It’s set up much like a quad-core chip, but the ZMS-40 adds 96 “StemCell Media Processing” cores that help out the four included ARM Cortex A9 cores. It is not only supposed to reduce battery consumption by half, ZiiLabs claim it will also manage “twice the peak media performance”. When I play graphic intensive games or watch movies on my tablet, the battery drains faster than I can keep up. If the ZMS-40 can remedy that apparent problem – then I hope it makes its way into devices soon.

We may actually see a few tablets with the ZMS-40 chip incorporated at CES next week. If so, we’ll be the first to let you know how it stacks up to the rest. But until then, we’ll leave you with the official press release:

[via Engadget]

No new specs, but we can see a front-facing camera, headphones socket, HDMI and microSD ports, along with, somewhat unusually for a Honeycomb device, physical buttons. There’s also what looks to be a kick-stand on the back, handy for enjoying the MKV, AVI, WMV, H.264, XviD and MPEG content supported natively. No word on pricing or other specs, nor when we can expect it, but from the images we’re guessing this is a smaller-than-7-incher.

[via Android Community]

Video demo after the cut

Other ports include DVI-D (which will work simultaneously with the HDMI), USB Host and USB OTG Host, together with ethernet.  There’s also an OpenGL ES v2.0 graphics engine, SD card slot, serial port, audio in/out and a camera connector.

The whole thing measures in at 4.5 x 4.0 inches and there’s plenty of support at the official site.  The PandaBoard is available to buy now, priced at $174, and ships worldwide.

Press Release:

Meet PandaBoard: Low-cost, open OMAP™ 4 processor-based mobile software development platform

Dual-core ARM® Cortex™-A9 performance, rich multimedia capabilities and community-driven support make $174 PandaBoard a one-of-a-kind tool for open source mobile software development

DALLAS, October 27, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Mobile software developers now have an accessible, well-equipped open source development tool based on the high performance OMAP™ 4 platform in the form of PandaBoard. This new, low-cost board provides unprecedented access to the OMAP 4 applications processor platform from Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI), which is power- and performance-optimized for Smartphones and other mobile devices. A growing online community of Linux experts supports PandaBoard developers designing on various mobile open source software distributions such as Android, Angstrom, Chrome, MeeGo and Ubuntu.

What should mobile software developers do?
Get involved! Join the community at http://pandaboard.org/content/community/home
Order a board! Boards are available now through Digi-Key Corp. at http://www.digikey.com
Review and submit projects! http://pandaboard.org/content/projects
Features & benefits of PandaBoard:
The OMAP 4 platform-based PandaBoard includes an OMAP4430 processor with two ARM® Cortex™-A9 processors (running at 1 GHz each) delivering symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) performance, as well as rich multimedia and 3D graphics support. The board also includes WLAN and Bluetooth® connectivity technologies. PandaBoard offers the ideal platform to support projects leveraging all its capabilities within the tight mobile power budget. More “wild” out-of-the-box technical features of PandaBoard include:

Feature
Spec

OMAP4430

Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore (cores run at 1 GHz each)
Ample MIPS for rich applications
Multimedia

Full 1080p30 multi-standard HD record and playback
OpenGL® ES v2.0 graphics engine
Memory

1GB LPDDR2 (DRAM)
Wireless connectivity

WiLink™ 6.0 (802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth® v2.1 +EDR)
Display

HDMI v1.3 connector for HD display
DVI-D connector for simultaneous dual display
Expansion

USB host
USB OTG host
Support

Open-source hardware design
Open-source community engagement

Pricing, availability, and more:
Cost: USD $174
Regions shipped to: Worldwide
Availability date: Today
Where to buy: http://www.digikey.com
Video introduction: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/pandaboard/39158/
Community access: http://pandaboard.org/content/community/home
Mailing list: pandaboard@googlegroups.com
IRC chat: http://pandaboard.org/irc
Project review and submission: http://pandaboard.org/content/projects
Other portals showcasing PandaBoard: http://omapworld.org and http://designsomething.org

The board itself measures 4.0 x 4.5 inches and includes not only the dual-core OMAP4 chip but 1GB of RAM and a plethora of connectivity.  There’s WiFi and Bluetooth, HDMI capable of 1080p HD video, DVI, 10/100 ethernet and USB 2.0 (two Host, one OTG); you also get an SD/MMC memory card slot, serial port and audio in/out, along with various other expansion connectors.

The early adopter program will see two phases of boards being given out to developers; all you need to do is submit an interesting proposal (that you have the technical skills to follow up on, naturally) and promise to release your code as open-source.  No word on how much the PandaBoard will cost, nor when more general availability will be open, but considering the abilities of the OMAP4 platform and its potential for STBs, tablets, MIDs and other devices we’re excited.

[via ARMDevices]

On the roadmap were new products that the company is working on including the Eagle, Heron, and Merlin. Devices running the Cortex A9 haven’t hit the market just yet and we are already looking forward to seeing the Eagle land. Eagle is based on the architecture shared by the Cortex A8 and A9.

The new A9 is said to be anywhere from 30% to 100% faster than the previous Cortex A8. Eagle promises to take the A9 and make things even faster. IntoMobile figures that we won’t see the Eagle in products until around 2012, but it’s cool to see what the company is working on for future products.

Video demo after the cut

In fact, the U8500 is powerful enough to support dual displays simultaneously, up to XGA resolution touchscreens, and dual cameras with integrated ISP for 18-megapixel and 5-megapixel optics.  There’s also WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS, together with integrated USB 2.0 and HDMI output, and mobile TV support is an option.  Obviously there’s also HSPA connectivity.

ST-Ericsson have already added Android support to the U8500, though right now there are still a few bugs in the implementation.  It’ll also play nicely with Symbian and other Linux-based OSes; ST-Ericsson are already members of both the Symbian Foundation and the OHA.  We’re not sure when we might see the first U8500-based devices, but going by the smoothness of the demo video below, we’re already excited.

Press Release:

ST-ERICSSON AND ARM IN COOPERATION TO ACCELERATE INNOVATION IN MOBILE USER EXPERIENCE

ST-Ericsson’s U8500 platform first to integrate Mali-400TM graphics processing unit providing access to a leading-edge environment for graphics developers

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND AND CAMBRIDGE UK – Oct. 21, 2009, ST-Ericsson, a world leader in wireless platforms and semiconductors and ARM [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMH)], announce a cooperation to accelerate the next step in mobile user experience and graphics innovation with the creation of a Mali technology-enabled development platform for content and application developers available via the ARM MaliTM Developer Center. The cooperation will speed up bringing consumers a better gaming experience in terms of high quality graphics, video and audio on their mobile devices. At the same time it will improve the user interface with enhanced performance, quicker responses and the ability to implement 3D graphics. The availability of the platform will enable developers to reduce significantly the time-to-market of content and applications for next generation devices.

The ARM Mali Developer Center (www.malideveloper.com) fosters a growing developer community of software engineers by providing resources such as graphics software development tools, example code, documentation and access to upcoming hardware through a community-based web portal.

“ARM has welcomed the opportunity to launch this joint initiative with ST-Ericsson. The availability of this development platform will help achieve and accelerate the Mali vision of outstanding graphics in any consumer electronic device,” said Lance Howarth, general manager, ARM Media Processing Division “By using the platform, members of the Mali Developer Center will be able to access Mali GPU capabilities early and create outstanding content and applications for the next generation of consumer devices.”

“Advanced graphics play a key role in the user experience for a wide variety of portable and consumer devices. Our collaboration with ARM will bring the Mali GPU capabilities to the developer community,” said Marc Cetto, vice president, 3G Multimedia and Platforms Division, ST-Ericsson. “With this co-operation we foresee that our customers will benefit from the early availability of a broad range of innovative content for their devices.”

To provide access to a leading edge environment, the development board is powered by ST-Ericsson’s U8500, the first smartphone platform to integrate the ARM Mali-400 OpenGL ES2.0 and OpenVG1.1 graphics processing unit. The U8500 is one of the earliest mobile platforms to introduce an ARM Cortex™-A9 MPCore™ SMP dual core processor and can support HD video playback at 1080p.

[via GenerationMP3 and via B4Tech]

In addition to the A9 processor, the license agreement will include the ARM NEON SIMD technology for the ARM Cortex-A series processors. The technology accelerates advanced, feature rich gaming, and compute intensive applications.

The ARM Cortex-A9 processor is a very powerful CPU that offers more performance than current chips in mobile devices while consuming less power. The A9 can contain up to four cores and can deliver 10,000 aggregate DMIPS when clocked at 1GHz.

The processor is speed optimized for running at 2GHz and higher frequencies and will come in two different macro implementations. ARM replaced the advanced physical IP techniques in critical circuits with highly tuned logic cells and memories that help increase performance while lowering overall power consumption.

The Cortex-A9 power-optimized hard macro implementation delivers peak performance of 4000 DMIPS and consumes under 250mW per CPU when selected form typical silicon. Both of the hard macro versions share a seven-power domain, dual-NEON technology configuration supporting symmetric multiprocessing OS’ with up to 8MB of L2 cache. Both the speed-optimized and power-optimized macro versions are available to license today with deliveries expected in Q4.