Broadcom Announces Reference Design for M320 & M340 Dual and Quad Core LTE SoCs

Broadcom Corporation has introduced a turnkey reference platform designed to help OEMs develop sub $300 4G LTE mobile devices. The smartphone reference design is powered by M320 SoC with a dual core ARM Cortex A9 processor up to 1.5GHz, a PowerVR 5XT GPU, and Cat 4 LTE modem with DC-HSPA+ and GSM multimode capable of delivering data transfer at up to 42Mbps. The platform runs Android 4.4 Kitkat, and will be able to make use of the upcoming pin-to-pin compatible M340  quad-core LTE SoC . The LTE design also includes 5GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, location and near field communication (NFC) technologies, with “a very low cost bill of material (RBOM)” according to  Robert Rango, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Mobile and Wireless Group. Product features listed in the press release: Cat 4 150 Mbps LTE speeds in FDD-LTE and TD-LTE modes and up to 42 Mbps with DC-HSPA+ 3G as […]

ARM Unveils Cortex A17 Processor, First Used in Mediatek MT6595 and Rockchip RK3288 SoCs

Finally all these ARM Cortex A17 marketing materials for Rockchip RK3288 were not some typos, but Rockchip marketing team may just have not received the memo reading “Confidential”, as ARM has now officially announced Cortex A17 processor based on ARMv7-A architecture, with support for big.LITTLE with Cortex A7, and that can be coupled with Mali-T720 mid-range GPU and Mali-V500 VPU. After Cortex A15, and Cortex A12, you may wonder “Why? But Why did ARM had to launch yet another new core?”. Here’s the company answer to that question: The Cortex-A17 processor offers 60% performance uplift over the Cortex-A9 processor, the current leader in mid-range mobile market, and betters the best efficiency enabling optimized solutions to address existing and new products. The Cortex-A17 processor is based on the popular ARMv7-A architecture, today’s most successful architecture in the mobile market. With over 1M apps supporting the ARMv7-A architecture, the Cortex-A17 processor is […]

Huawei Ascend Y300 F1 Firefox OS Phone Features Qualcomm MSM8225 SoC

Firefox OS devices are slowly coming to market, but it could be that most of them are existing Android phones or tablets repurposed to run Firefox OS with little, if any, hardware changes. We’ve already seen Mozilla selected InFocus New Tab F1, an Android Tablet, for its development program, but actual products such as Huawei Ascend Y300 smartphone, will soon be sold with Firefox OS using the model name “Ascend Y300 F1” or “Ascend Y300 II”. Huawei Ascend Y300 F1 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm MSM8225 dual core Cortex A5 @ 1 GHz with Adreno 203 GPU System Memory – 512MB RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash, microSD card slot Display – 4″ touchscreen (WVGA – 800 x 480) Connectivity – 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS with A-GPS Cellular networks – GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900, UMTS 850/1900/2100. Camera – 5MP rear camera, 0.3MP front-facing camera Battery – 1730mAh Dimensions – 124.5 x 63.75 […]

Tivizen USB Dongles Bring Digital TV (DVB-T, ATSC, 1Seg) to Your Android or iOS Devices

If you want to watch digital terrestrial TV on your Android tablet / phone / mini PC, or your iPad / iPhone, I’ve already written about Geniatech WiTV / Yeshgo Meron, as well as Geniatech PT115m / PT115e. The former are battery powered DVB receiver sending TV channel to your mobile via Wi-Fi, and is already available for purchase. The latter are micro USB or USB DBT-T dongles that you can insert into your Android or iOS devices, but they still do not seem to be available for purchase. Today, I’ve come across Tivizen USB dongles that appears to be very similar to PT115m/PT115e except there are several models with support for DVB-T, DVB-H (iOS and PC), ATSC (iOS only), 1Seg, and SBTVD standards, and they’ve been available since 2012… I won’t list the available technical specs for each device (mainly connector, dimensions, and weight), but here are the key […]

Framaroot is an Android App to Root Mediatek, Qualcomm, Exynos, etc.. Based Devices

Most of the time, when you want to root an Android devices, you may think you have to start your computer, and in many cases, it has to be a PC running Windows, which can be a real pain. Google does not allow apps that provide root access in Google Play, and all you can install are apps that can check whether your device is rooted such as Root Checker. For some reasons, today I needed to root my smartphone (ThL W200, Mediatek MT6589T), and I looked for a method working with Linux, and I did not find any, but I came across Framaroot, an Android app, that allows you to do that within your Android device without external hardware required. Framaroot is very easy to use and support different exploit in order to provide root access to many devices based on Mediatek (Boromir or Faramir exploits), Qualcomm (Gandalf exploit), […]

Asus ZenFone Android Smartphones Powered by Intel Atom CPU to Sell for as Low as $99

Last year, Lenovo sold Android smartphones based on Intel Atom SoC but sales numbers turned out to be disappointing. This year, Asus announced 3 smartphones powered by Intel Atom Z2520 and Z2580 SoC at CES 2014, with screen sizes ranging from 4″ to 6″, and much more aggressive pricing, as the 4″ version will sell for $99, the 5″ version for $149, and the 6″ version for $199. Asus ZenFone 4/5/6 Specifications: SoC ZenFone 4 – 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z2520 CPU with Quad-Thread Hyper-Threading Technology ZenFone 5/6 – 2GHz Intel Atom Z2580 CPU with Quad-Thread Hyper-Threading Technology System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8 or 16 GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot (Up to 64GB ) Display ZenFone 4 – 4″ WVGA 800 x 480-pixel TFT display ZenFone 5 – 5″ HD 1280 x 720-pixel IPS display ZenFone 6 – 6″ HD 1280 x 720-pixel IPS display Camera […]

Imagination Unveils OpenGL ES 3.0 Compliant Entry Level PowerVR Series6XE GPUs, and Series6XT Architecture Promising TFLOPS Performance

Imagination Technologies has announced four OpenGL ES 3.0 compliant mobile GPUs based on PowerVR Series6XE Rogue architecture for entry level ($100) smartphones, tablets, and other low-end consumer devices such as wearables and smart TVs, as well as four high-end GPUs based on PowerVR Series6XT Rogue architecture capable of TeraFLOPS computing power. PowerVR Series6XE GPUs The new PowerVR Rogue GPUs will deliver the same fillrate performance as equivalent Series5XT multi-processor configurations but offer more in terms of features and functionality, including OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL 1.x, and DirectX 9.3. Four entry-level GPUs have been introduced at CES 2014: PowerVR G6050 – Smallest fully-featured GPU core by Imagination with support for OpenGL ES3.0 and OpenCL 1.x. PowerVR G6060 – Same as G6050, but adds PVRIC2, the company’s second generation lossless PowerVR Image Compression. It reduces bandwidth requirements, and it likely to be used in entry-level tablets, HD TVs and STBs. PowerVR G6100 […]

Samsung Unveils “Samsung Smart Home” and Smart Home Software Protocol (SHP) at CES 2014

2014 could be the year where home automation becomes mainstream, as after Archos Connected Home, Samsung has now announced their own “Smart Home” service enabling users to control and manage their home devices, as well as Smart Home software Protocol (SHP) to enable connectivity between Smart Home products from Samsung and other manufacturers. Your smartphone, smartwatch (Galaxy GEAR), or smart TV will be the control center of your home, and you’ll be able to manage refrigerators, washing machines, smart TVs, lights, and more. Communication between your phone and the appliance will go through the company’s cloud-based Smart Home Server. At launch, Samsung will provide three main service features as shown in the illustration above: Device Control – Mobile devices or Smart TV can be used to monitor or control home appliances via Smart Home app from nearly anywhere. Voice control is also available so you could say “good night” to […]

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