With Sonics’s Dark Silicon technology, ARM will be able to develop new SoCs that are efficient in power savings. The new SoCs wil be able to switch off cores for longer periods of time, power on and off your devices more quickly, and also be able to better scale performance and functionality in proportion to battery life in order to increase power efficiency.

Power management has become increasingly important to consumers, who want devices that are powerful, but can also last more than a few hours on a single charge. ARM’s implementation of Sonics’s patents in its future Cortex chips will put it ahead of Intel/AMD x86, that is until Intel’s Haswell chips hit the market. The Haswell chips promise up to 24 hours of battery life on a single charge, so unless ARM can match that, it may be overshadowed before it has the chance to appeal to the market.

Sonics is a leader of system IP for cloud-scale SoCs. Its patent portfolio contains properties that are “fundamental to the development and implementation of on-chip interconnect products” that are used in the SoCs. Under the rule of ARM’s new CEO, Simon Segars, ARM plans on using Sonics’s patents in its future SoCs in order to invade Intel’s territory of x86 processors, and eventually the territory of Intel’s 64-bit processors as well.

This particular SoC is notable because Allwinner says that is the world’s first dual-core ARM Cortex-A7 SoC. The SoC features a dual-core core Cortex-A7 CPU along with a dual-core Mali400MP2 GPU. The SoC supports H.264 2160p video playback and 1080p video playback at 30 frames per second. It also supports 720p 60 frame per second video capture.

The A20 also features an integrated HDMI transmitter, LVDS interface, and integrated TV decoder. It supports dual camera sensors and is Google CTS approved and GMS ready. The SoC supports Android 4.2.2. The manufacturer says that the architecture promises five times the energy efficiency and 50% greater performance than previous generation Cortex-A8 architecture SoCs.

This processor is also likely that land in some existing products as an upgrade. The A20 is pin to pin compatible with Allwinners A10 chipset. The company doesn’t offer any details on specific products coming to market using the new SoC, but this will likely be a very popular product with Chinese gadget makers.

[via Allwinner]

Essentially, Mozilla and Samsung want to bring this new web browser engine to Android devices running ARM, and in order to make a secure, yet fully open experience, Servo is written in Rust, which is a new programming language developed by Mozilla. You can actually download the code on Github and play around with it, but Mozilla notes that it’s in its very early stages.

Details are pretty scarce at this point in the development process, and we’re not quite sure yet what exactly this next-generation web browser engine will be capable of, but we’re guessing it’ll be pretty revolutionary if Mozilla and Samsung put their heart into it. Rust has been in development for a couple years now, actually, and they expect have the first major revision done sometime this year.

However, the partnership seems to be a perfect fit for the two companies. Mozilla is providing the Rust programming language, as well as Servo, while Samsung’s experience with ARM will no doubt be of tremendous help for Mozilla in bringing the technology to Android devices in the future.

The processor will eventually find its way into high-end computer, tablet, and server products according to ARM. TSMC and ARM say that this is the first milestone in the cooperation between the two companies to optimize the 64-bit ARMv8 processor series using the FinFET process technology. From RTL to tape-out of the new processor was completed in six months according to the companies.

During the process, ARM and TSMC used ARM Artisan physical IP, TSMC memory macros, and RDA technologies that were enabled by the TSMC Open Innovation Platform design ecosystem. Through the collaboration between the two companies optimized, power efficient Cortex-A57 processors and libraries were created to support early customer implementations on 16nm FinFET for high-performance ARM-based SoCs.

Neither of the two companies have offered details on when we might expect to see Cortex-A57 processor equipped devices come to market. One interesting tidbit about TSMC is that the company produced 15.1 million 8-inch equivalent wafers in 2012. The company is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry.

[via ARM]

ARM is privy to the roadmaps and product plans of hundreds of companies, Segars pointed out, many of whom are arch rivals in the marketplace. “They rely on the neutrality of our position” he insists, a continuation of the strategy of outgoing CEO Warren East. East will step down from his role in July, ending twelve years in charge of the chip tech firm.

However, while ARM’s current good fortune is on the back of smartphones and tablets, such as Apple’s iPhone and iPad, Segars isn’t in idle. The company is looking to the so-called “internet of things” – every device having a web connection, and able to intercommunicate its status – where it envisages the the next surge in growth.

ARM chips “could be embedded in lightbulbs, the concrete of the road you’re driving on, in the bathroom scales” Segars explains, or “in your refrigerator working out when the milk is going to go off.”

Some of the company’s biggest licensees, such as Texas Instruments, have already thrown their weight behind the internet of things. The OMAP manufacturer will backtrack from smartphone chips and instead look to embedded SoCs, it announced back in September 2012, with a new line of low-power wireless options.

Meanwhile, ARM is also looking to crank up the pressure on Intel, with plans to push its chip technology into what would traditionally have been considered the domain of x86 processors. Servers and mainstream PCs are another target for ARM, with 64-bit models in the pipeline.

However, it’s the potential for a big name like Apple to jump ship from Intel and instead use low-power, efficient ARM-based chips that has many tongues wagging in the industry. That has prompted speculation that Apple might try to invest or even acquire ARM outright, something though that does not look likely with Segars at the helm.

ARM says that the current president of the company, Simon Segars, will become CEO of the company after East retires. East stepped into the CEO spot in October 2001 and helped the company to become one of the biggest and most successful designers of semiconductor IP in the world. Segars has been with ARM since 1991 and currently sits on the board of the company, which he joined in January 2005.

Segars has held several executive positions within the company since he came aboard including Executive Vice President of Engineering where he worked on early ARM processors. He has also been Executive Vice President of worldwide sales and Executive Vice President of Business Development. Segars has held executive positions within the company in both the US and the UK.

ARM Holdings’ board says that it is delighted to have someone of Segars’ experience in caliber to assume the role of CEO. The board chose Segars after an extensive review of candidates from around the world.

[via ARM]

Inside the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa processor you’ll find two sets of CPU cores, both of them made with ARM technology. There are four Cortex-A15 CPU cores as well as four Cortex-A7 processor. The Cortex-A15 processors take care of processing-intense (read: “big”) tasks while the Cortex-A7 cores take care of lighter (LITTLE) workloads. That’s two sets of four cores that are never all being used on the same task at once.

What you’re about to see is a chart showing in a very basic way how big.LITTLE technology works with the Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 CPU units working together.

According to Samsung, the Exynos 5 Octa will be enhancing the 3D graphics processing capabilities by a factor of two – or more – over that of the Exynos 4 Quad processor. That processor was found in devices such as the Samsung Galaxy Note II, the Galaxy S III (international edition), and the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1.

The company has also noted that the Exynos 5 Octa is able to drive devices with displays as large as WQXGA (2560×1600) pixels sharp. Devices with this dense a display have not yet hit the market at the time of this article’s publication – but we may see beasts like this inside the next year. Perhaps on the Samsung Galaxy S 5. The Exynos 5 Octa works with e-MMC (embedded multimedia card) 5.0 as well, and works with a USB 3.0 interface for the “first time in the industry” according to Samsung.

With the Exynos 5 Octa you’ve got incorporation of a full HD 60fps (frame per second) video hardware codec engine made powerful enough for 1080p video recording and playback. Also included is a 13 mega-pixel 30fps image signal processor interface as well as a 12.8GB/s memory bandwidth interface that enables use of a Full HD Wifi display.

Samsung has today let the world know that the Exynos 5 Octa application processor will be going into mass-production in Q2 of 2013. They’ve made it clear that this processor architecture will be made specifically for high-end mobile devices and – at the time of the publication of this article – the first release of the Exynos 5 Octa will be inside the Samsung GALAXY S 4.

Have a peek at our hands-on with the Samsung GALAXY S 4 now and stick around the Samsung GALAXY S 4 tag portal for more information leading up to (and through) the final market release of this smartphone.

In addition to the lower resolution than they were supposed to get, the folks over at Panic also noticed poor video output quality, with noticeable artifacts around text. Neither the low resolution nor the artifact problem were present when using the old AV adapter, however, adding to the mystery, and so they began to speculate about what could be different between the two.

They developed the theory that the Lightning Digital AV Adapter was actually functioning as something akin to an AirPlay receiver, rather than directly sending a nice clean HDMI signal to the output display. This seemed unlikely, however, not only because of the strangeness of it, but also because of the small size of the device. And so they did what any reasonable people would do – they got a hacksaw and gutted it.

As it turned out, their guess was (possibly) right. Inside the adapter, they discovered a whole lot of tiny components, as well as an ARM chip with the part number H9TKNNN2GD with 256MB of RAM. There’s a good chance, then, that some type of streaming is going on rather than plain ol’ HDMI-out. The obvious question now is “why?” No one knows. The only thing that is certain is that you shouldn’t expect good quality video output.

[via Panic Blog]

Tegra 4i vs Tegra 4

While the Tegra 4i (codename: “Grey” up until this week) is handling massive amounts of smartphones across the market across the world, NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 (originally called codename: “Wayne”) will be handling Tablets and what NVIDIA calls Superphones. This is a term NVIDIA has been using since all the way back when the original Motorola ATRIX was introduced to define their forward-looking approach to mobile computing. With Grey, NVIDIA retains a power greater than that of the Tegra 3 and gives it a boost while an i500 modem is integrated in with it.

The Tegra 4i works with R4 ARM A9 CPU architecture, this still employing 4-PLUS-1 technology with a fifth battery-saver core that works with low-power tasks for battery conservation. This is compared with the Tegra 4 which works with four ARM A15 cores (plus a fifth with the same technology onboard). The Tegra 4i also works with a 60 Core GPU arrangement rather than the 72 Core setup the Tegra 4 has.

Sizing up Tegra 4i

This little beast known as the Tegra 4i is what NVIDIA calls the “highest performing single chip smartphone processor [in the world]” when this article is published. While we’ll only be able to test this for ourselves when we’ve gotten our hands on the hardware, it would appear that their first show of power relies on the power per millimeter squared results from NV R&D, as you’ll see in a press deck shot here:

NVIDIA also shows a comparison between the S800 Krait CPU (used in some key competitor processors, mind you) and the CPUs of both the Tegra 4 and 4i. You’ll see here that the max Perf and Perf / clock are superior on the Tegra 4, while the size of the core is smallest on the Tegra 4i’s R4 A9 CPU, as is what NVIDIA says will be the raw ability to conserve battery power. It’s the Perf per millimeter squared, again, that shows the intense power of the Tegra 4i, working at more than double the ability of the Tegra 4 (based on size ratio, of course).

With Tegra 4i you’ve got a a new quad-core architecture with ARM R4 A9 cores clocked at 2.3GHz each. You’ve got your integrated i500 (Icera, that is) modem, and 60 GPU cores. Inside you’ve also got an integrated video engine, image signal processor, optimized memory interface, and some fabulous computational photography architecture (going by the name “NVIDIA Chimera”) as well.

NVIDIA Chimera

With the NVIDIA Tegra 4i we’re seeing another revelation in the abilities of the Tegra 4 family (including Tegra 4 and 4i at this point) to shoot great photos. With the reveal of the Tegra 4i, we’ve been shown (in brief) not only that this processor will enable phones to work with NVIDIA Chimera’s “Always On HDR”, but “Tap to Track” and “HDR Pano” as well. This is also the first time we’ve heard the brand “NVIDIA Chimera” attached to the suite of computational photography architecture features.

With Tap to Track you’ll be able to tap on your device’s viewfinder to keep focus and lighting based on a single object – and not just a person. Tap to Track is able to lock on to any kind of object and will retain a sensor on that object as long as it (or they) remain in view. This will be fabulous for tracking a soccer ball, for example.

With HDR Pano you’ll be working with panographic photos that collect multiple exposures instantly – not unlike the Tegra 4′s previously announced Always On HDR. Here you’ll get vibrant and wonderfully thick-colored panographic photos every time you shoot.

Phoenix Reference Phone Platform

With the Tegra 4i, NVIDIA begins creating reference platforms for each new processor. In this case it means you’ll be seeing a 5-inch display-toting smartphone with 1080p resolution across the front, an 8mm thin body, and 4G LTE connectivity. This device also works with PRISM 2, DirectTouch, and the full-on Tegra 4i build for NVIDIA Chimera Computational Photography Architecture use – snap away!

Wrap-up

In the end with the Tegra 4i you’ve got the second wing in a flying processor bird that is NVIDIA’s next-generation Tegra 4 family. With the NVIDIA Tegra 4i the company has presented their solution for entering the mass market in a way they’ve not attempted in the past. With this release, the Tegra smartphone floodgates can officially be opened.

Have a peek at the timeline below to gain more insight into what the Tegra 4 family is bringing to the market in the coming weeks and months. Expect the NVIDIA Tegra 4i to be in smartphones within the next few months and mass adoption to be on the market around the start of 2014.

As such, don’t expect to see the Exynos 5 Octa present in anything but high-end smartphones and tablets. The upshot to this is, obviously, a better experience when doing things like watching video or using multiple tabs in your mobile browser. In fact, Samsung CEO Stephen Woo says that there won’t be any stutter during HD video playback, which, as many of you likely know, can be something of an issue on slower processors.

In addition to trying to knock multitasking out of the park, the Exynos 5 Octa is also sporting 3D capabilities. That, of course, means better 3D gaming, so expect to see mobile games take a step up after the Octa starts showing up in devices. This processor also has the distinction of being the first mobile CPU to implement the ARM big.LITTLE technology, something we’ve described at length in the past.

Of course, all the power in the world isn’t worth anything if your battery can’t last long enough to take full advantage of it, which is why Samsung is also focusing on efficiency with this release. By packing together four Cortex A15 processors to do the heavy lifting and four A7 cores for lighter work, users should have the power they need while also saving on battery power when they can.

It’ll probably be a little while before we see the latest in the Exynos line begin making an appearance in a significant number of devices, but it should be making a splash in the mobile world before long. It’s been an incredibly exciting CES for mobile computing, so be sure to have a look at our CES portal for news you may have missed. As always, keep it here at SlashGear for even more from the show.

The laptop is being powered by an ARM Cortex A9 processor and will run Linux. The hardware that Huang is using is NDA-free and is as open as he can make it, with documents already online for curious minds to study. He’s expecting to finish testing the machine in the next few months, and may even launch a Kickstarter campaign if enough people are interested.

Huang started the design of the custom-built laptop back in June, and just last week he started playing around the first prototype motherboards, which were “hot off the SMT line.” Huang successfully got the laptop to boot into linux, and he’s currently “grinding through the validation” process of all the components.

One of Huang’s main goals for the project is to make the laptop as open as possible so that “others of sufficient skill and resources can also build” a custom laptop like his. Huang mentions that the hardware and its sub-components are picked so as to make the laptop the “most practically open hardware laptop” he could create. Users can download the datasheets for all the components for free.

The 28nm MT6589 offers a UMTS Rel. 8/HSPA+/TD-SCDMA modem and utilizes the PowerVR Series5XT GPU. There’s Miracast support for multiple screens, as well as Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, FM, and 802.11n Wi-Fi connectivity. There’s also an impressive array of 3D support, including real-time 2D to 3D conversion and support for 3D displays.

The MT6589 supports both video playback and video recording in 1080p at 30 frames-per-second, full high-definition 1920 x 1080 displays, DTV-grade picture enhancement, as well as a 13-megapixel camera offering Integrated ISP. The SoC’s GPU manages to deliver this while utilizing relatively small amounts of power.

ARM’s Director of Mobile Solutions Laurence Bryant offered this statement. “The ARM Cortex™-A7 is the most power-efficient applications processor ever developed by ARM. We are pleased MediaTek is the first company to combine a quad-core Cortex-A7 and leading edge 28nm manufacturing with TrustZone® for system-level security. The MT6589 system-on-chip brings the performance and features associated with high-end mobile devices to mass-market smartphones and tablets.”

While Intel already has 22nm fabs producing processors, crafting SoCs at the same sort of level introduces another stage of difficulty. An SoC fits not only the processor but other components – potentially including memory, radios, DACs, and other technologies – onto the same, compact die.

To help it achieve this, Intel plans to use the same sort of 3D Tri-Gate processes as it has implemented to good result in its Ivy Bridge processors. Using special stacked architecture, Tri-Gate adds conducting channels on three sides of a “vertical fin structure”; the end result is a cut down in heat, longer battery life for mobile devices, and better performance, thanks to the combination of high-k gate insulators and strained silicon.

In fact, the switch to Tri-gate could see 22nm Atom SoCs outperforming Intel’s current 32nm parts by anything from 20- to 65-percent, according to Intel senior fellow Mark Bohr, Bit-tech reports. That would mean a choice for OEMs and users between longer battery life with no dip in performance, more performance with the same battery longevity as existing devices, or a mixture of the two.

[Image via ExtremeTech]

However, the Exynos 5250 is a 32nm chip, which could mean LG’s version is more power-frugal than its counterpart’s silicon. The H13 – the “H” referring to “Home Entertainment” as per its use, and the “13″ a reference to the year 2013 – will be followed by chipsets for mobile devices, with LG apparently devoting around 550 of its designers to developing a mobile application processor.

When, exactly, that chip might arrive is unclear, though LG’s chip design team as a whole amounts to around 900, the company has said, which means not-inconsiderable resources are being devoted to the mobile side. That is arguably more challenging than chips for TVs, which can generally count on a stable power supply with no concerns about undue impact on a battery.

What OS the new Smart TV will run is another mystery. LG currently offers Google TV based models, and recently updated its range to v3.0. However, there have also been whispers of a webOS-based model in the planning for CES 2013, which would eschew Google TV in favor of a customized version of Gram.

Where LG’s strategy differs from that of Samsung is in production. LG is what’s known as a “fabless” semiconductor designer, relying on a third-party to actually manufacture the chips themselves; in contrast, Samsung both designs and produces its own chips, as well as assisting other companies – such as Apple – in producing chips for rival products.

That degree of independence has helped Samsung secure the number one spot in the Android device league, edging ahead of rivals by piecing together high-profile devices from the best its various chip, display, memory, connectivity, and other divisions can come up with. LG has begun to follow suit – its Optimus G, the basis for Google’s Nexus 4, cherry-picks key components such as the display from LG’s own production lines – but has so far been reliant on third-party chip designs.

[via Android Authority]

CNET reports that an industry source familiar with Intel’s plans has stated that Intel plans to cut power consumption significantly for future versions of its Ivy Bridge chip. The most powerful Ivy Bridge chips on the market today consume 17 W of power. These chips are commonly used in various Windows ultrabooks and inside the Apple MacBook Air.

According to the source who claims to be familiar with Intel’s plans, the future version of the Ivy Bridge chip will have power consumption well below the 17-watt level. The power consumption of the chip would be low enough that computer makers could use the chip inside tablets. Microsoft plans to use an Ivy Bridge Core i5 inside the Surface Pro tablet set to launch soon.

However, that Surface Pro tablet will use the 17-watt chip that’s already on the market and is expected to have roughly half the battery life of me Surface RT tablet using a ARM processor. Right now the downside to Intel’s line of low power consumption chips, such as the Z2760, is that the performance is significantly less than what the Ivy Bridge parts offer. By comparison, power consumption on ARM processors, commonly used in mobile devices such as tablets, is typically below two watts.

[via CNET]

Although not spelled out exactly, the new chipset is expected to be the first example of what ARM describes as big.LITTLE computing. That premise, described publicly back in October 2011, takes on the challenge of users wanting devices capable of running high-performance apps and games, but also of lasting a full day or more on a single charge, by combining different types of CPU core selected for their varying expertise.

Even the lower-powered A7 core should have some legs on it, however. ARM has claimed it is akin to the performance seen from the iPhone 4S or the Galaxy Nexus, despite being significantly cheaper than the SoCs both smartphones use; ARM also confirmed it had licensed the big.LITTLE architecture to fourteen chip manufacturers.

It’s worth noting that, while an 8-core chip, the big.LITTLE design doesn’t intend for all to be running simultaneously. In fact, the processor would switch between the A15 and A7 quadcores, based on the current system load.

Exactly when the Samsung big.LITTLE chip might show up in the first products – and what those products could be – is unclear at this stage. Samsung is tipped to be using a quadcore A15 chipset in the rumored Galaxy S 4, tipped for release early in the new year, though the 8-core processor is more likely to be headed first to a tablet, potentially a successor to the Nexus 10.

[via Engadget; via GSM Arena; via EETimes]

Apple has arguably pushed tablet processors as far as they need to go, at least for today’s market. There’s a sense that the Apple A6X chipset in the latest, fourth-generation iPad with Retina display was a near-meaningless improvement on the A6 its predecessor sported; far more important was the change from old-style Dock Connector to new Lightning port. Sure, the newest iPad is faster in benchmarks, but in day to day use there’s hardly a noticeable difference.

Those benchmarks give some hints, however, as to where ARM chips might make sense on the desktop. The iPad 4 did particularly well in SunSpider, a browser-based test of JavaScript performance that gives a good indication of how fast the web experience will be. Considering most of us live online when we’re using our computers, that’s an increasingly important metric.

The iPad 4 scored under 880ms in our SunSpider testing (the lower the number, the better), making it one of the fastest tablets around in that particular benchmark. Now, admittedly, a current-gen MacBook Pro is capable of scores a quarter of that. But, more importantly, the iPad 4 can run for more than ten hours of active use delivering its level of performance, on a 43 Whr battery. Inside the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina, in contrast, Apple finds room for a 74 Whr pack.

The allure of an ARM-based MacBook, then, is the combination of that growing performance and the power frugality of the chips that deliver it. Intel may make a fast processor, but it’s behind the curve when it comes to efficiency compared to ARM; the company’s struggles with Atom in the mobile market are evidence of that. And, while there’ll always be a cadre of performance-demanding Mac users, the regular cohort with more everyday needs might be more than wiling to sacrifice a little top-end grunt for the longevity to make it through a transatlantic flight with plenty of juice to spare.

In the end, though, Apple is notoriously self-reliant. The company has bought or invested in specialists in chip components, displays, aluminum casing production, optically-laminated displays, component assembly, and more. Anything, in short, that contributes to Apple’s supply chain or its competitive advantage in the market place (or preferably both). Sometimes the fruits of those investments go relatively unused for years, at least as far as the public can see; Apple’s perpetual and exclusive license to use Liquidmetal in its range – something so far mostly limited to a SIM-removal tool – is a good example of that.

We’ve also seen how it won’t shy from distancing itself from vendors when they either won’t toe the line or let the company down. NVIDIA’s time in the doghouse after the faulty MacBook GPU saga is good evidence of that, while AMD has long been tipped as attempting to curry Apple’s favor but never quite delivering the goods in internal testing.

If Apple can rid itself of reliance on another third party – and further extend the distance between its range and Windows-based PCs, blurring the lines of direct comparison – then it will undoubtedly jump at that chance. It’s unlikely to be shy in flexing its checkbook to do so, either, betting on long-term investment over short-term gains.

Apple, if time has taught us anything, will do what’s best for Apple: that means it demands the biggest advantage from those it works with, and isn’t afraid of taking a hit if it needs to change in order to achieve greater returns. In the past, Intel has given it early access to new processors, as well as the collaborative spoils of Thunderbolt ahead of PC rivals. If Intel can’t meet the grade on the sort of processors Apple sees as pivotal to its vision of future computing, however, all that shared history will be for naught. As far as Apple goes, it’s the Cupertino way or the highway.

First up is the Cortex-A53 processor, which is “the most efficient ARM application processor ever.” Says the press release, the A53 can run a high-end smartphone using only a quarter of what is used by current offerings. The processor is optimized for throughput processing, and is only 25% the size of “mainstream superphone CPUs,” making it positively tiny.

The Cortex-A57 processor is “optimized for high performance,” offering three times the performance of current offerings. This CPU is ARM’s most advanced and highest single-thread performance processor. According to the press release, the A57 offers “performance comparable to a legacy PC” whilst only sipping power, providing a combination of energy-efficiency and cost effectiveness to meet the needs of both consumer and enterprise users.

According to ARM, this series will provide the market with a means to push the base level of power for mobile devices upwards, with today’s high-end smartphones becoming tomorrow’s entry-level devices. Currently, we can expect to see the Cortex-A50 Series pop up in 2014. Check out the video above for more info.

According to the press release, the increase in mobile devices and new business models has put a particular strain on data centers’ server infrastructure. The market, says AMD, is actively seeking ways to increase efficiency while reducing ownership costs. ARM-based processors are ideal for parallelization, making them a better choice over large-core CPUs.

Said ARM CEO Warren East, “The industry needs to continuously innovate across markets to meet customers’ ever-increasing demands, and ARM and our partners are enabling increasingly energy-efficient computing solutions to address these needs. By collaborating with ARM, AMD is able to leverage its extraordinary portfolio of IP, including its AMD Freedom supercompute fabric, with ARM 64-bit processor cores to build solutions that deliver on this demand and transform the industry.” AMD’s president and CEO Rory Read also offered a statement, saying that AMD will lead the industry in widespread adoption of more energy-efficient 64-bit processors.

This comes after AMD’s acquisition of SeaMicro, which was announced back in March. Says the press release, AMD will be integrating the SeaMicro fabric with the upcoming processors to enable more energy-efficient processor clusters. AMD made the announcement earlier today at a hosted event in San Francisco. No details were released on the processors.

[via AMD]

Calxeda is developing a chip codenamed Lagos, which will be based on ARM’s 64-bit ARMv8 architecture. ARM announced their 64-bit architecture almost one year ago to the day, and has said themselves that servers with their chips based on its 64-bit architecture would be available around 2014 or later.

Calxeda recently received $55 million in capital funding last week, and the company is planning to use this funding to focus on their chip development. Calxeda currently offers a 32-bit prototype server chip called EnergyCore, which is based on ARM’s Cortex-A9 processor design. It’s used in prototype servers from companies like Dell and HP.

The reason why ARM processors are becoming more and more popular for server use is that they’re way more power-efficient than chips from Intel. And in order to keep up with the growing demands of computing, Calxeda is looking to transition to these energy-efficient 64-bit chips in just a couple of years.

The total size of your GeeXboX 3.0 download comes in at 140MB. You have the addition of new firmware and driver support to thank for that bump up in size. Of course, those additional firmware and drivers improve hardware support, so we’re thinking it will be quite easy to live with the increase in download size. The development team still wants GeeXboX to be available on “as many PCs and devices as possible” though, which suggests that future releases of GeeXboX won’t be quite as big.

Still, 140MB definitely isn’t bad for what you’re getting. Have a look at the full list of release notes below, straight from the GeeXboX website:

New features

• XBMC Media Center 11 “Eden” frontend.
• PVR support for DVB Digital TV, to watch and record live TV
• Improved remote control support
• Support for Full HD videos on PandaBoard
• Support for Full HD videos on Cubox
• Improved HDD installation
• Installation support for (U)EFI systems
• Installation support for SSD’s

Supported Architectures

• x86 32 and 64 bits PCs
• ARM TI OMAP4 Pandaboard
• ARM nVidia Tegra2 Harmony
• ARM Cubox (armada5xx)
• ARM Snowball ux500

System

• Linux Kernel v3.4.4.
• Systemd v188.
• BusyBox v1.21
• Connman Network Manager v1.6.
• Xorg Server v1.11.4.
• Mesa v8.0.3
• OPKG Package Manager v0.18
• USB persistent user data storage.

Audio Drivers

• ALSA v1.0.24.1.
• Support for Analog, SPDIF and HDMI output devices.

Video Drivers

• Support for Intel, nVidia, ATI, Matrox and VIA GPUs.
• Support for CRT, LCD and HDMI output devices.
• OpenGL and OpenGL|ES hardware assisted graphics acceleration.
• VDPAU, VA-API and Crystal HD hardware assisted video decoding for nVidia, Intel and Broadcom GPUs.

Input

• Mouse and Synaptics touch pads.
• HID Keyboards.
• Remote Controls.
• PluseEight CEC devices.

Networking Features

• NFS shares.
• Samba auto-discovery.
• UPnP / DLNA media discovery.
• ZeroConf services announcements.
• HTTP server.
• FTP server
• SSH server

MediaCenter

• XBMC Media Center 11 “Eden” frontend.
• Movies and TV Shows, with subtitles support.
• Music Collection
• Pictures and Slideshows
• CDDA, DVD and (non encrypted) Bluray support.
• Media Database Support.
• Internet MovieDB / TVDB metadata and covers grabbers.
• Skins
• Vu+ addon
• Xvdr addon
• Vdr server
• Tvheadend server

That’s quite a long list, so GeeXboX enthusiasts have a lot to look forward to with this latest release. A download of the ISO is available right now from the GeeXboX site, and in order to begin using it, all you need to do is download it, stick it on a USB drive, and reboot your computer. After that, you’re free to enjoy, and be sure to check out our interview with the folks behind GeeXbox while you’re waiting for your download to finish!

According to ABC, Lenovo is making two versions of the Yoga: one with an ARM NVIDIA Tegra processor, and one with that uses the more powerful line of Intel processors. The ARM-based model will have a longer battery life, obviously, and sources say that it can last up to two times longer than Intel-based models. Earlier reports suggested that Lenovo was working with NVIDIA to build a Windows RT tablet, and ABC confirms that the tablet in question is indeed the Yoga.

The Lenovo Yoga was announced at CES earlier this year, and is something of a laptop-tablet hybrid. The unit looks like a laptop, but comes with a rotatable screen that can flip over and fold in on the keyboard, turning it into a tablet (get it? Yoga?). The unit is 0.67-inches thick and weighs in at just over three pounds, so despite the 13.3-inch screen, it’s definitely a very portable device. It also supports up to 8GB of RAM and comes equipped with a 256GB SSD, so you probably won’t want for speed when using the Yoga.

Sadly, we don’t know the exact date the Yoga will be available, nor do we know specific pricing details for all models. Intel-based Yogas will cost somewhere in the area of $1,199, but there haven’t been any such estimates for the price of the ARM-based Yoga. With the launch of the Yoga apparently just around the corner, expect Lenovo to unleash those details soon. Stay tuned to SlashGear for additional information.

Lenovo’s plan is to release two versions of the convertible tablet, with the NVIDIA-based version to feature “double the battery life of the Intel version.” According to ABC News, the tablet should hit the market around the same time as the general Windows 8 release on October 26th. At a Lenovo event last Wednesday, the company dropped a hint that that it was working on a Windows RT product, but declined to give specifics.

The IdeaPad Yoga that was shown off earlier in the year was a convertible ultrabook featuring one of Intel’s ULV Core processors. The device functions as a normal laptop, but the screen can be folded backwards, transforming the notebook into a tablet, allowing users to interact with Windows 8 using the touchscreen. The Intel version is said to cost around £1,199 (~$1,880).

ASUS is also working on a similar product, having shown off the TAICHI at Computex back in June. Featuring an Intel Ivy Bridge processor, the TAICHI comes with dual 13.3-inch and 11.6-inch displays, both running a 1080p resolution. The 13.3-inch screen serves as a regular display when in notebook mode, while the 11.6-inch display serves as a touchscreen (complete with stylus support) when the laptop is closed.

[via The Verge]

The Mali-T624 starts with a single core but scale up to four cores, while the more powerful T-628 can go all the way up to eight cores for twice the graphics performance. Both chips are aimed at smart TVs and smartphones, while the T678 is designed for tablets. That chip is four times more powerful than the T624 thanks to increased ALU support, and is meant to be used for computational photography as well as augmented reality.

On top of the boost in performance, ARM is keen to point out the investments it has made in the GPU compute department too. By tapping into the GPU, a wider range of smartphones will be able to leverage real-time photo editing, plus others functions like improved video stabilization. That ties in with partnerships with MediaTek and Rockchip, with both companies working with ARM in order to utilize the new T600 GPUs across a large range of devices.

Naturally, Samsung is along for the ride as well, saying that it will be working closely with ARM in order to bring the improved GPUs to future Exynos chipsets. Currently the Galaxy S III uses an improved Mali-400 GPU, but it’s not hard to imagine that future smartphones and tablets from the company will make use of the new T600 series.

“[Chandrasekher's] extensive experience in marketing and management makes Anand well-suited to help grow Qualcomm’s communications and marketing efforts across the world and to amplify our consumer offerings to new audiences” Qualcomm president and COO Steve Mollenkopf said in a statement today. Those “new audiences” are likely to include non-smartphone and tablet implementations of Qualcomm chips, a segment which the company currently dominates.

Qualcomm isn’t the only ARM-based chipset firm to target what would traditionally be systems powered by x86 processors. ARM itself has been building links with production partners to create chips that support the same functionality as x86 server cores, only with reduced power consumption and at a far cheaper price.

Chandrasekher’s new role is just the latest in a series of chip company shuffles that have seen high-profile processor experts jump ship between key players in the industry. Earlier this month AMD announced it was hiring a former Apple processor expert, only weeks after Apple hired an ex-AMD Trinity architect.

ARM is attributing the growth to the licensing of a new ARMv8 processor for networking applications, 23 processor licenses that have been signed across a bevy of mobile devices, and the 2 billion chips that have been shipped so far, a 9% increase over the same period last year. Royalties for processors have also increased by around 14% despite the fact that the industry saw an overall decline of 7%.

Finally, 3 licenses for the Mali GPU were signed in the second quarter, with 2 of those being with new customers. CEO of ARM, Warren East, seems pretty pleased with the results overall too: “ARM’s royalty revenues continued to outperform the overall semiconductor industry as our customers gained market share within existing markets and launched products which are taking ARM technology into new markets.” Going forward, ARM expects a small increase in industry revenues during the third quarter, but things aren’t looking as good in Q4 as “as macroeconomic uncertainty may impact consumer confidence.”

64-bit is the next step in ARM’s continued encroachment into markets that would traditionally have looked to Intel and AMD x86 processors. Although ARM-based chipsets are currently dominant in phones and tablets, where their power frugality makes them ideal to balance limited battery life with the expectations of all-day runtime from users, 64-bit readiness will enable the company to broach the enterprise and server segments.

“The 64-bit architecture has been designed specifically to enable energy-efficient implementations” ARM said in a statement on the deal. “Similarly, the 64-bit memory addressing and high-end performance are necessary to enable enterprise computing and network infrastructure that are fundamental for the mobile and cloud-computing markets.”

Meanwhile, TSMC’s “ability to quickly ramp volume production of highly integrated SoCs in advanced silicon process technology” and FinFET process will mean chips on sale sooner and that use less power.

Dell and HP have both revealed plans for ARM-based servers, and the chipsets will get an extra boost when Windows RT - previously known as Windows-on-ARM – arrives in October. Samsung and others are expected to release Windows RT tablets using ARM-based processors, while one of Microsoft’s own Surface tablets will run on ARM technology.

Although HP has denied that Microsoft’s Surface tablet announcement was a factor in the decision, industry sources claim the contrary. According to them, HP isn’t willing to go head to head against Microsoft especially with unproven products. But instead of pulling out completely, HP will still move forward with an x86 Windows 8 tablet so as not to lose out on market share.

If other device manufacturers follow suit, it would put a lot of pressure on Microsoft’s Windows RT Surface tablet as one of the only ARM-based Windows tablets. It would also affect ARM-based chip makers such as NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments from getting in on the Windows tablet market. Likewise, Microsoft will have a difficult time breaking into the space currently dominated by ARM chips.

However, HP’s pull out form Windows RT could also mean that smaller OEMs may jump in to grab more of the market share. Asus, Lenovo, and Toshiba may actually be more willing to bet on Windows RT with HP out of the way.

[via HotHardware]

HP say that the new system using Centerton instead of Calxeda is “an ideal solution for web serving, offline analytics and hosting.” Interestingly, HP make a point of saying that Intel’s solution should be just as cost effective and power efficient as the previous ARM-based system. HP and Intel will also be working together on future generations of Atom processors, further reducing power consumption.

The Gemini system is currently being using in HP’s Discovery Lab in Houston, Texas, but will be made available to customers for testing “soon.” A production version will ship towards the end of the year.

It’s an interesting move from HP, and an important win for Intel. ARM pulled off quite a feat by coaxing HP to use its chips for better server scaling, but it looks like Intel isn’t going to let ARM into the enterprise and server industry without a fight. Intel has been trying to maximize Atom’s performance while reducing power for quite some time, to the point where one version of the chip is now included in smartphones like the Orange San Diego and Lava Xolo X900.

Update: HP has been in touch to clarify that ARM chips will still be used for the Redstone development platform, which is “still on track to begin shipping to HP Labs and select customers later this year.” Gemini, this initial server, is “processor neutral” HP says, and there will be ARM-based versions eventually.

TrustZone is designed to prevent attackers from accessing critical information on the hardware level. AMD say that the use of the ARM chip is a natural progression with the company’s existing security technologies. Several companies have already welcomed the move, such as AllPay, a payment processing service dealing with millions of transactions a day.

Intel also has security features built in on the hardware level. vPro has been included with Intel processors for a while now, aimed at businesses who need the ability to lock down or remotely wipe stolen computers. Sandy Bridge also included a protected path for digital content on the hardware level.

Each blade contains four ARM processors with a matching SATA drive each, making a fully-loaded Copper chassis capable of running 48 hard drives or SSDs on just 750 watts – about as much power as a souped-up gaming computer. Each blade gets a single RAM DIMM supporting up to 8GB and one Ethernet port. The servers are being sent out to select Dell customers in a seed program, so general availability won’t be coming for some time.

Desktop operating systems for ARM are still a little thin on the ground, so Dell will be shipping the systems with Canonical’s Ubuntu build tailored for ARM processors. Red Hat is already working on a compatible version of its Linux derivative. While Microsoft is working on Windows 8 RT for ARM hardware, there’s been no indication that a server version is coming any time soon.

[via The Inquirer]

Naturally we wouldn’t expect the CEO of ARM to be gushing about an x86 chip in future smartphones, but it’s a twist of the knife for Intel nevertheless. As for ARM chips making the jump to laptops, his predictions are a little more optimistic, saying that chips from various partners would account for between 10 and 20%, also by 2015.

We don’t doubt that ARM chips will feature more prominently in products other than smartphones and tablets in the future, but Intel could make a big play for the mobile market if they choose to. For years they demoed mobile chips in prototypes that never made it to the market, but now that they’re real and in shipping products it should hopefully spur some more competition. And competition isn’t a bad thing, right?

[via IntoMobile]

Otellini spent time emphasizing the big advantage of x86 architecture support when choosing between Windows 8 hardware with Intel chipsets compared to Windows RT products using ARM during an investor meeting. Otellini thinks ARM has an uphill battle to fight. The Intel CEO thinks enterprise users will want Intel hardware because existing apps will work with no issues at all.

That probably won’t be the case with ARM on Windows. Otellini also takes a swipe at ARM and the company’s lack of enterprise manageability options. Even though Otellini is clearly blowing Intel’s horn, he certainly has a point. Corporate IT managers may worry about ARM in an enterprise setting, but consumers probably won’t share the same concerns. What do you think?

[via The Verge]

“The prospect that the next generation of Windows on ARM devices would limit users to one browser is untenable and represents a first step toward a new platform lock-in” Mozilla general counsel Harvey Anderson wrote on the company blog. Although he concedes that Windows RT devices will be in the minority at the start, Microsoft’s ambitions for the platform indicate this could be a barrier that becomes increasingly important for third-party developers.

“On ARM chips, Microsoft gives IE access special APIs absolutely necessary for building a modern browser that it won’t give to other browsers so there’s no way another browser can possibly compete with IE in terms of features or performance” Mozilla spokesperson Asa Dotzler explained. The issue is that only Classic apps get full access to all of the APIs the OS offers; Metro apps must make do with a smaller subset. “IE on ARM has access to win32 APIs — even when it’s running in Metro mode, but no other Metro browser has that same access” Dotzler elaborates. ”Without that access, no other browser has a prayer of being competitive with IE.”

The Firefox team has already committed to creating a Metro version, but Microsoft’s app decision has now woken up Google’s Chrome team, which echoes Mozilla’s fears. Like Mozilla, Google frames it as a consumer rights issue, telling CNET that Microsoft’s IE strategy damages user-experience and security on future Windows RT devices.

“We share the concerns Mozilla has raised regarding the Windows 8 environment restricting user choice and innovation” a Google spokesperson said. “We’ve always welcomed innovation in the browser space across all platforms and strongly believe that having great competitors makes us all work harder. In the end, consumers and developers benefit the most from robust competition.”

The danger for Microsoft is that regulators begin to examine its decisions in the light of anti-competition laws, something the company already knows plenty about. For actual users of Windows RT, however, it’s arguable that they’d be better served by the removal of the Windows RT Classic desktop altogether, something that seems to have lingered only by virtue of Microsoft Office and the absence of a true Metro version of the business app package.

Microsoft’s Steven Sinofsky referenced the limitations of third-party apps transitioning from x86 to ARM-based Windows systems in a blog post back in February. His argument is that porting existing software to Windows RT tablets and notebooks basically amounts to lazy developing, bringing just as many compromises and drawbacks for users as it does convenience for developers:

“If we enabled the broad porting of existing code we would fail to deliver on our commitment to longer battery life, predictable performance, and especially a reliable experience over time. The conventions used by today’s Windows apps do not necessarily provide this … By avoiding these constructs, WOA can deliver on a new level of customer satisfaction: your WOA PC will continue to perform well over time as apps are isolated from the system and each other, and you will remain in control of what additional software is running on your behalf, all while letting the capabilities of diverse hardware shine through”

Windows RT, unlike Windows 8, is designed to be almost entirely used through the Metro UI – that, after all, is the best way to challenge the iPad and Android-based tablets, with a focused, finger-friendly interface – and encouraging users to switch out of that into the familiar old desktop seems backward. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s own tardiness with Office and the accommodations it has had to make to deal with that could well come back to haunt it.

We’ve heard whispers on the wind of ARM chips reaching around 2Ghz, but this is the first time we’ve seen any mention of them breaking the 3Ghz barrier. We really have to wonder though: why does it matter? As the dual-core Snapdragon S4 proves, more cores and faster speed isn’t everything. A more efficient architecture and reduced power requirements will really make the difference when it comes to smartphone or tablet usage, not high clock frequencies.

Then again, OEMs like Samsung and HTC still seem to be stuck in the spec race. HTC is making use of NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 quad-core chip in the European HTC One X, and Samsung is using its own Exynos quad-core processor in the Galaxy S III. As for the American HTC One X proves, quad-core really doesn’t matter all that much, so while we’re sure a 3Ghz chip is a fine accomplishment, we can’t imagine it resulting in massive real world performance gains.

[via Liliputing]

Speaking to the Financial Times, Ollila said: “Tablets are an important one, so that is being looked into.” He also alluded to other form factors being researched: “And there will be different hybrids, different form factors [handset designs] in the future.”

When asked about Nokia’s current situation, Ollila said that he was happy with the way things were progressing, and that it was only natural for it to take time for Nokia to find its way back into the market. “When you have such strong competitors in the marketplace it will take a bit of time but things are going well.”

It comes just after Nokia’s design chief revealed in March that Nokia was indeed working on a tablet, saying that he was devoting a third of his time to the project. Rumors indicated that Nokia would be using Windows on ARM, with a dual-core Qualcomm chip and 10.1-inch display. The tablet is said to launch sometime towards the end of the year, Q4.

[via Pocket-Lint]

Revenue increased to $209.4m from $185.5m, and profit before tax is also up 22%, with ARM taking in £61.9m (~$99.9m), up from £50.7m ($~81.8m) in 2011. Naturally, ARM is attributing the revenue increase to a grown in ARM technology adoption, as well as a large number of ARM licenses being handed out.

ARM say that 22 processor licenses have been assigned across various markets, as well as 10 licenses for the low-power Cortex-M. The Cortex-M0+ will also be finding its way into Internet of Things devices, although ARM didn’t say how many licenses for that chip have been issued. Chip numbers for cellphones and tablets have remained steady at 1.1 billion, although chip shipments for other consumer devices increase to 800 million, up 15% compared to last year.

Finally, ARM expects similar growth in Q2 of this year, with revenue increasing by a further 13%, and licensing seeing a sharp increase to 27%.

Versions in the $300 to $1,000 range will more typically compete with Apple’s iPad, it’s expected, which starts at $499 for the WiFi-only model. Consumer appeal is only part of the battle, however; Intel expects Lenovo’s established footprint in the Chinese enterprise and education markets will help  establish Windows 8 considerably.

The iPad currently holds around 70-percent of the tablet market, though analysts expect that to be shaved away as the slate segment grows more crowded. Until now, though, Android has been seen as the most significant challenger, even if Google’s platform is still yet to entirely convince on devices larger than smartphones.

Windows 8 on ARM – freshly renamed Windows RT – has been seen as Microsoft’s key weapon in creating cheaper models, but Intel is apparently unwilling to let go of the opportunity to see its chips in budget machines. It needs to, too; revenues are flat and Intel is late to the game with smartphone processors, the first Medfield-based new Atom Z2460 phones only expected to launch this week.

Intel has said it is working with ten tablet manufacturers on Windows 8 models, though has declined to specify what sort of price targets it is aiming for. x86 chips in under $300 slates would be a considerable departure, however.

The chip will be a “hard macro” variant, which means it will have fixed specifications. Typically OEMs can tweak “soft core” processors to meet their own requirements, but ARM say that taking this approach will allow them to implement the chips faster, as well as cut down on power usage.

ARM believe that the right balance of power and performance could see the chip powering not only notebooks, but also thin yet fast network hardware. ARM is expected to release more details about the chip on April 18th at the IEEE symposium in Japan. While we won’t be seeing these chips anytime soon, the company is hoping to see them ship either in late 2012 or early 2013. We could be seeing the chips making their way into next year’s device, and the “hard macro” version could speed up the manufacturing process.

[via Electronista]

“For new apps, the focus for Windows RT is development on the new Windows runtime, or WinRT,” Microsoft says, “which we unveiled in September and forms the foundation of a new generation of cloud-enabled, touch-enabled, web-connected apps of all kinds.” It will also support device encryption, though not x86 desktop software, Storage Spaces or Windows Media Player.

Windows 8 Pro, meanwhile, will add support for more complex encryption, virtualization, PC management and domain connectivity to Windows 8, though Media Center functionality will be a paid “media pack” add-on.

Microsoft is also readying a small number of local-language specific versions of Windows 8, which will be offered in China and “a small set of select emerging markets.”

Windows RT will only be sold on new computers, whereas Windows 8 and Windows 8 Pro will be offered as upgrades for current Windows 7 users. Pricing for those upgrades is yet to be confirmed, though Microsoft promises it will be revealed in the coming months.

Below, the comparison chart of the three versions; click for full-sized (opens in new window):