qualcomm News - Page 21 of 27 - CNX Software

August 1, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 14.07 Release with Linux Kernel 3.16 and Android 4.4

Linaro 14.07 has just been released with Linux Kernel 3.16-rc6 (baseline), Linux Kernel 3.10.50 (LSK), and Android 4.4.4. This month, Linaro has continued development on Juno 64-bit ARM development board, as well as other member boards from Broadcom (Capri), Qualcomm (IFC6410), Hisilicon D01, Samsung (Arndale / Arndale Octa), etc.. Android have been upgraded to version 4.4.4 with images released for Pandaboard, Arndale, Nexus 10, and Nexus 7, built with Linaro GCC 4.9. Here are the highlights of this release: Linux Linaro 3.16-rc6-2014.07 released GATOR version 5.18 (same version as in 2014.04) updated basic Capri board support from Broadcom LT. Good progress in upstreaming the code: now the topic has 21 patch on top of v3.16-rc4 vs 53 patches on top of v3.15 in 2014.06 cycle removed cortex-strings-arm64 topic as the code is accepted into the mainline new topic from Qualcomm LT to add IFC6410 board support updated Versatile Express ARM64 […]

July 30, 2014July 30, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

ARM and Qualcomm Release a New Guide About 32-bit to 64-bit SoCs

ARM and Qualcomm have been pretty successful with ARMv7 SoCs in the mobile space in recent years, and while 32-bit ARM (Aarch32) processors certainly have a few more years, both companies are now moving to 64-bit ARM (Aarch64 / ARMv8), and they released a document showing what has been achieved with ARMv7, the differences between ARMv7 and ARMv8, and new capabilities that will be attainable with 64-bit processing. The document covers the following: Introduction ARM Business Model The Mobile Computing Revolution (Tablets replacing Laptops) Android on ARMv7-A and ARMv8-A ARMv8-A Architecture Backward Compatibility to ARMv7-A ARM Cortex A-53 and Cortex-A57 ARM big.LITTLE Technology The Transition to the ARMv8-A Architecture (Fast Models, Tools, Linaro…) Qualcomm Technologies: Transitioning to 64-Bit with Integrated Mobile Design Custom and ARM Designed Processors: The Right Technology to Any Market Multiple Foundries, Flexible Production Flexible design practices in action (Performance, price point, development time. Snapdragon 410 vs […]

June 6, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Intel Atom Z3580 MooreField SoC Shown to Outperform Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 in Graphics Benchmark

This is not exactly an independent benchmark, as Intel provided the results showing an Intel Atom Z3580 SoC with PowerVR G6430 @ 533 MHz outperform a Snapdragon 801 with Adreno 330 GPU @ 578 MHz (Galaxy S5) in FutureMark’s 3DMark benchmark by 20997 to 18144, or a little over 15%. We’ve seen several CPU benchmarks before where Intel often has a edge over ARM based solution, but the previous generation with Intel Graphics was a bit weak on the graphics side, and this test seems to confirm, the new Intel smartphone SoC should provide very good graphics performance. It appears Atom Z3580 might have also outperformed Snapdragon 805 with Adreno 420, as Anandtech reported an overall score of 19,698 in 3Dmarks with Qualcomm Snpadragon S805 mobile development platform (MDP), and noticed it was not the most GPU intensive test there is. So it’s still possible the higher score found on Intel’s […]

June 2, 2014June 2, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Meetion MT-WF910 Wi-Fi Player Streams Audio from your Mobile Device to your Hi-Fi System

There are several ways to play music wirelessly from your devices on decent speakers. One the best way might be one of the Sonos Wi-Fi speakers, but they costs a few hundred dollars. You could also use a ChromeCast or EZCast / Miracast / DLNA dongle, both of which are very cheap ($20 to $35), and would allow you to stream music to your TV from your Android or iOS mobile device, Windows PC or Mac OS computers, but these require you leave your TV on, unless you use a DLNA dongle with an AV port. Another option would be to use a dedicated Wi-Fi player such as Meetion MT-WF910 which can receive audio from mobile devices or computers via Wi-Fi, and output it to a 3.5 mm stereo jack or S/PDIF port. Meetion Wi-Fi player specifications and key features: SoC – Qualcomm Atheros AR9331 processor for Wi-Fi and audio […]

May 28, 2014February 22, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Prpl Non-Profit Organization to Work on Linux, Android, and OpenWRT for MIPS based Processors

In what looks like an answer, albeit fairly late, to Linaro, the non-profit organization working on open source software for ARM based SoCs, a consortium of companies composed of Imagination Technologies, Broadcom, Cavium, Lantiq, Qualcomm, Ingenic, and a few others, has funded Prpl (pronounced Purple), “an open-source, community-driven, collaborative, non-profit foundation targeting and supporting the MIPS architecture—and open to others—with a focus on enabling next-generation datacenter-to-device portable software and virtualized architectures”. The Prpl foundation will focus on three key objectives: Portability – To create ISA agnostic software for rapid deployment across multiple architecture Virtualization & security – To enable multi-tenant, secure, software, environments in datacenter, networking & storage, home, mobile and embedded Heterogeneous Computing – To leverage compute resources enabling next generation big data analytics and mining Initially there will PEG (Prpl Engineering Group) to take of the following projects for 4 market segments (datacenter, network & storage, connected consumers, […]

May 9, 2014May 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Snapdragon 600 based IFC6410 Development Board is Available for $75 For a Limited Time

Despite their popularity with tablets and smartphones, I don’t see much developer community around Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, and only a few low cost development boards. One of them is Inforce Computing IF6410 pico-ITX board powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 (APQ8064) quad core processor with 2GB RAM, 4GB eMMC flash, Gb Ethernet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, SATA, micro HDMI and LVDS video outputs, etc.., that normally sells for just $149. But the company is having a promotion for $75 with the coupon code “makerfaire” until May 18, or until the 500 units they’ve reserved are sold out. Shipping is not included in the price, and you’ll have to add about $50 for Fedex delivery (It may be cheaper in the US) for a total of about $125, which still probably makes it the cheapest “Cortex A15 class” board that you can get. The board appears to only officially support Android, and if you […]

April 8, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 & 810 ARM Cortex A57/A53 SoCs

Qualcomm has already announced the Snapdragon 410, then Snapdragon 610 & 615, all three 64-bit SoCs featuring an ARM Cortex A53 targeting mid-range smartphones and tablets. Anandtech has reported that the company will launch their first 64-bit ARM SoCs for high-end devices in 2015. Snapdragon 808 and 810 will respectively feature 6 and 8 cores using 2 or 4 high performance Cortex A57 cores, and 4 low power Cortex A53 cores in big.LITTLE configuration. Both processor shares the same 9×35 core, LTE Category 6/7 integrated modem, an eMMC 5.0 interface, and be manufactured using 20nm process. Snapdragon 810 (MSM8994) will also come with an Adreno 430 GPU, support H.265 harware encode and decode, feature a dual 32-bit LPDDR4-1600 memory interface, and a 14-bit dual ISP camera interface. Snapdragon 808 (MSM8992) will have an Adreno 418 GPU, support H.265 hardware decode, feature a dual 32-bit LPDDR3-933 memory interface, and a 12-bit dual […]

March 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 & 801 SoCs Come in Six Flavors

Qualcomm usually does a poor job providing details about their SoC when they put out press releases or even in their website. It’s only thanks to a recent post on Anandtech that I’ve found out there are six different versions of Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 & 801. So two devices powered by Snapdragon 800 SoC may not have the same performance, although the differences are minor, I’d still consider this misleading. Snapdragon 801, for instance found in the Galaxy S5 (MSM8974AC), is just a revision (v3) from Snapdragon 800, so all 6 versions are MSM8974 processors, and the differences between models are modifications of the frequency for the CPU, GPU, ISP and memory interface, as well as the eMMC version (4.5 vs 5.0) and support for dual SIM (DSDA = Dual SIM Dual Active). All MSM8974 processors come with four Krait 400 CPU cores, an Adreno 330 GPU, dual ISP, a […]