An announcement from VISA suggested that Chip and PIN technology in fuel pumps will be delayed for several years. The original U.S. Automatic Fuel Dispenser EMV activation date for VISA for gas stations throughout the United States was set for October 1, 2017. That date has now been pushed to October 1, 2020.
When smartwatches arrived on the scene almost two years ago, there were still no components specially designed to the still unheard of device. That meant manufacturers had to make do retrofitting smartphone pieces for smartwatches, which practically meant using unoptimized hardware. February this year, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon Wear 2100 to offer a system-on-chip solution more suited for smartwatches and similar multi-purpose devices. Now at Computex 2016, it is following that up with the Snapdragon Wear 1100 which targets more special-purpose devices instead.
NXP Semiconductors has rolled out the QorIQ LS1012A processor promising enterprise-class performance and security for consumer and networking applications in a very small package size. The chip has a 64-bit ARM v8 processor with network packet acceleration and QorIQ trust architecture security capability and line-rate networking performance at 1W of power. The chip packs all its features into a tiny 9.6mm x 9.6mm package size.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 is arguably the most hotly-anticipated Android phone of 2016, but the heart of the chip could well be the bigger story. Samsung's flagship is expected to offer the company's own version of a 3D Touch-style pressure sensitive display along with choice of 5.2- and 5.7-inch panels, but it's the processor keeping the phone running that has been prompting speculation.
There has been a lot of focus of late on smartphones and wearables with capabilities to measure certain health factors, mostly heart rates and sometimes even blood oxygen levels. Trying to capitalize on that still growing market, Samsung has announced what is billed to be the industry's first all-in-one health chip solution that combines all the relevant sensors as well as processors in a single chip small enough to be placed inside a fitness band.
About two weeks ago, Samsung unveiled its next generation system-on-chip or SoC, the Exynos 8 Octa. Now it is revealing what will be the first member of that new family, the Exynos 8 Octa 8890. This processor brings together all the latest in the silicon industry, including a 14 nm FinFET process as well as combining both application processor and a powerful new cellular LTE modem in a single chip. This new flagship processor is expected to power the Korean OEM's Galaxy S7 smartphone, due to be revealed by February next year.
Moore's Law is something cooked up by Gordon Moore in a paper long ago. Moore would eventually go on to found Intel and the law states that computing power will double every two years. In the years since Moore came up with his law, it has held true but some scientists and researchers believe we are nearing the end of life for Moore's Law as we begin to reach limits on how small we can make chips.
After months of somewhat keeping silent, while letting its partners do the talking, Qualcomm is finally speaking out on the issues that have plagued what would have been its star chip for 2015, the Snapdragon 810. Naturally, it's calling the rumors of the chip overheating as hogwash and based on incomplete data. Of course, it's pointing the finger at "someone" who has been spreading this rumor to its advantage, without specifically mentioning the one company that stands to profit from the Snapdragon 810's failure: Samsung.
In the tech industry, the term "frenemies" isn't entirely new. Companies that lambast each other in public usually have quieter, friendly deals in some corners. Despite the almost toxic rivalry between Apple and Samsung, the Korean manufacturer has been, at several points in time, a supplier of components for Cupertino's devices. And now, despite the perceived tension between Qualcomm and Samsung, the San Diego, California chip maker is now rumored to be looking at Samsung's foundries for making its next high-end chip, the Snapdragon 820.
Batteries, already the Achilles heel of mobile devices, present an even bigger challenge for even smaller devices, like wearables and the budding Internet of Things industry. These latter devices are not things that you would, or should, associate with the frequent charging and battery replacement we are used to on smartphones. How do you balance performance and battery life? Atmel, a micro-controller manufacturer based in San Jose, may have the answer. Its new ultra-low power SAM L21 32-bit ARM-based MCU (micro controller unit) is advertised to last more than a decade before needing a recharge or replacement.
There is very little doubt that 2015 will see the shift to 64-bit architecture on mobile processors, especially with Qualcomm making available such chips that straddle all device tiers. Major mobile chip makers are already making the transition, but there seems to be one very small and new player who wants to catch up. LG is now reported to still be eying a spot in the mobile AP (application processor) market with its own 64-bit octa-core chip to rival Qualcomm and, of course, Samsung.
Apple has begun the manufacturing work for their next flagship, likely the iPhone 6S if their historical naming scheme holds up. That phone is set to receive an A9 chipset, which will likely come with a bunch of neat graphs about how much more powerful it is than everything else before it. The Economic Times of Korea is reporting that production of that SoC has begun, but not by Apple. The A9 chipset powering your next iPhone will be Samsung, insiders say.
