm’s chips and while HTC may have a bit of an advantage (because Qualcomm own a small percentage of the Taiwanese company) , it’s still unknown what’s going to happen with the rest of the manufacturers. Their options at the time being are down to just two: to use processors from another company – for example TI or ST-Ericsson, or to use older Qualcomm ones. We, however, are really hoping they don’t choose the second option, because this would really slow down the technological development in the whole sector. B. A.

HTC developing their own processor

According to recent rumors, HTC have decided to follow the path of Samsung and Apple and develop their own processor to power their mobile devices. Actually the Taiwanese company won’t be working on their own – ST-Ericsson is also going to take part in the project. The companies’ goal is to create an cheap and energy-efficient processor to be featured in lower-end smartphones. HTC may even release a budget phone to compete with Huawei and ZTE – the Chinese manufacturers, which currently dominate the lower-end market in a lot of countries.

HTC are also though to be trying to distance themselves from Qualcomm – the company, on which they have relied so far for the processors in most of their smartphones. Earlier this year the taiwanese company said, they were looking into the possibilities of using different manufacturers for the main components in their devices and later on they released the HTC One X – a high-end smartphone, which uses a Tegra 3 processor. In the US, though, this phone is being sold with a Qualcomm processor, because of their LTE connectivity support. B. A.

Qualcomm having problems satisfying the demands for Snapdragon processors

Qualcomm have said, during a conference conversation with investors, that the company is having problems satisfying the huge demand for Snapdragon processors, which are used in a large part of the current mobile devices on the market. They’re expecting to have a shortage of the current generation of chips – the S4,which is manufactured by 28nm technology, until the end of the year and the company is currently looking into the possibility of offering their Fusion 2 series chips as an alternative to the S4. Because of Qualcomm’s problems with providing enough of highest-grade chips, some of the companies, which are currently relying on them will be forced to use other company’s solutions instead – for instance Nvidia’s Tegra chips or TI’s latest generation of OMAP processors. B. A.

Motorola preparing a device, which uses an S4 chip

Employees of another tech website have found an interesting comparison between a few devices’ benchmark results, which included those of an unknown Motorola smartphone. The results show, that the device is using a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4, clocked at 1.5gHz, and its display has a 720p HD resolution. Such a discovery is rather surprising, considering the fact, that so far the American company has relied on TI for processors, even though they have also announced a couple of Intel Atom devices, which are expected to come later this year. So far there is no further information about the device, but rumors have it it’s going to be either the RAZR HD or the Atrix 3. The name, shown by the results, though, is  Qinara, which is actually quite similar to the name of the Chinese version of the RAZR – Dinara, which points to the theory, that the “Q” stands for Qualcomm. B. A.

The Snapdragon S4 to appear in ultra thin laptops

Rob Chandhok, the senior vice president of Qualcomm, has said in a recent interview, that we should be expecting ultrabooks, running Windows 8 and using Snapdragon quad-core chips, to be released later this year. The devices are going to compete with the MacBook Air and will be both lighter and thinner than it. With this statement, Rob has also confirmed that ARM processors are going to be found in other devices running Windows 8 as well as tablets.

The quad-core Snapdragon S4 chips, made using 28nm technology are expected to be powerful enough even for games and more demanding programs, but then again, their main advantage is power-efficiency. Sadly none of the programs, which are written for the older versions of Windows are going to work with this processor, but Microsoft have promised to rewrite their most popular tools and programs, such as their Office. Other manufacturers are also expected to reveal ARM-based Windows 8 laptops and if sales pick up, developers are bound to start writing more and more programs for them. B. A.

Qualcomm Have Released the Graphic Drivers for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich

Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich has brought some serious performance changes along and one of the biggest of them is the hardware acceleration of the graphics of the UI. This on the other hand has made things a bit more difficult for developers, who provide users with custom (and in most cases better) software for their devices. The main issues they were having were making the interface run smoothly. Now though, thanks to the many users, who have written to Qualcomm, the company has decided to release the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich drivers for the graphical processors they use in their chips. All of the Adreno 2xx GPU’s drivers are already available for download and we’re expecting this to lead to better and more stable custom ROMs very soon. B. A.

Telefonica To Offer A Smartphone Running Mozilla’s Platform

During the Mobile World Congress, Mozilla announced, that they’re going to partner with Telefonica in the development and distribution of their new web-based mobile platform. Later this year devices, using Qualcomm chips, are going to be introduced, running on the so called Open Web Devices operating system, which is based on Mozilla’s Boot2Gecko project. The company is actually using Linux as a base for their platform, but with the Gecko engine, used in Firefox, to take care of the application and interface rendering.

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