At the Consumer Electronics Show on Thursday, Texas Instruments showed off the company’s OMAP 5 chipset in a reference platform running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. The 28nm system on a chip (SOC) features a dual-core ARM Cortex A15 CPU, 2MB L2 cache, a PowerVR SGX 544MP2 GPU and a dual-channel LPDDR2-533 memory interface. The OMAP 5 supports 24 and 20-megapixel cameras for front and rear 3D HD video recording. It also supports up to 8GB of dual channel DDR3 memory, and includes 3 USB 2.0 ports and a SATA 2.0 controller. “This is the greatest platform on Earth right now… way ahead of Apple, and it’s the first Cortex-A15 (which runs 2x faster than the Cortex-A9) product on the market,” Texas Instruments vice president Remi El-Ouazzane told Engadget. ”When running two Cortex-A15 chips at 800MHz, it’s more or less the same performance as running two Cortex-A9s at 1.5GHz. We’re working on multiple form factors — tablets, thin-and-lights — and we think ARM is going to bring tablets to the masses.” The first devices featuring the OMAP 5 chipset aren’t expected to ship until late 2012 or early 2013.

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Samsung on Wednesday announced the Exynos 5250, the company’s latest system-on-a-chip (SoC), which packs two ARM Cortex-A15 processors clocked at 2GHz. Samsung said the dual-core chip, which will be used primarily in high-end tablets, offers about twice the CPU performance of its existing products that are equipped with a pair of ARM’s 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 processors. The Exynos 5250 supports 2560 x 1600-pixel resolution displays and also offers more than four times the graphics performance of existing ARM Cortex-A9 chips. Samsung expects to mass produce the Exynos 5250 during the second quarter of 2012. The full press release, translated from Korean to English, follows after the break.

Samsung Electronics, the industry’s first Cortex-A15-based development of the mobile AP

- The industry’s first Cortex-A15 core applied 2.0GHz ‘Exynos 5250′
- The industry’s first ultra-high resolution WQXGA (2560 * 1600) display support

CHANDLER, Ariz. – (BUSINESS WIRE) – November 30, 2011 – Samsung Electronics, the industry’s first next-generation Cortex-A15 equipped with 2.0GHz (gigahertz), high-performance dual-core mobile AP ‘Exynos 5250′ was developed.

‘Exynos 5250′ a 32-nm low-power HKMG (high-k metal gate, High-K Metal Gate) process was applied, one can process two instructions per second by 14 billion (14,000 DMIPS) based on the existing 1.5GHz dual Cortex-A9 Core Products (7,500 DMIPS), compared to about twice the CPU performance has been improved.

Primarily in high-end tablet PC mounted ‘Exynos 5250′ which evolved into a high-resolution ultra-high resolution according to the tablet market trends WQXGA (2560 * 1600) displays are supported.

In addition, when implementing a still image of the mobile device of the AP without additional signal transmission timing of the display screen with the images stored in the controller itself implements (Panel Self Refresh feature) at the system level power consumption is reduced.

‘Exynos 5250′ 3D graphics performance for 3D graphics processing speed significantly strengthen the existing Cortex-A9 based products has been improved compared to the more than four times. Stereoscopic 3D display in mobile environments (Stereoscopic 3D Display) and you can enjoy high-end 3D gaming is.

In particular, rapid data processing, 3D graphics, implementation, and support high resolution display of the most important memory bandwidth (Memory Bandwidth, per second, the ability to read and store data in memory) This 12.8GBytes/sec was improved by 2 times compared to existing products.

The Samsung Electronics ‘Exynos 5250′ release of the sample and mass production plans for the second quarter of next year.

Vice President of System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics yidojun the “Cortex-A15 with dramatically improved the processing power of next-generation mobile AP core,” said “Samsung Exynos 5250 users with low power and high performance of the mobile environment to provide a new level,” he said.

Following weeks one and two of Qualcomm and BGR’s Snapdragon giveaway, six lucky BGR readers are now proud owners of six awesome Snapdragon-powered devices. Now we’re back for the third and final week of this awesome giveaway series, and we’ve got three brand new devices ready that fall into Qualcomm’s Snapdragon System 3 category, offering up to 1.5GHz dual-core CPUs, Adreno 220 GPUs, HSPA+ support, 1080p recording support, Dolby 5.1 surround sound support and support for stereoscopic 3D, as evidenced by one of this week’s devices in particular. That’s right ladies and gents, this week we’re giving away one HTC EVO 3D (Sprint), one HTC myTouch 4G Slide (T-Mobile) and one HP TouchPad tablet.

• Leave a comment below explaining why you want to win — be sure to use your real email address, Twitter account or Facebook account when commenting so we can contact you if you win
• Follow @BGR on Twitter and retweet this post

Readers may enter this portion of the giveaway up to twice, once by commenting beneath this post and once by following @BGR on Twitter and retweeting this post. The third leg of our three-week giveaway will run from now through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 23rd. The giveaway is open to legal residents of the United States only, and you must be at least 18-years-old to enter. No purchase is necessary, and all devices and shipping costs will be free to contest winners. Winners will be selected randomly, contacted directly by BGR staff, and devices will be paired with winners at random. Phone service is not included.

Good luck! And feel free to follow individual BGR staffers on Twitter, too (@boygenius, @zacharye and @robotodd).

You thought we’d be done after three devices? Not a chance. Following week one of Qualcomm and BGR’s Snapdragon giveaway, we’re back with three more awesome devices to send out to three lucky BGR readers absolutely free of charge. Last week’s handsets fell into Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon System 1 category, and this week’s devices are powered by beefed up System 2 chipsets, which offer up to 1.4GHz of processing power, an Adreno 205 GPU, stereoscopic 3D support and plenty more. In store for week two winners is a brand new HTC EVO View 4G tablet (Sprint), one HTC Inspire 4G (AT&T) and one Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY (Verizon Wireless). Here’s how to enter:

• Leave a comment below explaining why you want to win — be sure to use your real email address, Twitter account or Facebook account when commenting so we can contact you if you win
• Follow @BGR on Twitter and retweet this post

Readers may enter this portion of the giveaway up to twice, once by commenting beneath this post and once by following @BGR on Twitter and retweeting this post. Readers who enter week two of the giveaway are still eligible to enter week three. The second leg of our three-week giveaway will run from now through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 16th, and then the last leg will begin on August 17th. The giveaway is open to legal residents of the United States only, and you must be at least 18-years-old to enter. No purchase is necessary, and all devices and shipping costs will be free to contest winners. Winners will be selected randomly, contacted directly by BGR staff, and devices will be paired with winners at random. Phone service is not included.

Good luck! And feel free to follow individual BGR staffers on Twitter, too (@boygenius, @zacharye and @robotodd).

UPDATE: The AT&T device available to win is the HTC Inspire 4G, not the Samsung Infuse 4G as originally stated.

In an age where mobile device components seem to grow by leaps and bounds every few months, it’s pretty remarkable that a pioneer in the space still manages to find itself among the top chipmakers in the world. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip was the first 1GHz mobile device processor to hit the market when the LG eXpo launched in December 2009, and it kicked off a gigahertz craze that has gained steam ever since. Today, Qualcomm is still a leader in the space and the company on Wednesday revealed the rebranding of its Snapdragon chipsets. Snapdragon chips now fall into one of four series: Snapdragon System 1 (65nm, up to 1.2GHz CPU, Adreno 200 GPU, up to 3G HSPA), Snapdragon System 2 (45nm, up to 1.4GHz CPU, Adreno 205 GPU, HSPA+, 1024 x 768 display, 720p recording, Dolby 5.1, stereoscopic 3D), Snapdragon System 3 (45nm, up to 1.5GHz dual-core CPU, Adreno 220 GPU, HSPA+, 1440 x 900 display, 1080p recording, Dolby 5.1, stereoscopic 3D) and Snapdragon System 4 (28nm, up to 2.5GHz quad-core CPU, up to quad-core Adreno GPU, HSPA+, LTE). System 4 Snapdragon chipsets won’t hit the market until next year, but Systems 1 through 3 can currently be found in 125 commercially available devices. So what might be an appropriate way for Qualcomm to celebrate the new rebranding? Team up with BGR to give away nine different smartphones and tablets, of course! Read on for all the details.

Qualcomm and BGR are very excited to usher in the new Snapdragon branding by giving away not one but nine different Snapdragon-powered devices over the next three weeks. We will be giving out three devices each week starting immediately, and each week’s devices will include Snapdragon chipsets from one of the three Snapdragon systems currently available. This week will include three System 1 devices, next week will include three System 2 devices and the following week will include… you guessed it… three System 3 devices. Kicking things off this week, we’re giving away one HTC Trophy (Verizon Wireless), one HP Veer 4G (AT&T) and one HTC Arrive (Sprint) to three lucky BGR readers. Here’s how to enter:

• Leave a comment below explaining why you want to win — be sure to use your real email address, Twitter account or Facebook account when commenting so we can contact you if you win
• Follow @BGR on Twitter and retweet this post

Readers may enter this portion of the giveaway up to twice, once by commenting beneath this post and once by following @BGR on Twitter and retweeting this post. Readers who enter week one of the giveaway are still eligible to enter weeks two and three. The first leg of our three-week giveaway will run from now through 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on August 9th, and then the next leg will begin on August 10th. The giveaway is open to legal residents of the United States only, and you must be at least 18-years-old to enter. No purchase is necessary, and all devices and shipping costs will be free to contest winners. Winners will be selected randomly, contacted directly by BGR staff, and devices will be paired with winners at random. Phone service is not included.

Good luck! And feel free to follow individual BGR staffers on Twitter, too (@boygenius, @zacharye and @robotodd).

Nokia will launch 12 Windows Phone devices in 2012 — and a few of them will offer dual-core processors. Speaking to Forbes during STMicroelectronics’ analyst day, STMicroelectronics’ CEO Carlo Bozotti confirmed that his company still has “very close relations” with Nokia and that it will be “an important supplier” in Nokia’s future Windows Phone products. A few of Nokia’s phones will be powered by ST-Ericsson’s U8500 system-on-a-chip (SoC) package, which offers support ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processors. Nokia is said to already have a Windows Phone in the works, and while the company has set a 2012 target date for its debut, Nokia’s CEO Stephen Elop has expressed interest in shipping it before the end of 2011.

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Today at Mobile World Congress, mobile processor juggernaut Texas Instrument held a press event to offer some additional details about its OMAP 4 and 5 processor lines. Greg Delagi, the company’s senior vice president and general manager, gave the keynote — which took place right on the showroom floor. He emphatically talked about the need to push the capabilities of “smart devices” forward while being mindful of the constraints battery technology puts on the industry. Both RIM and LG were brought on stage — the PlayBook and Optimus 3D both use the OMAP 4 platform — and they too heralded the headway TI is making with its system on a chip (SoC) OMAP processors. The company even has technology in place that will bring cost effective, power efficient gesture recognition and Pico DLP technology to a wider array of smartphones and smart devices; it works just like the Kinect. We have some video of the motion-based gesture recognition, in action running on prototype hardware after the break, along with some of Mr. Delagi’s thoughts on why OMAP is such an effective mobile processor.

Delagi was kind enough to give us 10 minutes of his time to talk about the OMAP platform and, more specifically, how it works in the mobile device arena. Mr. Delagi explained that his company’s chip is superior not because of raw processor clock speed — a common myth — but because of exactly how the chip is designed. OMAP 4 and OMAP 5 processors have six separate engines at their disposal. There is the general purpose processor, which is used for most tasks; the graphics processor, used for image display; a programmable DSP processor, which allows manufactures to keep a phone’s core processing capabilities up to the latest codecs (say H.265 came out, this codec could be flashed to the DSP); a display processor for handling the screen’s needs; an imaging and video accelerator, for doing exactly what its name suggests; and the ABE, or audio back-end.

TI uses some extremely advanced system management to power these systems up and down as your phone demands, to try and efficiently utilize every last bit of juice from your battery. For example, the IVA uses 273 milliwatts when running at full throttle. Delagi also noted that the motion-based gesture recognition technology — which you’ll see in the video below — could be added to LG’s Optimus 3D handset with almost zero impact on battery life and/or added cost to the manufacturer. Mobile processor technology is extremely complex, so it was great to hear someone talk so passionately and eloquently about his company’s solution.

A note about this gesture recognition technology: it has a range of 0-8 meters; it can be included in TVs, mobile phones, gaming systems, etc.; it uses no special sensors, just a camera; it has facial recognition capabilities (the example given was if you were trying to change the channel of your TV using gestures but were on the couch with others); and any device with an OMAP 4 or 5 processor can harness this built-in feature.

A post by p3Droid on the My Droid World forums claims to shed some light on the rumored locked bootloader of the DROID X. According to the posting, the Droid X ships with an e-fuse chip that locks the bootloader and will brick the phone if the bootloader is modified. The news is spreading like wildfire with many would-be ROM flashers wondering if they should avoid the DROID X like a plague. This breaking news may not be as dire as many are claiming, as a google search of OMAP3 and e-fuse reveals that current OMAP handsets already have e-fuse in place as part of the M-Shield hardware security technology built into TI’s OMAP system on a chip. It is on the very hackable DROID and the not-so-hacking-friendly Milestone, but it is not being used by Motorola to lock the bootloader of the handset. The current theory being put forth by the non-alarmists in the Android hacking community suggests that the DROID X is locked in a similar manner to the Milestone. Though it may be difficult to crack, and may lead to many hairs being pulled out, mucking with the bootloader probably won’t brick your phone. As the DROID X lands into the hands of the Android hacking community in the upcoming days, we should know a lot more about the state of rooting and flashing on Verizon’s flagship Android handset. Be calm. Stay tuned. It’s just a phone. 

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Ars Technica has broken the silence on the Apple iPad processor and published new information on the mysterious A4 chipset that powers Apple’s upcoming tablet device. Erroneously thought to be powered by a dual-core Cortex A9 processor, Ars has inside information that suggests the A4 is a single core Cortex A8 based system on a chip, instead. The A4 is also reportedly a scaled down SoC that strips out excess controllers and connectivity options that are often included on other off the shelf SoCs which are designed to be compatible with a wide variety of mobile devices. Apple potentially only had the iPad in mind when developing this chip and incorporated the bare minimum components necessary to power and control the device including a PowerVR SGX GPU, Cortex A8 CPU, NAND and DDR memory interface block, system and security hardware, and a limited number of I/O controllers. A scaled down single-core Cortex A8 SoC does not necessarily mean it’s wimpy, but it may be enough of a letdown to persuade some potential early adopters into waiting for the 2nd generation iPad before coughing up their hard earned cash. Then again, with a $499 price point for the entry model, we’re not sure.

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Since the heyday of the UMPC, Intel has dominated the mobile PC market, from the Intel Celeron M in the Samsung Q1 to the current Atom processor which is present in nearly every netbook on the market. According to market research company ABI, those days of Intel dominance may be slowly coming to an end as mobile PC manufacturers turn to ARM-based solutions for this emerging category of devices. In contrast to the x86-based architecture, ARM-based systems offer low power consumption, improved battery life, compatibility with a variety of mobile platforms, have a lower price tag and offer an always on, always connected experience. As its raw processing power and popularity increases, the ARM-based system on a chip is also expanding beyond its smartphone roots and is being used to power tablets, netbooks and the like. A combination of these above factors is expected to slowly propel ARM to dominance by 2013 with ARM’s SoCs garnering a 25% market share in 2010, increasing yearly until the pendulum shifts in 2013 and it grabs a dominant 60% market share by 2014. Faster, cheaper, longer lasting mobile devices? We say bring it on.

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NVIDIA unveiled the next generation of its Tegra mobile processor at CES yesterday, promising to deliver tablets, smartbooks and smartphones with a blazing web browsing experience, HD video, Flash 10 support and multi-day battery life. Rather than go on and on, we will simply let the Tegra 250 specs speak for themselves:

• The world’s first dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU running up to 1GHz
• Eight independent processors to handle web browsing, HD video encode and decode and mobile 3D gaming
• 10x faster than the processors used in smartphones today, and up to 4x the performance of the previous generation Tegra processor
• Advanced TSMC 40nm process with active power management to provide amazing battery life (140 hours audio and over 16 hours of HD video playback) despite being always-on and always-connected
• Support for 3D touchscreen user interfaces
• Up to 1080p video encode/decode and support for HD Web streaming formats and complete HW accelerated HD multimedia engine for visually stunning movie playback
• Adobe Flash Player 10.1 acceleration for streaming video and 3D mobile games
• Resolutions ranging from four-to-eight times that of smartphones
• Form factors and screen sizes ranging from 5-15 inches

This second iteration of the Tegra mobile chipset is in the production stage with a development kit ready and waiting for eager programmers to build applications for this next generation in mobile computing. While you wait for those drool-worthy mobile devices to emerge, you can check out a 3D gaming demo showcasing the prowess of the Tegra 250 chipset. And oh yeah, remember that the video blow is from a mobile device, not an Xbox 360.

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Somewhere over the rainbow in a land far away, wireless phones will actually be wireless. We’re not just talking about cellular voice and data here of course, we’re talking about handsets that can communicate, move data, sync and be charged all without the need for a single external wired connection. We still have a ways to go before technologies such as inductive charging and higher-speed data transfer standards are a commonplace, but Samsung has just announced a major step towards that reality with the advent of Wireless USB. By way of new System-on-a-Chip (SoC) technology, Samsung claims W-USB will allow portable devices such as mobile handsets and digital cameras to connect wirelessly using an interface that is nearly identical to a wired USB connection. Dr. Yiwan Wong, vice president, System LSI Division at Samsung is heading up the group responsible for the breakthrough and had this to say:

Connected consumer electronic products are the next step in enabling anytime, anywhere access to information and services. One of the keys to wireless connectivity is W-USB technology. While W-USB technology is just beginning to ramp up, its application will soon increase with the consumer electronic and mobile phone markets’ demand for wireless connectivity technology and UWB’s fast download speeds.

The SoC itself is comprised of a built-in ARM core, a UWB physical layer, a memory controller and a memory component. It operates in the 3.1~10.6 GHz-band range and as far as numbers go, we’re looking at speeds of 480 Mbps. Real world tests have shown actual transfer speeds of 120 Mbps which is hardly a rate to be scoffed at and security hounds will be happy to know Samsung employs 128 bit AES encryption to thwart prowlers. Long story short, W-USB can’t happen soon enough.

[Via DailyTech]

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“Zii is a super computer in a nano size.” Now that everything is out there in the open, we’re not entirely sure everything we know has changed, as was the teaser claim on Creative’s Zii landing page. On the other hand, the ZiiLabs ZMS-05 SoC (System on Chip) is indeed pretty big news. According to Creative, the ZMS-05 is 100x smaller, 100x cheaper and 100x greener than a typical super computer, while capable of achieving the same impact on its target market – portable consumer electronics. The tie-in to “Stem cell Computing,” we imagine, is the fact that a virtually unlimited number of chips can be chained together to allow for petaflops of processing power. Mmm. With media in mind, the ZMS-05 will supposedly take portable electronics a tremendous leap forward but as always, seeing is believing. Once we start to see prototypes of devices built around the ZMS-05 that knock our socks off, we’ll reach our own conclusions. As an aside, Creative – you’d think that with all that money spent on manufacturing the surrounding hype and launch of your new SoC, the creative teams behind the project could have managed to make those Zii videos easily embeddable. Maybe your creative agency could use a few ZiiLabs-powered devices… Hit the jump for the full press release.

Creative Launches the Zii Platform and Ushers in the Era of StemCell Computing

Creative Forms ZiiLABS and Ushers in the Era of StemCell Computing Where Nano-Sized Super Computing Will Be Available in Our Daily Lives through Flexible, Tiny, Powerful and Scalable SoC

CES, Las Vegas, NV – Jan. 8, 2009 — Creative Technology Ltd. today announced the formation of ZiiLABS™ (a wholly owned subsidiary of Creative), with the combination of 3DLABS — which has a 25-year history as a leading innovator in programmable graphics, media and applications processing — and resources drawn from the largest product group in Creative, the Personal Digital Entertainment group.

The formation of ZiiLABS, the launch of the new ZiiLABS ZMS-05 SoC (System-On-Chip) and the new Zii™ Platform today usher in the new era of StemCell Computing™. The new ZiiLABS ZMS-05 SoC (System-On-Chip) will be unveiled and demonstrated from January 8-11 at the Consumer Electronics Show, South Hall booth #30651.

“We have invested a billion dollars and 10,000 man years of R&D effort over the last 25 years in platform solutions,” said Sim Wong Hoo, chairman and CEO of Creative Technology Ltd. “The combination of the technology from 3DLABS and the product development prowess of our Personal Digital Entertainment group delivers a complete, powerful and energy efficient platform with a very rapid time-to-market for our partners – the Zii Platform.”

“We now look to shaping the future of computing with the introduction of the integrated ZMS-05 media-rich processor, and ushering in the new era of StemCell Computing where we will bring the incredible benefits of nano-sized super computing right into our daily lives,” said Hock Leow, president of ZiiLABS.”

This StemCell approach has benefits in terms of:
· Flexibility — Utilizing a breakthrough technology comprising of programmable Processing Elements (PEs) which are basically Software Defined Silicon
· Scalability — 10Gigaflops to Petaflops (1015 floating point operation per second)
· Energy Efficiency — Huge processing power of the ZMS-05 SoC enables it to perform more in less time, equating to low power consumption
· Complete Solution — Ready-for-Market Zii Platform Solutions

Unlimited Flexibility
Stem cells are the basic building blocks of life, possessing the unique ability to develop into the specialized cells and tissues required by organisms to function effectively. Inspired by this concept, the ZMS architecture uses an array of media-optimized Processing Elements (PE) as its stem cells that can instantly develop into any of the specialized acceleration functions required of today’s media rich devices and offering advantages in terms of flexibility, performance and features when compared to the fixed function silicon blocks traditionally used in SoC designs.

Incredible Scalability
The scalability of the ZMS architecture is highlighted in the first Teraflop Accelerator with the footprint of an A4-sized sheet of paper, consuming less power than a desktop PC. By utilizing the virtually unlimited chaining capability of the ZMS chips, a state-of-the- art ‘hypercomputer’ with many Petaflops of processing power can be realized, which can be 100 times smaller, 100 times greener and 100 times lower cost than conventional super computers.

High Energy Efficiency
Due to the compute density of each Processing Element, the ZMS-05 SoC is able to do an immense amount of media processing in far less time — and with far less energy — than taken by standard processors; which translates into longer battery life. Intelligent power control means the speed and power consumption of the processor can be matched to the task in hand and unused features can be turned off completely, put in deep stand-by and reactivated instantly after weeks of shut down, helping to lengthen battery life even further.

Complete Zii Platform Solutions
The ZMS-05 processor combines the media processing array, dual ARM cores and a rich set of integrated peripheral controllers with hardware platforms and advanced SDK and middleware. This will enable Software Developers, OEMs, ODMs and System Integrators to create unlimited possibilities and develop a broad range of highly innovative products.

ZiiLABS Launch Partners
With the excitement about the ZiiLABS platform now public and the ZMS-05 in production, the Company is pleased to be working with many OEM partners worldwide announcing products based on ZMS including: MicroStar International, Perception digital, F&S Electronic, MediaNet, ASTAK, PowerLinux and Grandeye.

For more information, please visit Zii.com

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