Samsung gives peek at quad-core mobile CPU

Samsung gave an early peek at its first quad-core mobile application processor at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference here. The unannounced chip is Samsung’s first to use its 32 nm high-k metal gate process and sports advances in performance and battery life over its existing 45 nm Exynos chips.

The new chip comes in versions using two or four ARM Cortex A9 cores running at rates from 200 MHz to 1.5 GHz along with a 64-bit ARM Neon media processing block. The cores share a 1 Mbyte L2 cache with a snoop control unit. The chip does not include an integrated baseband.

Samsung is using the latest version of its own graphics unit for the chip. It includes four pixel processors and one geometry engine with a dedicated 128 KByte L2 cache. The graphics support the OpenGL ES 2.0 API and can generate up to 57 Mpolygons/s.

The chip supports two LPDDR2 or DDR3 interfaces running up to 400 MHz for a total memory bandwidth of up to 6.4 Gbytes/s.

Thanks both to the 32 nm process and a handful of power and thermal management techniques, the chip can deliver up to 26 percent more performance overall than Samsung’s current Exynos chip made in a 45 nm polysilicon process. It also can deliver improvements in battery life ranging from 34 to 50 percent, depending on the application.

Samsung said the new chip delivers up to 26.3 percent improvements in video frame rates. In a demo, Samsung showed the chip using 48 percent less power on 3-D calculations and 45 percent less power in CPU jobs than the 45 nm chip.

The Samsung 32 nm HKMG process keep transistor and gate leakage nearly to the levels of the company’s 45 nm polysilicon process, much lower than expected for 32 nm polysilicon technology. Samsung tuned the process to a sweet spot somewhere between its potential for delivering 40 percent more performance or a tenth the leakage, said Se-Hyung Yang, a principal engineer for SoC development at Samsung Electronics who presented the paper.

The chip has four independent power domains and several power sub-domains. Each ARM core and up to a half of the cache memory can be turned off or on independently. A set of media accelerator blocks are similarly power gated independently.

The chip dynamically uses either forward or reverse body-biasing on n-wells to improve performance or reduce leakage as needed. It also uses thermal monitors and a thermal management unit to trigger power management actions including shutting down blocks as needed to protect devices from over-heating and keep a handset below a fixed surface temperature set by handset makers.

“Recently power consumption for mobile devices have increased a lot and mobile devices have limited cooling capability,” said Yang, underlining a growing problem in smartphone design.

Samsung optimized its 45 nm processor for performance first and later found it could not get its full performance without exceeding power consumption limits. The 32 nm chip was optimized first for power consumption, said Yang.

Samsung will formally announce the product soon, said Yang, presumably at next week’s Mobile World Congress. Nvidia grabbed the lead in rolling out a quad-core mobile chip last year.

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Acer CloudMobile: our videos

First contact with the new Acer smartphone operating system Android 4.0 animated

Presented at the Italian Conference of Acer, the CloudMobile is going to be one of the protagonists of the Mobile World Congress 2012 in Barcelona. We made ​​contact with the smartphone during the event in Milan, during which we were able to shoot the video preview.

CloudMobile provides 4.3-inch display with a resolution of 1280x800 pixels, 8 megapixel camera, connectivity, UMTS / HSPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and NFC, dual core processor at 1.5 GHz and 4.0 operating system Android Ice Cream Sandwich. The model on display at the conference was a prototype, waiting to see the final version. Do not linger over here to you video them.

White LG Optimus Link Dual SIM - a gift to his beloved

On the eve of Women's Day - March 8 - LG Electronics has produced a pleasant surprise to Ukrainians: white smartphone LG Optimus Link Dual SIM (P698) with support for two SIM-cards.

Thus, the Ukrainian men will be able to please their women beautiful gift, showing in his choice of care and taste. As the producer, a set of completely transforming the classic design of LG Optimus Link Dual SIM, making it more elegant and fresh. At the same time highly functional smartphone is a device that you can download all needed for work and leisure applications.

Brief specifications of LG Optimus Link Dual Sim (P698):

Support communications standards: 3G; GSM 850/900/1800/1900; two SIM cards
Dimensions: 114 × 59x12, 1 mm
Weight: 124.6 grams.
Platform: Android 2.3
Processor: Qualcomm MSM7227T, 800 MHz
Display: 3.2 inch, TFT, capacitive sensor technology to support "multi", a resolution of 320x480 pixels
Camera: 3 megapixel with autofocus
FM-radio
Memory: 150 MB internal, microSD slot for memory cards (up to 32 GB, 2 GB card included)
Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g, Bluetooth v3.0, DLNA, USB 2.0 Hi-Speed, A-GPS, 3.5 mm audio jack
Battery: Li-Ion, 1500 mAh / h
Misc: Accelerometer, Proximity Sensor

Researchers Ericsson found what consumers want from mobile operators

Report Ericsson ConsumerLab «optimal customer experience" has shown that users evaluate the operators in accordance with their standards of service and support, taking into account available to loyalty programs, as well as the quality of the systems of payment and billing. According to the research, consumers are becoming more demanding of the operator, which opens up possibilities for new types of services based on the individual needs of subscribers. The report notes that different groups of users rely on different factors when evaluating their satisfaction with the services of an operator. So for the elderly and not very technically savvy users a decisive factor in the consumer experience is the process of buying phone contract. Consumers are focused on a career, paying more attention to the clarity of their accounts and the system operator plazhetey. They expect the payment process, transparency in the financial aspects and the lack of excessive, unexpected or hidden fees. Young professionals are attracted loyalty programs, switching to a new tariff plan, more appropriate to their needs. For parents, the most important factor is the process of billing for services. They want to be able to control how its the end of account and the accounts of children - either online or using a special application. In order to study the consumer experience research lab Ericsson ConsumerLab interviewed nearly 3,000 people in the U.S., Brazil and Russia. According to ConsumerLab, the main reason why consumers are turning to the operator, - the need to either upgrade or change the tariff plan. 61% were associated with the operators for the last 6 months for this very reason. In addition, 58% asked for technical support, and 51% would like more information about new services or products.

ZTE will present at the MWC eight models including the flagship quad

ZTE is confirmed plans for the mass introduction of new models at the exhibition Mobile World Congress. Total Chinese manufacturer intends to show the eight new phones, which will include the number of smart phones running Android and Windows Phone, with the support of the fourth-generation networks and our own flagship, built on four core platform. Presentation will be held on Monday, February 27. No reports on whether all the machines will be presented and how many of them will be running a particular operating system, and how to maintain data on LTE-networks. already been announced smartphone ZTE Mimosa X, who became the first device based on Nvidia platform Tegra 2. Also presented on the Android platform smartphone with support for LTE-networks: ZTE PF200 and ZTE N910. They fall in the number of these eight models can be said - the company ZTE did not specify the time. Demonstration of capacity at the exhibition MWC associated with an ambitious plan to achieve by 2015 the third position in the global market, sales of phones and smartphones.

Press photos of the smartphone HTC One X is already in the network

The Mobile World Congress does not start, but the official photo of one of the most interesting devices from those that will be demonstrated, has proved to be in the network. Model HTC One X will be one of the major Taiwanese manufacturer of devices in the current year, showing the user 4.7-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 720p. On top of a standard operating system, Android 4.0, HTC installs an updated user interface Sense of the fourth generation, which should extend the functionality and ease of use of the device "out of the box." Performance HTC One X chipset provides "four plus one» Nvidia Tegra 3 and 1 GB of RAM. In addition to the big screen smartphone can be noted for the 8-megapixel main camera and a front for making video calls. Full list of characteristics of the model is not yet known, but it definitely will be shown in the next few days in Barcelona. At the same time will be announced when and at what price, this unit will be available to users.

Sony has released a beta ROM of Android 4.0 smartphone Xperia

Sony has released a beta version of the ROM with OS Android 4.0.3 for some smartphones. Among these are marked Xperia arc S, Xperia neo V and the Xperia ray. Compared to the "alpha", released in December last year, has added support for data transmission via GSM network and the work of FM-radio. As a result, this version allows you to receive and make calls and surf the Internet, but the Wi-Fi modules and Bluetooth while still available. Among the options available, you can also mark a new lock screen that allows you to control the player and include a camera. In the final version of the Sony promises to add the ability to unlock the phone with face recognition of the owner, just as in the Galaxy Nexus. Among the new features - the ability to create a list of messages that can be sent after the rejection of the call and a new application for call processing, which provides a convenient quick call to the subscriber. In addition, the functionality includes all the features implemented by Google in the operating system, Android 4.0. Beta-ROM version dostpunaya for download from the official site of Sony, but it imposes restrictions in addition to the above-mentioned is also the requirement to unblock the loader, which will result in inability to boot the final version in the automatic mode.