Qualcomm, the world’s largest supplier of application processors for mobile devices, this week confirmed unofficial information that it is working on high-performance system-on-chips for the emerging market of micro-servers based on ARM-architecture processors. “We are engaged with customers,” said Steve Mollenkopf, chief executive officer of Qualcomm, during a meeting with …
Read More »Qualcomm unveils LTE-A cat. 10 modem with up to 450Mb/s DL speeds
Qualcomm Technologies this week introduced its next-generation 4G/LTE multimode solution for mobile devices, such as smartphones and media tablets. The new Goby 9*45 modem is the world’s first 4G/LTE-Advanced Category 10 cellular modem that supports download speeds of up to 450Mb/s. The solution will be integrated into mobile and other …
Read More »Microsoft to upgrade all Windows Phone 8 devices to Windows 10
For a number of times in the past Microsoft Corp. dropped support of its mobile platforms as soon as it launched brand-new operating systems, which greatly destroyed loyal customer base of Windows Mobile and Windows Phone. Fortunately, this is not going to happen with Windows Phone 8 as the company …
Read More »Samsung counter-attacks Nvidia with a lawsuit
Samsung Electronics this week filed a lawsuit against Nvidia and accused the company of infringing its intellectual property. It is believed that the company responded to Nvidia’s accusations of patent infringements that the company published in early September. Samsung accused Nvidia of infringing its semiconductor-related patents. According to a report …
Read More »MSI X99 Gaming 9 ACK revealed to KitGuru at Beat IT 2014
The array of mainboard options facing enthusiasts toward the back end of 2014 is nothing short of astonishing. With four mainstream manufacturers vying for position and several chipsets available, everyone is looking for any advantage they can get. KitGuru spies the latest step forward in this competition. For the most …
Read More »Microsoft reaffirms commitment to Surface Pro, preps next-gen models
Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday reiterated its commitment to its Surface Pro business tablets and said that its next-generation solutions of the kind, which are in development today, will be compatible with existing peripherals. The claim was made in order to persuade IT managers and CIO to consider Surface Pro as …
Read More »Samsung to produce 14nm FinFET chips for AMD, Apple, Qualcomm – report
Samsung Electronics has lost exclusive chip manufacturing contract with Apple, but a new report claims that that the company has managed to land orders from Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm. ZDNet reports that Samsung is projected to begin producing application processors (APs) for clients such as Apple, AMD and Qualcomm …
Read More »Intel grabs No. 2 spot on the market of tablet SoCs in Q2 – analysts
Although Intel Corp.’s success on the market of application processors for smartphones deserves to be better, the company managed to become the world’s second largest supplier of system-on-chips for tablets, according to Strategy Analytics. The only company that ships more SoCs for slates is Apple, which only “ships” them to …
Read More »ARM: Mali graphics tech does not infringe Nvidia’s patents
Chief executive officer of ARM Holdings on Monday defended the company’s Mali graphics technology in connection to a patent suit by Nvidia Corp against Samsung Electronics and Qualcomm. The executive of the technology developer said his company will assist Samsung in its legal fight with Nvidia. Samsung uses ARM’s Mali …
Read More »Samsung is building its own GPU
It turns out that Samsung is building its own GPU, presumably for use with its own mobile devices in order to compete with the likes of Nvidia and its Tegra mobile graphics chips, this will also help the Korean company avoid licensing costs, allowing it to become more profitable in mobile sales. Samsung …
Read More »Microsoft to phase-out ‘Nokia’ and ‘Windows Phone’ brands
It is not a secret that Microsoft Corp. plans to eliminate Nokia name from its smartphones going forward in order to emphasize its own brand. What is surprising is that the company also wants to eliminate Windows Phone name as well, possibly, in order to highlight that there will be …
Read More »Samsung Electronics set to fight Nvidia in court
Samsung Electronics has announced that it would fight Nvidia Corp. in court and will not give up. The consumer electronics giant did not outline any special plans, but it looks like the company is ready for a long legal battle against Nvidia. Samsung said it would take “all measures necessary” against …
Read More »Nvidia: Adreno, Mali and PowerVR SoCs infringe our patents
Nvidia Corp. on Thursday filed patent infringement complaints against Samsung and Qualcomm with both the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) and the U.S. District Court, in Delaware. The chip designer claims that virtually all modern graphics architectures used in mobile devices infringe its patents. As a result, Nvidia wants to …
Read More »Microsoft commands 94.5% of Windows Phone 8 smartphones market
It is not a secret that Microsoft Corp.’s Windows Phone platform is far from being truly popular. Even though formally it is supported by a dozen of vendors, many have not released anything based on the operating system. As a result, it is not surprising that the most popular Windows …
Read More »Sales of Nokia Lumia devices improve, but not significantly
Sales of Lumia branded smartphones on the second quarter of calendar 2014 were up sequentially and year-over-year, but remained generally low. Despite of efforts by Nokia Corp. and Microsoft Corp., sales of Windows Phone-based Lumia handsets are below shipments of Nokia's Symbian-based smartphones several years ago. Microsoft on Tuesday said …
Read More »MediaTek readies system-on-chip for high-end smartphones, tablets
For many years MediaTek has been a supplier of affordable system-on-chip (SoC) solutions for smartphones and inexpensive tablets. However, starting this year the company will start to offer higher-performance application processors aimed at mainstream devices. But MediaTek does not want to stop there. A leaked roadmap shows that next year the Hsinchu, …
Read More »SMIC to produce 28nm chips for Qualcomm in China
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), a China-based contract maker of chips, and Qualcomm on Thursday announced that SMIC will produce Qualcomm’s Snapdragon system-on-chips for mobile devices using 28nm process technology in China. The move will help Qualcomm to boost production of its advanced SoCs and lower their manufacturing costs. As …
Read More »Qualcomm acquires Wilocity, set to support up to 7Gb/s WiGig in various devices
Qualcomm Inc. on Wednesday said that it has completed acquisition of Wilocity, a leading developer of chipsets supporting the WiGig technology with multi-gigabit transfer rates. The company also said that it will offer platforms for various devices that will support the 60GHz wireless tech based on the IEEE 802.11ad standard. The …
Read More »Microsoft cancels Surface Mini media tablet
Microsoft Corp. has reportedly called off its plans to introduce Surface Mini media tablet. The company decided not to enter the market of smaller slates because it is already very crowded. Nonetheless, the software giant may reconsider its plans regarding smaller tablets if market conditions change. Microsoft was expected to …
Read More »Microsoft Mobile reveals Android-based Nokia X2 with new software
Microsoft Mobile on Thursday introduced Nokia X2, its new smartphone based on a modified version of Google Android operating system aimed at customers in budget. The new handset weds Windows Phone-like experience with Google Android applications. The device features numerous software and hardware enhancements compared to the original Nokia X1. …
Read More »The market is moving to commodity processors – writer
The world of processing units is altering. With the ARM architecture entering the market of servers and the Power architecture available for licensing by third parties, a lot is going to change within the next five years. Thanks to the fact that similar processing technologies will be available from different …
Read More »Amazon unveils Fire smartphone: an ultimate tool to sell you things
Amazon on Wednesday unveiled its long-awaited smartphone. The device is called Fire and it comes with free cloud storage for photos, an auto stereoscopic 3D screen, the Dynamic Perspective software that allows to control the smartphone without touching it as well as the Firefly application that recognizes everything the owner …
Read More »Nokia X2 smartphone may feature two operating systems
It is not a secret that Microsoft Mobile is working on the second-generation Nokia X smartphone that was originally expected to be based on the heavily modified Google Android operating system and was projected to be sold mostly in developing countries. Apparently, the new Nokia X2 smartphone will not be …
Read More »Microsoft Mobile working on new Android-powered X smartphones
Microsoft Corp. does not have plans to discontinue Nokia X-branded smartphones that are based on the heavily-modified Google Android operating system. Furthermore, a media report claims that a team at Microsoft Mobile is already working on the next-generation X handsets featuring the same OS and some improvements. The Nokia X …
Read More »TSMC extends 28nm chip lead time to 16 weeks, puts chip designers at risk
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has extended lead time for production of chips using 28nm process technology from ten to 16 weeks recently, a media report reads. The company reportedly claimed that the demand for 28nm manufacturing process is very high and therefore orders placed in May would take more time …
Read More »Amazon Web Services reportedly begins to develop its own chips
Amazon Web Services, a service arm of Amazon and one of the world’s largest providers of cloud services, recently established silicon optimization engineering team (SOET) with the aim to create custom server platforms and microprocessors. The company has already begun to hire specialists to develop highly-tailored server platforms. Nowadays companies …
Read More »Sales of Nokia Lumia drop for second consecutive quarter
Nokia Corp. this week announced financial results for the first quarter of 2014. While the company did not provide a lot of information regarding performance of its handset businesses, it clearly stated that there was a major decline. Apparently, as Nokia transits its devices and services division to Microsoft Corp., …
Read More »Sales of Microsoft Surface grow, but losses deepen too
Microsoft Corp. said last week that sales of its Surface media and business tablets grew significantly year-over-year in the third quarter of its fiscal 2014. While this is generally a good for the company, since the growing amount of consumers chose Surface over rivals, this also meant that the company …
Read More »Microsoft has no plans to keep Nokia brand on smartphones
As it appears, the Nokia brand-name will disappear from smartphones and mobile phones produced by the former devices and services division of Nokia Corp. that now belongs to Microsoft rather sooner than later. Microsoft Corp. is already working on consistent brand for its new devices. “The Nokia brand is available …
Read More »First photo of Microsoft Surface Mini published by case maker
A smaller version of Microsoft Corp.’s Surface media tablet has been discussed ever since the launch of the original Surface back in 2012, but the software giant has never confirmed plans to release such a product. Nonetheless, in many cases rumours do materialise and the so-called Surface Mini tablet is …
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