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Designing smarter phones–Marko Ahtisaari (Nokia) and Albert Shum (Microsoft)
Including Joe Belfiore’s “Building a different kind of UI” talk as well (for completeness): see that in the very end.
Marko Ahtisaari interview: Nokia Senior VP of Design [The Verge, Oct 31, 2011]
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… the fact that he finds such harmony with Albert Shum’s Metro UI demonstrates the synergy that exists between Microsoft’s and Nokia’s design teams. As Marko explains while gesturing to his beloved Lumia 800, “What struck me so much is that when we got together, and looked at design principles that went into Metro, the design principles that went into this design language — it’s nearly identical, slightly different words. So great teams think alike.”
Nevertheless, Marko’s clear that innovation in the phone industry “isn’t done yet,” reminding me that it took 15 years for the automobile industry to standardize on the steering wheel as the dominant interface. While voice interaction like Apple’s Siri is an important development in the humane machine interface, Marko’s near-term interest is improving “design on the glass” via “sloppier gestures” that allow users to do something without requiring their full attention. He’s also exploring off-the-glass gestures, calling it a “key area where we’ll continue to innovate.” “The prototypes already exist,” he reassured me with a glint in his eye.
Suggested preliminary reading:
– Nokia to enter design pattern competition for 2011 smartphones with MeeGo [Dec 9, 2010]
– Nokia N9 UX [?Swipe?] on MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan [June 24 – Oct 27, 2011]
– Nokia Lumia (Windows Phone 7) value proposition [Oct 26, 2011]
Albert Shum on the Design of Windows Phone 7 [Feb 16, 2011]
Windows Phone Designer Seeks the Right Balance [Microsoft Feature Story for the press, Feb 16, 2010]
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Before joining Microsoft two and half years ago, Shum met with J Allard, chief experience officer in the company’s Entertainment & Devices division, and Don Coyner, general manager of Microsoft’s Entertainment Experience Group. They talked about using design as a way to not just create new mobile experiences, but also to help shift the culture at Microsoft.
“The tone was, ‘Let’s mix some folks from Nike, from the entertainment world, and from the technology world and start thinking differently about how we design, build and launch products,’” Shum says.
The first result of that new approach is Windows Phone 7 Series, a new mobile experience that’s designed for a life in motion, Shum says. The new user interface aims to connect content from the Web, applications, and services into one simple experience. “It presents a way to navigate and interact with the things you care about. That’s really the new fresh start we’re bringing to Windows phone.”
According to Shum it took an open, diverse team to look out across Microsoft’s various entertainment offerings and bring them all together into the new mobile experience. The key to connecting the dots was to stay focused on the consumer.
“You know, everybody says simple is the new awesome,” Shum says. “OK, make it simple. But also make it emotional and relevantfor the consumer.”
That’s what the design, engineering and business teams set out to do with Windows Phone 7 Series, he says. Shum hopes consumers see that personal connection right from the revamped Start page.
Dynamic icons called “live tiles” display real-time content from users’ contacts and applications. The tiles are gateways to “hubs” of the content consumers care most about: people and social networking, pictures, games, music and videos, their workplace, and an application marketplace.
“We took the idea of making it personal so when you look at it with the Start experience, it’s all your content, it’s all your people, it’s all your pictures, it’s all your music,” Shum says. “I think that’s really a key part – that personalized way of navigating the things that you care about, the things that you want to share, the things you want to listen to.”
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Metro Design Language of Windows Phone 7 [Microsoft Tutorial, Dec 10, 2010]
Metro Design Language of Windows Phone 7
Metro is the name of the new design language created for the Windows Phone 7 interface. When given the chance for a fresh start, the Windows Phone design team drew from many sources of inspiration to determine the guiding principles for the next generation phone interface. Sources included Swiss influenced print and packaging with its emphasis on simplicity, way-finding graphics found in transportation hubs and other Microsoft software such as Zune, Office Labs and games with a strong focus on motion and content over chrome.
Not only has the new design language enabled a unique and immersive experience for users of Windows Phone 7; it has also revitalized third party applications. The standards that have been developed for Metro provide a great baseline, for designers and developers alike. Those standards help them to create successful gesture-driven Windows Phone 7 experiences built for small devices.
Guiding Principles of the Design Language
There a few core concepts of the Metro design language which we’ll outline here. Each concept, or guiding principle, contributes to the look and feel of the whole system as well as the layout and frequency of elements used within the interface.
What’s covered in this video:
- Design inspiration for Metro
- Guiding principles of the Metro design language
- Examples of each principle in action
[clickable in the original]
Principles of Design
Typography. Type is beautiful. Not only is it attractive to the eye, but it can also be functional. The right balance of weight and positioning can create a visual hierarchy. Additionally, well placed type can help lead you to more content.
Motion is what brings the interface to life. Transitions are just as important as graphical design. By developing a consistent set of motions or animations, a system is created that provides context for usability, extra dimension and depth and improves the perceived performance of the whole interface.
Content not Chrome is one of the more unique principles of Metro. By removing all notions of extra chrome in the UI, the content becomes the main focus. This is especially relevant due to the smaller screen size and gesture-based interactions.
Honesty. Design explicitly for the form factor of a hand held device using touch, a high resolution screen and simplified and expedited forms of interaction. In other words, be “authentically digital”.
Unique Components of the Interface
Following the guiding principles of Metro, the Windows Phone design team has come up with more than a few unique interface components. In this section you will see different Windows Phone 7 UI components in action.
What’s covered in this video:
- Fonts, colors and themes
- Interface navigation components
- Application level components
Signature Examples of Motion
At this point, you have seen examples of the signature animations in Metro. In this section, you will see each animation singled out, allowing you to see how the system of interactions is created and how the motions adhere to the guiding principles. Not only will this continue to illustrate the Metro design language but it will also help you design your use of motion in your own applications.
What’s covered in this video:
- Taking a look at interface level animations such as Live Tiles
- Application level animations such as Swivel and Zoom
Conclusion
In this lesson, an overview of the design language of Windows Phone 7 was provided. After a brief background, the guiding principles were explained and examples of the principles in action were given. You were also given a look at the unique interface and application level components and the signature animations that comprise the Windows Phone 7 interface.
Nokia World 2011 Panel Discussion: Designing smarter phones [NokiaConversations, Nov 8, 2011 [upload date]]
Designing Smarter Phones [Steve Litchfield, David Gilson, All About Windows Phone, Nov 2, 2011]
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Marko Ahtisaari …
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He [Marko Ahtisaari] described the design “as a reductionist process, leaving only what was absolutely needed“.
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He went on to explain that just because the design process strips away all unnecessary elements, the result doesn’t have to be “de-humanising”. Things can always be reduced in such a way that they still feel natural, rather than “artificial and impersonal”. This is certainly reflected in the N9/Lumia 800, with its gently curved back and front glass.
Even though the design is stripped down to bare essentials, it isn’t boring to look at. Marko elucidated to the audience how the design looks very different from various angles. From the front or back, it’s a hard rectangle. However, the back has a “complex pillow-like curvature“, whilst the sides are semi-cylindrical. The curved glass screen complements the curvature by blending in smoothly with the body.
Marko went on to describe how the polycarbonate uni-body required “extreme product making”, and that it was not at all easy to manufacture. There was a lot of attention to the craftsmanship involved, and that each process was “extraordinary”. For those who don’t know, the body of each N9 and Lumia 800 is made from a single piece of polycarbonate, which is precisely milled to the required shape. There is a great deal of attention to ensure that no production marks are left on the body. He also commented that the final assembly (which is done by hand) was like “putting a ship in a bottle”.
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Albert Shum…
… started by telling the audience that even though the partnership was only eight months old, “both teams have worked together very well“. He explained how each had introduced itself to the other by summarising its core values. Both groups soon saw that those values “aligned very well“, as shown below.
Common design valuesAlbert discussed the design principles of Windows Phone, citing the line “People First“, as we’d heard several times from Joe Belfiore; and matching with Nokia’s “Connecting People” value. He also explained that Microsoft has conducted lots of case studies, which enabled it to build four archetypal “personas”for which it is designing Windows Phone.
Another common value between the two teams is “craftsmanship“, balancing the needs of science and art. An example of this was working with Nokia to optimise the touch screen drivers for individual handsets.
Albert talked briefly about how important typography was to Windows Phone. It has to be “artistic, yet facilitate finding information quickly“. …
In-depth checking of typography in Windows PhoneAlbert then reflected Marko’s reductionist point of view. He stated that the Windows Phone development studio believes in “Content, not chrome“. Furthermore, a design philosophy that his studio finds useful is, “You’re never done with a design until you’ve removed all you don’t need“. Therefore, a lot of the Windows Phone design process has been removing and simplifying elements. This is reflected in the set of Windows Phone icons, which was shown on the slide below.
The Windows Phone 7 icon setAlbert finished by discussing how Microsoft is trying to improve the Windows Phone ecosystem. One way is to “bring diversity to its services and applications“. Of course, he cited the software and services that are exclusive to Nokia as a way of doing this. The team are also looking ahead to other opportunities for expanding Windows Phone. To illustrate this, he showed a chart with phones, tablets, televisions and other nondescript devices.
Discussion
After both had given their speeches, they sat down for a discussion about their views on user interface (UI) design. Marko opened with his view that UIs should allow people to have their “heads up again“, rather than down in their phones. This is the idea that UIs should give you quick glanceable information, rather than having you tap through applications. He believes that Live Tiles are a good way of achieving this, because information “bubbles up”when you need it.
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Both of the designers agreed that Windows Phones need to be tried before you buy one. Albert made the analogy that you “wouldn’t buy a car without trying it first“.
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They wrapped up the discussion by echoing Joe Belfiore‘s comment, that the Metro UI grid is a consistent way to present information to the user in each “Scene”. The mention of Scenes was the real piece of new information here. It turns out that this is the term given to the section of the UI that is currently on screen. One can think of an application page as a panorama, and we drag horizontally from scene to scene within the panorama.
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Positive impressions: HTC Radar and Nokia Lumia 800 [Tero Lehto from Espoo [but not Nokia related], Nov 20, 2011, ]
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The second Windows Phone 7.5 smartphone I played with is the highly anticipated Nokia Lumia 800. Microsoft held two events, Hello Helsinki for consumers and TechNet for developers and IT pros. There I had the chance to try Lumia 800, but just for about one hour, in two sessions. Even though Lumia 800 does not yet bring anything very special to the Windows Phone platform, I have to say it’s absolutely the best looking and feeling Windows Phone device so far. It’s almost as great piece of art as Nokia N9, and somewhat even better.
Lumia 800 has got very good reviews online. Many have written it’s probably the best smartphone Nokia has ever done. Of course, it’s good to note Americans haven’t got most of Nokia’s smartphones to the United States, and it seems they never got used to Symbian. Nokia N9 (MeeGo) is not shipping there either.
Lumia 800 has the same kind of nice polycarbonate chassis as N9, which means a special quality of plastic. In this case plastic is not a bad thing, because the device feels very robust and sturdy. And the material enables having very vivid colours of cyan, magenta and black. And if you scratch the device, the colour surface should remain the same, because all of the plastic material has been painted. The last argument is from Nokia, I haven’t actually seen that in real life yet.
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Looking at hardware specifications, Nokia Lumia 800 is not the best WP Mango device available. HTC and Samsung have models with front cameras for video calls. HTC Titan also boasts an impressive 4,7 inch screen and faster Qualcomm Snapdragon 1,5 GHz processor.
I was disappointed to note Lumia 800 uses the same, very modest standard camera application of the Windows Phone platform. As mobile cameras are Nokia’s core know-how, I would have expected them to shine in this areawith the same kind of an application we’ve seen on MeeGo and Symbian. I took a few pictures live at the event, but I couldn’t figure the image quality based on that yet. However, in those dim light conditions the result did not look as good as what I’ve used to with N8 and N9 based on what I saw on the screen.
It’s clear Nokia can do a lot better than what Lumia 800 shows, and fortunately they are already working on this. I got to meet Albert Shum from Microsoft at the same event. He is the man responsible for the Metro UI of the Windows Phone platform. Shum told they have very close co-operation with Nokia. He has described his work on this YouTube video.
Even though Shum obviously couldn’t reveal any specific new features of future Nokia device, based on the interview I’m convinced we will see more personalisation and more features specific to Nokia. The camera application and integration to other parts of the OS are important. People centric features will become even more advanced. IM and VoIP will be integratedwith Lync and Skype support. Lync should come already before the end of this year, for Skype the schedule is more uncertain.
You could possibly see where people are, what they’re doing, invite them for a coffee based on your map location, or pictures taken with the camera could be shown on your map location, et cetera.
It’s also interesting to see which features will be specific to Nokia, and which ones will become available for all the vendors. I will blog more about the interview with Albert Shum if I have time later.
Nokia World 2011: Joe Belfiore – Building a different kind of UI [NokiaConversations, Nov 8, 2011 [upload date]]
Building a different kind of UI [Steve Litchfield, David Gilson, All About Windows Phone, Oct 28, 2011]
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Joe started with the assertion that “Windows Phone is about celebrating people”, quoting core values stated by the design team:
- “People first” – your friends and loved ones (and what they’re up to) should be front and centre in the interface. Being ‘people first’ is. Joe contends, fundamentally different to iOS, Blackberry, Symbian and other mobile operating systems, which all force an “application by application” basis.
- “Celebrate me” – Joe contrasted the effortless celebration of ‘you’ to Android’s customisability, where you have to put in quite a lot of effort in terms of homescreen tweaking and configuring. In Windows Phone, an awful lot is done for you.
- “Right here, right now” – instant display of the people, events and information that you need in real time, plus an awareness of searching for things physically close ro you in real life
Metro is, as you will have observed, and as Joe contends, “completely different”. It has evolved from other things that Microsoft have done. E.g., Windows Media Centre and Zune HD, and the name comes from the idea of taking the user on a journey. And, to set that up nicely, the visual style was inspired by metropolitan transportation signs – i.e. they do what they need to do, clearly and simply, “expressing typography, without unnecessary frills”.
The same is true of Metro UI’s textual elements and iconography, with the added aim to be “artistic” – Joe showed some examples of classic and modern art based on typography. Ideas above a mobile OS user interface’s station? Pretentious? Maybe, but we can absolutely see what Joe means and the overall effect is undoubtedly very stylish.
Metro UI certainly offers a different approach to the usual grids of largely static icons, though the cheeky resizing of the phones to give one a psychological edge made us chuckle!
Also important to Metro is “motion“, whether it’s your Xbox live avatar peeking out cheekily in your live tile, the lock screen bouncing when tapped to indicate what to do, the ‘busy’ moving dots or indeed the core kinetic scrolling of all the panes and content. Joe says that “motion makes so much difference, which is why comments based on screenshots don’t represent the whole ‘picture’…” He says that “the motion helps to create an emotional connection.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Metro UI design is “getting better feedback from women and first time users”. The competing Android UI design “is like the web – it can accomodate lots of styles”. Joe defends Windows Phone in a direct comparison saying that Metro isn’t as constrained as some say and that the very consistency and the ‘airyness’ helps users, plus developers can create their own design, incorporating the Metro style without it getting in their way.
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Qualcomm mirasol display technology delivered
Follow-up: Qualcomm added a superior to its mirasol, but also MEMS display technology for its upcoming US$1B fab [Jan 26, 2012]
Updates as of July’12: QUALCOMM Incorporated Management Discusses Q3 2012 Results – Earnings Call Transcript [Seeking Alpha, July 18, 2012]
Paul E. Jacobs – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer:
With respect to QMT, we’re now focusing on licensing our next-generation mirasol display technology and will directly commercialize only certain mirasol products. We believe that this strategy will better align our updated roadmap with the addressable opportunities.
I just wanted to say also we’re obviously investing a lot in QMT. We’re looking at the opportunities to — on that business model to reduce some of the expenses that we have there. And so that could have a pretty significant impact as well [on OpEx].
Updated: Qualcomm: No Launch Date in Sight For New 4.3″ Screen (video), Factory Delayed Until 2013 [The Digital Reader, June 6, 2012]
Do you know that new factory which Qualcomm is building in Taiwan, the one which was going to produce Mirasol screens and was supposed to be up and running by now? Yeah, that one. I was told yesterday by Bruce Lidl [PR manager of QMT] that the factory is not due to start operation until sometime in 2013, and that means we won’t see consumer products using screens made there until late in 2013 at best.
Right now Qualcomm is making the Mirasol screens on a smaller production line, and from what I’ve heard it doesn’t have the capacity to make enough screens for a major partner. The last info I got from my source at Pocketbook, Qualcomm’s still unconfirmed European partner, was that Pocketbook’s Mirasol based device was on hold because they couldn’t get enough screens.
Kyobo Mirasol eReader Now on Clearance – 71% Off [The Digital Reader, July 6, 2012]
Kyobo Book Centre, South Korea’s leading bookseller, has recently put their Mirasol eReader on sale at a drastic discount. I’m still waiting for confirmation from Kyobo or Qualcomm, but it looks to me like this ereader is on the way out. That’s great; neither the software nor the screen techwere worth the original retail, which was more than $300 USD.
The price posted above is 99,000 won, or about $87 USD. That’s a considerable discount off the original 350,000 won, and it leaves little doubt that this ereader is headed for the scrapheap.
End of updates as of July’12
Updates:
– Hanvon Reveals New E-reader Design for China Market Featuring Qualcomm’s mirasol Display Technology [Qualcomm press release, Jan 10, 2012]
World’s Thinnest and Lightest Color E-reader Unveiled at CES Opening Keynote
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), and Hanwang Technology Co., Ltd. (Hanvon), a leading provider of e-reader devices in China, today announced at the International Consumer Electronics Show the Hanvon C18, the thinnest and lightest e-reader to incorporate mirasol® display technology to date. The Hanvon-branded device, revealed by Qualcomm Chairman and CEO Dr. Paul Jacobs during his opening day CES keynote, delivers a premium reading experience, a touch display, vibrant color even in bright sunlight and weeks of reading under typical usage. *
Hanvon C18 Color E-reader featuring Qualcomm’s mirasol display. World’s thinnest and lightest color e-reader to be available in China market in early 2012
“Hanvon has chosen mirasol displays as the enabling technology that will best place the full color potential of their vast content library into the hands of their customers,” said Clarence Chui, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. “This Hanvon e-reader validates customers’ evolving expectation of color as part of their e-reading experience and mirasol displays deliver an unparalleled experience.”
The Hanvon C18 e-reader includes access to tens of thousands of e-books, more than 100 Chinese newspapers and more than 300 magazines, 90 percent of which offer full-color digital editions. Hanvon’s continuing collaboration with more than 300 publishers ensures a deep and diverse stream of digital content for consumers. Additionally, the device features Hanvon’s patented handwriting recognition technology – Hanvon Input – to further enhance the user experience.
“Thinner and lighter than any color e-reader, the Hanvon C18 e-reader is a revolutionary product that Hanvon and Qualcomm are bringing to consumers,” said Mr. Liu Yingjian, president of Hanwang Technology Co., Ltd. “With the exceptional mirasol display technology, it will break new ground in the e-reader industry.”
The Hanvon C18 e-reader features a 5.7” XGA format (1024 x 768 pixels) mirasol display (screen resolution of 223 ppi) and Qualcomm’s 1.0 GHz Snapdragon™ S2 class processor. Hanvon’s custom application interface sits atop an Android 2.3 base.
* Battery life varies depending on usage and ambient light. Battery life based upon 30 minutes of daily reading time with Wi-Fi off and integrated reading light set to 22 percent utilization
– Kyobo 5.7″ eReader with Mirasol Display Walk Through by Qualcomm [Dec 14, 2011]
– Unsolved Mysteries of the Kyobo eReader (Not Really) [mirasol Displays blog, Dr. Clarence Chui, Senior Vice President of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc., Dec 20, 2011]
A few weeks ago, we proudly announced the world’s first color e-reader to feature mirasol® display technology – the KYOBO eReader. We believe this announcement is the first step in changing consumer’s expectations about what an e-reader is; delivering color and interactive content, while maintaining the outdoor visibility and weeks of battery life to which they’ve become accustomed.
Since the announcement, there has been some dialogue online and I’ve had a few questions about the device, the display and its capabilities. Let me take a moment to answer some of these questions.
Battery Life:
The Kyobo eReader delivers up to three weeks of battery life, preserving an important attribute that identifies the e-reader category. Kyobo built this device to function as an e-reader and accordingly, applied the industry standard e-reader usage model (of course, those other e-readers feature black and white displays) of 30 min of use each day, WiFi Off, standby power the rest of the time – and in our case, 25% front light brightness – we’ll get to that next. These are Kyobo’s reported numbers.
Reading Light:
Our mirasol® displays work by reflecting ambient light (see how it works), and for darker environments, an integrated reading light is used (we’ve blogged on this before), and in the case of the Kyobo eReader, is controlled by an ambient light sensor. Above, we discuss how there is an assumed 25% brightness in all usage. Try not to think about this as an LCD, where “brightness” equates to the amount of light coming out of the display. Instead, this is the additional light the reading light adds to supplement the existing reflected light. My point is that the display offers visibility in both bright and dark conditions while preserving the battery life consumers expect of an e-reader.
Commercialization, Product Availability and the Korean Market:
First, as to when the product is available, it’s available now and has been on sale in Kyobo’s flagship store in Seoul since it was announced. We have made good on our promise to commercialize mirasol displays in 2011.
I want to also take a moment to talk about why Kyobo is our first customer out the door. Kyobo’s product development focused on finding a tool to enable digital education and meet the Korean consumer’s expectations for an e-reader, something black and white e-readers have not done in Kyobo’s past experience. This focus and execution on mirasol display’s precise value proposition is why Kyobo is right customer and Korea the right market to enter first. Additionally, it’s worth noting that while our current fabrication facility is capable of supporting customers of modest volume requirements, we expect higher volume customers to come into focus once our next, higher volume facility comes online later in 2012. So in the short term, we will keep focused on mostly international markets.
More information: http://www.facebook.com/mirasoldisplays?sk=wall
End of updates
Kyobo Book Center Ereader [Nov 22, 2011]
KYOBO eReader – mirasol [Nov 22, 2011]
Kyobo, Korea’s Largest Bookseller, and Qualcomm Introduce Kyobo-Branded Color E-reader Featuring Qualcomm’s mirasol Display Technology [press release, Nov 21, 2011]
SEOUL, South Korea and SAN DIEGO
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. (QMT) a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), and Kyobo Book Centre, Korea’s largest seller of books, today announced the retail availability of the world’s first e-reader to include mirasol® display technology. Kyobo and Qualcomm have collaborated to deliver an unmatched reading experience by providing a large and diverse content portfolio spanning books, magazines and video on a touch display that features vibrant color in bright sunlight. The device allow for weeks of reading under typical usage.*
“Kyobo is a recognized content leader focused on bringing unique and innovative experiences to its customers,” said Clarence Chui, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. “Kyobo’s customers will be the first to enjoy the exceptional color e-reader experience and long battery life that only mirasol displays can provide.”
The Kyobo e-Reader includes access to Kyobo’s 90,000 ebook library, notably including early rights from Korean publisher Minumsa for the much-anticipated Steve Jobs’ exclusive biography, a full one-month before any other Korean digital outlet. Additionally, the device features: video lecture content exclusive to EBS, a leading Korea-based provider of educational material; content sharing through Korean social networking services; English language text-to-speech capabilities; and searchable content through the popular Diotek dictionary application.
“The Kyobo e-Reader brings the user a true book reading experience,” said Mr. Seong-Ryong Kim, chief executive officer of Kyobo Book Centre. “With our diverse content and leading edge technology from Qualcomm, Kyobo Book Centre will provide a premium reading experience to our customers.”
The Kyobo e-Reader features a 5.7” XGA format (1024 x 768 pixels) mirasol display (screen resolution of 223 ppi) and Qualcomm’s 1.0 GHz Snapdragon™ S2 class processor. Kyobo’s custom application interface sits atop an Android 2.3 base.
Kyobo’s e-Reader is now available for purchase at the full retail price of KRW349,000 (US$310). Kyobo Platinum Book Club members can purchase the e-reader at a discounted price of KRW 299,000 (US$265). Kyobo’s e-readers are available at bookstore locations across South Korea, including Kyobo’s flagship Gwanghwamun-jum location in Seoul.
* Battery life varies depending on usage and ambient light. Battery life based upon 30 minutes of daily reading time with Wi-Fi off and front light set to 25 percent utilization [?setting the backlight to 25 percent brightness?].
About Kyobo Book Centre
Kyobo Book Centre has contributed to preserving Korean culture and improving knowledge and education in Korea through its distribution of high quality books and services throughout all of Kyobo Book Centres. Beginning with the Gwanghwa-Moon branch in 1980, Kyobo Book Centre has been Korea’s leading bookstore and an icon of knowledge and education throughout the country with multiple branches and an online presence. Kyobo Book Centre aims to conserve culture, expand knowledge and create a better world for all of humanity.
About Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc.
Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, Inc. has drawn on the same color-producing process that makes a butterfly’s wings shimmer to develop the revolutionary mirasol display technology. The mirasol display is the industry’s first to use interferometric modulation (IMOD); a micro-electro-mechanical systems-based technology capable of creating color from ambient reflected light. Qualcomm’s mirasol displays are bi-stable, energy efficient, offer refresh rates to support interactive content and are highly reflective, allowing for superb viewing quality in a wide range of environmental conditions, including bright sunlight. With applications in a variety of mobile devices, mirasol displays support Qualcomm’s overall strategy of mobile innovation by enabling a compelling viewing experience with significantly less power. For more information, visit the mirasol displays website, our Blog or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM) is the world leader in 3G and next-generation mobile technologies. For more than 25 years, Qualcomm ideas and inventions have driven the evolution of digital communications, linking people everywhere more closely to information, entertainment and each other. For more information, visit Qualcomm’s website, OnQ blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.
mirasol story (MEMS for the IMOD element), innovation story (biomimicry) and the mirasol subsidiary story on the mirasol displays website
Interferometric modulator display – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Chipmaker partners Kyobo in e-book reader, talks with Samsung, SKT [The Korea Times, Nov 22, 2011]
Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, right, and Kyobo Book Centre CEO Kim Seong-ryong unveil the bookstore’s new electronic book reader at an event in Seoul Tuesday. The companies say it is the first device to include Qualcomm’s “Mirasol” display technology, designed to feature vibrant colors in bright sunlight. / Korea TimesQualcomm is eager to spread its business tentacles in Korea. Its involvement in developing an e-book reader tailored for Korean customers is just a dot in the bigger picture pursued by the San Diego-based chip giant, according to its CEO.
Paul Jacobs, the charismatic Qualcomm chairman, was in Seoul Tuesday to unveil a new digital reader it developed with Kyobo Book Center, the country’s largest book retailer.
The device is the first in the world to include Qualcomm’s Mirasol technology, which is designed to feature vibrant colors in sunlight, thus eliminating a key flaw that has plagued conventional e-book readers.
Jacobs, who also gave the green light to a plan last year to establish a Korea-based research and development center, said the company continues to seek business opportunities with partners here, although declined to comment specifically on the details or cost of projects currently in the pipeline.
Meeting with Korea Communications Commission (KCC) Chairman Choi See-joong earlier in the day, Jacobs expressed intentions to hire more Korean research personnel for developing telecommunications technologies.
He also met with executives from local technology giants Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics and mobile phone operators SK Telecom and KT to discuss mutual business interests.
Jacobs’ visit to Korea comes amid speculation that Samsung, currently the world’s top seller of smartphones, is considering using non-Qualcomm chips in its upcoming smartphones and touch screen tablets to diversify its parts sources.
“Jacobs clearly wants to reaffirm Samsung’s support of its chips and may offer better pricing for handset vendors, which also overlaps with the business interest of wireless carriers,’’ said a Samsung executive, who asked not to be named.
Qualcomm’s technologies and chips remain vital for devices that run on third generation (3G) and fourth generation (4G) networks.
Samsung and LG are shifting their focus from 3G-based devices to products that run on 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) networks, which enable faster data movement.
“Jacobs checked out the development phases of tablets and smartphones that use its Snapdragon mobile processors and asked the Koreans for further cooperation,’’ said an SK Telecom official.
Aside of the Mirasol display, Kyobo’s new book reader packs the most advanced technologies Qualcomm currently offer, including its 1-gigahertz Snapdragon processor.
Qualcomm could only hope that its new e-book reader would yield better results than its first Samsung-made entry in the Korean market, which tanked.
“This time will be different because Kyobo will fully manage manufacturing, sales and after-sales (AS) policies,’’ said a spokeswoman from Kyobo.
Qualcomm has been eager to find its next cash-generating sources. Under the basis, it’s been investing heavily for panels. The San Diego-based firm invested more than $1 billion in its latest plant to produce the Mirasol screens.
Jacobs said he is set for operating losses from its Mirasol business because Qualcomm is targeting to put Mirasol on a wider range of electronics in the future, tapping e-readers as it first commercial target.
Qualcomm begins global e-book launch in Korea [The Korea Herald, Nov 22, 2011]
Qualcomm Inc., the world’s largest mobile chip maker, and Korea’s biggest book store Kyobo announced the global launch of an e-book reader based on the Mirasol display technology in Seoul on Tuesday.
Qualcomm said it was the beginning of its global launch of e-book readersas it soon plans to dive into other overseas markets.
“This is the global launch starting with Korea,” Clarence Chui, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm MEMS Technologies, told The Korea Herald. “We will be rolling it out in other regions for other customers.”
Chui said he could not comment on the company’s next plan, however, he elaborated that the joint effort conducted with Kyobo was “very aligned with what we’re trying to do.”
The device, dubbed “Kyobo eReader,” will be equipped with a 5.7-inch Mirasol display and Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processor and will cost 349,000 won ($310). Released for the first time on Tuesday, about 93,000 different e-books, including the biography of Steve Jobs written by Walter Isaacson, are currently available for download. It will be sold at online and offline Kyobo stores, and the number of books available will be increased to 100,000 by year end, said a Kyobo official.
“I think everyone knows Korea has a very special place in the history of the company, so we’re here to launch a new product, a new technology and in conjunction with Kyobo, a new vision on how children will be educated and interact with books,” said Qualcomm’s chairman and chief executive Paul Jacobs.
“The device is the first one that has low power, sunlight visibility and also provides color and video ratecapability.”
The new Mirasol display technology, pointed out Jacobs, has enabled Qualcomm to garner a bigger share in the electronics display market. The gadget can go for weeks without additional battery charging and is also capable of video rate response times, according to Qualcomm officials.
“Mirasol is a very flexible technology. We chose to focus on this size because we think it’s a very good match with Kyobo’s vision,” Chui said during a press conference in Seoul.
He also said that the firm will unveil gadgets with different display sizes together with Kyobo and other partnersif it is necessary.
Qualcomm, a company that earns most of its sales revenue from mobile phone processors and radio chips, is moving to expand into displays with its Mirasol technology which it claims extends battery life in handheld devices. The San Diego-based firm is reportedly investing over $1 billion in a new plant to produce the display screens.
The company does have plans to expand the Mirasol display into a wider pool of gadgets, but it has said it works best with e-readers at the moment.
According to the Korea Creative Content Agency, the global e-book industry is projected to grow an average of 27.2 percent by 2014, while the paper book market’s growth rate was expected to average at 1 percent by the same year.
The local e-book market has been referred to as an industry with enormous potential as some expect it to grow 10-fold from 2006 to 2012.
E-books, deemed to become especially popular among overseas Koreans or people who wish to buy Korean-language books in digital format, will be sold for at least 40 percent less than paper books.
In a related effort, the Culture Ministry also announced earlier in April that it would invest 60 billion won over a five-year period to nurture the local e-book industry.
It pledged to work on increasing the ground which the industry could bloom in, standardize e-book publishing technologies and spread digital reading habits.
The plan also includes supporting small and mid-sized publishing firms that have financial difficulties, and will nurture 1,000 people who are needed on-site by 2014.
The ministry said it would assist the production process of 10,000 well-recognized e-book every year and look for talented writers.
A total of 240,000 e-books are to be made available for borrowing from public libraries by the government in 2014.
Experts, however, say the industry — led mostly by small and mid-sized firms — still faces hurdles today in Korea with local giants, such as Samsung Electronics, claiming e-books will only play the part of an application for tablet PCs.
QUALCOMM Incorporated’s CEO Discusses Q4 2011 Results – Earnings Call Transcript [Seeking Alpha, Nov 2, 2011]
… With respect to mirasol, we continue to work with partners on low-volume projects as we await the completion of our new fab. …
… what the drag from mirasol was in fiscal year 2011, and how we should think about that for 2012.
William E. Keitel [executive vice president and chief financial officer]: … on mirasol, we did give an indication at the outset of 2011 that we expected — I think it was — if I remember correctly, we said about a $225 million operating loss. I expect we’ll update that in New York. And at this point — but with the business progressing, the R&D continuing and starting to bring more fab capacity online, we have a larger operating loss built into our guidance.
… on outlook for mirasol, specifically CapEx. I know you’re supposed to spend $1 billion this year. I think Japan pushed some of their CapEx into 2012. Can you give us some sort of updated perspective on where you see CapEx for that going as you continue to build out your fab into 2012 and maybe even beyond?
William E. Keitel: … on the mirasol CapEx. We did slow down what we had planned at the outset of this year to spend on the mirasol CapEx. At this point in our plans for fiscal ’12, we will catch up on the amount that we had originally projected for fiscal ’11.
LCD, E-ink Challenger Mirasol Will Be on Devices in Months [PCWorld, Nov 17, 2011]
…
Qualcomm’s Mirasol display technology, which has been under development for years, will be in full production and in devices by the middle of next year, said Paul Jacobs, CEO of Qualcomm, during a webcast investor meeting earlier this week.
The company is primarily focusing the screen technology on e-readers, but Mirasol displays have also been shown on tablets.
“We have partners who are really excited about the kind of capabilities that Mirasol brings — the ultra low power, sunlight visibility, the fact that we can do video on these things. So the devices are coming out, we’re feeling good about where we’re headed,” Jacobs said.
Displays are the biggest power hog on devices and Mirasol’s low-power attribute is its biggest advantage, Jacobs said.
“If you have an Android phone … you’ll generally see it’s the display that’s using most of the battery. We have just got to deal with the issue,” Jacobs said.
…
Application Craft: a multiplatform rapid development system and SaaS for HTML5 et al
Application Craft – our one minute overview [Oct 29, 2011]
Check out our fantastic one minute video. It shows you just some of the great development features available.
Related information: Microsoft and jQuery Mobile, PhoneGap [Oct 13, 2011]
More information:
– New website [Nov 4, 2011]
– Technology
– Features
– How our system works [Nov 9, 2011]
– Example SmartSites (=websites for smartphones, their core value proposition) in the Content ideas: Location Specific Web Sites, Retail, Publishing and Other
– Use cases in App Dev – Build Web, Mobile and Tablet Apps: Mobile, Workflow, Forms, Reporting, Mashups and Features for that
[this is called by them AppOps – their developer value proposition – meaning: “a substantial set of developer oriented functionality that allows you to build pretty well any sort of business or data-centric App (so not great for games) ”]
– Application Craft – Learning Center [from Oct 22, 2011 on, only half done yet]
(including an API Cheat Sheet, the other resources are very concise videos and links to the reference manual )
– Application Craft – User Guide
– Professional Services [Oct 20, 2011] offerings:
Fork Application Craft on GitHub
As of today (November 3rd, 2011) we are preparing our code for public availability on GitHub. Current estimations are that it will be available in the last week of November. As soon as it is available, we will be letting everyone know and you will find a large link here.
…
I founded Application Craft in September 2009. We started writing code a month or two later and we released our first really proper version in June 2011.
I do the product design and have an extraordinary team of guys and one gal in Russia [in Yoshkar-Ola the capital city of the Mari El Republic]who are a full part of the company. They do all the really hard work and have most of the brains.
Investors [April 8, 2011]
Application Craft is a UK company, founded by Freddy May and backed by 3 Angel Investors.
Urs Wietlisbach – Angel
Urs is the co-founder and Vice Chairman of Partners Group, one of the world’s largest independent private markets asset management companies, with over US$ 23 billion in assets under management [and over 500 employees and 15 offices].
Application Craft IDE [Fredy May, Application Craft, Oct 13, 2011]
[Release: 1.12.1, October 24, 2011 with jQuery Mobile RC1 and Alpha release of Workflow.Detail; Release: 1.10.7, October 3, 2011]
We are just launching our new IDE for building Apps and Content that can be deployed to Mobile, Tablet and Desktop. It is all browser based and uses just HTML5/Javascript/CSS.
It is now released and available on our cloud platform (for not a lot of money) as well as on Amazon AWS from November (for free).
We are looking for advanced content designers as well as javascript developers of all levels to give us their feedback and help guide the product. We are still offering free support at this stage so there really is $0 cost.
It has full support for Responsive Design as well as Client and Server Side Javascripting.
Anyway, take a look and please feel free to contact me directly fmay@applicationcraft.com or on skype ‘freddymay’.
Responsive Design and Javascript Coding in a 100% browser based IDE. [Fredy May, Application Craft, Oct 30, 2011]
Responsive Design and Javascript Coding in a 100% browser based IDE. The first of its kind.
There is lots of chatter and twitter about Responsive Design for Web content right now. What about Apps (both Web Apps and Native ones)? This is my blog post on this topic
One of the key things that developers should be focusing on is how to build an App once that works on various screen sizes and, more importantly, on different devices such as Smartphones and Tablets.
This blog post looks at an extremely cool, 100% browser based IDE that enables mobile and desktop apps to be built while meeting all of these requirements for Responsive Design.
It highlights an App that works on everything from a large screen to an iPhone and looks great on all of them. This IDE (from Application Craft) also allows mobile content Apps to be built that also follow the Responsive Design principles.
URL: http://www.applicationcraft.com/blog/495-responsive-design-adaptive-layouts-application-craft
PhoneGap + Application Craft = Pain-Free Mobile App Development [a PhoneGap case study, Nov 7, 2011]
Remark: while among jQuery related tools it is one of 13, it is the only other development system case-study by PhoneGap next to the earlier mobileFX!
Just as the PhoneGap mantra is fast and easy cross-platform mobile app deployment, Application Craftcreators are committed to making the mobile app and content development process pain-free. No wonder these two technologies get on so well!
Application Craft is a cloud-based, desktop and mobile app development environment for building enterprise apps and mobile and tablet content. On top of its advanced browser-based IDE, Application Craft offers a sophisticated back end that supports database integration, data storage and more. Examples of apps built with Application Craft include the Tate Modern Museum mobile app and the JamieOliver.comapp.
So, why is Application Craft and PhoneGap a match made in heaven?
Application Craft generates 100% JavaScript apps. When combined with PhoneGap and PhoneGap Build, apps built using Application Craft can access native device features and can be automatically deployed to app stores.
PhoneGap Build–a cloud-based services that compiles PhoneGap apps for various platforms–provides a “huge bonus” because it seamlessly manages the complexities of native compilers, says Freddy May, Founder and CEO of Application Craft. “The PhoneGap Build API is icing on the cake because it meant we were able to achieve the tightest possible integration with Application Craft.”
May adds that integrating the PhoneGap API into Application Craft was easy. Despite PhoneGap Build being in beta, Application Craft developers completed the integration without a single email or call to PhoneGap. The result is an app deployment feature that Application Craft is proud of–a build of five platform binaries takes about a minute. “This is more than acceptable especially when you consider it’s an asynchronous process and we allow our users to work on other things as the apps compile. Once a user can specify a single platform build via the build API, it should be even faster,” he says.
By adding cross-platform app compilation to Application Craft, PhoneGap Build saves developers many tedious testing hours, which translates into a major competitive advantage for the Application Craft development environment and, ultimately, makes for happier app developers.
Watch this video to get a closer look at how Application Craft and PhoneGap work together:
AC Phonegap Short.mov [Sept 6, 2011]
Application Craft Phonegap Build Ripple Emulator ShortIn the last couple of weeks, Application Craft has launched a major update with a comprehensive implementation of jQueryMobile and added a new feaure allowing UI designers to build responsive design type page using the IDE. You can read more about this news on their blog.
World’s best and true cross platform to develop mobile application [dineshkamath1982, Nov 14, 2011]
Application Craft (AC) is the best true cross platform for developing mobile apps. AC allows you to develop apps and generate native files for major platforms (symbian, apple – ios, android, webos, blackberry).
They have excellent support (response within minutes) and they also direct you to the necessary documentation for your requirement. They have very good example videos.
The cloud based IDE for developing the apps is excellent. They provide you also preview and live mode to see how would your application behave on your mobile (even before trying out on your mobile).
I decided to go to AC after going through http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_a…. Its mentioned as it is the true cross platform (this is mentioned only for AC). But now i really know why is it.
I am neither an employee or marketing guy of AC. I am just a normal user trying out AC for my personal interest. Please try it out and see if what i quoted make sense 🙂
Application Craft ROCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Roadmap [Nov 9, 2011]
…
To be Released (target release date 21st Nov)
ServerSide Javascript Support
This will enable an AC User to build scripts that run and execute server side. This will allow secure execution of rules etc. It will also tie in with the Data Storage Access and associated permissions so that only server side scripts can read from and write to connections and queries.
Other Plans not yet prioritised
…
Improved WYSIWYG editor features
The Editor currently does an imperfect job of pasting in HTML from the clipboard. It also does not allow perfect support for AC’s own Styles. This is being rectified along with other user-friendliness aspects of the editor.
CRUD for Regular Databases
CRUD (database Create Read Update and Delete) operations only work on other Apps currently. We have just completed support for CRUD operations on regular databases such as MySQL, Postgres, Oracle etc.
Offline Instance Storage for Mobile Apps
Currently, a Native App cannot store instances to an offline mobile device. We are adding extensive capabilities to allow offline data collection that can be uploaded later.
…
JQuerymobile Themeroller [Freddy May, Nov 7, 2011]
Just been looking at the new JQuerymobile Themeroller and it is a beauty. My plan is to annoy the hell out of Tolstoy (that is by new nickname for Max Kraev [Head of Engineering] by the way) and get this shoehorned in by the end of the year.
http://jquerymobile.com/themeroller/
I think it will make a beautiful addition to the product and give great control over the way that Mobile interfaces are created.
I think that we may then look at the regular Themeroller in a later stage as I think that our theme implementation is in need of improvement.
Anyone who wants to contribute thoughts and ideas on this before we get started, please do so here.
My thoughts are that it will fit into the Themes section of the console and pressing ‘edit’ will bring up the Themeroller Editor. Obviously, it will tie in nicely with the system and not require any manual messing around with the resultant CSS.
Why we love the ACE Cloud 9 Editor (and how we’ve integrated it) [Nov 8, 2011]
There are some parts of the Application Craft system where we need to give credit to other people or products where it is due. One of these is the ACE Cloud 9 Editor from ajax.org.
Code Editing is often an integral part of building an App and so having a really superb code editor is essential. We have successfully incorporated the ACE Editor into our IDE and we are extremely pleased with the result.
Click here to see a video in our Learning Center. Look at the first video (from 1:15) or the second one.
Where we use it
The most important part of our system is the Application Craft IDE. This does 2 main things
- build UI screens with the WYSIWYG, drag-and-drop UI Layout Editor
- edit javascript code (currently client-side code and, very soon, also server-side)
…
Mobile Widgets (from the AC User Guide)
We have gone to a lot of effort to make developing for Mobile devices a really positive experience. There are three main components that we are working with which we have integrated very tightly into the product.
JQueryMobile
Application Craft has embedded JQueryMobileinto the Application Craft widget framework. We comment on this only because we would like to thank the JQuery team for their very high quality work. If you find that there are some things on the jquerymobile.com site that you would like to see included in Application Craft then please let us know.
Phonegap [currently pointing to PhoneGap 1.1.0 not the latest 1.2.0 released by Nitobi on Nov 7, 2011]
Phonegapis the magic that transforms the Web Apps that come out of Application Craft into Native Apps. This lets your Apps be deployed through App Stores and it lets them access device features and hardware such as GPS, Camera, Audio, Contacts and so on.
Ripple
Rippleis a superb emulator plugin for Google Chrome that lets you test out device features without needing to deploy to an actual device.
Thanks to all of the above for majorly improving both our own and our users’ lives (well the development part of their lives at least).
Big Update – Application Craft & jQueryMobile [Fredy May, Application Craft blog, Sept 23, 2011] [Release: 1.10.6, September 20, 2011 with PhoneGap and jQuery Mobile Beta 3 and heavily extended Mobile Widgets support]
We have just launched a major update. It contains a comprehensive implementation of jQueryMobile within Application Craft. We think that this combination of JQM and AC has to be the easiest and fastest way to build Web Apps for mobile and tablet devices (and they pretty good on the desktop, too). And thanks to our Phonegap:Build integration, Native Apps are also extremely easy.
In this post, I am covering
- A bit about the jQueryMobile implementation
- The range of jQueryMobile widgets we currently support
- A typical JQM widget inside the Application Craft IDE
- Requests for widgets and jQueryMobile related features we don’t yet support
- The next major announcement – Responsive Design and Adaptive Layouts
jQueryMobile implementation
The latest jQueryMobile (Beta 3) is a leap forward in terms of stability, functionality and speed. There were quite a few architectural changes, too. We have added these into a special ‘mobile’ toolbox section in the AC IDE. We find the stability to be really excellent and any bugs we found we have patched up, but they were few and far between. All jQueryMobile components have a comprehensive range of properties rendered in the IDE’s property bar and there is full javascript event support. Appropriate widgets also support the AC Data Storage Framework.
JQM comes with 5 standard themes. These have been well designed by the JQM team but we will soon be adding the ability for designers to upload their own custom CSS themes. These Themes are actually very simple and easy to add and everything is done in CSS. We’ll announce it on this blog when it’s ready.
The Mobile widgets we currently support
The table below shows the mobile specific widgets we support (we have a load more desktop ones, most of which can also be used in mobile Apps). Each of these widgets is highly configurable via the property bar in the IDE as well as from AC Scripting (Javascript).
- Checkbox
- Checkbox Group
- Select Button Group
- Single Line Text Input
- Multi Line Text Input
- Mobile Toolbar (dockable)
- Buttons (multi-size)
- Search Input Field
- Slider
- Flip Switch
- Navbar (button bar)
- Popup Dropdown (selection wheel)
- Popup Multi Select List
- List (for navigation and content)
- Collapsible Container
- Accordion
A typical JQM widget in AC
You either set properties or use javascript to control all the finer points of a widget’s behavior. Below are a few variations of the Mobile List widget
You can add Items to the list in two ways. You can use the Item dialog for navigation type stuff where you know your items in advance. Or, you can add data to the list programmatically.
1. You have an array of the following object, one element for each list entry
{ “value”:”1″, // Data value that gets stored in AC (if required)
“label”:”United Kingdom”, // appears as list content
“image”: imgUrl, // image url if required
“divider”: “false”, // true if divider should be shown
“count”: “25”, // the number to show in the count bubble
“aside”: “Short Text”, // appears on the right in smaller font
“action”: id // page jump action id
}
2. And this is how you update your list widget with the list item array
app.setData(‘myMobileList’, lstItems);Populating a Mobile List manually
Populating a Mobile List with JavascriptOver in the property bar, we can now start to make all sorts of adjustments relating to cosmetic and functional behavior. Here are the two more interesting proeprty sections for the Mobile List widget
Documentation
We have documented the new Mobile features. Your can find them here.
Requests for widgets and jQueryMobile related features we don’t yet support
If anyone is aware of a mobile feature that we aren’t supporting but should be, then please let us know. We are also interested in any cool widgets that are already mobile compliant or with a little work, could be.
Responsive Design / Adaptive Layouts
This is a really exciting topic and one which one of the next blog posts will go into in detail. Initiatives like “Mobile First” state that modern web designers and app builders should think about putting the mobile device at the top of the list when thinking about platform support.
Responsive Design allows you to build a single app design that looks and works great on Desktop, Tablet and Mobile devices.
Inaugural Blog Post as Application Craft and SmartSites enters Private Beta [Fredy May, Application Craft blog, June 23, 2011] [Beta 1.0, June 22, 2011, first full Private Beta Release, pre-launch announcement: “Full mobile support and lots of ‘Visual Basic in the Cloud’ features.”]
After some long, hard development and a little bit of pivoting from the original concept, Application Craft is now ready for prime time. We are extremely proud of the platform we have built and we think it does a totally unique job of delivering beautiful, rich mobile and desktop sites (SmartSites) all the way up to full-blown applications.
If you are a Web Designer or Marketer, SmartSites lets you build device independent sites incredibly quickly. If you are a Javascript developer(or about to become one) then Application Craft lets you build anything from great front-ends to forms apps, workflow apps or full-blown relational applications.
SmartSites
[The essence of the new value proposition, i.e. the evolution from the original one: “Democratizing the Building of Data-driven Apps … for Citizen Developers as well – i.e. application stakeholders who have historically been peripheral to, or shut out of, the development process” see the below September 27, 2010 announcement]
A SmartSite is really a Mobile Web Site built on the Application Craft platform. There are several things that make SmartSites very different from other sites.
- It is properly platform independent
- The layout options are really exceptional, supporting many mobile specific widgets
- Device orientation changes are fully supported
- You can deploy your SmartSite app as a Web Site OR as a Native App
- Thanks to the full development capabilities of Application Craft, you can turn a simple, static site into a full blown App with some Javascript knowledge.
Example SmartSites
Rather than explain what they are, take a look at the SmartSites section of our website, where you will find some really good examples.
See some examples on the various tabs on the SmartSites pageApplication Development
Javascript is the lingua franca of the web and everything about Application Craft is Javascript. It is written 100% in it(a lot of thanks to JQuery and JQueryMobile by the way), SmartSites and Apps are pure Javascript and you can add business logic to your Sites and Apps using it.
More about Application Craft AppOps
Private Beta
We are starting off with a Private Beta phase which I anticipate will last 3 to 4 weeks before it goes into Public Beta. We are delighted with the stability and the feature set of the product but we want to make sure that our provisioning systems and platform operations are functioning smoothly before we switch on the automated provisioning.
Support & Feedback
Our main goal in the next months is to work very, very closely with our users. We brought the product to where it now is by working with real users with real issues. We started working with these users in the early days after Robert Scoble did a pre-release video interview late last year. We are immensely grateful to their input and we now are ready to do the same with the next wave of users.
If you contact us for help or suggestions, you will hear back from us. We don’t just want your feedback and input, we need it. We are available on Skype, Twitter etc. You can find full support and contact information here (click on the Support button).
Version 1.0 Release
Application Craft has had a lot of very hard testing before Private Beta from ourselves as well as a handful of early adopters who have built substantial Apps and Sites using Application Craft. The first Commercial Offering is not yet certain but it will not be later than Fall 2011.
Pricing
We will be announcing proper pricing plans in July. There will be versions for all types of users. including a Free version for basic, single-user SmartSites usage all the way up to high end versions including special releases, features, unlimited users (SmartSite/App builders not consumers) and support options.
Future Blog Entries & Requests
Initially, I plan to write a series of blogs on the many usages of Application Craft and SmartSites. I will be showing real examples that focus in on a particular use of the product. If you would like to see me blog on a specific topic, please tweet either @appcrafty or me (Freddy May) personally @3bfred.
SmartPhones need SmartSites [Fredy May, Application Craft blog, June 24, 2011]
The main thrust of this article is to discuss a major problem (and a corresponding solution) with almost all web sites when they are visited by a SmartPhone. They appear so small as to be pretty well unreadable and clicking links is a lottery.
We all know that SmartPhone usage is growing rapidly, so many companies should prepare for lots more people to visit their web site using a SmartPhone. The proliferation of Gelocation Apps and Services (Google Search/Places/Maps, SimpleGeo, Factual etc.) cater explicity to the Mobile user and increase SmartPhone traffic even further.
If you take a look at the image on the left, it will probably be a familiar sight. Given the size of the opportunity, it is pretty amazing how poorly this situation has been addressed.
As you can see from the infographic excerpts above (full Infographic from Microsoft Tag available here), there is already a lot of mobile based internet usage and by 2014 it will exceed desktop usage. And already one half of all searches are performed on mobile devices. This all leads to a lot of people visiting web sites using their SmartPhones.
You should view SmartPhone web site visitors as exciting opportunities, because
- they are probably nearby
- they probably have a very specific and immediate interest in your product or place
- they need information, a local service or a product
One big problem
The big problem is that almost every web site looks terrible in a SmartPhone browser. And site navigation is even worse due to tiny links colliding with fat fingers (my good friend Dobs would appreciate this). Get your phone out and visit some random sites.
There are some notable exceptions (Twitter, Facebook) but take a look at these well known names below. Click on these to see them at their original size or go to the website on your phone or scan the QR-Code if you’ve got an App.
FYI: The QR-codes shown here can be read with QR-Reader Apps (iPhone try ‘ConnectMe’, Android try ‘Google Goggles’)
Starbucks
Apple
DHL… with a SmartSite solution
Take a look at the following example, which is a typical local business you might want to get information on. Click on the thumbnail or scan the QR-Code to see the website rendered on a phone, then read on.
Now, take a look at the SmartSite below, which is an Application Craft SmartSite. It is actually live, so you can interact with it. Be sure to check out the Location pages and both tabs on the Contact page.
This SmartSite took about 1 hour to build
- It includes a simple but cool ‘contact’ form
- It required absolutely no programming skills
- It is a really easy job for a Web Designer, Marketer or Product Manager
- If you want to add really advanced App capabilities and you have some Javascript knowledge then our AppOps features are genuinely superb (more on this in another post)
also reachable at
ac.applicationcraft.com/kallkwikSmartPhone Visitors will probably want different (and simpler) content
Clearly, this is a good thing, because they will usually want access to
- only the most relevant information
- information that relates to the fact they are on the move and probably nearby
- complex and rich layout is not required due to the limited form factor
Location Specific Content
There is another set of very relevant uses of SmartSites that are described on our SmartSites page. Location Specific Content is where you build a SmrtSite that is tied to an object, place or business and targets the SmartPhone user who is actually standing at the location. For instance, information boards at Airport, Tourist Office, Hotel or Shopping Centre. Or providing information to in-store shoppers. Printing QR-Codes/tiny URLs onto products as a better way of accessing manuals and assembly guides. The list is pretty well endless. Go to the SmartSites page to take a look at the example uses.
What are the alternatives?
There are alternative, but very expensive and non-trivial, ways of achieving an effective mobile-ready site
- Hand code it using developer tools such as Sencha or JQueryMobile. This requires proper web development skills and will take many times longer than using Application Craft
- Design your main web site to reformat for SmartPhones but this is really not for the faint-hearted
What if I want to add App like capabilities to my SmartSite
Well, this is where you really are in luck. Application Craft was initially conceived as a cloud based App development platform. Alongside SmartSites, we have AppOps, which is a substantial set of developer oriented functionality that allows you to build pretty well any sort of business or data-centric App (so not great for games) that you are likely to need.
I plan to do another blog post on AppOps soon, but feel free to explore AppOps now.
Application Craft: Sam Schillace to Advise Application Craft [Oct 7, 2010]
Google Docs Creator to Advise Cloud-based Rapid App Development Platform Innovator
London, UK October 7, 2010 – Application Craft today announced that Sam Schillace, creator of Google Docs and co-founder of new venture Restartle, is joining Application Craft as an Advisor. Launched at Tech Crunch Disrupt 2010 and currently in Public Beta, Application Craft radically shortens development cycles for even complex data-driven desktop and mobile applications. Importantly, Application Craft’s drag and drop Data Graphs and built-in collaboration tools allow an unparalleled level of involvement by Citizen Developers in the application development process. By eliminating the user/developer gulf, Application Craft reduces strain on development teams, promotes on-time and on-budget projects and blurs the boundary between content and applications.
Schillace led the Google Docs team after Google acquired Upstartle, the company he co-founded to bring the collaborative word processor Writely to market. Before leaving Google in June 2010 to found Restartle, he led the Internet giant’s Gmail and Apps team as Senior Engineering Director.
“I have seen how fast the Application Craft team has built a really superb product over the last year,” said Mr. Schillace. “It is a genuine enabler for a new class of application developer and I think it will result in some major changes to the desktop and mobile application development landscape. I am excited to be involved with Application Craft during these early, formative days.”
“You would be hard pressed to find a software entrepreneur with as much SaaS and PaaS expertise as Sam Schillace,” said Freddy May, Application Craft Founder and CEO. “I have benefited greatly from Sam’s counsel over the past year and I am delighted that Application Craft will continue to do so now that he has joined as a formal company Advisor.”
About Application Craft
Launched at Tech Crunch Disrupt 2010 and currently in Public Beta, Application Craft’s rapid application development platform allows professional and ‘Citizen’ developers to quickly and collaboratively build amazing data-driven desktop and mobile apps. By eliminating the user/developer gulf, Application Craft reduces strain on development teams, promotes on-time and on-budget projects and blurs the boundary between content and applications. To learn more, please visit: http://www.applicationcraft.com
Application Craft Invites Citizen and Pro Developers to Get Crafty Rapid Development [TechCrunch Disrupt, London, UK and San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) September 27, 2010]
Platform Democratizes the Building of Data-driven Apps
Application Craft today opened the public beta for their rapid development platform that allows both professional and ‘Citizen’ developers to quickly and collaboratively build amazing data-driven desktop and mobile apps. Citizen Developers are application stakeholders who have historically been peripheral to, or shut out of, the development process, such as web designers, analysts, knowledge workers and IT staff. Getting Crafty means unprecedented ease of collaboration between hard core coders and Citizen Developers.
“Throughout my IT career, I have witnessed countless development projects fail due to lack of alignment between users and developers and overloaded development teams. Application Craft aims to eliminate the user/developer gulf by fostering active collaboration, which reduces strain on dev teams and promotes on-time and on-budget projects,” said Freddy May, Application Craft Founder and CEO.
You’re Getting Crafty When…
- Your apps can instantly pull data from virtually any source
- You can rapid prototype in minutes and build a production app in hours
- Web designers become Web developers in a day
- Agile is easy!
- Apps run everywhere out of the box
- Usability takes center stage
- Your projects are consistently on time and on budget
Watch this video to see it in action: http://tinyurl.com/GetCrafty
_C_ollaborative app development that welcomes pros and amateurs
_R_ich apps, extreme mash ups
_A_gile
_F_lexible deployment
_T_otal customization
_Y_our projects on time every timeAbout Application Craft
Application Craft is the quickest way to build apps. The company opened the Public Beta for their revolutionary Rapid Application Development Platform for Professional and ‘Citizen’ developers at TechCrunch Disrupt, where the company is also exhibiting on Tuesday, September 28. Application Craft is seeking Public Beta participants. To learn more and apply for the Beta, go to: http://tinyurl.com/GetCraftyAbout TechCrunch Disrupt
TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco (http://disrupt.techcrunch.com), is being held Sept 27-29 2010, at the San Francisco Design Center Concourse. TechCrunch Disrupt attracts over 1,500 leading technology innovators and investors and over 150 new startups. The format combines top thought-leader discussions with new product and company launches. Morning executive discussions debate the most timely disruptions in media, advertising and technology. Afternoons host the Startup Battlefield where 25 new companies will launch for the first time on stage, selected to present from more than 500 applications received from around the world. Another 100 early-stage startups will exhibit in Startup Alley. TechCrunch will award a $50,000 grand prize along with other award recognitions at the conclusion of the conference.
Corporate developers: exclusive first look at Application Craft, a new tool for corporate web apps [Robert Scoble, Sept 26, 2010]
http://www.applicationcraft.com/ has what they say is the quickest way to build apps. This is generally aimed at corporate developers, and looks like a modern Visual Studio — everything is in the web browser. Here I spend a bit of time with founder Freddy May who gives me a good look at what it does and why it’s an important new entrant into the web programming field.In the 1990s we had Visual Basic, Delphi, and then Visual Studio come along. All great tools for corporate developers who needed to build apps for their workgroups.
But since then developer tools have stagnated. Yeah, we’ve had Ruby on Rails, but that’s really aimed at web developers (Twitter was originally built in it, for instance) and the kinds of database and UI tools that corporate developers needed weren’t there.
Today Application Craft (CrunchBase info on Application Craft) is releasing a new system that looks somewhat like Visual Studio, but is completely web based. Here CEO Freddy May spends a lot of time with me showing how it works and giving me some idea of the power underneath.
Oh, and you can build a LOT without knowing any code. May says it’s not just aimed at developers, but can be used by “citizen developers.” IE, those who don’t know how to code very well. That is exactly the audience that Visual Basic was aimed at back in 1992, and it went on to be the tool for corporate developers. Will Application Craft take over that mantle? We’ll see, but this is a very interesting start. What do you think?
NVIDIA Tegra 3 and ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime
Follow-up: Kindle Fire with its $200 price pushing everybody up, down or out of the Android tablet market [Dec 8, 2011]
Update: ASUS introduces [i.e. making available] the Eee Pad Transformer Prime with NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 Quad-Core Processor and Google® Android™ 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich [ASUS press release, Dec 1, 2011]
Update: Nvidia Tegra 3 to challenge shipments of 25 million units in 2012 [Dec 2, 2011]
Nvidia is set to challenge to ship 25 million Tegra 3 processors for use in smartphones, tablet PCs and automobiles in 2012 as the company is unlikely to be able to achieve the same shipment goal for its Tegra 2 in 2011, according to industry sources.
Despite that Tegra 2 successfully landed orders from Motorola, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Asustek Computer and Acer, because the chip was not able to gain enough share from the smartphone market, which is currently dominated by Qualcomm, while shipments of non-Apple tablet PCs, which Tegra 2 accounts for 75% of the volume, are limited, Nvidia’s goal of shipping 25 million Tegra 2 chips in 2011 will not be able to be realized, the sources noted.
Although Nvidia still faces strong competition from players such as Qualcomm and Texas Instruments, the company with its advances with the Tegra 3 processor will try to challenge the same shipments goal in 2012 and is eying Windows on ARM (WOA) in 2013 to achieve further growth.
Currently, there are 11 smartphones that have adopted Tegra 2 including Motorola’s Artix, LG’s Optimus 2X and Samsung’s Galaxy R. Meanwhile, there are 23 tablet PCs with Tegra 2 including Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, Asustek’s Eee Pad Transformer and Acer’s S3.
Tablet Specification Comparison (source: Anandtech)
| ASUS Eee Pad Transformer | ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime | Apple iPad 2 | Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 | |
| Dimensions | 271mm x 175mm x 12.95mm | 263 x 180.8 x 8.3mm | 241.2 x 185.7 x 8.8mm | 256.6 x 172.9 x 8.6mm |
| Display | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 Super IPS+ | 9.7-inch 1024 x 768 IPS | 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 PLS |
| Weight | 675g | 586g | 601g | 565g |
| Processor | 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 (2 x Cortex A9) | 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 (4 x Cortex A9) | 1GHz Apple A5 (2 x Cortex A9) | 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 (2 x Cortex A9) |
| Memory | 1GB | 1GB | 512MB | 1GB |
| Storage | 16GB + microSD card | 32GB/64GB + microSD slot | 16GB | 16GB |
| Pricing | $399 | $499/$599 | $499 | $499 |
ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime – All Details and Specifications [Nov 8, 2011]
ASUS Announces the Eee Pad Transformer Prime [ASUS US press release, Nov 8, 2011]
ASUS officially announces the world’s first tablet with the NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 quad-core processor – the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime. Cooperatively working with NVIDIA® to launch the first quad-core tablet in the world, the Eee Pad Transformer Prime features the innovative ASUS exclusive mobile dock, presenting a harmony of beauty and strength. ASUS CEO Jerry Shen says, “The combination between the Eee Pad Transformer Prime and Tegra 3 is the perfect fusion to deliver an uncompromising tablet experience. Together, we bring a whole new mobile computing experience to consumers around the world”. Echoing that sentiment, NVIDIA’s President and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang states, “The Eee Pad Transformer Prime is a category-defining product. Powered by Tegra 3, it brings us into a new era of mobile computing, in which quad-core performance and super energy-efficiency provide capabilities never available before. With Transformer Prime, ASUS has once again led the industry into the next generation.”
The Eee Pad Transformer Prime is ultra-thin at 8.3mm (0.33”) and lightweight at 586g (1.29lbs) while featuring a stylish metallic swirl design with class leading enhancements including ASUS SonicMaster audio technology, an HD 8MP rear auto-focus camera with LED flash and battery life rated for up to 18 hours*when combined with the optional mobile dock. Pricing will range from $499** (32GB) to $599** (64GB), with the optional mobile dock accessory priced at $149**.
Incredibly Slim yet Incredibly Powerful
Featuring an ultra-slim form factor, the Transformer Prime is only 8.3mm (0.33”) thin and weighs in at a mere 586g (1.29lbs without dock). This makes watching movies, surfing the web, playing games, taking photos, finishing up homework or video chatting with friends or family so easy and natural that you’ll wonder if the Transformer Prime was designed specifically with you in mind. Its innovative metallic swirl design is made of aluminum for a secure yet extremely comfortable grip that comes in two gorgeous colors: Amethyst Gray and Champagne Gold.The Transformer Prime is the world’s first tablet to feature NVIDIA’s next-generation quad-core Tegra® 3 processor. With the quad-core CPU, 12-core GeForce® GPU and vSMP technology, the Transformer Prime delivers an optimum user experience featuring smooth multitasking capabilities, lightning fast app loading, a rich and fluid web experience, full 1080P HD video for realistic media playback or recording and of course, incredible gaming performance that allows you to experience games in an entirely new way.
Fantastic Battery Life
While the Transformer Prime is extremely slim and light, ASUS did not forget about battery life. Thanks to the advanced power management features of the Tegra® 3 processor and ASUS optimizations the Transformer Prime has a battery life of up to 12 hours*, but when combined with the mobile dock, it lasts up to an incredible 18 hours*, the longest battery life of any current tablet. That’s enough battery life for a trans-ocean flight, all-night game session, viewing several movies on a long road trip or even video recording, editing, and then playing back your child’s school play all in 1080P HD clarity.Unrivaled Visuals
The Eee Pad Transformer Prime boasts a wide 178° viewing angle IPS display, protected by Corning® Gorilla® Glass, which features new ASUS technology to enhance the brightness of the screen for a better outdoor reading experience.
[The display’s normal brightness tops out at ~500 nits, but the Prime offers an alternate ‘Super IPS’ mode that pushes display brightness up to 600 nits for use in bright outdoor environments. ]The high-resolution 10.1” display offers a remarkably vivid and brilliant viewing experience of photos, books, videos, games, and more in either landscape or portrait mode outdoors, indoors and even in low-light places like an airplane or train. Thanks to Multi-Touch technology, you can use your fingers to do everything from swiping through photos, surfing the web, playing the latest games, typing emails, instant messaging, reading books or magazines, and starting your favorite movie.
A 1.2MP front camera allows for instant photos or high-quality video conferencing with friends, family or coworkers while an 8MP rear camera with auto-focus and LED flash takes stunning photos or video thanks to a large F2.4 aperture, back illuminated CMOS sensor, touch-to-focus depth of field and low-light noise reduction to provide the clearest and sharpest photos or even 1080P HD videos.
Advanced Audio
The Transformer Prime offers impressive audio capabilities in a tablet, powered by ASUS exclusive SonicMaster technology, renowned for crisp and acoustically accurate audio. It produces crystal clear sound with a wide sound stage, increased audio fidelity, and distinct vocal enhancements for an immersive audio experience with your favorite music track, video, or movie.Unlimited Productivity
The Transformer Prime is offered with either 32GB or 64B flash storage options for quick, efficient and reliable access to your applications. Both models feature a micro SD card slot, 3.5mm combo audio jack and micro HDMI port so sharing both what’s inside and on-screen is quick and easy. However, the function that gives the Transformer Prime its namesake is the mobile dock, which gives new meaning to the term versatility. This innovative and convenient design seamlessly provides the user with a keyboard and touchpad for superior content creation capabilities, longer battery life and incredible expandability options via the USB port and SD card slot.ASUS will include several innovative applications like SuperNote that is fantastic for its ability to take, draw or record notes and Polaris® Office which is great for staying productive with the ability to read, edit or create Word, Excel and PowerPoint (MS Office 97-2007) compatible files. Thousands of top rated applications and games are also available at Android Market that fully takes advantage of the Transformer Prime’s amazing new features and power.
More information: Detailed specification [on NVIDIA site]
NVIDIA Tegra 3: Fifth Companion Core [NVIDIA, Nov 2, 2011]
Variable SMP – A Multi-Core CPU Architecture for Low Power and High Performance [NVIDIA whitepaper, Sept 20, 2011]
…
Variable Symmetric MultiprocessingNVIDIA’s Project Kal-El is the world’s first mobile SoC device to implement a patented Variable Symmetric Multiprocessing (vSMP) technology that not only minimizes active standby state power consumption, but also delivers on-demand maximum quad core performance. In addition to four main Cortex A9 high-performance CPU cores, Kal-El has a fifth low power, low leakage Cortex A9 CPU core called the ‘Companion’ CPU core that is optimized to minimize active standby state power consumption, and handle less demanding processing tasks.
Project Kal-El also includes other patented vSMP technologies that intelligently manage workload distribution between the main cores and the Companion core based on application and operating system requirements. This management is handled by NVIDIA’s Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling (DVFS) and CPU Hot-Plug management software and does not require any other special modifications to the operating system
Low Power Companion Core
The Companion core is designed on a low power process technology, but has an identical internal architecture as the main Cortex A9 CPU cores. Since it is built on a low power process in the low performance ranges (and frequencies), it consumes lower power than the main CPU cores that are built on a fast process technology. Power-performance measurements on Kal-El show that the Companion core delivers higher performance per watt than the main cores at operating frequencies below 500 MHz, and therefore the maximum operating frequency of the Companion core is capped at 500MHz. Table 1 compares and contrasts the Companion core to the four main cores on Kal-El.
Power optimized Companion CPU Core Performance optimized main CPU Cores Architecture Cortex A9 Cortex A9 Process Technology Low Power (LP) General/Fast (G). Operating Frequency Range 0 MHz to 500 MHz 0 MHz to Max GHz Table 1 Companion and Main CPU Core features
The Companion core is used primarily when the mobile device is in active standby and performing background tasks such as Email syncs, Twitter updates, Facebook updates etc. It is also used for applications that do not require significant CPU processing power, such as streaming audio, offline audio, and both online or offline video playback. Note that both audio and video playback, in addition to video encoding, are largely processed by hardware-based encoders and decoders.
Unlike the Companion core, the main CPU cores need to operate at very high frequencies to deliver high performance. Therefore they are built on a fast process technology which allows them to scale up to very high operating frequencies at lower operating voltage ranges. Thus the main cores are able to deliver high performance without significant increases in dynamic power consumption.
Figure 3 Low Power Companion CPU on Kal-El
Using the combination of performance-optimized main cores and a power-optimized Companion core, Variable Symmetric Multiprocessing technology not only delivers ultra-low power consumption in active standby states, but also on-demand peak quad core performance for performance hungry mobile applications such as gaming, Web browsing, Flash media, and video conferencing.
vSMP technology successfully combines the power-performance benefits of the power-optimized CPU B and performance-optimized CPU A shown in Figure 2 and delivers a power-performance curve that looks like the one shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 Power-Performance curve of Companion core
plus quad main cores running on vSMP technology…
Figure 5 CPU core management based on workload
…
The Variable SMP architecture is also completely OS transparent, which means that operating systems and applications don’t need to be redesigned to take advantage of the fifth core.
More information: The Benefits of Quad Core CPUs in Mobile Devices [NVIDIA whitepaper, Sept 20, 2011] discusses the benefits of quad-core across different types of use cases – web, games, apps, multitasking and more. They also highlight examples of how quad-core Kal-El uses less power than dual-core processors across all performance points.
With 1 core active, the max clock is 1.4GHz (up from 1.0GHz in the original Tegra 2 SoC). With more than one core active however the max clock is 1.3GHz. Each core can be power gated in Tegra 3, which wasn’t the case in Tegra 2. This should allow for lightly threaded workloads to execute on Tegra 3 in the same power envelope as Tegra 2. It’s only in those applications that fully utilize more than two cores that you’ll see Tegra 3 drawing more power than its predecessor.
NVIDIA Tegra 3: Side by Side Comparisons [NVIDIA, Nov 2, 2011]
NVIDIA Quad-Core Tegra 3 Chip Sets New Standards of Mobile Computing Performance, Energy Efficiency [NVIDIA press release, Nov 8, 2011]
NVIDIA today ushered in the era of quad-core mobile computing with the introduction of the NVIDIA® Tegra® 3 processor, bringing PC-class performance levels, better battery life and improved mobile experiences to tablets and phones. The world’s first quad-core tablet with the Tegra 3 processor is the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer Prime.
Known previously by the codename “Project Kal-El,” the Tegra 3 processor provides up to 3x the graphics performance of Tegra 2, and up to 61 percent lower power consumption. This translates into an industry-leading 12 hours of battery life for HD video playback.
The Tegra 3 processor implements a new, patent-pending technology known as Variable Symmetric Multiprocessing(vSMP). vSMP includes a fifth CPU “companion,” specifically designed for work requiring little power. The four main cores are specifically designed for work requiring high performance, and generally consume less power than dual-core processors.
During tasks that require less power consumption — like listening to music, playing back video or updating background data — the Tegra 3 processor completely shuts down its four performance-tuned cores and, instead, uses its companion core. For high-performance tasks — like web browsing, multitasking and gaming — the Tegra 3 processor disables the companion.
“NVIDIA’s fifth core is ingenious,” said Nathan Brookwood, Research Fellow at Insight 64. “Tegra 3’s vSMP technology extends the battery life of next-generation mobile devices by using less power when they’re handling undemanding tasks and then ratcheting up performance when it’s really needed.”
The Tegra 3 quad-core CPUs are complemented with a new 12-core NVIDIA GeForce® GPU, which delivers more realism with dynamic lighting, physical effects and high resolution environments, plus support for 3D stereo, giving developers the means to bring the next generation of mobile gamesto life.
For the millions who play games on mobile devices, the Tegra 3 processor provides an experience comparable to that of a game console. It offers full game-controller support, enabling consumers to play games on their tablet or super phone, or connect to big screen HDTVs for a truly immersive experience. It also leverages NVIDIA’s award-winning 3D Vision technology and automatically converts OpenGLapplications to stereo 3D, so consumers can experience 3D on a big screen 3D TV (via HDMI™ 1.4 technology).
The Tegra 3 processor provides the industry’s….
- Fastest web experience – with accelerated Adobe Flash Player 11, HTML5 and WebGL browsing, and an optimized Javascript engine
- Fastest applications – with blazing performance for multimedia apps, such as photo and video editing
- Fastest multitasking – for switching between common uses, such as playing music and games, and background tasks
- Fastest, highest-quality gaming [not true, eg. the Apple iPhone 4S is powered by PowerVR SGX 543MP2 GPU which more performance, see the below table from Anandtech] – including new Tegra 3 processor-optimized NVIDIA Tegra Zone™ app games such as Shadowgun, Riptide GP, Sprinkle, Big Top THD, Bladeslinger, DaVinci THD and Chidori.
Highlights / Key Facts:
- The Tegra 3 processor redefines power consumption and mobile-computing performance with:
- The world’s first quad-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU
- New patent-pending vSMP technology, including a fifth CPU core that runs at a lower frequency and operates at exceptionally low power
- 12-core GeForce GPU, with 3x the graphics performance of the Tegra 2 processor, including support for stereoscopic 3D
- New video engines with support for 1080p high profile video at 40 Mbps
- Up to 3x higher memory bandwidth
- Up to 2x faster Image Signal Processor
- 40 games are expected to be available by the end of 2011, and over 15 Tegra 3 games are under development for Tegra Zone, NVIDIA’s free Android Market app that showcases the best games optimized for the Tegra processor.
- The Tegra 3 processor is in production. Developers can order the Tegra 3 Developer Kit to create applications for devices with Tegra such as tablets and super phones, at developer.nvidia.com/tegra.
Mobile SoC GPU Comparison (source: Anandtech)
Adreno 225 |
PowerVR SGX 540 |
PowerVR SGX 543 |
PowerVR SGX 543MP2 |
Mali-400 MP4 |
GeForce ULP |
Kal-El GeForce |
|
SIMD Name |
– |
USSE |
USSE2 |
USSE2 |
Core |
Core |
Core |
# of SIMDs |
8 |
4 |
4 |
8 |
4 + 1 |
8 |
12 |
MADs per SIMD |
4 |
2 |
4 |
4 |
4 / 2 |
1 |
1 |
Total MADs |
32 |
8 |
16 |
32 |
18 |
8 |
12 |
GFLOPS @ 200MHz |
12.8 GFLOPS |
3.2 GFLOPS |
6.4 GFLOPS |
12.8 GFLOPS |
7.2 GFLOPS |
3.2 GFLOPS |
4.8 GFLOPS |
GFLOPS @ 300MHz |
19.2 GFLOPS |
4.8 GFLOPS |
9.6 GFLOPS |
19.2 GFLOPS |
10.8 GFLOPS |
4.8 GFLOPS |
7.2 GFLOPS |
NVIDIA wouldn’t confirm the target clock for Tegra 3’s GPU other than to say it was higher than Tegra 2’s 300MHz. Peak floating point throughput per core is unchanged (one MAD per clock), but each core should be more efficient thanks to larger caches in the design.
A combination of these improvements as well as newer drivers are what give Tegra 3’s GPU its 2x – 3x performance advantage over Tegra 2 despite only a 50% increase in overall execution resources. In pixel shader bound scenarios, there’s an effective doubling of execution horsepower so the 2x gains are more believable there. I don’t expect many games will be vertex processing bound so the lack of significant improvement there shouldn’t be a big issue for Tegra 3.
Samsung push for bada in 2012 and other Linux based devices–with Tizen UPDATE: 1st Tizen devices in 2013
‘bada’ = the Korean word for ‘ocean.’
It is a Linux based proprietary operating system by Samsung which is otherwise rooted in MOCHA (Modular & Configurable Handset S/W Architecture), later evolved into SHP (Samsung Handset Platform) on which the bada OS has been running since 2010 as the smartphone enhancement of the SHP.
Samsung also started a longer term pure Linux based mobile platform development effort in 2007 with the LiMO Foundation (XO v1.0) which has evolved into Samsung Linux Platform (SLP) the v2.0 version of which became LiMo Release 2 and as such the platform for Vodafone 360 smartphones in late 2009.
As the Android tide has killed the Vodafone 360 and similar carrier initiated smartphone platforms Samsung made an alliance with Intel in which SLP and MeeGo will form the basis of a new open source, Linux based device platform, called Tizen, targeted for HTML5/WAC applications. See the Tizen article on Wikipedia for independent and community based description continuously updated, as well as the Tizen project site (tizen.org) site and the related Tizen Association site from the industry consortium dedicated to providing in-market support and actively shaping the industry presence of Tizen.
The latest state of the Tizen effort has been described in:
Update: Tizen 2.0 Magnolia SDK and Source Code Release [Tizen project, Feb 18, 2013] (see also the Tizen 2.0 Release Notes)
We are pleased to announce that Tizen 2.0 source code and SDK are now available at https://developer.tizen.org/downloads/sdk. Tizen 2.0 represents a major milestone for software developers and device vendors. We encourage you to download the new SDK, and let us know what you think of it after you have installed and used it. If you have questions, or need to submit bugs, please visit our community page.
This release includes many new features and improvements over Tizen 1.0 released in April, and Tizen 2.0 alpha in September, 2012. As a Tizen 2.0 developer, you will find strong HTML5/W3C APIs and a new native framework.
Highlights of this release include:
- Enhanced Web framework that provides state-of-the-art HTML5/W3C API support
- Web UI framework, including full-screen and multi-window support
- Additional Tizen device APIs, such as Bluetooth and NFC support, and access to the device’s calendar, call history, and messaging subsystems
- Web Runtime framework supporting new configuration elements for specifying the required features and privileges, and providing the basic runtime environment for NPRuntime plugins
- Native framework supporting full-featured application development and providing a variety of features such as background applications, IP Push, and TTS (Text-To-Speech)
- Core and native reference applications including Calendar, Contacts, Gallery, Phone, Settings, and Video Player
- Enhanced Web IDE providing WYSIWYG design environment, Chrome-based JavaScript inspector, and JavaScript log viewer
- Native IDE providing a project wizard, WYSIWYG design environment, unit test tool, and dynamic analyzer
Go to https://source.tizen.org/release for more information on the release. If you are interested in building Tizen for your own devices, documentation on development and tools is found here: https://source.tizen.org/os-development.
We strongly encourage developers to attend the Tizen Developer Conference, to be held in May 2013 in San Francisco. The conference will cover a variety of Tizen-related topics, including presentations on both application and platform development. The call for papers and the registration for this conference are now open, seehttps://www.tizen.org/events/tizen-developer-conference/2013.
The Tizen Technical Steering Group
Update: Samsung reveals lessons learnt from early Tizen work [Mobile World Live, Oct 3, 2012]
LIVE FROM APPS WORLD [*], LONDON: The evolution of the mobile OS Tizen has taught its development team a number of lessons ahead of the first handset launch next year, according to Samsung’s lead evangelist for Tizen, Cheng Luo [**].
[*Discover the future of multiplatform apps]
[**audio record: Tizen: Yet another open source project or a different one?
abstract: This presentation will answer the question whether Tizen is just another open source project like Maemo and Moblin or it has its unique and different approach to developers and the market. It will focus on the USP [Unique Selling Proposition] of the Tizen platform from different aspects.]Discussing the development of the Linux-based platform for smartphones, which marries the former MeeGo efforts of Intel and Nokia with the work of the LiMo Foundation and is backed by Samsung (among other industry heavyweights), Luo said that the need for all participants to use open standards such as HTML5 when developing the OS has become apparent.
However, he added that HTML5 has been overhyped; despite a lot of “cool stuff”, it is limited by its frame rate. Luo added that the technology should not be used to compete with native apps but more to “fill in the gaps” in functionality.
In terms of licensing and governance, the best long-term strategy has been found to be “transparent governance”, according to Luo.
Luo also stressed the importance of industry support for Tizen to succeed. “To make open source projects move ahead we need strong leaders. You can’t build a healthy ecosystem without industry leaders,” he said. As well as Samsung, Tizen is backed by the likes of Docomo, Intel, NEC, Panasonic, Orange, SK Telecom, Sprint and Vodafone.
The alpha version of the Tizen 2.0 SDK was recently launched, including an improved integrated development environment, user interface framework and a greater number of device APIs. The first Tizen-powered device is due to be released next year, Luo confirmed.
as well as in Tizen 2.0 Alpha SDK and Source Code release [Tizen blog, Sept 25, 2012]:
…
Tizen 2.0 alpha has additional features, tools, and other improvements, including:
- Enhanced Web framework that provides better HTML5/W3C API support and more Tizen Device APIs
- Multi-process Webkit2-based Web Runtime which provides better security and reliability for Web applications
- Advanced HTML5 features such as video subtitles and captions, battery status API, screen orientation API, <keygen> and <details>, and more
- New Tizen Device APIs for file transfer, notifications, and power control
- Advanced IDE & SDK for Web application development
- Install manager support for snapshot-based network installation
- Enhanced support for OpenGL ES
- New Platform SDK that helps platform development based on OBS [Open Build Service]
More information on the release can be found here: https://source.tizen.org/release
…
Documentation on development and tools can be found here: https://source.tizen.org/os-development
As it stands now the Qt technologies in Meego will not be included into Tizen although number of parties are heavily agitating The Linux Foundation for Qt inclusion as well.
Update as of August 10, 2012: After acquiring the Qt commercial licensing business in March 2011 from Nokia, the Helsinki based, ~1000 people strong Digia, with 2011 sales of 121.9 million Euro, yesterday acquired all the rest of the Qt business from Nokia. More details in the Digia extends Its commitment to Qt with plans to acquire full Qt software technology and business From Nokia [Digia’s Qt Commercial Blog, Aug 9, 2012] and Digia Committed to Thriving Qt Ecosystem [KDE.NEWS, Aug 9, 2012] posts from Digia’s R&D director Tuuka Turunen. With this all pre-Windows Phone software platform commitments except the Java based S40 (evolved in the new Asha range) have strategically been revoked by Nokia.
Other updates:
– It’s a Wrap! Tizen Developer Conference Overview [Tizen blog, May 25, 2012]
– Tizen Developer Conference 2012: Converting your web app to Tizen [TheLinuxFoundation YouTube channel, May 16, 2012]
– The slides of the Cheng Lou’s presentation on the conference
– Opening Keynote – Jim Zemlin [TheLinuxFoundation YouTube channel, May 15, 2012]
– Other Keynotes: Imad Sousou & Jong-Deok Choi; Dr. Kiyohito Nagata; James Pearce [TheLinuxFoundation YouTube channel, May 15, 2012]
– Tizen Developer Conference Agenda and Tizen videos on linux.com
– Tizen Developer Conference [Tizen site, March 29, 2012]: “… engages and educates developers on Tizen technology and HTML5 app development for Tizen devices … at the downtown Hyatt in San Francisco, CA on May 7-9th, 2012 … Platina Sponsor OpenMobile …“
– Framingham company breaks the apps barrier [The MetroWest Daily News, Jan 23, 2012]: “… OpenMobile has developed the only compatibility layer that actually takes the Android run time and makes it portable to non-Android devices. This is not a virtualization; OpenMobile’s ACL leverages the actual Android virtual machine and makes it run transparently in the native environment. This is a much deeper and pure engineering integration that provides seamless integration, allows every app to appear as though it was created for the target operating system you are running and provides exactly the same performance as though it were running on a similar Android platform. …“
– With OpenMobile ACL for Tizen there is even much more chance for Android Device Makers Are Mutinying, Says Insider [Technology Review by MIT, April 4, 2012]: “… Nobody wants to just be a manufacturer for Google. You see that with what Amazon has done, where they made it their own, and you also see a whole host of manufacturers taking Android down their own path. …“
– Tizen Developer Conference Agenda [Tizen blog, April 10, 2012]
– 4Q FY2011 Earnings Conference Call [Samsung presentation, Jan 27, 2012]
…
…
…
– Tizen releases source code and SDK previews [Jan 18, 2012]
The nascent Tizen project unveiled its first set of materials on January 9, consisting of “preview” releases of the operating system source code and SDK, both intended to elicit feedback from developers. The announcement was accompanied by the launch of two new mailing lists and online documentation of the project’s architecture and APIs.
…
[Overview of sources, Web APIs and the SDK]
…
A related development on the project management front was the sudden disappearance of the LiMo Foundation web site, which was replaced by the Tizen Association on or about January 1. The Tizen Association is essentially a re-branding of the LiMo Foundation, and, as yet, Intel itself has not finalized its membership. The Association’s site describes its goal as enabling “key stakeholders to actively shape the industry role of Tizen and develop its market presence” by the “gathering of requirements, identification and facilitation of service models, and overall industry marketing and education.” The project itself will continue to be hosted by the Linux Foundation.The specifics of Tizen’s project governance have not been fleshed out, but those are probably details that should come after the code itself has been released and developers have had a chance to work with it. In retrospect, the MeeGo project was very organization-heavy (as it was marketing-heavy), and in the end that did not help it make an impact in the marketplace. Tizen may still be a long way from shipping on commercial devices, but starting with the code rather than the other trappings of a large distributed project is a good first step.
Tizen Association Launched to Drive Industry Engagement for Tizen™ [Tizen Association news release, Jan 9, 2012]
WHAT:
Further to the announcement of 27 September 2011 from LiMo Foundation and Linux Foundation, Tizen Association has now been formed to drive industry engagement and in-market support for the Tizen software platform.Tizen Association comprises mobile industry leaders (see company list below) serving as a Board to guide Tizen and its application ecosystem to fulfill the broad industry requirement for a software platform that enables flexibility in service selection and deployment.
Tizen (www.tizen.org) is a Linux-based open source, standards-based, cross-architecture device software platform, including an operating system, HTML5 application framework and customizable user experience. Tizen will span multiple device categories including smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks and in-vehicle infotainment systems.
The industry- and market-facing role of LiMo Foundation has now been incorporated into Tizen Association, while the engineering of the Tizen software platform is taking place within the Tizen open source project hosted by Linux Foundation.
The alpha version of Tizen was released today as open source through the Tizen.org project page.
WHEN:
Tizen Association was formed on 1 January 2012. The alpha release of Tizen was made available on 9 January 2012.
WHERE:
For more information on Tizen Association visit www.tizenassociation.org. To participate in or learn more about the Tizen Project visit http://www.tizen.org.
WHO:
Tizen Association is led by a Board of Directors which guides the industry role of Tizen, including gathering of requirements, identification and facilitation of service models, and industry marketing and education. The Tizen Association Board of Directors includes representation from:
- Intel
- NEC Casio
- NTT DOCOMO
- Panasonic
- Samsung
- SK Telecom
- Telefonica
- Vodafone
CONTACT:
Vivian Kelly for Tizen Association ( viviankelly@interprosepr.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ).
# # #
LiMo is a trademark of the LiMo Foundation. The Linux Foundation and Tizen are trademarks of The Linux Foundation. Linux is a trademark of Linus Torvalds.
Developers (page on Tizen Association site):
Tizen will provide a robust and flexible environment for application developers, based on HTML5 and Wholesale Applications Community (WAC). With broad capabilities and cross platform flexibility, HTML5 is rapidly becoming a preferred development environment for mobile apps and services. The Tizen platform supports Web applications (HTML, Javascript, CSS) and provides a rich set of services that include the application framework, along with content, location, messaging, multimedia, network, social, and system services.
Tools will be made available to help developers use HTML5 and related web technologies to write applications that run across multiple device segments and software platforms. These applications can then be distributed via the Tizen app-store, which offers a flexible and customizable storefront and a common Tizen application catalog to service providers and OEMs . In addition, developers can take advantage of broad distribution of their apps on a wide range of devices coming to market that will support the standards based HTML5 and WAC application framework.
More details on how developers can create, distribute and monetize Tizen applications will be available soon.
End of updates
Tizen has much wider scope than Bada. It will support multiple device categories, such as smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks, and in-vehicle infotainment devices. It is still unclear how Samsung intends to use Tizen for smartphones. One possibility, nevertheless, is to enhance a future bada version with Tizen. Meantime Samsung is starting to put heavy emphasis on bada-based smartphones, with 2012 target of a 17% device share in its offerings.
Considering that in the Q3 2011 Samsung surpassed Apple and took the #1 position on the smartphone market this could bring a very significant change to the current ecosystem wars.
Below you can find all the detailed and relevant information for the above, i.e. the overall situation, bada related information, other Linux activities from Samsung, and Tizen.
The Overall Situation
Samsung’s Won-Pyo Hong on the Mobile Phone Wars: The Full AsiaD Interview (Video) [Nov 11, 2011]
Samsung Bada 2.0 demo on the Wave 3 [Nov 3, 2011]
Samsung wants Bada on 17 per cent of its devices [Nov 4, 2011]
Keith O’ Brien, head of content at Samsung mobile … said, “Next year we expect there to be some changes. 2011 has been about Android and next year, Android will have 66 per cent of Samsung device share and Bada and Windows will have 17 per cent each.”
O’Brien said that Samsung’s strategy is to go for as wide a reach as possible, adding, “Each [OS] gives you a choice. Bada is perfect as it is created in tandem and Bada for us represents a strategy we have always had.”
He admitted, though, “It’s been an Android year and Android has dominated sales.” O’Brien added, “Next year, the market will increase significantly and the size of the smartphone market will increase, with all three platforms growing at the same time.”
…
O’Brien hinted that Samsung is also working on further integrating all of its electronics devices through content, with Bada seen as the perfect OS as it belongs to the electronics firm.
Samsung Takes Top Spot as Smartphone Market Grows 42.6% in the Third Quarter, According to IDC [IDC press release, Nov 3, 2011]
Samsung became the new leader in the worldwide smartphone market, with total smartphone shipments topping the 20 million unit mark for the first time in the company’s history. As in previous quarters, its Android-powered smartphones drove volumes higher, and joining the product mix was Samsung’s refreshed Galaxy S II. In addition, its bada-powered smartphones continued to gain salience in the market, and a new Windows Phone smartphone is expected to launch in 4Q11.
Apple, after taking the number one spot last quarter from Nokia, slipped to the number two spot worldwide. But even after relying on the iPhone 4 for five quarters and the iPhone 3G S for nine, demand for the iPhone remained strong enough for Apple to realize double-digit growth year over year. Now that Apple has launched its iPhone 4S and re-priced its older models in multiple countries, Apple stands poised to challenge Samsung for the leadership position.
Nokia maintained its third place position on the strength of its Symbian phones. Its most popular smartphones included older models, including the 5230, C5, and the C7. In addition, Nokia launched four models based on its newly enhanced Symbian Belle OS, including the Nokia 600, 603, 700, and 701 as well as its first MeeGo-powered smartphone, the N9. While these new models kept Nokia’s selection fresh, the N9 is expected to see limited availability and the Nokia 600 has been cancelled.
HTC moved up one spot and maintained its upward momentum during 3Q11. During the quarter, HTC acquired several companies to complement its devices, including Dashwire for cloud-based sync, Zoodles for kid-oriented applications, and a stake in audio company Beats. At the same time, HTC launched several devices for specific segments, including the multimedia-optimized Sensation, female oriented Rhyme, and the entry-level Explorer. HTC expects to ship similar volumes in 4Q11.
Research In Motion began shipping its new BB OS 7 smartphones to the market during 3Q11, including updated versions of the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Curve, and the BlackBerry Torch. But, as in previous quarters, the company’s volumes were primarily comprised of older and less expensive models, leading to the company’s first quarter of year-on-year decline and landing in the number 5 position worldwide. Still, this was enough for Research In Motion to maintain a presence among the top five vendors worldwide, with a sizable margin ahead of the remaining vendors.
|
Vendor |
3Q11 Unit Shipments |
3Q11 Market Share |
3Q10 Unit Shipments |
3Q10 Market Share |
Year-over- |
|
Samsung |
23.6 |
20.0% |
7.3 |
8.8% |
223.3% |
|
Apple |
17.1 |
14.5% |
14.1 |
17.0% |
21.3% |
|
Nokia |
16.8 |
14.2% |
26.5 |
32.0% |
-36.6% |
|
HTC |
12.7 |
10.8% |
5.9 |
7.1% |
115.3% |
|
Research |
11.8 |
10.0% |
12.4 |
15.0% |
-4.8% |
|
Others |
36.1 |
30.6% |
16.6 |
20.0% |
117.5% |
|
Total |
118.1 |
100.0% |
82.8 |
100.0% |
42.6 |
Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, November 3, 2011
Samsung Electronics Announces Third Quarter 2011 Results [Samsung press release, Oct 28, 2011]
Highlighting the quarterly performance, the Telecommunications businesses recorded all-time high quarterly sales of 14.90 trillion won [US$13.4B], up 37 percent from the previous year, with growth mainly driven by strong sales of Samsung’s GALAXY smartphones. Operating profit for the businesses also hit a record 2.52 trillion won [US$2.3B].
…
“Despite the difficult business environment due to the economic slowdown in developed markets, Samsung achieved a solid performance and recovered its double-digit operating profit margin in the quarter, driven by strong sales of our smartphones,” said Robert Yi, Vice President and Head of Investor Relations.
…
Record Profit Driven By Smartphone Sales Growth
The Telecommunications businesses – including mobile communications and telecommunication systems – posted a record operating profit of 2.52 trillion won on revenue of 14.90 trillion won. This represents an operating profit margin of 16.9 percent for the quarter.
Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business saw revenues rise 39 percent year-on-year to 14.42 trillion won [US$13B]. Handset shipments rose more than 20 percent quarter-on-quarter, driven by growth in the smartphone segment where sales were up more than 40 percent on-quarter and 300 percent year-on-year. Samsung continued the global rollout of its flagship GALAXY SII, which has now sold more than 10 million units in the five months since its introduction.
Despite enhanced price competition, the average sales price of Samsung’s handsets increased on-quarter, while sales volume for the GALAXY Tab portfolio of tablets increased with the expansion of the 8.9- and 10.1-inch devices into the lineup.
Samsung expects strong seasonal demand to drive sales of its diverse portfolio of smartphones in the fourth quarter assisted by the launch of new premium devices, including GALAXY Nexus which features the latest Android 4.0 operating system for the first time in a smartphone, and the 5.3-inch GALAXY Note which is opening a new mobile device category. Strong demand in developed countries will sustain tablet growth in the quarter.
For the Telecommunications Systems Business, sales and profitability improved year-on-year due to the expansion of its 4G Long-term Evolution (LTE) business and 3G network upgrade business. Samsung expects strong network sales growth with expansion of LTE business in North America and Asia as well as 3G network upgrade business globally.
Q3 2011 Earnings Release presentation [Samsung, Oct 28, 2011]
My comments:
– The Telecom segment has become the #1 profit center of Samsung in a year by increasing its contribution from 24% in 3Q ’10 to 59% in 3Q ’11. The profit margin has grown from 10.7% to 16.9% at the same time. The revenue contribution from 27% to 36%. This is only because of the Mobile Communications Business subsegment since the rest of the Telecom segment essentialy experienced no growth, having a revenue of 0.46 Trillion Won [US$414M] in 3Q ’10 and 0.48 Trillion Won [US$432M] in 3Q ’11, which constituted only 4.2% and 3.2% of the whole Telecom revenue subsequently.
– This is a quite remarkable change for Samsung since the profit margin of the previous #1 profit center, the Semiconductor segment, has decreased from 32.1% to 16.8% at the same time, and its revenue contribution from 26.5% to 23%.
– Even more important is that — according to the Q&A part of the earnings call webcast — the absolute amount of revenue growth and the contribution to the cash flow are more important in longer term for the Mobile subsegment than either keeping the currently achieved profit margin or buying market share agressively by joining the price competition.
– In fact for 4Q they intend to maintain profitability by introducing new premium products in the high-end (Galaxy Nexus and the new category, Galaxy Notes) as well as new ones to the mass-market (Galaxy Y for moving into the mid low-end and Galaxy Y Pro).
– Please note that on the corresponding presentation slide showing their 4Q flagship products (see the excerpt above) there is also a Windows Phone-based model as a premium offering and a bada based new model as a mass-market offering. This is a clear indication that they intend to work on lower end of the market with their own platform.
– See also: TI’s OMAP4460 in Samsung GALAXY Nexus with Android 4.0 [Oct 21, 2011]
– Samsung celebrates 30 million global sales of GALAXY S and GALAXY SII [Samsung press release, Oct 17, 2011]
GALAXY SII has set a new record for Samsung, generating more than 10 million sales – quicker than any device in Samsung’s history. … Launched in 2010, Samsung GALAXY S reached almost 20 million unit sales, making it the highest-selling mobile device in Samsung’s portfolio to date, and another record-breaker for the company and the mobile market.
– GALAXY Note hits European markets [Samsung press release, Oct 21, 2011]:
GALAXY Note features the world’s first and largest 5.3” HD Super AMOLED display. This is an expansive high-resolution smart screen that provides an immersive and best in class viewing experience while ensuring smartphone portability and on the go usability. Additionally, an advanced pen-input technology, called the S Pen, combines with GALAXY Note’s full touch screen to introduce a unique user experience. Taking full advantage of the large display, GALAXY Note users will be able to multi-task, create and consume more, with fewer interruptions, while on the go.
The incorporated digital S Pen can be used for accurate sketching and artwork, while superior handwriting recognition allows ideas to be freely captured and shared with other devices without the need to perform any additional digitization; handwritten text is accurately converted into digital characters.
“GALAXY Note is a revolutionary product to open a new category in the mobile industry and I am very proud of this accomplishment,” said JK Shin, President and Head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business. “Samsung GALAXY Note will redefine and enhance mobile communication by offering a more advanced, productive and creative user experience with its new innovative features such as S Memo, S Planner and S Choice.”
– Other information from the earnings call webcast:
- Regarding 3Q 2011 performance:
– Success of the high-end flagship Galaxy SII: 10 million units in the first 5 months, as well as the strong Galaxy brand: mass-market smartphones Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Mini.
– Units 20% YoY, smartphone sales (revenue): 40% QoQ, ~300% YoY - Regarding technology support from the other segments for the future:
– Flexible display: 2012, first in handsets
– Securing baseband technology for the AP business: currently looking for any possible solution — from inside or outside of Samsung — with regard to baseband technology
Samsung Y Smartphone – For the Young and the Restless [product page on Reliance Digital site in India, Oct 17, 2011, excerpted on Dec 29, 2011]
…
So make a SMART CHOICE – Buy the Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 Smartphone from any Reliance Digital Store… And we will make a SMART OFFER – 10% cash back on purchase! or 6 months easy finance on credit card at 0% interest and no processing fee!!
MRP : 7830
Offer Price : 7,399 (Gujarat, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu)Offer Price : 7,249 (Rest of India) [ US$137 ]
Quick Specs:
Specs Value Dimension 104 x 58 x 11.5 mm (97.5 gms) Display 3.0″ QVGA TFT (320 x 240) Camera 2.0 Megapixel FF cameras – Panorama Shot, Smile Shot Mobile Apps Samsung Apps / Android Market – Various applications downloadable Social Hub Integrates all SNS, email, and calendar accounts – Integrated Calendar (Google/Outlook) TouchWiz for Android Multiple Home screen, Hybrid Widgets Bluetooth BT 3.0 HS USB USB 2.0 FM FM Radio + RDS Music Music Player with SoundAlive – 3.5 mm Ear Jack – MP3/ AMR-NB/ AMR-WB/ AAC/ AAC+/ e-AAC+/ i-Melody/Midi (SMF)/ WAV/ OGG Video Video Playing (VGA@30fps), Video Recording (QVGA @ 15fps), Codec ( H.263, H.264, MPEG4), Format(3GPP, MPEG4, MKV) Operating system Samsung Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) Processor 832 MHz (BCM21552) [Broadcom] Memory 180 MB + MicroSD 2 GB inbox (Up to 32 GB) Battery Standard li-on (1,200 mAh), Standby time – 400 hrs (2G), 350 hrs (3G), Talk time – 560 mins.(2G), 300 mins. (3G) Network HSDPA 7.2 900/2100 – EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 Sensor Accelerometer Sensor, Proximity Sensor, Digital Compass Integrated email Gmail, MS Exchange ActiveSync Additional Features SWYPE, Document Viewer, Multi Touch zoom-in & out
(Yonhap Interview) Samsung bullish on smartphones, tablets [July 18, 2011]
Samsung Electronics Co. is expected to outdo its smartphone sales target this year, with the popularity of its latest Android devices and upcoming bada phones, which run on its own mobile software, and a ramp-up in low-cost smartphones, … said Shin Jong-kyun, president of Samsung’s mobile communications and digital imaging.
“We will likely sell more than 60 million smartphones this year,” Shin said in an interview with Yonhap News Agency in his office in Suwon. “The Galaxy S2 has been well-received not only in Korea, but also in Japan, Europe and other regions, and responses to other smartphones have been positive as well.”
In February, Shin estimated Samsung’s annual mobile handset sales will hit a record high of 300 million this year, including 60 million smartphones. The company, which is only behind Nokia Corp. in terms of mobile phone shipments, sold 280 million cell phones in 2010, including 25 million smartphones.
“For the first time, Samsung’s cell phone sales will top 300 million this year. It is a very meaningful and important event,” he said. “To meet the goal, Samsung should manufacture and sell 1 million phones on a daily average and secure components for 1 million handsets every day, which isn’t an easy task.”
Part of its strategies is to boost its smartphone lineup outside Google Inc.’s Android system, including handsets running on its own proprietary mobile software, bada, and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows-based phones, Shin said. Samsung will release more “noteworthy” bada smartphones during the rest of the year, with some of them to be featured during a September trade show in Berlin.
It will also raise the production of low-cost smartphones as mid-range smartphones are replacing low-end cell phones that cannot surf the Web or download applications. Shin forecast that mass-market smartphones will become available for as low as US$150 and Samsung will try to advance into that price bracket before December.
Under Shin’s leadership, the electronics giant nimbly transformed from a smartphone laggard into a leading player in the highly profitable, fastest-growing segment of the wireless market in a mere year.
…
On the software front, Samsung plans to break into the cloud computing system, following Google, Amazon and Apple, Shin said.
“We have plans. We will respond,” he said without elaboration.
bada related information
Samsung opens Bada 2.0 to developers [Nov 4, 2011]
At a Samsung developer day yesterday, the phone maker announced that Bada 2.0 is now live, with a development kit and new features, and that the Wave 3 smartphone is coming to the UK “later this year”.
Samsung mobile UK MD, Simon Stanford said that Bada “will be a big focus” for the company “in 2012 and beyond”.
The firm claims to have so far seen 5,300,201 downloads of Bada in the UK with 300,000 Bada devices sold in the UK and eight million worldwide.
A Trio of new bada 2.0-powered ‘Wave’ Smartphones to Debut at Berlin [Samsung Tomorrow, Aug 30, 2011]
Samsung Electronics has announced the launch of the flagship 4” chic smartphone Wave 3, the social-powerhouse Wave M and the smart-start Wave Y. These all wave smartphones will be on display at Samsung’s Stand at IFA 2011 in Berlin.
All three devices, borne of Samsung’s heritage in innovation, are powered by Samsung’s own new Bada 2.0 platform which brings together a wide variety of new capabilities including multi-tasking, Wi-Fi Direct, voice recognition and Near Field Communication.
ChatONis Samsung’s proprietary mobile communication service that works across all major mobile devices. A global cross-platform communication service links all your friends and contacts instantly. Micro-communities can be set up through group chat, while a web client allows the sharing of content and conversations between mobile and PC.
Samsung Apps, an integrated application store for Samsung smartphones, is also available. With an improved UI and enhanced store features, Samsung Apps offers a wide variety of applications from globally well-known content to locally-customized applications.
“Smartphones are gaining popularity by the day. The new additions to the Wave portfolio are the first to benefit from the power of our bada 2.0 platform; the full extent of our commitment is clear to see in each device. We’ve produced easy-to-use smartphones that will inspire the market,”
– JK Shin, President and Mobile Communications business
bada 2.0 Interview (Justin Hong, VP with Samsung Mobile Communication) [Aug 26, 2011]
Samsung Wave [Sept 1, 2011]
The new bada 2.0 products summarized in a table view:
The Chronicles of Bada OS [Samsung Tomorrow, Oct 17, 2011]
Bada is an exclusive operating system (OS) for mobile devices developed by Samsung Electronics. Development was underway in 2010 when the smartphone wave started sweeping the worldwide mobile phone market. Since then Samsung has been gradually ramping up its mobile phone market share, selling mobile phones that are equipped with its latest OS, Bada 1.2. The main goal of Bada is not to compete with iOS or Android but to make easy-to-use and cost effective devices for everyone.
Smartphones which run Bada have proven extremely popular in Europe where consumers are more financially conservative, and the Bada-equipped phones have even ranked as the best selling smartphones in France. As far as market share is concerned, they beat Microsoft’s Windows OS smartphones.
Also, Bada offers support for running Samsung Apps with the purpose of creating its own mobile eco-system, with the total number of apps recently hitting 100 million downloads.
Launched at the same time as Galaxy S, Wave, (the first Bada-based flagship model), Wave37 and low-end Wave578 as well as Wave723 were most popular in Europe.
Bada 1.2 and the latest version, Bada 2.0, have a long history since around the year 2000. Of course, 10 years ago, the smartphone market wasn’t what it is now. Smartphones began to gain momentum only a couple of years ago whereas Bada has been around and constantly evolving over more than 10 years.
Bada OS runs on SHP (Samsung Handset Platform), which originates back to MOCHA (Modular & Configurable Handset S/W Architecture). MOCHA was developed by Samsung Electronics Software Laboratory which was looking ahead to the future growth of software segment. The laboratory aimed to develop an easily replicable platform that was able to easily multi-task.
Based on this platform, the first video-capable 3G mobile phone (SGH-Z100) was released to the European market. After its successful launch, MOCHA was replaced by SHP, a further developed version of MOCHA, which is now applied to many 3G mobile phones. Each year, about 50 to 60 million handsets with SHP are shipped out of Samsung’s 200 million annual production volumes.
SHP has claimed a very important part of Samsung Electronics Mobile Business Division for over 10 years and the platform was upgraded in 2010 to keep pace with the popularization of smartphones. The new generation contains such features as multipoint-touch, 3D graphics and an enhanced User Interface (UI) among other features. A middleware layer, called OSP (Open Service Platform), was added to the platform to be later renamed Bada, on which you could develop various applications or download apps from the Samsung app store.
Samsung enhances its own mobile platform with the launch of ‘bada 2.0’ [Samsung Tomorrow, Aug 25, 2011]
Unveiled at Mobile World Congress in February 2011, bada 2.0 includes many compelling, new features. Borne of Samsung’s heritage in innovation, bada 2.0 brings together a wide variety of new capabilities including multi-tasking, Wi-Fi Direct, Near Field Communication (NFC) and voice recognition. It enables smartphone users to experience advanced services such as mobile payment, transport pass-card recharge and file sharing without Internet networking.
With the improved support for web applications including Flash and HTML 5, users can experience enhanced web capabilities. It also means that smartphones based on bada 2.0 can run any web application developed with Flash or HTML. Samsung expects that this upgrade will help to greatly expand its developer community into Flash and JavaScript as well as the existing C++ community.
A key feature for developer partners is the introduction of In-app Ads. Using the Ads API (Application Programming Interface) developers for bada 2.0 can easily insert advertisements, creating new revenue opportunities. Samsung has also upgraded and strengthened its application development environment, providing developers with increased support. An Emulator has been added to foster a development process suitable to the target environment. Tools such as Profiler optimize the device’s performance ensuring that resources like memory and processing power are used to their fullest capacity.
Samsung has enhanced the ‘Samsung Apps’ retail store and expanded full availability through to 121 countries worldwide. With this 2.0 version, more differentiated functions will be offered from Samsung Apps, including new purchasing options and recommendations.
In the third quarter this year, three new Wave smartphones, powered by bada 2.0, will launch the market; the devices will range from premium models with enhanced performance to entry-level devices that focus on affordability. Bada 2.0 SDK can be downloaded from the bada developer site (developer.bada.com).
Other Linux activities from Samsung
Samsung Linux Platform v1.0 / v2.0 (Nov. 2008 ~ Present)
Samsung Linux Platform (SLP) is a mobile operating system based on the Linux 2.6 kernel and X.org server. Evolving from XO v1.0, SLP changed and developed several features, such as the replacement of the window system to X Window, as well as the support of EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Library) for applications. Furthermore, SLP has gradually expanded its target devices from mobile phones to TVs, cameras, MP3 players, tablets, and laptops. Not only has SLP been compatible with LiMo, but the SLP team has become LiMo foundation’s leading contributor. SLP’s design is based on the principles of the standard Linux desktop, suitably adapted for the mobile environment. SLP reuses a large number of Open Source components. Hence, its software architecture is easy to understand for anyone familiar with a standard Linux desktop. The SLP software stack has a layered architecture consisting of applications, middleware, and the Linux kernel.
Members: approximately 300 developers…
Vodafone 360 H1 / M1 – Linux-based SNS Specialized Smartphones (Jun. 2009 ~ Sep. 2009)
Based on SLP2, Vodafone 360 H1 and Vodafone 360 M1 are smartphones, the first LiMo Release 2 products that provide Vodafone’s specialized 360 online service focused on SNS. H1 is a high-end model based on TI (Texas Instruments)’s omap3430 CPU, which has the SGX340 GPU core. M1 is a lower-priced model based on SEC (Samsung Electronics)’s S3C6410 CPU. The Vodafone 360 H1 features a large 3.5-inch WVGA AMOLED display, a 5-megapixel autofocus camera with the capability to shoot 720p high-definition video, 16 GB of onboard storage, integrated GPS, plus Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking capabilities. It also supports EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 and HSDPA mobile broadband capabilities. The M1 scales back slightly, providing a 3.2-inch TFT display, 1 GB of memory (with microSD expansion), a 3-megapixel camera, and integrated GPS. The M1 lacks Wi-Fi, but still offers HSDPA. Both phones feature a unique 3D interface that enables users to have a depth-based chronological view of mail and calendar items, as well as tie into exclusive Vodafone services.
Members: over 500 developers
XO v1.0 – LiMo Compatible Linux Platform (Sep. 2007 ~ Oct. 2008)
XO is a Linux-based mobile platform that provides high level features, performance, and reliability, while supporting multiple sets of BSP, Window System, and Mobile Browser. XO is compatible with LiMo Release 1. The LiMo Platform is a modern Linux-based Operating System for mobile handsets. As a window system, XO adopted DirectFB, a thin library that provides hardware graphics acceleration, input device handling and abstraction, integrated windowing system with support for translucent windows, and multiple display layers, not only on top of the Linux Frame Buffer Device.
Members: about 120 developers
Vodafone kills 360 at last [Oct 19, 2011]
Its attempt to create its own-branded mobile web experience will be closed down by year end
Vodafone is to shut down its 360 cloud-based service by the end of the year, in another blow to carriers’ hopes of creating web offerings under their own brands to fight back against Google and Apple.
In many ways, 360 was forward looking when it was introduced in 2009. It offered storage and synchronization across multiple devices in the cloud, long before iCloud or Amazon Cloud Drive came to Android, and it unified key user experiences such as social networks around a single address book and UI. It also included a portal for accessing music and video content, a number of third party widgets, and an application store.
There were several problems though. For one, Vodafone wanted 360 to be more than just a useful service to go a step further than simpler cloud offerings like O2’s. It wanted it to be a vehicle to assert its own independence in the software platform, so it ran the initial offering on LiMO, a Linux-based OS which was the latest attempt to create a carrier-controlled mobile environment (it is now merged with MeeGo to form Tizen). As with other such attempts, developers and consumers remained largely indifferent, putting their efforts into the mass market Android and iOS, and so after a while Vodafone scaled back its ambitions and transferred key elements of 360, such as the address book, to the Google OS.
However, the LiMO plan had cost it the interest of many handset makers and developers, and by the time it reworked the offering, other cloud services had appeared. Its main smartphone partner for LiMO and 360 was Samsung, but despite a friendly user interface, the 360-branded handsets were never as heavy hitting as models such as Galaxy Sand eventually they were axed altogether, relegating 360 to a service available on a range of smartphones.
Vodafone compounded its problems by trying to use its new-found Android support to push its 360 agenda. It caused a storm of negative publicity for its service when it forcibly downloaded 360-branded apps and UIs when customers upgraded their Android release on certain HTC handsets.
All these missteps meant 360 was pushed to the back of the Vodafone armory, along with its loftier cloud ambitions, and this week it confirmed it would phase out the brand over the next few months. It sent text messages to customers advising them to copy any contact details, emails or photos currently stored in the cloud before December 31. The writing has been on the wall for this round of Vodafone’s over-the-top endeavours for a while – a year ago, its head of internet services, Pieter Knook, poached from Microsoft two years earlier, resigned.
Samsung’s Software Prowess: Big Changes are Coming! [Samsung Tomorrow, Oct 14, 2011]
Dubbed as the Next Generation Software R&D Group, Samsung’s elite crew of programmers and experts endeavor to develop software for next generation media. It’s always hard to predict the future, but this group continues to move forward, based on media-market analyses and ongoing research. We had a chance to speak with some of the folks about the development.
…
Q. What does your team do?
Lee: The team develops the right software for the next generation mediabased on our research and analysis as to what types of media will prevail in the market. Bada, Android and iOS are currently in equal positions, allowing users of these devices to download applications from their own proprietary online application stores, such as “App Store” or “Android Market”.
In contrast, web-based OS will be using a cloud-based approach rather than individual users running applications installed on their devices. With the advent of web OS, users on any browser-enabled mobile device will be able to access a whole slew of services on the web without the bothersome task of installing. It is our top priority to develop web OS-specific software accessible to everyone.
Kim: It started with a big idea of building an open web application platform allowing you to run apps online written for any devices. Just to be clear, “next generation software” means applications distributed across web servers or online or running inside the cloud. We’ve been trying to explore possibilities for better solutions, continuing to engage in research and development to get geared up to be the market leader in the future.
Q. Can you share a bit more specifically what you do?
Kim: My team is currently developing UI related functions for a SLP browser. I’m sure it’s safe to say we’re the end user’s first point of contact, as they first come face-to-face with the UI when using the browser.
Lee: I’m looking after a script engine that converts JavaScript, being the only dynamic language on the web, into programming languages, which will help speed up PC gaming.
Park: I’m working on webcore, linking UI with the script engine.
Q. Tell us about your future goals.
Lee: We are looking at about 3 years for the emergence of a huge market for the web-based standard OS, creating an integrated ecosystem for mobile applications. Wouldn’t it be nice for us to take the lead?
This group debuted back in January, consisting of 40 professional engineers assembled and organized from the ground up within Samsung. Keeping up with the unprecedented pace of emerging technology, this team is now in the midst of developing web OS-specific software accessible to everyone. Samsung has a lot of confidence in its group of excited, passionate and able engineers. Shouldn’t be long before you have something made by this group running in your hands.
Tizen
Welcome Tizen to the Linux Foundation [Jim Zemlin, Executive Director of the Linux Foundation, Sept 27, 2011]
Tizen is a Linux-based, open source platform designed to address the future of HTML5-based applications across a variety of device types.
Welcome to Tizen [Dawn Foster, Community Manager for MeeGo, Intel, Sept 27, 2011]
Tizen will support multiple device categories, such as smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, netbooks, and in-vehicle infotainment devices.
…
The Tizen application programming interfaces are based on HTML5 and other web standards, and we anticipate that the vast majority of Tizen application development will be based on these emerging standards. These APIs will cover various platform capabilities, such as messaging, multimedia, camera, network, and social media. For those who use native code in their applications, the Tizen SDK will include a native development kit. We will open the entire Tizen software stack, from the core OS up through the core applications and polished user interfaces.We expect the first release of Tizen and its SDK in the first quarter of 2012.
What’s Next for MeeGo [Imad Sousou, Meego’s technical steering group co-leader, Director, Intel Open Source Technology Center, Sept 27, 2011]
I want to personally thank everyone who has participated in MeeGo over the past year and a half, and I encourage you to join us at Tizen.org.
Limo Foundation And Linux Foundation Announce New Open Source Software Platform [LiMo Foundation™ and the Linux Foundation global press release, Morgan Gillis, Executive Director of LiMo Foundation, Sept 27, 2011]
Tizen combines the best open source technologies from LiMo and the Linux Foundation and adds a robust and flexible standards-based HTML5 and WAC web development environment within which device-independent applications can be produced efficiently for unconstrained cross-platform deployment. This approach leverages the robustness and flexibility of HTML5 which is rapidly emerging as a preferred application environment for mobile applications and the broad carrier support of the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC). Tizen additionally carries a state-of-the-art reference user interface enabling the creation of highly attractive and innovative user experience that can be further customized by operators and manufacturers.
…
… a well-timed step change which unites major mobile Linux proponents within a renewed ecosystem with an open web vision of application development which will help device vendors to innovate through software and liberalize access to consumers for developers and service providers.
(and see also LiMo&Tizen for what’s actually happening there).
Tizen Summit Asia 2011 coming! [Oct 27, 2011]
Nomovok organizes Tizen Summit Asia 2011 at Beijing Marriott Hotel City Wall 8-9 December. The event gathers together Open Source Vendors, OEMs, operators and other Tizen project contributors, together with local Open Source contributors in China. Check the event website and register here!
Dear Intel & Samsung, Can Tizen have some Qt ? [Oct 24, 2011]
Is banking everything on HTML5/JS/CSS3 the best way forward ? I think Not. Could we not have HTML5 + Qt Support in Tizen ? Already Nomovok have announced that they will provide Tizen with integrated Qt, but for this to work we need it to be adopted by the project as a whole. If we lose Qt then we Lose a lot of Developers that believe in it and NOT in HTML5 and have not bought into being able to make the move to HTML5. For the wholesale of applications HTML5 seems like the one, but for more specialist applications Qt is a Development Framework that a lot of development companies prefer and that is a fact that you can’t get away from.
….
sleeve says: October 26, 2011 at 10:33 pm
@uncle steve: now intel says no to qt?
no, samsung says no to qt as it is open source LGPL and any improvement or deployment would help Nokia tiny 1% – Samsung afraids. Samsung is happy with its vaporware BSD-licensed englightement without even one stable release in 11 yearsbecause the license allows to close any single bit if needed. If enlightenment fails samsung will use the backup tech aka HTML5 as already plans and no qt at all. Again, because in their flawed perception that would give nokia a point. All in samsung’s SLP/Limo – 4 bloody years without even single flawed release. The korean giant is strong in pushing hardware that’s all about it. Otherwise bada would be such a success for them.
Yeah Intel apparently HAPPILY supports qt on its part of tizen on its hardware and in AppUp stores. Intel wants apps SO qt will give what enlightenement wont.
More info about Tizen… [Florent Viard, Oct 24, 2011]
Hi all,
I want to share with you all the info the MeeGo Network France gathered from unofficial sources about Tizen.
Some of these info could be inaccurate, so consider them with care.
When the Tizen project was announced, it was more a “political” decision about a view for a future system than the announcement of an already existing new technical platform.
Ever since then, the Linux Foundation, Intel and Samsung are working on how they could create it based on MeeGo and Limo. It looks like they are still not sure of the architecture and this is certainly why they haven’t disclosed any technical info yet.
A big part of Tizen will be to have a framework and the corresponding SDK to support HTML5-WAC applications. Native applications development should also be supported through the usage of the EFL (Enlightenment_Foundation_Libraries –
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enlightenment_Foundation_Libraries) with the SDK. So we could suppose that the reference UI of the system will also be based on the EFL.How the merge between MeeGo and Limo will be done? MeeGo will give a big part of the system with the components that are not QT-based, and Limo will provide the EFL components. More components of Limo will be used for the handset stack of Tizen. So, the overall appearance of the system should be similar to MeeGo and it should not be too hard to have derived version with the QT-things for those who want it.
In the current planning, the first version of Tizen is supposed to be released in February 2012 with the SDK. But we don’t know if the development and sources will be opened to everyone before this.
>From the governance side, the reassuring thing that we heard is that Samsung and Intel really want to have Tizen be a common system shared with other manufacturers and not be seen as their own system, so they gave the leadership to the Linux Foundation. And that is why there is currently not so much communication coming from Samsung or Intel about Tizen, because it is of the responsibility of the Linux Foundation to decide what and when communicate and if there could be community involvement or not in the first stage of Tizen.
So, our questions go to the Linux Foundation to know when they will start to disclose more info? If nothing will be available before February 2012, maybe it will be good to at least release MeeGo 1.3?
Don’t hesitate to reply if you want to correct things or if you have more details.
++
Florent
MeeGo Network France
Re: More info about Tizen… [Dawn M Foster, Community Manager for MeeGo, Intel, Oct 26, 2011]
On Oct 26, 2011, at 6:32 AM, Arnaud Delcasse wrote:
> Novomok looks like actually being the organizer, yes. But Linux
> Foundation people are announced for keynotes and presentations.
> On IRC, Paimen from Novomok said that he would send more
> informations on the mailing list “later today”.
>
> Short things I’ve read from him on IRC :
> – this would be an “unofficial” summit (14:16:56 Paimen | so
> basically this is unofficial event for community and vendors)
> – it replaces a “MeeGo summit” which should have been organized in
> Asia (14:18:19 Paimen | well it supposed to be meego summit
> and because of current events we decided to change it for open forum
> for tizen)Yes, it is being organized by Nomovok as an unofficial summit, but we’ve known about it, and I have also been talking to Pasi Nieminen about this summit. We’ll work with Pasi and others to help clear up this confusion shortly.
Re: More info about Tizen… [Akira Tsukamoto, Oct 26, 2011]
Hi all,
I work for Nomovok and I would like to add some comments about Tizen summit in Asia: http://tizensummitasia2011.com/
- I understand your frustration having no public information released from the Linux Foundation and relevant companies yet. Please be patient for a while because they are preparing the background to make the information public.
- I understand that when the Linux Foundation frozen the all the MeeGo development infrastructure such as wiki, build server and repository, equivalent Tizen infrastructures are not hosted yet. It is also ongoing and please be patient.
- As Ms. Dawn Foster from Intel mentioned that Pasi is the CEO of the Nomovok and coordinating the Tizen Summit 2011 in Beijing with the Linux Foundation and relevant companies, so it is concrete event.
- The main purpose of having the Tizen Summit is to get all the people interested on Tizen to have face to face gathering and share the information together. This activities should improve the speed of project of Tizen process.
I Hope thing gets clear with the above.
Jukka Raninen is also the person who has clear situation for the event.Thanks,
Akira
Will Intel’s Tizen mobile operating system succeed where MeeGo failed? [Dr. Axel Rauschmayer, Oct 20, 2011, ]
Tizen [1], Intel’s new mobile operating system, is supposed to succeed where MeeGo failed. However, the article “From MeeGo to Tizen: the making of another software bubble” by David Neary for VisionMobile expresses doubt:
One thing which has not changed from MeeGo is the wide range of participants being targeted by the project. At the moment, the target audience can best be summarised as “everyone”. Tizen is aimed at platform developers, integrators, vendors, application developers, and mobile enthusiasts. That’s a very wide range of target audiences, each with different needs and expectations. Not knowing your target customer is a surefire way to throw money down the drain.
Technology-wise, there are also many cooks:
We also know is that the primary APIs for 3rd party developers are targeting HTML5 and WAC environments. WAC stands for Wholesale Applications Community, a set of APIs for building and delivering rich HTML5 applications, based on APIs from JIL (Joint Innovation Labs) and BONDI (a platform specified by the now-defunct Open Mobile Terminal Platform, OMTP). The Enlightenment Foundation Libraries (EFL), are also set to be a key part of the platform. We can infer two things from this: Qt will be taking a back seat in Tizen, if it is part of the platform at all, and it appears that SLP [the Samsung Linux Platform] will be the basis of the Tizen platform.
Explanations:
- WAC is an organization run by telecom companies – not by handset makers. Supporting its standards smells like a marketing decision, not a technical decision. At least it makes sense in the HTML5 context. Compare: RIM supporting Android apps on the PlayBook where a completely different technology is hosted by the native QNX.
- EFL is a portable user interface library that originated with the X11 (Unix) window manager Enlightenment. It has bindings for several languages, including Python, JavaScript, Perl, C++, and Ruby.
The world could really use a truly open mobile operating system. Using HTML5 for the user interface layer also makes a lot of sense. I’ve always wondered why Intel does not go it alone. So far it has not had a lot of luck with its partners; and with Tizen, it is already doing all the talking, while Samsung is largely silent. Another paragraph from the article explains the reason:
Tizen seems set to be another victim of misaligned incentives across several industry partners. Samsung is bringing SLP to the “standards” table simply to find a new home for it, now that LiMo [the organization that previously backed SLP] is winding down. Intel is seeking another marriage of convenience, trying to tempt a major OEM to ship significant x86 chip volumes.
Related reading:
ST-Ericsson NovaThor SoCs for future Windows Phones from Nokia
Updates: STMicroelectronics’ COO Presents at UBS Global Technology and Services Conference – Conference Call Transcript Q&A [Seeking Alpha, Nov 24, 2011]
Gareth Jenkins
Okay. Before we come on to some of the shorter term questions, I was just wondering whether you could give us an update on the 300
millionmillimeter development in Crolles and where we’re at?Didier Lamouche
So we are—to recall, the main manufacturing node at Crolles is 40 nanometer. We are, as you know, engaged deeply with our friends in IBM from here in Fishkill – IBM global foundry, Samsung to developing the next generation node. We will introduce in 2012 28 nanometer. The first chip that we will put on the market will be designed for ST-Ericsson, advanced processor and advanced modem in 28 nanometer, and we are working to get qualified and start to ramp in 20 nanometer end of next year, okay, also on those type of products. On 28 nanometer, we have other of our customer also interested by our technology in the communication infrastructure customers. A big customer from the U.S. west coast interested to our product that we will ramp out of Crolles, but not only out of Crolles – also at our foundry partners. The strategy we have on the advanced DLSI technology manufacturing is basically to manufacture one-third internally out of Crolles and two-thirds at foundry partners, and of course our preferred foundry partners are the ones who are together with us developing the base technology with IBM in Fishkill, so Samsung and Global Foundry. So that’s where we are at the moment.
Second, another key vehicle for the loading and the manufacturing in Crolles is our also imaging technology and products, which is pretty healthy at the moment.
…
Unidentified Analyst
Hi there. ST-Ericsson, I often get a lot of questions on this in terms of the underperformance. Is there a time frame in the Board’s mind about sort of when it has to achieve a turnaround within the business before a different strategic view is taken of it?
Didier Lamouche
Okay, thank you for the question. I got the question a hundred times already. No, I mean, you know our strategy and our difficulties in ST-Ericsson. I’m not going to repeat again. This is a company first, the difficulty is that it’s a merger of three companies, you have to remember, that we started in 2008; and I think it was visionary at the time because we needed to create some scale and we needed to go from a model where one company was basically serving one customer to a model where we are serving multiple customers with one platform. And I’m glad to see that many of our competitors are following that path today when you see – not to name them – but Intel acquiring Infineon and Broadcom acquiring modem company—I mean—
Tait Sorensen
LTE.
Didier Lamouche
Yes. So clearly, we have done it before, so we were at that point ahead of the curve, let’s say. And it’s not easy to integrate companies together, I tell you, and essentially to streamline and form a product portfolio, and going from an ASIC to a platform model. It’s not easy. So I’m not saying we are smarter than anybody, but certainly I don’t think it will be easier for anybody else to integrate. So that’s one.
Second, clearly we were expecting to turn around faster. We’ve since now a few months we have taken additional burden in the fact that our main customer, as you know, has really lost ground rapidly in the market share – not to name them, Nokia – we don’t even report their—starting last quarter, they fell obviously below 10% of our revenue because we don’t report their share anymore of our revenue, so that tells a lot. So that has increased our level of pain, and that explains a bit why clearly it is taking much longer than what we planned.
Now going specifically to your questions, we are not ready to accept to lose $200 million a quarter for an additional five, six, seven, eight quarters. We are not. We are not. But at the same time, we have not set a date by which we say, okay, by—I don’t know, such a date we pull the plug or we do anything brutal if things are not—no. We are not in that mindset. We are in the mindset where we have a plan in place and we trigger each action of the plan depending on what is the situation. For example, last June we have decided to put in place an additional restructuring plan that was not even foreseen three months before. Why we did that? Simply because we felt that we were not meeting the roadmap that we had set to ourselves and we need to do something else. Second example is the IP licensing that we advertise in Q3, I mean last month; so we licensed some of our technology to a player on the market. That was not planned three months ago, and we decided to do that simply because we felt we needed to bring more cash in the company. So we have a series of actions – I’m not going to tell you which ones, you will see – potential actions in place that we are going to trigger, but clearly to be a bit more precise in my answer, 2012 will be a crucial year for ST-Ericsson. 2012 is the year where it needs to happen.
STMicroelectronics’ CEO Discusses Q3 2011 Results – Earnings Call Transcript Q&A [Seeking Alpha, Oct 26, 2011]
Jerome Ramel – Exane BNP Paribas
Yeah, yeah. And may be just a follow-up on capacity utilization rates specifically for Crolles 300 millimeter and would have an idea where you are today?
Philippe Lambinet
I don’t think we give Jerome we give information fab-by-fab. Clearly, the utilization is not the best, especially due to the weakness we see with ST-Ericsson and products. But, going forward I’m sure you capture the fact that ST-Ericsson has won a key design win with HTC recently, which is obviously a product which will be manufactured in – is manufactured in Crolles the 300 millimeter.
Second point is also, our Imaging product line if you look to our numbers is doing pretty well and this is the key product which is also manufactured over there. And today, without giving you a specific numbers, this is not the factory where we suffer the most, which is for the future good news because obviously this is the future products and product for future business which are manufacture over there.
European Commission nods support to STMicroelectronics’ R&D [Deb 6, 2009]
After much deliberation, the European Commission decided to allow France to grant financial support of 457 million euros to the Nano2012 R&D program in Crolles, France. Nano2012 aims at developing the next-generation process technology for many semiconductor applications. They have yet to pick a site and break ground, but they have lots of fellow collaborators like CETA-Leti, and the money is beginning to roll.
…
“Increased process complexity and variability, lithography limitations, large design sizes and extreme low power add to the IC design challenges at 20 nm,” said Philippe Magarshack, group vice president at STMicroelectronics Technology Research and Development. “Through the ISDA and the DeCADE joint development program, we are working very closely with Mentor Graphics on various aspects of 20 nm design enablement. We are pleased with the Olympus-SoC integrated platform’s ability to deliver a 20 nm place and route solution with high quality of results, which we recently demonstrated on a 20 nm test chip tapeout. We consider this to be a significant milestone toward demonstrating our 20 nm readiness.”
About DeCADE
The joint-development project named DeCADE builds on advanced design solutions for SoC (System-On-Chip) development. DeCADE reinforces the Crolles cooperative R&D cluster, which gathers partners that develop and enable low-power SoCs and value-added application-specific technologies, and is a great example of a project developed within the framework of the Nano2012 program. Nano2012 is a strategic R&D program, led by STMicroelectronics, which gathers research institutes and industrial partners and is supported by French national, regional and local authorities
ST: FD-SOI for Competitive SOCs at 28nm and Beyond [Nov 18, 2011]
STMicroelectronics sees its flavor of planar FD-SOI as an excellent response to the complex needs of mobile multimedia chips.
The multi-functional system-on-chips (SOC) needed at the heart of the next generations of wireless, high-performance, low-power multimedia devices have very different needs than the mono-functional processors of the past. Traditionally, the trade-off for computers and servers has been accepting high operational voltages (Vdd) and high stand-by leakage in return for high-performance. This is obviously not an acceptable trade-off for mobile internet devices.
In a mobile world, high-performance must go hand-in-hand with low-operation Vdd and low stand-by leakage. That requires different technologies. As we approach the 20/22nm node and beyond, traditional planar-bulk technologies cannot meet these requirements. The choice comes down to either a planar fully-depleted (FD) SOI solution or a FinFET solution. At STMicroelectronics, we call our flavor of planar FD-SOI UTBB, for ultra-thin body & box. As such, it leverages SOI wafers with both ultra-thin top silicon and ultra-thin buried oxide (BOX). Where more practical, we use a hybrid SOI/bulk configuration, wherein certain devices are placed in the bulk silicon that has been exposed by etching back the insulating BOX layer.
The results we’ve obtained make UTBB a compelling option.
Designing a good SOC involves using the right blend of low-, standard- and high-threshold-voltage (Vth) devices according to the target application and how it’s being used at any given time. Our FD-SOI technology can handle multiple Vth devices and I/Os through a cost effective approach, solving challenges for low-power operation (LOP), low-standby power (LSTP) and analog and high-performance (HP) needs.
UTBB at 28nm
ST’s UTTB technology may be a good candidate even for the 28nm node, as it would provide a boost in speed before 20nm bulk technology is ready. Therefore, we have explored an industrial solution for its implementation.
…
Straightforward Move to 28nm
ST has been working on FD-SOI for over 10 years. We have research programs or partnerships on 3 sites : Crolles, Leti, and IBM Albany NanoTech. We have collaborated with Soitec for wafer supply.
The key technology elements for UTBB have been demonstrated.
The move from R&D to an industrial process of 28nm FD-SOI technology is for us (and for our partners) an efficient and straightforward response to the world-wide competition. The extension of FD-SOI towards the 20nm and 14nm nodes is also in preparation with new boosters to further increase the performance growth rate.
UTBB FD-SOI promises to give STMicroelectronics a significant edge in both the near term and for years to come.
ST-Ericsson board of directors appoints Didier Lamouche as president and CEO [Nov 28, 2011]
Lamouche, chief operating officer of STMicroelectronics [since January 2011], has served on the board of ST-Ericsson since April 2011 and brings more than twenty-five years of IT and semiconductor industry experience to the role.
Lamouche replaces Gilles Delfassy [only 4 years older] after the transformation of the company’s portfolio roadmap from legacy feature phone products to leading smartphone and tablet platforms. The Company now enters a phase with prime focus on proliferating design-wins and scaling up and delivering volume, with the objective of translating its new portfolio into sustainable profitability and growth.
…
Both parent companies, STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, are committed to the 50/50 joint venture and will continue to support its strategy towards industry leadership and sustainable financial return. ST-Ericsson plays an important role in Ericsson’s end-to-end strategy in a world with 50 billion connected devices and is part of ST’s vision to be a[n undisputed] leader* in multimedia convergence applications.
*[The other part of vision is to be an undisputed leader in Sense & Power applications.]Gilles Delfassy will support Lamouche, as senior advisor to the CEO, during a transition period. Didier Lamouche, while maintaining his title of ST Chief Operating Officer, will focus full time on leading ST-Ericsson.
ST-Ericsson Board of Directors appoints wireless expert Gilles Delfassy as President and CEO [Sept 2, 2009]
Delfassy, 54, is a highly-respected expert in the wireless industry. During his 28-year career at Texas Instruments, he created and built what would become, during that time, the largest wireless semiconductor business in the world. After his retirement from Texas Instruments in 2007, Delfassy became an advisor to many high-tech companies and has served on several corporate boards.
Lamouche started his career in Philips R&D before joining IBM Microelectronics in 1985, where he supervised the launch of IBM-Siemens Europe’s first DRAM 8-inch semiconductor project in Corbeil-Essonnes, France. Later, after three years as director of operations at Motorola, Lamouche rejoined IBM first in the US, then in France to lead the turnaround and strategic repositioning of the Corbeil site. He subsequently architected the creation and acted as CEO of Altis Semiconductor, a joint venture between IBM and Infineon.
In 2003, Lamouche became vice-president for IBM’s worldwide semiconductor operations, based in New York, managing, among other things, the ramp-up of the company’s first 12-inch facility in Fishkill, NY, and establishing IBM’s first outsourced semiconductor operation in Asia. In 2005-2010, Lamouche served as chairman and CEO of Bull, a French-based IT group with worldwide presence. In this capacity, he succeeded in turning around the company, revamping Bull’s product portfolio towards high performance computing leadership and transforming the group into a profitable and growing IT services-and-solutions supplier.
Lamouche has served as a board member at various private (Cameca ’05 to ’07) and listed companies, Atari (’07 to ’11). From 2006 to 2010, he sat on the Supervisory Board of STMicroelectronics, where he was also a member of the Audit committee. He is currently sitting on the boards of Soitec and ADECCO.
Lamouche was named Chevalier of the Legion of Honor (France) in 2010.
Didier Lamouche was born in Meknès, Morocco, in 1959. He is a graduate of the École Centrale of Lyon, France, and holds a PhD in semiconductor technology.
ST-Ericsson is a joint venture between Ericsson and STMicroelectronics, the latter being a French-Italian state-government controlled company with the following shareholder structure:
Source: Company Presentation [July 31, 2011]
The French side is as follows:
– FSI owns 79.2% of FT1CI, a holding company held together with the French Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA).
– FSI on the other hand is a subsidiary of Caisse des Dépôts, and controlled by it, whose accounts will be consolidated with those of Caisse des Dépôts. The FSI is 49% owned by Government of France and 51% Caisse des Depots et Consignations.
– Caisse des Dépôts is a public financial institution, created by the law of 28th April 1816. Its founders gave it a statute and mode of governance which were unique in France, aimed to ensure its autonomy so that it could manage private funds requiring particular protection. Caisse des Dépôts is “under Parliament’s supervision and guarantee”.
STMicroelectronics is a global company with US$10.3B sales and 53,000 employees in 2010. Its president and CEO is Carlo Bozotti while Lamuche as a COO controls the sales&marketing as well the manufacturing and technology R&D parts of the company. He has no role in the product groups responsible for product development and none in corporate staff functions either. Now he has full control over the Wireless business segment of STMicroelectronics while also supporting the other two segments as a COO:
Source: Company Presentation [July 31, 2011]
End of Updates
| ARM DMIPS/MHz | ||||||||
| ARM Cortex A8 | ARM Cortex A9 | Qualcomm Scorpion | Qualcomm Krait | ARM Cortex A15 | ||||
| DMIPS/MHz | 2.0 | 2.5 | 2.1 | 3.3 | 4.0* | |||
| * There is no ARM provided official DMIPS/MHz value for A15. Unofficially it is 3.5 while the 4.0 value is for the ST-Ericsson Nova A9600 showing that a tweaked implementation can achieve more. (See the below ST-Ericsson NovaThor announcement). |
||||||||
Nokia selects ST-Ericsson as supplier for future Windows Phone devices [Nov 2, 2011]
NovaThor™ platform to enable Nokia to extend Windows Phone devices to new price points and geographies
Nokia has selected ST-Ericsson as a supplier for future devices it plans to introduce based on the Windows Phone mobile platform.
“We are pleased to have been selected by Nokia as a key partner for Windows smartphones, in line with our goal to be present in all segments and major operating systems,” said Gilles Delfassy, president and CEO of ST-Ericsson. “Our NovaThor platforms continue to gain traction as they enable customers to bring great smartphones to the market.”
ST Ericsson will power the future dual core Nokia Windows Phones [Nokia Buff, Nov 2, 2011]
Dual core ARM Cortex A9 CPU with speeds upto 1.85 GHz ( Normally 1 Ghz or 1.2 Ghz ). GPU is ARM Mali 400 MP1 ( With one fragment processor ). Coming to what Nokia will use, there are two models available now, which is the ideal time to start producing/concepting these phones for the next holiday season.
ST-Ericsson NovaThor U9500 (Nova A9500) 45nm 2 x ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.2GHz ARM Mali-400 MP1 1 x 32-bit LPDDR2 Now ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500 45nm 2 x ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.0GHz ARM Mali-400 MP1 1 x 32-bit LPDDR2 Now The U8500 has been available for a while now. Mostly U8500 will be the choice because we have heard the CEO talk about that much earlier, dating back to February. As you can see, it has a dual core A9 1 GHz processor and Mali 400 GPU. Which is great, now. But we are looking at the future, and hence “meh!”. For comparison sake, we can take the hardware flagship smartphone – the Galaxy S2 which has a dual core A9 1.2 GHz processor and Mali 400 – MP4 ( Four fragment processors ). It was launched way back, and still has more GPU horse power than the “yet to be used” U8500. If you think the U8500 is lame, then check out the newer U9500, which still has the same GPU.
Why i am clobbering for more GPU power is simple, Nokia and Windows Phone have the opportunity to make a great XBOX phone, and if the GPU is better than the GPU on xbox 360, the phone will be able to run those games flawlessly. However, the Mali GPU is good enough for the present crop of graphic intensive mobile games, but developers are always hungry for more exploits from the hardware.
Ok, do not lose hope because there is more in the NovaThor pipeline, namely –
ST-Ericsson NovaThor LP9600 (Nova A9600) 28nm 2 x ARM Cortex-A15 @ 2.5GHz IMG PowerVR Series 6 (Rogue) Dual Memory 20132H
2012ST-Ericsson Novathor L9540 (Nova A9540) 32nm 2 x ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.85GHz IMG PowerVR Series 5 2 x 32-bit LPDDR2 2H
1H 2012So, there are better SoCs coming from ST-Ericsson, but the world cannot wait. Other manufacturers will have their own improved versions. Nokia gotta act fast and choose the right SoC, so that our dream of the Nokia xbox phone *or* tablet may one day come true. Fingers crossed.
ST-Ericsson NovaThor (TM) family of integrated smartphone platforms. [Feb 15, 2011]
The Nova A9600, built in 28nm, will deliver groundbreaking multimedia and graphics performance, featuring a dual-core ARM Cortex- A15-based processor running up to up to 2.5 GHz breaking the 20k DMIPS barrier, and a POWERVR Rogue GPU that delivers in excess of 210 GFLOPS. The graphics performance of the A9600 will exceed 350 million ‘real’ polygons per second and more than 5 gigapixels per second visible fill rate (which given POWERVR’s deferred rendering architecture results in more than 13 gigapixels per second effective fill rate). Thanks to Rogue Nova will support all existing APIs such as Microsoft DirectX. The Nova A9600 is sampling in 2011.
The Nova A9540, built in 32nm, uses a dual-core Cortex-A9 running at up to 1.8 GHz and delivers graphics performance up to four times that of the U8500 and is sampling H2 2011.
The Nova A9500, built in 45 nm, uses a dual-core Cortex-A9 running at clock speeds of up to 1.2GHz, with Mali™ 400 improving graphics performance up to 20 percent, supporting full HD camcorder capabilities and up to 20 megapixel cameras. It is sampling and in design with ST-Ericsson customers today.
The Thor M7400 can connect to 2G, 3G, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, HSPA+ dual carrier and LTE FDD/TDD networks. It offers peak download speeds of up to 100Mbps in LTE networks. The Thor M7400 supports voice calls via fallback to circuit-switched networks and via the VoLTE (Voice over LTE) standard, it is sampling Q2 2011.
The Thor M7300 is a multimode HSPA+ modem supporting speeds of up to 84Mbps and is sampling Q2 2011.
The NovaThor U9500 is a complete platform combining Thor M5730 with A9500 and is sampling now.
The NovaThor T5008 platform combines a TD-HSPA+ modem with dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 and Mali 400 graphics. It supports full HD camcorder capabilities and up to 20 megapixel cameras and is sampling Q2 2011.
The NovaThor U5500 platform combines a powerful Cortex-A9 application processor with a HSPA+ modem. It supports DVD-quality camcorder capabilities and
812 megapixel cameras and samples in 1H 2011.
ST-ERICSSON – MAKING MOBILE PHONES SMARTER AND SMARTER [Sept 23, 2011]
HIGH-DEFINITION HANDSETS
At the high-end of the mobile device market, consumers are looking for a highly-engaging and immersive web multimedia experience associated with advanced consumer electronics. The current wave of cutting-edge smartphones and tablet computers have built-in camcorders capable of filming in full high definition (HD) and still cameras capable of taking photos made up of 20 million pixels, as well as support for immersive, high-speed 3D games and a desktop-style web browsing experience. These capabilities are all supported by ST-Ericsson’s powerful NovaThor™ U8500, U9500 and U9540 platforms with integrated application processors, modems and connectivity. These platforms are being selected by leading manufacturers to underpin a new generation of smartphones to be launched commercially in 2011 and early 2012.
Of course, even high performance smartphones still need to have all-day battery life so that people can stay continually connected on the move without having to stop to recharge their handset. One of the most effective ways to achieve a long battery life in a high performance handset is to use low-power silicon technology coupled with smart multi-core processor architecture. ST-Ericsson’s NovaThor™ U8500 platform, for example, uses a very power-efficient dual-core architecture, which enables a handset to play 10 hours of HD video or 100 hours of music on one battery charge, when equipped with a standard 1,000mAH battery.
BRINGING SMARTPHONES TO THE MASSES
Not everyone will be able to afford or will want the most advanced handsets, so manufacturers are increasingly looking to broaden their smartphone portfolios for consumers to choose from a broad selection of models at different prices. ST-Ericsson is enabling its customers to do just this.
ST-Ericsson’s highly-integrated and very power-efficient NovaThor™ U5500 platform, for example, is designed to power affordable smartphones that deliver a no-compromise experience. The NovaThor™ U5500 offers a dual-core processor and a powerful multimedia platform that will enable consumers to enjoy high-speed navigation, web browsing, video streaming, email, WiFi, up to 12 megapixel cameras, a 720p HD camcorder and a touch screen, among other features.
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MULTI-CORE PROCESSORS A STEP CHANGE IN PERFORMANCE
Multi-core processor architectures can increase the performance and power-efficiency of a smartphone or tablet computer, by splitting tasks between different processors, enabling the system to run at lower temperatures and suffer less power leakage. ST-Ericsson’s Nova™ A9600 brings over 200 percent more mobile computing performance compared to the NovaThor™ U8500 platform. It features a dual ARM Cortex-A15 with each core running up to 2.5GHz at very low power consumption thanks to very innovative power saving techniques. ST-Ericsson new Nova™ A9540 and A9500 include dual-core processors capable of running at clock speeds of 1.85GHz and 1.2GHz respectively.
28-nm in volume production, says TSMC [Oct 24, 2011]
While TSMC’s senior vice president Jason Chen noted in a press release that his firm was “first to 28-nm volume production,” Globalfoundries spokesman Jason Gorss told EE Times its high-k metal gate (HKMG) offerings had already been in production “for months.”
“Our 28-nm process is ready,” said Gorss, pointing out that Globalfoundries, unlike TSMC, had also produced wafers on the 32 nm process, with HKMG and that 28-nm was simply a shrink of that previous offering. Products on Globalfoundries’ 28-nm process would emerge sometime in 2012, Gorss noted.
AMD Still Hampered by Foundry Problems, CEO Says [Oct 27, 2011]
“Clearly we were disappointed with the yields with the 32-nm space,” said Rory Read, AMD’s chief executive officer, during a conference call with analysts. “As I mentioned… we are not out of the woods yet.”
…
AMD said the quarter was negatively impact by “32 nanometer yield, ramp and manufacturing issues”. “No doubt we must improve our execution,” Read said.
A spokesman with Globalfoundries said that the company is working “side by side with AMD every day” with AMD to resolve any outstanding issues. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for us to comment on a customer’s financial results, other than to say that we continue to work with AMD to build on the successful launch of Llano and other products based on our 32/28nm HKMG technology,” the spokesman said. HKMG refers to “High-K Metal Gate” technology, which minimizes leakage current in low-power applications.
“But it is important to note that Llano is an incredibly complex product–perhaps the most complex product ever manufactured by a foundry,” the Globalfoundries spokesman said. “Yet despite all of this complexity, we are seeing continued yield improvement and we have managed to bring this HKMG technology to market well ahead of any other foundry. We are expected to ship far more HKMG volume in 2011 than all other foundries combined.”
GLOBALFOUNDRIES Announces Winners of Inaugural “Leading in Innovation” Awards [Aug 30, 2011]
Innovative Mobile Solutions
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STMicroelectronics, for its technology development used in ST-Ericsson’s leading edge Nova A9600 smartphone application processor, planned for production on GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ 28nm-SLP technology.
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“We know GLOBALFOUNDRIES well, both as a partner in technology development through ISDA, International Semiconductor Development Alliance, and as one of our own trusted foundry partners,” said Jean-Marc Chery, Chief Technology Officer of STMicroelectronics. “The 28 nm technology portfolio from GLOBALFOUNDRIES is well-suited to manufacture the ST-Ericsson 9600 platform, enabling multi source wafer fabs for ST and ST-Ericsson platforms at the 28nm node. Over several years, ST has built an excellent working relationship with GLOBALFOUNDRIES. ST sources a wide variety of 200mm and 300mm wafer products from GLOBALFOUNDRIES, from 0.5um EEPROM for the automotive industry to leading edge application processors for wireless and we’ve found GLOBALFOUNDRIES to be an innovative, reliable and cost-effective partner, effectively complementing our strong internal manufacturing machine, and we look forward to continuing our successful relationship with them.”
ST Ericsson plants center in Silicon Valley [Sept 13, 2011]
ST Ericsson announced it has opened a small technical office in Silicon Valley as it scrambles to get ahead of the curve in the hyper competitive market for smartphone and tablet chips. It demoed its current HSPA+ products running Android here and talked about plans for LTE chips and support for Windows Phone software in the coming year.
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At the launch, ST Ericsson demoed its U8500 integrated applications processor and HSPA+ baseband running on a new board geared for software developers. The chip supported stereo 3-D graphics, 1080-progressive video playback, games with motion sensors and a browser supporting augmented reality.
The processor uses a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 with Mali 400 graphics. In demos it supported Symbian and the Gingerbread and Honeycomb versions of Android.
The company does not have demo-ready versions of its next-generation discrete LTE baseband and application processor announced in February and slated for production in mid-2012. The schedule is behind that of rival Qualcomm which is expected to supply the first LTE handsets. However, the ST Ericsson chip will support eight LTE spectrum bands on a single RF transceiver.
ST Ericsson has taped out a dual-core ARM Cortex A-15 set to ship in 2012. It will outgun rivals including the Omap 5 from Texas Instruments because the STE chip uses the Imagination Rogue graphics core, said Gilles Delfassy, chief executive of ST Ericsson and former head of TI’s wireless business unit. Due to use of a new vector-processing architecture, the chip should also have smaller size, cost and power consumption than its rivals, he added.
In software, ST Ericsson is playing catch up with the shift by Nokia, a lead customer, from Symbian to Windows Phone. It does not expect to support Nokia’s first Windows Phone 7 handsets, but it has put a team in place to support Windows Phone 8 on its chips.
…
“We have a road map which is very aggressive, but the key question is will we deliver on it on time,” Delfassy said.
International Data Corp. analyst Mario Morales said smartphone makers want alternatives to integrated chips from Qualcomm, and are waiting on ST Ericsson to execute on its road map.
To that end, Delfassy said he has replaced some engineers in ST Ericsson and brought on two executives with strength in product execution. One is a senior vice president from the former Infineon wireless group who worked closely with Apple; another is a former Sony Ericsson executive who has supervised groups of more than a thousand engineers.
ST Ericsson has also simplified its product portfolio, pruning five modem technologies down to just one. It was the first company to deliver a 21 Mbit/second HSPA+ modem, Delfassy said.
So far ST Ericsson is not planning any quad-core products despite the fact rivals Nvidia and Qualcomm have announced plans for such parts. “We aim to be leaders in apps processors, but there is a big debate whether quad core is a case of diminishing returns,” Delfassy said.
Exclusive : ST-Ericsson To Integrate NFC Features Into its Platforms [March 31, 2011]
ST-Ericsson’s Chief Chip Architect & Principal Fellow, Louis Tannyeres, has told ITProPortal.com in an exclusive interview that the company will integrate NFC (Near Field Communication) capabilities in its platforms alongside other connectivity functions without giving more details about a release window.
… he did mention that the Nova A9600 is the only SoC announced to feature the Imagination Technologies PowerVR Rogue GPU.
According to ST-Ericsson’s own benchmarks, Rogue is up to 20x faster than the Mali 400 GPU, which is used in the Exynos 4210 SoC that powers the Samsung Galaxy S II and which is at least as powerful than the Adreno 205 GPU found inside the Xperia Play.
In addition, Tannyeres said that samples of the Nova A9600 would be shipped to partners in the second half of 2011 with the first products based on the SoC available in the second half of 2012.
Will ST-Ericsson’s New Product Programme Do The Trick? [July 28, 2011]
Currently ST-Ericsson is moving its product line onto 45nm and is sampling three 45nm products – its 8500 platform for smartphones, its 4500 platform which is the lower-end version of the 8500, and its CG2900 Bluetooth/GPS/FM combo modem.
“We shipped the 8500 in pre-production quantities in Q2and it will be ramping up at a number of customers this year,” Gerard Cronin, STE’s head of marketing, told me yesterday, “we have engagements on the 8500 with five out of the top ten handset manufacturers.”
Before the end of this year, ST-Ericsson intends to sample its first 32nm device, the A9540 application processorbased on Cortex A-9 which is the upgrade of the 8500 with 50% higher speed.
Early in 2012 it intends to sample its first 28nm device – the A9600based on the Cortex A-15.
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Asked from which foundry ST-Ericsson hopes to get 28nm from, Cronin said ST-Ericsson is part of the Globalfoundries alliance.
However, according to Mike Bryant, CTO of Future Horizons, talking at IFS 2011 earlier this month, GloFo’s 28nm process in Dresden is running with almost zero yield.
GlobalFoundries lays out roadmap for 28 nm—and beyond [Aug 31, 2011]
At the GlobalFoundries Technology Conference yesterday, GlobalFoundries executives spoke at length about the company’s roadmap and prospects. There was much rejoicing about shipments of the foundry firm’s first 32-nm, high-k metal gate (HKMG) chips—otherwise known as AMD Fusion A-series processors, or Llano—but the event really centered on manufacturing at 28 nm and smaller geometries.
First things first, GlobalFoundries revealed that its 28-nm HKMG process is “fully enabled and ready to ramp,” with ramping scheduled for 2012 at its fabs in Dresden, Germany and Malta, New York. A “lead 28nm HKMG product” has already taped out (i.e. the chip design is complete and is about to be manufactured), and GlobalFoundries has managed to produce a functional 28-nm HKMG test chip based on an ARM Cortex-A9 core. On that subject, GlobalFoundries said it expects the High Performance Plus version of its 28-nm HKMG process to enable ARM Cortex-A9 processors clocked as high as 3GHz.
… the company says demand for its manufacturing capacity currently outstrips supply—in other words, it has to expand rapidly to satisfy its customers.
That expansion involves GlobalFoundries’ new fab in upstate New York, which is purportedly ahead of schedule. Production is set to begin there next summer. GlobalFoundries also plans to build a fab in Abu Dhabi—somewhere near the airport, we were told—but a precise timeline hasn’t been settled upon yet. (The company says its schedule will depend on ramp planning in Dresden and New York as well as market conditions.) Those fabs will complement the foundry firm’s facilities in Singapore, which it inherited after the acquisition of Chartered Semiconductor.
Low Power High-k Metal Gate 28nm CMOS Solutions for Mobile High Performance Applications [GlobalFoundries, July 8, 2011]
High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) is one of the most significant iunnovations in CMOS fabrication since the inception of silicon VLSI. HKMG enables a revival in transistor scaling that had stalled with poly SiON gate technology, threatening the continuation of Moore’s law. The Joint Development Alliance and Common Platform Alliance are driving the global standard for High-k Metal Gate (HKMG). Several world-leading semiconductor companies including GLOBALFOUNDRIES, IBM, Intel Mobility Communications (ex-Infinion), Renesas, STMicroelctronics, Smasung Electronics and Toshiba have participated in the 28nm CMOS Joint Development Alliance. This HKMG solution is far superior to alternatives currently pursued by the other leading foundries, in both scalability (performance, power, die size, design compatibility) and manufacturability. This solution is a “Gate-First” approach that shares the process flow, design flexibility, design elements and benefits of all previous nodes based upon poly SiON gates.
Cost is a substantial advantage of “Gate-First” implementation; a typical foundry customer will save tens of millions of dollars over the course of their 28nm product portfolio life cycle vs. the “Gate-Last” approach due to the 10-20% smaller die size obtainable by “Gate-First.” This represenets tremendous opportunity for customers and for the industry.
“Gate-First” HKMG has already transitioned from the develeopment phase to high-volume foundry manufacturing. Notably, AMD has announced production of accelerated processing units (APUs) for laptops and desktop PCs, and CPUs for server applications based on the “Gate-First” technology. This AMD “A-Series” APU is the first foundry HKMG product to ship in the industry. Samsung and ST-Ericsson have also announced wireless products based on “Gate-First” HKMG.
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28nm Super Low Power (28nm-SLP) is the low power CMOS offering delivered on a bulk silicon substrate for mobile applications. … The 28nm-SLP is a lower cost technology relative to other 28nm options, being manufactured without the stress elements used to boost carrier mobilities for 28nm poly SiON and for 28nm HKMG HP (high performance) technologies, reducing process complexity and mask count substantially.
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STMicroelectronis, through its wireless JV, ST-Ericsson, is now fullfilling customers’ power and perforamce demands on the Joint Development Alliance advanced HKMG low power processes. As a case in point, ST is now sampling a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor that can run at 1.8GHz through the Nova A9540 product. The A9540 is almost 60% faster than previous 45/40nm technology products. This technology also benefits the next-generation ARM dual-core Cortex-A15 CPU which ST-Ericsson will be producing at 2.5GHz in 28nm-SLP, again for smartphone and tablet products, such as the ST-Ericsson Nova A9600 application processor.
Lightning fast (ICT-backed) and dominating finances clashing with the age-old slowness of democratic consensus building
Source: FINVIZ.com/forex_charts.ashx
Note: The announcement of Greek referendum came late Oct 31. The above chart is showing how fast the global financial system is reacting to such high-impact news.
Showdown time! Eurozone leaders confront Greece over shock calls for referendum which pushed Europe to the brink of financial disaster [Mail Online, Last updated at 6:23 PM on 2nd November 2011]
Original headline: The gloves are off! Greek PM prepares for showdown with Merkel and Sarkozy tonight as Europe teeters on the brink of financial disaster
George Papandreou has arrived in Cannes, France, after securing his ministers’ support for the vote in a mammoth seven-hour cabinet meeting last night. The referendum could take place next month.
If Greece rejects the austerity measures – part of a package to stop the sovereign debt crisis spreading, Europe faces being plunged into an economic catastrophe.
Mr Papendreou will face the wrath of President Nicolas Sarkozy and Chancellor Angela Merkel this evening ahead of the G20 summit.
The pair will then meet with other top world leaders who they will try to convince that the eurozone is not in terminal decline.
Ahead of talks tonight, the White House called for a ‘unanimity of purpose’ to come out of the talks.
Spokesman Jay Carney said: ‘Our goal is for there to be a unanimity of purpose coming out of the G20, which is the preeminent forum for these kinds of discussions.’
In Greece yesterday, little was done to calm the nerves of politicians and financial markets as Athens announced extraordinary plans to sack its military leaders amid rampant speculation that it was trying to head off a coup d’etat.
‘It’s all over. The government is about to collapse,’ said one Greek official. Greece’s former deputy finance minister Petros Doukas agreed: ‘The **** has hit the fan.’
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Markets rallied after big losses yesterday. In London the FTSE 100 was up 70.11 or 1.29% at 5491.68 this afternoon and in Germany and Paris, markets were up 2.62% and 1.76% respectively.
In the U.S., the Dow Jones was up 1.79% in early trading.
Economists warned that if Greece rejects the debt deal hammered out only last week, which would entail years of austerity, the entire future of the single currency is in peril.
They predicted that Italy, Spain and Portugal are likely to be plunged into a profound economic crisis because of their failure to get to grips with their towering debts.
The referendum would be an effective vote on whether or not Greece should remain in the straitjacket of the single currency and accept years of spending cuts and tax rises, or simply refuse to pay what it owes and crash out of the euro.
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Greece is effectively bankrupt and cannot pay off its debts, even with the tough austerity measures that have been forced upon it.
After fierce resistance, private banks and other investors agreed at a crunch summit in Brussels last week to write off 50 per cent of what its government owes.
The agreement was aimed at cutting Greek debt from 160 per cent of its earnings to 120 per cent by 2020. Without action, it would have ballooned to 180 per cent.
But the Greek people are furious at being asked to endure years of spending cuts and tax rises. There are increasing calls for the country to leave the euro, refuse to pay its way and reinstate the drachma.
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Labour peer Lord Soley said: ‘When the history of this period is written it may well be that the Greek decision will be seen as the economic equivalent of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand at Sarajevo in 1914. It will trigger events way beyond the borders of Greece or even Europe.’
Stock markets around the world crumbled yesterday as the eurozone lurched towards financial catastrophe. The FTSE 100 index fell more than two per cent in London – down 122.65 to 5421.57 – wiping £32billion off the value of Britain’s blue chip firms.
But there were far more punishing losses on the Continent, with shares in Italy and Greece down nearly seven per cent on a day of carnage on the financial markets. The Paris stock market lost 5.38 per cent, Frankfurt tumbled five per cent and the euro fell around 1.5 per cent against the U.S. dollar.
Shares in French banks were the worst hit on fears over their exposure to Greek debt. If Athens defaults, lenders in France look set to bear the greatest losses. One, Societe Generale, fell more than 16 per cent.
British banks did not escape the bloodbath, with Barclays losing 9.5 per cent of its value and state-controlled Royal Bank of Scotland down eight per cent.
Borrowing costs in Italy soared again yesterday as the crisis threatened to spread from Athens to Rome.
Lord Adair Turner, head of the UK’s Financial Services Authority, warned that Italy’s towering debts of 120 per cent of GDP present a much bigger threat to Britain’s banks than Greece.
Inside the News: Greece seen tipping Europe into recession [ReutersVideo, Nov 1, 2011]
Inside the News: ECB and IMF to press Greece over vote: RBC [ReutersVideo, Nov 2, 2011]
Euro zone needs lower rates, stimulus measures, says OECD [ReutersVideo, Nov 2, 2011]
A look at whether Mario Draghi can save the euro [ReutersVideo, Nov 2, 2011]
Greek PM risks all on referendum [AlJazeeraEnglish, Nov 1, 2011]
Greeks greet referendum with cynicism [AlJazeeraEnglish, Nov 1, 2011]
‘Papandreou may not survive no-confidence vote’ [AlJazeeraEnglish, Nov 1, 2011]
Rovelli Says Greece Uncertainty `Killing’ Stock Market [Bloomberg, Nov 1, 2011]
Donovan Says Greece Referendum Makes Sense Politically [Bloomberg, Nov 1, 2011]
Markets dive on Greek referendum shock [euronews-en, Nov 1, 2011]
[From euronews.net] Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s decision to let his people vote on the country’s bailout package caused the world’s financial markets to go into freefall on Tuesday.
The deal to rescue Greece and prevent a wider sovereign debt crisis is now in disarray just days after European leaders had agreed the outlines of a second bailout for Athens at marathon summit talks in Brussels.
Around Europe and on Wall Street there was a massive sell-off in the region’s stock markets with banks suffering worst, and French banks, which are among the most exposed to Greek government debt getting hammered.
“We have just added fuel to the fire and we don’t understand at all the decision of the Greek PM,” said Marc Touati, chief economist at Assya Compagnie Financiere in Paris.
“If there is a referendum the ‘no’ will win. Greece is playing a suicidal game that could lead to its exit of the euro zone so there is fear on French banks, but also on (euro zone) states.”
Investors have lost confidence in the Greek government, even more so when it was learned the prime minister had not informed his own finance minister before announcing his decision to hold the referendum. European leaders were also taken by surprise.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel scrambled to limit the damage.
They will hold an emergency meeting with the Greek prime minister in Cannes before the G20 Summit to push for a quick implementation of Athens’ bailout deal, Sarkozy’s office said in statement, but whether that is possible remains to be seen.
Andrew Lim, banking analyst at Espirito Santo in London, said that a Greek “no” vote could trigger a “hard default”, forcing banks to take losses of about 75 percent on their Greek sovereign bondsand raising the threat of a systemic risk.
“If we get a hard default in Greece, it will exacerbate the situation with Italy and Spain. It just increases the problem of Italy going down the same route, and that’s the real risk,” Lim said.
Hellas Frappe by Marina Spanos:
My name is Marina Spanos. I am a Greek-Canadian citizen who lives half her time in Greece, and half her time in Montreal, Quebec. I am a freelance journalist, graphic artist and translator.
…
I noticed that everyone I knew wanted and desired an alternative scope on the matters that concerned their nation, their heritage and simple everyday life, because much like myself they were tired of mainstream media news but could not find an alternate way to learn more about the matters that concerned them most. A blog, was the only logical answer, so I began the blog in late January 2011.
Another reason I started up this blog is my own personal frustration with the ignorance that is allowed to exist in the world and the system that fuels it. I am strongly in the opinion that too much important information is being controlled by people in power who shouldn’t even be trusted to hand out complementary perfume samples, let alone direct public opinion.
… much to my surprise people really started to question what they were hearing, what they were reading… People began to debate the information that they were being served to by the mainstream media. Subjects such as politics, the economy and science became “fashionable” once again. The result: They have now set out on their own journey to uncover the truth. For me… it was mission accomplished.
Nonetheless, being the dynamic individual that I am, I then set out to take the blog to newer levels. That is why I have decided to develop it into an online news magazine. This requires that I begin feeding it articles everyday, accept articles from contributors and diversify every category.
…
Papandreou Calls For Referendum Blackmailing Greek People With Future in EU [Hellas Frappe, Oct 31, 2011]
… The media that supports the government will dramatize the event saying that if we vote yes then we will have to accept Bulgarian-style factory wages and loss of sovereignty and if we vote no then we will have to learn to live on coupons, and go back to the drachma. …
… remember Article 44 of the Greek Constitution which stipulates that a referendum for financial matters cannot be held and must instead be voted on in parliament by 151 votes! …
…
And here comes the conspiracy part of this whole bit of news. We all know that Papandreou has been accused by main opposition New Democracy MP Panos Kammenos of committing treason on CDS contracts (click for that story here). What if this last move by Papandreou has some connection to this?
The Olympia website just released an article saying that there is only one way that Greece can be “THROWN” out of the Eurozone and that is if there is a military coup.
This is not that far-fetched, just five days ago coincidentally Forbes magazine also published a similar article claiming that the real solution to the Greek problem is a military coup. In fact the report said that instead of Germany trying to fund the Greek debt they should instead sponsor such a coup.
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What Papandreou did not achieve through Europe, in regards to the CDS contracts accusations made against him by Panos Kammenos, he might now be trying to achieve from a side door, in other words by provoking a chaotic environment so that a military coup can happen. In other words, the abolition of democracy in this country.
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CDS are not paid if a credit event is triggered because there is a declaration of war. But hedge fund holders can cash in if there is an abolition of democracy such as a “military coup”…. Here is the link for that http://www.zerohedge.com/article/cia-warns-greek-military-coup-rebellion-if-austerity-intensifies
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Beglitis Replaces Chiefs of Staff With Loyal PASOK Soldiers [Hellas Frappe, Nov 1, 2011]
… Defense Minister Panos Beglitis added even more fuel to the fire a little earlier by firing the Hellenic Chiefs of Staff to replace them with officers that are loyal to the socialist party.
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Beglitis’ decision to make these changes can only be described as purposely provoking a chaotic climate.
And possibly even triggering the “coup” we spoke about in yesterday’s article…
Are we headed for another Lehman moment in Europe? [RT America interview of Reggie Middleton, Oct 20, 2011]
… Lehman was one bank relatively small. The European banks have the same essential problem that Lehman Brothers did it is just sad that there are so many of them. … To be absolutely honest the only solution to the problem is the politically unfeasible solution and that is debt destruction. … What I’ve been seen in the media basically game playing and political ??? trying to use more debt to solve an indebtedness situation, trying to use financial engineering to solve a problem that was caused by financial engineering. … <Σ: US taxpayers [through their saving accounts] are second in line – once again – next to investors> … Very difficult to predict the timing [of a …] One guarantee is that a Lehman type collapse is going to happen in Europe. …
Who is Reggie Middleton and What is BoomBustBlog? [by his own BoomBusBlog, July 25, 2010]
Reggie Middleton is an entrepreneurial investor who guides a small team of independent analysts to uncover truths, seldom if, ever published in the mainstream media or Wall Street analysts reports. Since the inception of his BoomBustBlog, he has established an outstanding track record, including but not limited to, the call of….
- The housing market crash in the spring of 2006 and publicly in September of 2007 …
- Home builders falling and their grossly misleading use of off balance sheet structures to conceal excessive debt in November of 2007 ….
- The collapse of Bear Stearns in January 2008 (2 months before Bear Stearns fell, while trading in the $100s and still had buy ratings and investment grade AA or better from the ratings agencies) …
- The warning of Lehman Brothers before anyone had a clue!!! …
- The fall of commercial real estate in general (September of 2007) and the collapse of General Growth Properties [nation’s 2nd largest mall owner] in particular (November 2007) …
- The collapse of state and municipal finances, with California in particular (May 2008) …
- The collapse of the regional banks (32 of them, actually) in May 2008 …
- The collapse of the monoline insurers, Ambac and MBIA in late 2007 & 2008 …
- The overvaluation of Goldman Sachs from June 2008 to present …
- The ENTIRE Pan-European Sovereign Debt Crisis (potentially soon to be the Global Sovereign Debt Crisis) starting in January of 2009 and explicit detail as of January 2010 …
- Ireland austerity and the disguised sink hole of debt and non-performing assets that is the Irish banking system …
- The mobile computing paradigm shift, May 2010 …
Selling More CDS on Europe Debt Raises Risk for U.S. Banks [Bloomberg Business Week, Nov 2, 2011]
U.S. banks increased sales of insurance against credit losses to holders of Greek, Portuguese, Irish, Spanish and Italian debt in the first half of 2011, boosting the risk of payouts in the event of defaults.
Guarantees provided by U.S. lenders on government, bank and corporate debt in those countries rose by $80.7 billion to $518 billion, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Almost all of those are credit-default swaps, said two people familiar with the numbers, accounting for two-thirds of the total related to the five nations, BIS data show.
The payout risks are higher than what JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the leading CDS underwriters in the U.S., report. The banks say their net positions are smaller because they purchase swaps to offset ones they’re selling to other companies. With banks on both sides of the Atlantic using derivatives to hedge, potential losses aren’t being reduced, said Frederick Cannon, director of research at New York-based investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods Inc.
“Risk isn’t going to evaporate through these trades,” Cannon said. “The big problem with all these gross exposures is counterparty risk. When the CDS is triggered due to default, will those counterparties be standing? If everybody is buying from each other, who’s ultimately going to pay for the losses?”
Hedging Strategies
Similar hedging strategies almost failed in 2008 when American International Group Inc. couldn’t pay insurance on mortgage debt. While banks that sold protection on European sovereign debt have so far bet the right way, a plan announced yesterday by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to hold a referendum on the latest bailout package sent markets reeling and cast doubt on the ability of his country to avert default.
The CDS holdings of U.S. banks are almost three times as much as their $181 billion in direct lending to the five countries at the end of June, according to the most recent data available from BIS. Adding CDS raises the total risk to $767 billion, a 20 percent increase over six months, the data show. BIS doesn’t report which firms sold how much, or to whom. A credit-default swap is a contract that requires one party to pay another for the face value of a bond if the issuer defaults. …
Five Banks
Five banks — JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. — write 97 percent of all credit-default swaps in the U.S., according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. The five firms had total net exposure of $45 billion to the debt of Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain and Italy, according to disclosures the companies made at the end of the third quarter.
…
In theory, if a bank owns $50 billion of Greek bonds and has sold $50 billion of credit protection on that debt to clients while buying $90 billion of CDS from others, its net exposure would be $10 billion. This is how some banks tried to protect themselves from subprime mortgages before the 2008 crisis. Goldman Sachs and other firms had purchased protection from New York-based insurer AIG, allowing them to subtract the CDS on their books from their reported subprime holdings.
‘AIG Moment’
When prices of mortgage securities started falling in 2008, AIG was required to post more collateral to its CDS counterparties. It ran out of cash doing so, and the U.S. government took over the company. If AIG had collapsed, what the banks saw as a hedge of their mortgage portfolios would have disappeared, leading to tens of billions of dollars in losses.
“We could have an AIG moment in Europe,” said Peter Tchir, founder of TF Market Advisors, a New York-based research firm that focuses on European credit markets. “Let’s say Greece defaults, causing runs on other periphery debt that would trigger collateral requirements from the sellers of CDS, and one or more cannot meet the margin calls. There might be AIGs hiding out there.”
Dexia Bailout
The bailout of Dexia SA by Belgium and France last month resembled AIG’s rescue.
…
Counterparty CDS
…
Triggering Default
European leaders are doing everything they can not to trigger the default clauses in CDS contracts to avoid putting the banking system at risk. They persuaded bondholders to accept a 50 percent loss on their holdings of Greek debt in an agreement reached in Brussels last week with the Institute of International Finance, an industry association. The deal calls for a voluntary exchange of debt.
Another trade group, the International Swaps & Derivatives Association, or ISDA, decides whether a debt restructuring triggers CDS payments. The committee that will rule on the Greek deal is made up of 10 bank representatives and five investment managers and needs 12 votes to reach a decision. ISDA said on Oct. 27 that the agreement would most likely not be considered a default since it’s voluntary.
…
Favoring Big Banks
“The ISDA ruling favors the big banks that sold the CDS because those banks sit on the ISDA board,” said Tavakoli, a former head of mortgage-backed-securities marketing at Merrill Lynch & Co. “Smaller banks or other institutions that might have bought the swaps to protect against a default like this don’t have as much influence.”
…
‘Risk-Creation’
“Geithner keeps asking Europeans to fix their shop, but he doesn’t do anything to rein in the risk-creation at home through these derivatives,” Whalen said.
…
MF Global
MF Global Holdings Ltd., a broker-dealer run by former Goldman Sachs co-Chairman Jon Corzine, reported $1 billion of net exposure to Spain and $3 billion to Italy in its second- quarter financials, explaining in a footnote that the net was partly due to a short position on French bonds. Those hedges weren’t enough to protect MF Global, which filed for bankruptcy yesterday after losses in the portfolio wiped out its capital.
Hedging and other ways of netting help banks report lower exposures than the full risk they might face. Morgan Stanley said last month that its net exposure in the third quarter to the debt of Spain’s government, banks and companies was $499 million. The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, an interagency body that collects data for U.S. bank regulators and disallows some of the netting, said the New York-based firm’s exposure in Spain was $25 billion in the second quarter.
The net figure for Italy was $1.8 billion, Morgan Stanley said, compared with $11 billion reported by the federal data- collection body.
Ruth Porat, 53, Morgan Stanley’s chief financial officer, said during a call with investors after the earnings report last month that the data compiled by regulators didn’t take into account short positions, offsetting trades or collateral collected from trading partners.
“It’s the firms that don’t post collateral because they’re seen as more creditworthy that pose the counterparty risk,” said Tchir. “Those could be insurance companies, mid-size European banks. If some of those fail to pay when the CDS is triggered, then the U.S. banks could be left holding the bag.”
China’s leaders cautious on EU rescue plan [Keith B. Richburg, The Washington Post, Nov 1, 2011]
When President Hu Jintao travels this week to the glamorous French resort of Cannes for a summit of the world’s 20 leading industrialized and developed nations, it should be China’s moment to swagger on the global stage.
…
China’s leaders will contribute to Europe’s bailout fund, economists and other analysts here said. But they are doing so mainly because they have little choice, since a continued economic crisis in Europe is bad for China, too.
…
China’s ability to assist Europe — and to bankroll the U.S. debt through the purchase of Treasury securities — comes from its huge surpluses. The European Union, China’s largest export market, has a trade deficit with China of about $230 billion.
China’s leaders also are moving cautiously because they are acutely aware that Chinese public opinion is firmly against helping bail Europe out of its debt crisis. Comments on the hugely popular
Twitter-like microblogging sites,called weibo, offer a window into the popular sentiment.For China’s netizens, Europeans enjoy a rich lifestyle with lavish early-retirement packages and several weeks of paid vacation each year, while the majority of Chinese can barely earn enough to make a living. So why should China’s government be using its hefty reserves — the people’s money — to help Europe instead of improving living conditions at home?
“The root of the heavy European debt is excessive welfare,” wrote one weibo user under the name “Turbulence and Change.” “They have a large number of lazy people. Even if China doesn’t offer a hand, Europeans still won’t live worse than Chinese. Furthermore, no European will die of hunger.”
…
… the best way China could help Europe and the global economy in the long run is to return some of its huge reserves to Chinese consumers, which would increase their purchasing power — a wrenching long-term change that China’s leaders have already publicly pledged to make.
…
China’s leaders have said they are awaiting details of the new European Financial Stability Facility before making any firm commitment. The chief executive of the fund, Klaus Regling, came to China last week and met top finance and central bank officials, but got no guarantees.
…
The early 2010 Windows 8 alternative: the Courier tablet
Why Microsoft killed the Courier [Nov 1, 2011]
The inside story of how Microsoft killed its Courier tablet [Nov 1, 2011]
… At one point during that meeting in early 2010 at Gates’ waterfront offices in Kirkland, Wash., Gates asked Allard how users get e-mail. Allard, Microsoft’s executive hipster charged with keeping tabs on computing trends, told Gates his team wasn’t trying to build another e-mail experience. … Courier users could get e-mail from the Web, Allard said, according to sources familiar with the meeting. … The key to Courier, Allard’s team argued, was its focus on content creation. Courier was for the creative set, a gadget on which architects might begin to sketch building plans, or writers might begin to draft documents.
“This is where Bill had an allergic reaction,” said one Courier worker … He conveyed his opinions to Ballmer, who was gathering data from others at the company as well. Within a few weeks, Courier was cancelled because the product didn’t clearly align with the company’s Windows and Office franchises, according to sources.
…
While the internal fight over Courier occurred about 18 months ago, the implications of the decision to kill the incubation project reverberate today. Rather than creating a touch computing device that might well have launched within a few months of Apple’s iPad, which debuted in April 2010, Microsoft management chose a strategy that’s forcing it to come from behind. The company cancelled Courier within a few weeks of the iPad’s launch. Now it plans to rely on Windows 8, the operating system that will likely debut at the end of next year, to run tablets.
… using Windows as the operating system for tablets also implies that Microsoft will update the devices’ operating systems on the Windows time frame, typically every three years. Compare that to Apple, which seems likely to continue to update the iPad annually, a tactic that drives a raft of new sales each time a new generation hits the market. By the time Windows 8 rolls out, Apple will likely have introduced its iPad 3. Moreover, Amazon’s much anticipated Kindle Fire tablet, which goes on sale November 15, will have nearly a year head start on the Windows-powered tablet offerings.
On the other hand, Courier, with its modified version of Windows, could have been updated more frequently than the behemoth operating system itself.
…
Early on, the group opted to use Windows for Courier’s operating system. But it wasn’t a version of Windows that any consumer would recognize. The Courier team tweaked the operating system to make sure it could perform at high levels with touch- and pen-based computing. What’s more, the graphical shell of Windows–the interface that computer users associate with the operating system–was entirely removed. So while it was Windows under the hood, the home screens bore zero resemblance to the familiar PC desktop.
…
Designers working on Courier came up with clever notions for how digital paper should work. One of the ideas was to create “smart ink,” giving text, for example, mathematical properties. So when a user wrote “5+8=” on, say, digital graph paper, the number “13” would fill in the equation automatically. Additionally, if users selected lined digital paper, words would snap to each line as they were jotted down.
The phrase at the core of the Courier mission was “Free Create.” It was meant to describe the notion of eliminating the processes and protocols that productivity software often imposes on workers.
“Free Create is a simple statement that acts as a rallying cry, uniting the consumer’s core need and Courier’s core benefit,” reads a passage in an internal Microsoft book memorializing the Courier effort, reviewed by CNET, that was given to the team after the project was shuttered. “Free Create is a natural way to digitally write, sketch and gather inspiration by blending the familiarity of the pen, the intuition of touch, the simplicity of the book and the advantages of software and services.”
…
When Courier died, there was not a single prototype that contained all of the attributes of the vision: the industrial design, the screen performance, the software experience, the correct weight, and the battery life. Those existed individually, created in parallel to keep the development process moving quickly. Those prototypes wouldn’t have come together into a single unit until very late in the development process, perhaps weeks before manufacturing, which is common for cutting-edge consumer electronics design. But on the team, there was little doubt that they were moving quickly toward that final prototype.
“We were on the cusp of something really big,” said one Courier team member.
In late 2009, before the iPad had launched, the Courier team recognized the market for tablets was ready to explode. It laid out a detailed engineering schedule and made the case to Microsoft’s top brass that Courier could be a revolutionary device that would define a new product category. The team put forward a vision that Microsoft could create a new market rather than chasing down a leader or defending an established product.
“J (was) incubating with his tribe, very much thinking consumer and very much thinking the next few years,” a former Microsoft executive said. “He was trying to disrupt Microsoft, which hasn’t been good at consumer products.”
In fact, one of the mandates of Alchemie was to look only at product ideas and business concepts that were no farther than three years into the future. The Alchemie book includes something of an innovation process road map that lays out four “gates” that ideas needed to pass through to move from incubation to product development. And a source said that Courier had made it through all four gates.
So why did Courier die? The answer lies in an understanding of Microsoft’s history and culture.
Microsoft “Courier” secret tablet [Sept 22, 2009]
Special: Interview with Microsoft NUI/UX Designer Ron George [Nov 25, 2009]
The futuristic videos you see may or may not come from MSFT. It all depends. Sometimes MSFT gives challenges to outside vendors to think up something crazy and those are usually the videos that somehow get, “leaked” online. The true MSFT videos that are created internally, at least in my experience, have never been leaked. These are where the real ‘gold’ is. I saw the ‘courier’ video that was leaked (click here to see it -MSK) and it was very basic with few truly useful interactions. If that was done in house, it would have been much grander and much more detailed. People seem to forget about how large and how the scope of MSFT is beyond what you see today by 3-10 years.
Microsoft confirms Courier tablet, quashes hopes of shipping it [AppleInsider, April 29, 2010]
Microsoft has finally confirmed that it has been working on a tablet concept known as “Courier,” but the company has also announced that it has “no plans to build such a device at this time.”
The evolution of Courier at Microsoft
In 2008, Microsoft floated a mobile collaboration app for Windows Mobile under the name Courier. Nobody seemed to notice, given the overshadowing presence of iPhone 2.0 over the mobile software market.
The following year, Courier tablet concept photos were leaked by Gizmodo. It presented rendered depictions of dual-screen notebook supporting both touch and stylus input. The leak occurred just in time to suggest that Microsoft had big plans in place to rival the iPhone in the mobile arena, much like the introduction of the quickly forgotten Surface in 2007 had served as a temporary distraction from the original iPhone launch.
Shortly after the introduction of Apple’s iPad, new pictures were leaked by Engadget depicting the dual screen Courier as a veritable competitor and near twin of the iPad, although there were no real details about availability or pricing.
Microsoft continued to officially promote the Slate PCs introduced in January by PC makers, but bloggers excitedly spoke of Courier as a real product that would ship at the end of 2010, presumably at a reasonable price and with lots of features missing from Apple’s iPad.
Courier was also expected to run the same software (and Windows CE operating system) as the company’s Zune HD music player and Windows Phone 7 smartphones, creating a counterpoint to Apple’s iPhone OS and its App Store for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad devices.
Today, Frank Shaw, Microsoft’s VP of corporate communications, dashed any hopes for Courier in telling Engadget, “At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It’s in Microsoft’s DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity. The ‘Courier’ project is an example of this type of effort and its technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings, but we have no plans to build such a device at this time.”
Engadget mused that “Courier will always remain in our hearts as one of the finest unicorns that ever unicorned across our screens.”
Speculation About the “Courier” Project [April 29, 2010]
Over the past few months there has been a ton of speculation about the “Courier” project from Microsoft. We’ve not discussed or confirmed the project. There is more speculation today, and below is what we are saying publicly:
“At any given time, across any of our business groups, there are new ideas being investigated, tested, and incubated. It’s in Microsoft’s DNA to continually develop and incubate new technologies to foster productivity and creativity. The ‘Courier’ project is an example of this type of effort and its technologies will be evaluated for use in future Microsoft offerings.”
I am excited about the great set of products and services rolling out from the company in the next few months – Office 2010, Windows Phone KIN, Windows Phone 7, SQL Server 2008 R2, Project Natal from the Xbox team, Windows Live Wave 4, among others. It is going to be a fun next few months!
Posted by Frank Shaw
Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications.
Microsoft’s New Mobile Strategy: Software for Every Platform [Sept 17].
Microsoft’s Tivanka Ellawala told the WSJ that the company’s done with smartphone hardware (beyond in-house prototypes, presumably): “We are in the software business and that is where our business will be focused,” he said. That means no follow-ups to the Kin social media smartphone, definitely; no resuscitation of the Courier e-reader/tablet project, probably; and a new focus on making apps for other platforms, quite possibly.
J Allard [June 28, 2008]
Chief Experience Officer and Chief Technology Officer, Entertainment and Devices Division
As Chief Experience Officer (CXO) and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), J Allard is responsible for the technical architecture and user experiences related to products and services of the Entertainment and Devices (E&D) division. Allard works closely with technical leaders across the company to align E&D product teams with Microsoft’s overall services strategy and product architecture, and drives the technical and design agenda to deliver Connected Entertainment experiences for consumers. With a unified approach and his personal passion for the possibilities of digital entertainment, Allard manages the E&D design group and also oversees an incubation team that scouts new opportunities for the division.
A 15-year veteran of Microsoft, Allard previously managed the technical development of the Xbox game console and Zune media player, and launched the Zune portable entertainment devices and services business. Allard helped shape the company’s Internet strategy, has shipped over 30 products at Microsoft and was a founding member of the Xbox, Windows NT and TCP/IP product families.
Allard holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from Boston University and was recognized in 2003 as a Distinguished Alumnus, the highest honor the university confers on its alumni. Allard has been named to several leadership and influentials lists, including The Hollywood Reporter’s “Top 35 Entertainment Execs Under 35” and Details’ list of “Most Powerful Men Under 38,” and is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leader program.
Microsoft still dreaming of Courier, patents dual screen “digital notebook” [Oct 2, 2010]
As far as we know Microsoft’s Courier project is stone dead, but like due to its rather violent demise it spirit clearly still haunts the company, as its ghost appears to pop up every once in a while.
On this occasion we have a patent submitted very recently, on the 30th September, for a device which clearly embodies many of the concepts we first saw in the leaked Courier project.
The patent is summarized as such:
BACKGROUND
Touch sensitive displays are configured to accept inputs in the form of touches, and in some cases approaching or near touches, of objects on a surface of the display. Touch inputs may include touches from a user’s hand (e.g., thumb or fingers), a stylus or other pen-type implement, or other external object. Although touch sensitive displays are increasingly used in a variety of computing systems, the use of touch inputs often requires accepting significant tradeoffs in functionality and the ease of use of the interface.SUMMARY
Accordingly, a touch sensitive computing system is provided, including a touch sensitive display and interface software operatively coupled with the touch sensitive display. The interface software is configured to detect a touch input applied to the touch sensitive display and, in response to such detection, display touch operable user interface at a location on the touch sensitive display that is dependent upon where the touch input is applied to the touch sensitive display.In one further aspect, the touch input is a handtouch input, and the touch operable user interface that is displayed in response is a pentouch operable command or commands. In yet another aspect, the activated user interface is displayed upon elapse of an interval following receipt of the initial touch input, though the display of the activated user interface can be accelerated to occur prior to full lapse of the interval in the event that the approach of a pen-type implement is detected.
This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the Detailed Description. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any or all disadvantages noted in any part of this disclosure.
Nokia Lumia (Windows Phone 7) value proposition
Follow up:
– Nokia World 2011 videos on YouTube NokiaConversations channel [Oct 26 — Nov 20, 2011]
– ST-Ericsson NovaThor SoCs for future Windows Phones from Nokia [Nov 3, 2011]
– Designing smarter phones–Marko Ahtisaari (Nokia) and Albert Shum (Microsoft) [Nov 23, 2011]
Updates:
– 3 Minutes with Nokia CEO Stephen Elop [YouTube, Oct 27, 2011]
Why a sequencing of launches? US operators have nothing to do with that. N9 is for learning a lot. Not answered yet: elements of UX and Qt environment in the future. Nothing clear for “the other ecosystem” [presumably the Android] what is the standard UX. Nokia sees the Windows 8 opportunity, commonality with Windows smartphone for itself as well. Microsoft bet on HTML5 is also important for the forming of the ecosystem. One is clear it is more than just the phones … it is also search, advertising, unified communications (like Skype), business productivity, gaming, music … that’s the experience people are looking for.
[About N9 and Qt:] Elements of N9. The things that really define that product you will see continue on. The reason we continue with N9 is because we believe we could learn a lot about certain things that actually make the N9 unique in the way that it is. … What remains unanswered, and will remain unanswered for today, is when I say ‘elements of the user experience’ or ‘the Qt environment’. What does that mean? That’s still something you’ll see ahead from Nokia.
…
In terms of (Windows Phone) doesn’t allow for the Sense UI or whatever, I would suggest that one of the biggest challenges facing that particular ecosystem is the fact that there is more and more of that going on. And when I go into the store and look at what that brand was supposed to stand for, I’m not quite seeing it — it’s just unclear what the standard is for the user experience.
…
The user experience of Windows 8 is essentially a supercharged version of the Nokia Lumia experience that you saw on stage today. And you see the parallels and opportunity for commonality from a user perspective. You say wow, this is more than just smartphones, there’s a broader opportunity here. And clearly we see that broader opportunity as well, without specifically commenting on what that may mean in the future.
More hints on N9 and Qt are in the Sept-Oct “Updates” parts of Nokia N9 UX [?Swipe?] on MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan [June 24, 2011]
– Nokia’s Elop Plans U.S. Return in ’12 With Multiple Carriers [Bloomberg Business Week, Nov 2, 2011]
“There’s a new tablet opportunity coming,” he said. “We see the opportunity. Unquestionably, that will change the dynamics” of the tablet market.
– Nokia EVP Jo Harlow [Smart Devices] explains why Windows Phone is “Easier, faster, and a hell of a lot more fun” [inc. the 7 min video interview, Oct 27, 2011]
– Nokia Drive gets you where you need to go [inc. the 5 min video interview, Oct 26, 2011]
– Nokia Music makes music personal & portable [inc. the 5 min video interview, Oct 26, 2011]
– First look at Kinectimals for Windows Phone [inc. the 2 min video interview, Oct 26, 2011]
– Xbox 360 on your Nokia Lumia 710 and Nokia Lumia 800 [inc. the 2 min demo video, Oct 26, 2011]
– New music picks for Nokia Lumia 710 and Lumia 800 [Oct 27, 2011]
– Nokia Music on Nokia Lumia 800 – complete video tour [Oct 27, 2011]
– Nokia Maps on Nokia Lumia smartphones [Oct 28, 2011]
– Nokia Drive and Nokia Music, with MirrorLink [Oct 28, 2011]
– 40 hours of hard code: Nokia Hackathon winners [Oct 28, 2011]
End of Updates
Content: Nokia Lumia 800 & 710 – Three Unique Differentiators (Nokia Music and MixRadio, Navigation, ESPN Sports Hub – all free) – A Better Representation of the General WP7 Differentiators – Experience “The Amazing Everyday” Marketing Campaign – Nokia Maps Updates – Other Map-related Applications
NOKIA World 2011 Keynote Handout [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Lumia 800 & 710, Windows Phones Announced [Anandtech, Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Lumia Windows Phone Lineup:
| Lumia 800 | Lumia 710 | |
| SoC | Qualcomm S2 MSM8255 1.4GHz | Qualcomm S2 MSM8255 1.4GHz |
| Display | 3.7-inch AMOLED PenTile RGBG | 3.7-inch TFT-LCD |
| Camera | 8MP LED Flash rear facing camera Carl Zeiss lens |
5MP LED Flash rear facing camera |
| Memory | 512MB, 16GB NAND | 512MB, 8GB NAND (up to 24GB via a 16GB microSD) |
| Dimensions | 116.5 x 61.2 x 12.11 mm, 142g | 119.0 x 62.4 x 12.5 mm, 126g |
| Battery | 5.365Wh | 4.81Wh |
| Network Support | WCDMA, EDGE Class B, GPRS Class B HSUPA 5.76Mbps HSDPA 14.4MbpsWCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 GSM 850/900/1800/1900 |
WCDMA, EDGE Class B, GPRS Class B HSUPA 5.76Mbps HSDPA 14.4MbpsWCDMA 900/1900/2100 GSM 850/900/1800/1900 |
| Connectivity | 802.11n b/g/n (2.4 GHz), BT 2.1+EDR, USB 2.0 | 802.11n b/g/n (2.4 GHz), BT 2.1+EDR, USB 2.0 |
Nokia Lumia 800 Presentation and Hands On [26 minutes long, Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia relying on Mango smartphones to maintain global market share [Oct 26, 2011]
…
Nokia will release new Mango models powered by dual-core CPUs with additional functionalities, including the support of NFC technology, in 2012, the sources added.
Nokia should rely on handset ODMs in Taiwan such as Compal Communications and Foxconn International Holdings (FIH) as back-up units, said the sources, noting that Taiwan-based ODMs have enough expertise in the development of Windows Mobile phones and have long been in cooperation with Nokia.
The launch of Mango phones offer a chance for Nokia to build up a complete supply chain that will also include Taiwan makers of optical lenses, modules, flat panels, chassis and cases so as to compete effectively with other handset vendors using supply chains in China or Korea, the sources commented.
Nokia unveils Mango phones, optimizing Taiwan supply capacity [Oct 27, 2011]
Nokia, with strong support from Taiwan-based handset ODMs and component suppliers, has unveiled two a series of its Windows Phone 7.5-based Mango phones, the Lumia and Asha lineups.
While Qualcomm is supplying the chipset solutions for Nokia’s Mango phones, the majority of other parts and components are coming from partners in Taiwan, according to industry sources.
Nokia Mango phones: List of parts and components suppliers from Taiwan
Item Company
ODM/Assembly Compal Communications, Foxconn International Holdings (FIH)
LCD panel Chimei Innolux (CMI), AU Optronics (AUO)
Touch panel Wintek, Young Fast Optoelectronics, JTouch
Keypad Silitech Technology, Ichia Technologies
Metal chassis Silitech, Chi Cheng Enterprise
Case Catcher Technology, Foxconn Technology, Lite-On Technology, Chi Cheng
PCB Compeq, Unimicron Technology, Ichia
Connector Foxlink
Lens Largan Precision
Headset Merry Electronics
Quartz component TXC
Source: Industry sources, compiled by Digitimes, October 2011
Nokia showcases bold portfolio of new phones, services and accessories at Nokia World [Oct 26, 2011]
…
The first Nokia Lumia [the word ‘Lumia’ is the term coined by 20th Century Artist Thomas Wilfred to refer to art created from light] smartphones
First two smartphones based on Windows Phone introduce a range of new experiences designed to make everyday moments more amazing.
Nokia Lumia 800
The stunningly social Nokia Lumia 800 features head-turning design, vivid colors (cyan, magenta and black) and the best social and Internet performance, with one-touch social network access, easy grouping of contacts, integrated communication threads and Internet Explorer 9. It features a 3.7 inch AMOLED [PenTile RGBG from Samsung] ClearBlack curved display blending seamlessly into the reduced body design, and a 1.4 GHz processor with hardware acceleration and a graphics processor. The Nokia Lumia 800 contains an instant-share camera experience based on leading Carl Zeiss optics, HD video playback, 16GB of internal user memory and 25GB of free SkyDrive storage for storing images and music. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 800 will be approximately 420 EUR [US$ 585], excluding taxes and subsidies.[Nokia Lumia 800 Data Sheet PDF (351.27 KB) and Detailed specifications]
Nokia Lumia 710
The purposely built, no-nonsense Nokia Lumia 710 can be personalized with exchangeable back covers and thousands of apps to bring the Lumia experience to more people around the world. The Nokia Lumia 710 is designed for instant social & image sharing, and the best browsing experience with IE9. It is available in black and white with black, white, cyan, fuchsia and yellow back covers. With the same 1.4 GHz processor, hardware acceleration and graphics processor as the Nokia Lumia 800, the Nokia Lumia 710 delivers high performance at an affordable price. The estimated retail price for the Nokia Lumia 710 will be approximately 270 EUR [US$ 376], excluding taxes and subsidies.[Nokia Lumia 710 Data Sheet PDF (181.31 KB) and Detailed specifications]
Both smartphones include signature Nokia experiences optimized for Windows Phone, including Nokia Drive, which delivers a full-fledged personal navigation device (PND) with free, turn-by-turn navigation and dedicated in-car-user-interface; and Nokia Music introducing MixRadio, a free, global, mobile music-streaming application that delivers hundreds of channels of locally-relevant music. In an update delivered later this year, Nokia Lumia users will also gain the ability to create personalized channels from a global catalogue of millions of tracks. Also integrated in Nokia Music is Gigfinder, providing the ability to search for live local music for a complete end-to-end music experience, as well as the ability to share discoveries on social networks and buy concert tickets also coming in the Nokia Music software update delivered later this year.
Completing the ultimate mobile audio offering, Nokia also introduced the on-ear Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster and the in-ear Nokia Purity Stereo Headset by Monster, co-designed and co-developed by Monster, a recognized leader in high performance audio. Both products provide a fresh listening experience and are the first output of the exclusive long-term partnership between Nokia and Monster, intended to introduce a range of premium audio accessories to reflect the outstanding quality and bold style of the Lumia range.
The new Nokia Lumia 800 is now available in select countries for pre-order on www.nokia.com and is scheduled to roll-out across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and the UK in November, with 31 leading operators and retailers providing unprecedented marketing support in those first six countries. It is scheduled to be available in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan before the end of the year, and in further markets in early 2012.
The Nokia Lumia 710 is scheduled to be available first in Hong Kong, India, Russia, Singapore and Taiwan toward the end of the year alongside the Nokia Lumia 800, before becoming available in further markets in early 2012.
Nokia also announced its plans to introduce a portfolio of products into the US in early 2012 and into mainland China in the first half of 2012. In addition to the existing products, which include coverage for WCDMA and HSPA, Nokia also plans LTE and CDMA products to address specific local market requirements.
Three Unique Differentiators
Free Nokia Music and MixRadio:
Music and Entertainment – Nokia Lumia 800 [Oct 26, 2011]
Music and Entertainment – Nokia Lumia 710
Nokia’s new Windows Phone include MixRadio streaming music [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia unveiled its first two Windows Phone smartphones this morning at its Nokia World conference in London: the Lumia 800 and Lumia 710.
Both will include an app called Nokia Music which represents the company’s latest digital music initiative.
During the keynote presentation at the event, Nokia SVP Kevin Shields borrowed one of Apple’s famous phrases to trumpet the simplicity of Nokia Music: “No signup. No subscription. No login. No password. No nothing. It just works!”
What is ‘it’ though? Well, the key feature of the Nokia Music app is called MixRadio. It provides a host of streaming music mixes – playlists of tracks – which can also be cached locally on the device. Sorted by genre, the playlists will be updated every week or so by Nokia’s music team with new tracks.
Music Ally got hands on with the app directly after the keynote, and was shown another feature of MixRadio: its Pandora-style ability to create personal mixes for people when they search for a specific artist. These too can be downloaded to the Lumia phones for offline play.
“I think we have finally solved the mobile music problem. I don’t know how to make it any easier,” said Shields during the keynote. But what about licensing? Afterwards, we asked the Nokia staffer who was demonstrating the app where it stands regarding licences.
He said that Nokia will be building on its existing relationships with rightsholders for its a la carte store and other music services, but said the specific deals for MixRadio are still being negotiated and will hopefully be in place for the launch of the new phones in November.
As with Pure Digital’s announcement of its Pure Music service earlier this week, it could be seen as risky to unveil a new app before the licensing deals are sealed.
There is a music panel session later today at Nokia World with representatives from PIAS and Warner Music International, so we’ll aim to sneak in a question about it.
Free Navigation:
Nokia Drive for Lumia [Nokia Conversations, Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Drive on WP7 demo by Andre Kuhn [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Drive has been crafted for the new Nokia Lumia phones using the years of expertise we have accumulated in location-based services. This resulting translation for Windows Phone is an application specifically designed to make navigation effortless.
Driving while referring to your smartphone’s sat-nav is not always easy, especially in busy traffic, when you need it most. That’s why we simplified the user interface of Nokia Drive, so that you can focus on features and information you need most.
A map of your position, the direction to take, your speed and the distance to your destination are essential elements of Nokia Drive. So we’ve made them easy to read from the screen of your Nokia Lumia.
Nokia Drive also has neat features like support for 2D and 3D maps, a night mode and satellite view. And, to make it easier for you to find your next destination, Nokia Drive supports type-ahead suggestions and search history. You can also swipe between search results.
Most importantly, you can save on data costs with Nokia Drive because you can preload country maps. Fast, reliable, nice to look at and available in more than 100 countries, you are going to love our vector maps.
Nokia Drive comes preinstalled on Nokia Lumia 800 and Nokia Lumia 710 and is available in almost 50 languages.
Of course, Nokia Drive is also available for smartphones with Symbian Anna and Symbian Belle, and for Nokia N9 which also support Nokia Car Mode and MirrorLink. Read more about our location-based apps on the Nokia Maps Blog.
Drive and Maps – Nokia Lumia 800 [Oct 26, 2011]
Drive and Maps — Nokia Lumia 710
Nokia Maps for Lumia [Nokia Conversations, Oct 26, 2011]
You might already be familiar with Nokia Maps on other platforms: it’s currently available for Symbian, MeeGo but also on the web and on your iOS or Android mobile browser.
Whilst Nokia Drive has been specifically designed for your effortless driving experience, Nokia Maps lets you see where you are and discover places nearby in an instant. In other words Nokia Maps is your perfect companion if you want to explore the world around you, no matter whether you are a local or not.
With Nokia Maps you can easily find a place because it supports intuitive auto-complete suggestions and search history.
However, if you are unsure of where to go next, Nokia Maps helps you decide which place to pick by including reviews and photos from over 50 guides & local content providers.
And that’s not all. With just a tap you can now see which other places are close to the one you’ve just selected. So, after a good meal at a restaurant you know where to go for a drink without going to the other side of town.
Getting to the place you have selected is very easy with Nokia Maps because you get smart directions for drive, walk and public transport. It puts you in charge of navigation. You decide where to go and how to get there.
These are only a few of the things that are keeping us busy bringing you the best location-based experience.
Nokia Live View, for instance, which is currently in beta for Nokia Symbian smartphones, is our augmented reality application. Wherever you are, just open the camera of your smartphone to discover more of what’s around you. And if you are into outdoor activities, you will be thrilled to know that we are working on a specific application for you, called Nokia Tracks. With more than 80% of the planet covered by non-urban areas, we know that you have a lot to explore. This is why we want to give you the ability to record where your route has taken you so far, your current direction, your altitude, and how fast you are going. Stay tuned to know more about the development of Nokia Tracks!
The most advanced features of Nokia Maps are also available on Nokia smartphones with Symbian Anna, Symbian Belle, and MeeGo. You can read more on the Nokia Maps Blog. Nokia Maps is going to be available soon in the Marketplace for your Windows Phone. We can’t wait for you to let us know what you think about it.
Free ESPN Sports Hub: shown only as a “sneak peak” of the future service which will come exclusive to Nokia
Nokia showcases bold portfolio of new phones, services and accessories at Nokia World [Oct 26, 2011]:
This unique collaboration between our two companies on the ESPN Hub has been a truly global effort that will see us continue to work closely together in the months ahead. Nokia not only provides a great distribution platform, but they’re also a driver of innovation, which allows us to create an experience that enables ESPN to better serve sports fans around the world.
Russell Wolff, Executive Vice President and Managing Director, ESPN International
Nokia Sports App for Windows Phone 7
Nokia’s third and final innovation for its own branded Windows Phone devices will be in the sports field. Nokia Sports will be integrated with ESPN Sports Huband will highlight Windows Phone 7′s panoramic screens to provide highlights, news, scores, and team information.
Users can pin a league or a team back to the start page on the Metro UI as a live tile. This way, users can have quick access to their sports teams.
A Better Representation of the General WP7 Differentiators
[Social] People and Messaging – Nokia Lumia 800 [Oct 25, 2011]
People and Messaging – Nokia Lumia 710
Office and Mail – Nokia Lumia 800 Smartphone [Oct 26, 2011]
Office and Mail – Nokia Lumia 710
Marketplace and Games – Nokia Lumia 800 [Oct 26, 2011]
Marketplace and Games — Nokia Lumia 710
Browsing and Search – Nokia Lumia 800 [Oct 26, 2011]
Browsing and Search — Nokia Lumia 710
Experience “The Amazing Everyday” Marketing Campaign
An excellent summary of the marketing campaign and sales approach:
– More than just sexy phones: how Nokia will help sell Windows Phone 7 [Oct 29, 2011]
Introducing Nokia Lumia – The Amazing Everyday [Oct 26, 2011]
10:18 JJ: Steven Overman – marketing – wants to drive lust for Lumia. Marketing communication target age is 25 years old.
10:20 JJ: The Amazing Everyday campaign. “Everyday can be amazing. You can do everyday things in amazing ways. We are going to fill the world with tiles. It’s about time someone offers an alternative smartphone UI.”
The tagline is meant to emphasize optimism and new experiences. Overman said in every channel where Nokia is selling its Windows Phone devices, Nokia will launch a kind of viral marketing campaign – think people dressed as Windows Phone tiles, DJ booths at bus stations – to drive interest in Windows Phone. The design of stores where the devices will be sold will reflect the mutli-colored tiles that mark Windows Phone’s user interface.
10:23 JJ: “We’re going to invade cities. A journey which is leading people to a store. We’re making marketing that is contagious. That people will take photos of.”
The Amazing Everyday TVC – Nokia Lumia 800 Smartphone [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Lumia 800 – Eggs and Bacon Guy [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Lumia 800 – Wind Skating [Oct 25, 2011]
Nokia Lumia 800 Smartphone – Gangster Ironing [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Lumia 800. The designer’s story. [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Maps Updates
Nokia Maps for Web update [Oct 25, 2011]
Our maps.nokia.com has been recently updated with yet more features that we are sure you are going to love.
Nokia Maps 3D: Making Of [Oct 24, 2011]
With Nokia Maps 3D (http://nokia.ly/snhwAs) it’s almost like being there. You might be wondering how we manged to get such a high level of detail. It certainly isn’t easy, but it’s easy to explain.First of all, a nice surprise for the location fans among you: the wonderful Nokia Maps 3D is going to be 100% 3D and 0% plugin. If you want to give it a try, it’s been available for a while. All you need to do is point your browser (only Chrome at the moment, other browsers are being tested) to http://maps.nokia.com/webgl
New additions to Nokia Maps – Plugin-free 3D maps- Heat maps in 56 countries – Public Transport guides- Explore Places Since we first launched Nokia Maps 3D, many of you were eager to know exactly how we are able to provide such a photorealistic experience. With you in mind, we prepared the video at the top of the page that helps to explain all.
But of course maps.nokia.com is not only about 3D where you can feel like you were at any part of the world. Which is why we are introducing editorial pages for more than 50 cities around the world. Now you can discover all the cool places in, for instance, London, New York City, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, get the latest weather forecasts and Lonely Planet suggestions in one place.
And to make you feel more like a local anywhere, we increased the coverage of heat mapsto 56 cities. However, that’s not all. We have one more feature we would like to highlight: public transport.
Now, in more than 420 cities you can plan your journey from A to B also with underground, light rail and similar options. In more than 30 of those cities you also get timetable information to know exactly when you have to leave home.
Give maps.nokia.com a try today to find your perfect destination and have Nokia Maps guide you there, effortlessly.
Nokia Maps set the 3D world on fire, with heat maps [Oct 25, 2011]
GLOBAL – Ever since the new-look Nokia Maps was unveiled last Tuesday, we’ve been playing around with the new features. If we’re not taking a 3D look at the new cities, we’re zooming into different places to see where the local hotspots are by using the heat maps. Want to know more about how these features work? Then read on.
Nokia Maps 3D
Nokia Maps has been a great service offered by Nokia for a couple of years now. We’ve seen it grow from an on-device service to one that now works on the Web. As good as Nokia Maps is, it’s the new feature that’s blowing people’s minds. Nokia Maps 3Dshows you the world in a full 360º perspective – or at least certain cities of the world, for now.
In order to capture the images of a city, specialised camera equipment takes an image a second of the same object, up to 100 times, each at a different angle. It’s at this point the images are automatically joined together to form the 3D object by clever image processing software and those images in turn are joined to the previous image resulting in a seamless tapestry of 3D mapping-goodness.
There are currently 23 cities that have been turned into 3D models with a plan to create 3D representations of everywhere in the world. The practicalities of this can prove difficult, though, particularly with local laws which might prevent our cameras from flying overhead.
Here’s two images of a 3D Buckingham Palace in London with a north view and a south view – Select the images for a close-up.
Heat Maps
Heat maps on Nokia Maps works for one reason, and that’s down to the Points of Interest (POI) that are stored on the Ovi Places directory. Let’s say you want to go out in London for the night, but you’re not sure where the buzzis, or where’s popular. The heat map is an overlay that shows you a darker red colour for more popular – or POI dense – places, with the orange and yellow colours representing the less dense places. Somewhere still exciting, but maybe more intimate and secluded.
In order to achieve this visualisation and not have every single POI on the map, Nokia selected some of the premium POIs. This is due to the fact that people can add their own public place to the map which saves to the directory, and we wouldn’t want to spend the day visiting other people’s houses or offices, would we? The premium POIs are provided from services, such as Lonely Planet, WCities and Michelin to name a few, and these bring reviews and some great photos, too. So you know what to expect before you set off out on your travel to the hotspot.
As the POIs are constantly being updated to add more great restaurants, bars, sight-seeing spots or shopping outlets, this heat map will evolve over time, too. So we’ll expect to see this feature to continually grow and evolve and maybe even see the hotspots shift, slightly.
Here’s what the London Explore local sights heat map looks like with one of the photos selected – Click the image to zoom in and for more details.
You can see there’s the option to expand the window so you can see more details of that place, along with the address and some other options, too, such as share, directions and even a star rating.
What’s your favourite feature of the new and improved Nokia Maps? Have you used the heat maps yet for ideas of where to go? Let us know, below.
Yahoo! Maps: Now powered by Nokia [Oct 25, 2011]
Last year Nokia and Yahoo! joined forcesto create an alliance that leverages each others’ strengths in email, instant messaging, maps and navigation services. The purpose of the alliance is to provide consumers with access to world-class experiences on both PC and mobile devices.
Following on the successful transition of Yahoo! powering Nokia’s email service, Yahoo! is now making the switch to using the Nokia Maps platform. With a gradual rollout which is starting today in the United States and Canada, Yahoo! Maps is now amongst others benefitting from new features provided by Nokia Maps: latest maps with up-to-date location data/addresses, new routing options allowing users to avoid tolls and freeway, updated road networks and points of interest.
The Nokia Maps engine has been then customized by Yahoo! to offer a new, simplified layout and visual design with a maximized viewable area, enhanced business listings support, leveraging the improvements made to the Yahoo! local listings database, and a consistent interface across the Yahoo! network with the universal location widget, allowing users to search and select locations.
This platform switch is further proof of the world class platform expertise and scalable global infrastructure that Nokia has been building over the last couple of years in the location platform space. Other companies have also recognized Nokia’s leadership in that area. All over the world we are supporting partners like Foursquare, Yelp, VKontakte and Sina, to mention a few, in the development of innovative location services – for web as well as for native mobile apps.
In doing so, our partners benefit from our modularly usable platform. What does that mean? It’s quite simple: Every partner can use exactly those pieces of the platform that he needs. At the same time our global platform infrastructure is designed to scale – allowing us to partner with some of the largest companies in the world. You want a proof for that? Just check out Yahoo! Maps – now powered by Nokia.
You can give it a spin now at maps.yahoo.com (US, English); espanol.maps.yahoo.com (US, Spanish); ca.maps.yahoo.com (Canada, English); and qc.maps.yahoo.com (Canada, French).
Other Map-related Applications
Nokia showcases bold portfolio of new phones, services and accessories at Nokia World [Oct 26, 2011]
In addition to its world-class, free walk-and-drive navigation for more than 100 countries worldwide, the Nokia Public Transport application tracks public transportation directly on a mobile device in more than 430 cities worldwide, including up-to-the-minute updates on bus and train routes for 45 cities. Nokia also introduced Nokia Pulse, which allows location-tagged updates and photos to be sent privately, adding location to conversations with the people that matter most. Nokia also showcased Nokia Live View, which turns the phone’s camera view finder into a reality augmenting tool. With Nokia Live View, a phone can be pointed to a building or street and the names of the places become superimposed over them, offering one click access to detailed information about businesses, restaurant or attractions. All the applications announced today are available at Nokia’s Beta Labs (betalabs.nokia.com).
Nokia also announced:
…
An agreement with the New York Metropolitan Transit Authority to develop a NFC-based smartphone ticketing solution to pilot on New York regional commuter trains starting before the end of 2011
Nokia Pulse Beta (likely to graduate to a commercial product) [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Pulse. The New Way to Check in [Oct 25, 2011]
Adding an inspired twist on social location, Nokia Pulse lets you instantly send location-tagged updates and photos to private groups of family and close friends. So syncing up in town and staying up to date is even simpler than sending a text message, but still just as private.Nokia Pulsebrings your everyday conversations to life by automatically tagging photos and updates with your location.
Every conversation, from pickups and drop-offs to meet-ups, is as instant, private, and simple as sending a text, but far more useful and engaging. Nokia Pulse is integrated with Maps, so finding people nearby, discovering new places, and getting directions is a snap.
Group Conversations:
Keep it Private. Keep it Personal. Keep it Real.
- Private check in – All your conversations stay private and safe
- Photo check in – Automatically tag your location to all your photo updates
- Private by Default – No complicated privacy settings needed
Live Places:
One tap and they know where you are. Two taps to get you there.
- Bring your favorite places to life – Post a favorite place to a conversation
- Discover what.s nearby – Make and view recommendations of nearby places of interest
- Getting there is a snap – Get directions directly from the recommended place
Your People:
Your Family. Your People. You Decide.
- Instant: Receive instant on-device notifications of all new updates
- Open: Everyone with an email address can participate
- Easy: Sending and receiving messages with Nokia Pulse is as easy as SMS
- Powered by the cloud: Your conversations are saved in the cloud for as long as you need them
- Accessible from anywhere: Nokia Pulse is available on multiple touch-points – desktop web, mobile web, Windows Phone and Symbian devices
Nokia Maps Suite Beta (likely to graduate to a commercial product) [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Maps Suite brings you the future of location-based services. Places helps you discover where to go and Public Transport shows the best way to get there with buses, trams and trains with worldwide coverage. Nokia Live View, the augmented-reality browser, turns your phone.s camera viewfinder into a new way to spot nearby attractions, shops, restaurants and places of interest. With Pulse, you can check in with the people you care about most—your family and close friends.
Wherever you are, you have access to everything you need to explore your surroundings, share special moments, and plan your next adventure.
Nokia Maps Suite includes:
Live View
A new way to easily find information and services on the go.
Learn more | Discussion | Suggestions | Bug reportsPlaces
Discover places around you.
Learn more | Discussion | Suggestions | Bug reportsPublic Transport
Plan your journey from here to there easily.
Learn more | Discussion | Suggestions | Bug reportsPulse
Privately share and discuss your location, photos, and more.
Learn more | Discussion | Suggestions | Bug reportsTry one, get four.
Even if you only use one of these stand-alone apps, we’d like you to install the Nokia Maps Suite and see how things work. Please read the installation and set up instructions on the Try It page. And note that there are some Known issues.
Make a difference. Give feedback!
Please share your thoughts, questions, bugs, and suggestions in the feedback forum (after checking the Known issues). When submitting feedback, select the most appropriate sub-category to make sure the right developers see it.
Discover your world and share it with people who matter the most [Oct 26, 2011]
It’s nice to feel like a local no matter where you are. Maybe you’re in London for Nokia World and have taken some time to see the sites, Places helps you find out where you are. Then you feel like having a coffee and use Live View to get information and reviews about the cafes closest to you. Enjoying your double cappuccino, you check in with Pulse and see that friends are in London for Nokia World too. Finally, you use Public Transport to find the quickest way to meet up with them. But how do you know all of the apps are up-to-date and that you have the latest and greatest from Nokia’s Location team?
We present to you the new Nokia Maps Suite for Symbian. It brings you all of the latest location applications in one easily downloadable package. The Nokia Maps Suite installer checks for the latest each app has to offer and automatically updates, optimizing performance. Today, Nokia Maps Suite is introducing a whole new range of apps: Places, Live view, Pulse and Public Transport, all of which can be installed together on your phone’s home screen. Be one of the first to try it!
Places
With one tap from your home screen, see where you are and instantly discover places around you listed in handy categories.
Live view
Explore your surroundings in a new way. The Live View augmented-reality browser uses your phone’s camera viewfinder to spot nearby places and instantly shows what’s around you: landmarks, restaurants, bars, shops, public transport stations and more.
Pulse
An exciting new way to check in with the people you care about the most—your family and close friends. By default, it’s private and you don’t need to be part of a social network, simply add your email address and post. You can automatically add location to every update and receive instant notifications for new updates. Pulse is integrated with maps so you can easily discover nearby places, get directions and recommendations from trusted family and friends.
Public Transport
All of your commuter information and trip planning at your fingertips! You can choose from multiple route suggestions and follow the slick list of directions for buses, trams, underground or trains. Check the next departure times for the nearest station and any one you have in mind, and easily save your regular commutes to favourites.
This first release of Nokia Maps Suite for Symbian lays the groundwork of things to come. We’d love for you to try it out and let us know which apps you like to use and when. Give it a try and tell us what you think in Nokia Beta Labs!
Best,
Rebekah, Community Feedback Manager
More Information on Nokia Maps Suite: Places [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Places helps you discover where to go faster. Simply open the app and instantly see what’s around. With just a tap or two you can turn places on the map on or off. Tap on the markers to see what the places are and how they are rated. Go to the details to read reviews, make reservations, and find your way there.
Live View: Augmenting Reality Everywhere Experimental Beta (prototype that may change or disappear after the trial period) [updated: Oct 26, 2011, released: July 12, 2011]
A new way to easily find information and services on the go
Have you ever wished you could spot the closest restaurant or ATM? Nokia Live View is a fun and easy way to discover what is around you. Simply launch the app on your phone and Live View will display the points of interests in the camera viewfinder view/ List view / Maps view.Nokia Live View connects you to what you.re looking for . and more . exactly when and where you want it. With Live View you can:
- Select your interests in many different categories . Live View will filter the points of interests and present your choices
- Know your options . get details, read reviews of restaurants and hotels
- Enjoy the place . with one tap you can make a reservation, or navigate to the location via turn by turn walking map
What is different in this version?
Based on your feedback the product has been refined and has the following new features:
- Live View is now available in several views – Camera viewfinder view, List view, Maps view. Accessible via screen navigation circles on the menu bar
- Settings to configure the distance in Miles vs. Kilometers
- Search and My Stuff . Search for a place and access previously searched items from My Stuff
- Places grouping . when many places are located at the same location they are grouped and can be accessed by expanding the group
- Browse through the Famous Places around the world
- Scrollable List view sorted by distance with places details and orientation
- A single click access to Call, View Ratings, Walk, Drive or Share the place
- Layout, UI and performance improvements
Nokia Live View augmented reality browser (experimental beta at Nokia Beta Labs) [July 11, 2011]
http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-live-view Nokia LiveView is a fun and easy way to discover what is around you. Simply launch the app on your phone and LiveView will display the points of interests in the camera viewfinder.We are looking forward to your feedback!
We would love to hear from you with feedback on the productand any enhancements that you could think of to make this a better product.
Please make sure to rate our service by answering the NPS question in the client. If you want to leave more detailed feedback you can use the forum here on Beta Labs. Our team will be monitoring the feedback and we respond to you in the forum.
Nokia Live View updated. Augmenting reality everywhere. [Oct 26, 2011]
Are you hooked on Nokia Live Viewyet? If not, we’re pretty sure you will be—because Live View changes the way you see the world around you. It doesn’t matter what you’re looking for, like a café, ATM, or train station. Just look through your phone’s camera viewfinder, and the Live View augmented reality browser actually shows you whatever you’re looking for.
Say you’re taking a taxi to meet friends at that new hot spot downtown. But when the driver drops you at the curb, you don’t recognize a thing. You know it must be close by, but where exactly? No worries. Just pull out your Nokia N8, launch Live View, and see exactly where the place is. It sounds like a gadget 007 might carry. But it’s already in your pocket. Just tap to call or navigate with turn-by-turn instructions. With Live View, you’ll probably beat your friends there. So share your location with them via email or SMS.
Live View can even help you spot new places of interest. Always looking for the best Korean BBQ on the block? Save your customized searches so you can explore even easier next time. And once you discover someplace new, you can read reviews, descriptions and destination information.
So what do you think? Has Live View saved you from wandering aimlessly? Helped you find something new and different? Share your stories!
Try Nokia Live View for yourself. This new beta releasehas the following new features:
- Live View is now available in several views – Camera viewfinder view, List view, Maps view. Accessible via screen navigation circles on the menu bar
- Settings to configure the distance in Miles vs. Kilometers
- Search and My Stuff – Search for a place and access previously searched items from My Stuff
- Places grouping – when many places are located at the same location they are grouped and can be accessed by expanding the group
- Browse through the Famous Places around the world
- Scrollable List view sorted by distance with places details and orientation
- A single click access to Call, View Ratings, Walk, Drive or Share the place
- Layout, UI and performance improvements
– Ashok, Nokia Live View team
More Information on Nokia Maps Suite: Public Transport [Oct 26, 2011]
Nokia Public Transport helps you navigate cities by public transportation. You can:
- Choose from multiple routes and follow the list of directions for buses, trams, underground or trains.
- Smart navigation for walking helps you reach your destination door-to-door.
- Check the next departure times for any stop in your city and easily save your regular commutes to favourites.
You can enjoy of all these features with time-based information in these areas:
Berlin & Brandenburg, London, New York City, Toronto, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Denver, Bay Area, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Chicago, Miami, Atlanta, Boston, Turin, Flanders, Denmark, Auckland
We also offer worldwide Simple routing information. Simple routing uses the map data to calculate a heuristic route, based on the likely frequency of lines.
Check out the list of citieswhere coverage is available.What’s different from the last version?
We have increased our time-based coverage (before we only supported Berlin & Brandenburg) and added Simple routing for many cities all over the world. There’s also a new Stations nearby page (formally known as Departures) with all the stations and departure times around a selected spot. And the Journey details page visuals has been improved.
Nokia City Scene Experimental Beta (prototype that may change or disappear after the trial period) [Oct 25, 2011]
Nokia City Scene (Nokia Beta Labs) [Oct 21, 2011]
Explore cities in 3D with Nokia City Scene from Nokia Research Center. http://nokia.ly/q78Qhw Click on buildings to browse their stores and services, or use search to jump to what you are looking for. Connect to your social networks to find friends’ check-ins or share locations. Now featuring about a dozen US cities with coverage expanding both in the US and to Europe.
Explore cities in 3D with Nokia City Scene from Nokia Research Center. Click on buildings to browse their stores and services, or use search to jump to what you are looking for. Connect to your social networks to find friends’ check-ins or share locations. Now featuring about a dozen US cities with coverage expanding both in the US and to Europe.
The application combines NAVTEQ street imagery, building models and terrain data to create interactive panoramic street scenes. It uses building models to make buildings clickable, and to present information right on the building facade, so you can discover information just by browsing along a street.
You can use City Scene’s location aware search to jump directly to a panoramic view of the place you’re looking for, so you’ll recognize it when you go there. The application lists your friends’ Foursquare and Facebook check-ins so you can jump to where they’ve been. You can also share “postcards” of locations complete with street address (maybe suggesting a place to meet for coffee later). The Featured Cities list will grow automatically as NAVTEQ completes more drives.
We’d be really happy to hear your feedback about Nokia City Scene. If you’ve any comments or suggestions please visit our forum. Please check also the Frequently Asked Questions.
TI’s OMAP4460 in Samsung GALAXY Nexus with Android 4.0
Updates: Samsung cuts LTE chip cost by half, ABI Research teardown reveals [Feb 7, 2012]
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus made a big impact on the market in December 2011, thanks to its sleek design, new Android OS (Ice Cream Sandwich) and NFC capability. The smartphone has another notable hidden feature that makes it more cost-competitive.
The Samsung Galaxy Nexus modem is constructed with the combination of a VIA Telecom CDMA/EVDO Rev.A integrated circuit and a Samsung LTE baseband integrated circuit, ABI Research said in its teardown note. This combination is now common for Samsung’s Verizon phones, but the Galaxy Nexus sports a new version of the LTE baseband chip. The new chip is estimated at nearly half the cost of the prior chip’s US$23 price tag.
This cost reduction is an important milestone in securing the rapid migration to LTE throughout the world, ABI Research indicated.
The application processor found inside the Galaxy Nexus is a TI OMAP4460, which runs at 1.2GHz, according to ABI Research. Other notables include an NFC antenna embedded in the device battery, and a CSR GPS single chip, a Broadcom Wi-Fi/BT/FM single chip and an Avago LTE PA and GPS frontend.
– Samsung Electronics Announces Fourth Quarter & FY 2011 Results [Samsung press release, Jan 27, 2012]
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“Despite intensified competition amid the global economic slowdown, our Telecommunications businesses continued to post solid earnings with an enhanced line-up of high-end smartphones, resulting in higher average selling price (ASP). Moreover, improved profitability and earnings growth of our Set businesses, including smartphones and flat panel TVs led to our company’s strong earnings,” said Robert Yi, Senior Vice President and Head of Investor Relations.…
Smartphone Sales Remain Main Driver
The Telecommunications businesses – including mobile communications and telecommunication systems – posted a record quarterly operating profit of 2.64 trillion won for the period. Fourth quarter revenue reached a record 17.82 trillion won compared with 11.75 trillion won for the same period of 2010.The stellar performance has allowed Samsung to register full year 2011 operating profit of 8.27 trillion won, up 90 percent on-year. Total sales for fiscal year 2011 also hit an all-time yearly high of 55.53 trillion won, accounting for almost one-third of Samsung Electronics’ total revenue for the year.
Samsung’s flagship GALAXY S II smartphone and its full lineup of high-end mobile devices, such as the GALAXY Note and the GALAXY Nexus, and entry-level models drove up revenue for the year by almost 40 percent compared with the previous year.
All told, shipments of Samsung smartphones rose by approximately 30 percent in the fourth quarter, compared with the previous quarter.
For the global market outlook for this year, demand for entry-level smartphones and tablet PCs will increase significantly, while the growth momentum for feature phones is expected to stay static. Emerging markets and the spread of LTE (Long-Term Evolution) wireless telecommunications technology have also contributed to the growth of the smartphone market, which is expected to grow by more than 30 percent.
The Telecommunication System Business will further solidify its leadership in the wireless network market with the expansion of the LTE service in Korea and North America.
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4Q FY2011 Earnings Conference Call [Samsung presentation, Jan 27, 2012]
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End of updates
Samsung and Google introduce GALAXY Nexus [Samsung Mobile press release, Oct 19, 2011]
World’s First Smartphone to feature Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich and a HD Super AMOLED display
…
Best-in-class hardware meets the most advanced software
GALAXY Nexus is the first smartphone to feature a 4.65’’ display with a market-leading resolution of 720p (1280×720), ensuring you can enjoy GALAXY Nexus’ immersive entertainment capabilities and fast web browsing in superior clarity.
Succeeding the original Contour Display of Nexus S, GALAXY Nexus comes with a rounded shape that fits perfectly within your palm or to your face for phone calling. Hyper-skin backing on the battery cover improves the ergonomic feel of the device and makes the phone slip-resistant. At just 8.94mm thick, with a minimal 4.29mm bezel, GALAXY Nexus provides superb portability alongside an expansive screen.
GALAXY Nexus also features an ultra-fast 1.2GHz dual core processor, providing superior power and speed, ensuring you can take full advantage of GALAXY Nexus’ enhanced multitasking capabilities with ease, or enjoy the large, vivid display to its full capacity with high-definition gaming or video streaming. LTE or HSPA＋ connectivity combined with a dual core processor delivers high-speed web browsing which ensures you always have the web at your fingertips, wherever you are.
GALAXY Nexus will be available in the U.S., Europe, and Asia beginning in Novemberand gradually rolled out to other global markets.
GALAXY Nexus Product Specifications
Network HSPA＋ 21Mbps/HSUPA 5.76Mbps 850/900/1900/1700/2100
EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900
＊LTE version will be available depending on the region.Processor 1.2 GHz Dual Core Processor Display 4.65” 1280X720 HD Super AMOLED OS Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich Camera Main(Rear) : 5 MP AF with LED Flash with zero shutter lag and fast shot2shot
Sub (Front) : 1.3MP for Video CallVideo Codec : MPEG4/H.263/H.264
Playback : 1080p@ 30fps
Recording : 1080p Full HD Video@ 30fpsAudio Codec : MP3/AAC/AAC＋/eAAC＋3.5mm Ear Jack Google™Mobile Services Android Market™, Gmail™, Google Earth™, YouTube™, Movie Studio
Google Maps™ 5.0 with 3D maps and turn-by-turn navigation
Syncing with Google Calendar™, Google＋ appConnectivity Bluetooth® technology v 3.0 USB 2.0
Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n (2.4GHz/ 5GHz)
NFCSensor Accelerometer, Compass, Gyro, Light, Proximity, Barometer Memory 1GB(RAM) ＋ 16GB/ 32GB Internal memory Size 135.5 x 67.94 x 8.94mm, 135g Battery Standard battery, Li-on 1,750 mAh
TI confirms OMAP 4460 is in Nexus Galaxy [Oct 19, 2011]
We got word from TI that says it clearly. “Yes, the highly-anticipated Android 4.0 “Ice Cream Sandwich” release runs on the OMAP4460 processor.”
They went on to say that this is mainly due the fact they are better than the competition. They claim “the ability to provide hardware-integrated security, distinctive and advanced imaging features, enhanced memory and
more, all on a smart multicore architecture.”TI’s vice president of OMAP platform business, Remi El-Ouazzane continues with something we will break into a separate story. He tells the word that OMAP 4460 is inside Nexus and that they are the first with Android 4.0 phone. It looks like they are the reference even for Ice Cream Sandwich tablets.
“What I may be the most excited by is not only the ability to converge to one Android release for both smartphones and tablets, but to be able to pack that level of performance across graphics or video on an HD screen and within the power envelope of a smartphone device.This is where our OMAP smart multicore architecture makes a huge difference,” he said.
Also, He goes after Nvidia with this comment: “At the end of the day, brute force (number of cores, for instance) does not rival sophistication.” TI is telling the world that their two core with great video and graphics with great power is just enough.
According to OMAP™ 4 Platform: OMAP4430/OMAP4460 [March 28, 2011] and OMAP™ 4 Platform: OMAP4470 [June 2, 2011]:
| OMAP4430 | OMAP4460 | OMAP4470 | |
| Process node | 45nm | 45nm | 45nm |
| ARM® Cortex™-A9 Clock Speed (two) | 1 GHz | 1.5 GHz | 1.8 GHz |
| 2D & 3D Graphics | Hardware accelerated [POWERVR™ SGX540, greater than 2x the sustained performance compared to the previous SGX530 core] |
Hardware accelerated [POWERVR™ SGX540, greater than 2x the sustained performance compared to the previous SGX530 core ] |
Hardware accelerated Dedicated 2D and 3D graphic cores [POWERVR™ SGX544, more than two times the sustained performance compared to the previous SGX540 core performances, supports DirectX with maximum hardware acceleration] |
| Video performance (2D) | 1080p HD | 1080p HD | 1080p HD |
| Video Performance (3D) | 720p stereoscopic 3D | 1080p Stereoscopic 3D | 1080p Stereoscopic 3D |
| Imaging Performance (per second) | 20 MP main camera 5MP stereo (dual cameras) |
20MP main camera 12 MP stereo (dual cameras) |
20MP main camera 12 MP stereo (dual cameras) |
| Availability | Currently sampling | Currently sampling | Samples in 4Q 2011 |
| Display Support | WUXGA (1920 x 1200) | WUXGA (1920 x 1200) | QXGA (2048×1536), multiple screens |
Why the Galaxy Nexus uses OMAP instead of Exynos [Oct 18, 2011]
The rumors seemed strange from the start — a Samsung phone with a Texas Instruments processor? Last year’s Nexus S was a Samsung device, and it was Samsung through and through with a 1GHz Hummingbird system-on-a-chip (SoC). Now here we are looking at the new Googleflagship, the Galaxy Nexus, and it has a TI OMAP4460 on the inside. Why not Samsung’s own Exynos part?
There area few factors at work here, but the most important one is related to how the Nexus program works. Back when Google announced the Motorola Mobility buy, the company finally revealed a bit about how it operates the Nexus program. This was done in an effort to show that Motorola won’t be getting preferential treatment.
According to Google’s Andy Rubin, each year Google selects a device maker that it wants to work closely with on the next Nexus phone. But it’s not just the OEM that is involved — Google decides on components in the phone individually. Unlike other devices, Google gets it way with the Nexus.
So the team that will eventually “huddle together in one building” will be made up of the OEM, and several component makers that supply things like the SoC and radios. Then 9-12 months later, a little Nexus is born. Last year, Google went with Samsungfor the device itself, and the SoC. This year, Google has decided to put Texas Instruments on the processor team.
So now the OMAP4460 is getting quite a lot of scrutiny, even though it isn’t exactly a new chip. This dual-core SoC is clocked at 1.2GHz, and uses ARM Cortex-A9 architecture, just like the Exynos. That’s not a problem, but the older GPU, the PowerVR SGX540 is. We were hoping for a step up in the graphics department.
[Samsung’s own Cortex A9 based SoC, Exynos 4210 [Sept 22, 2011] in 1GHz and 1.2GHz version is currently sampling.]
Why did Google choose the OMAP for its new Nexus? Well, it might not live up to the high graphical standards set out by the iPhone, but it is a solid chip in its own right. The OMAP4 platform makes use of an additional hardware accelerator called IVA 3 [IVA-HD as called in the Technical Reference below] that makes encoding and decoding HD video a snap. The Galaxy Nexus has an HD screen, so this hardware focus on video is a big plus.
Google engineers were likely also drawn to the OMAP for its use of a dual-channel memory controller. Android’s multitasking system means that data is constantly being moved into, and out of, active memory. This is definitely a strength of TI’s OMAP parts.
Google will be developing the new version of Android on OMAP for the next year, so be ready for more devices based on this one. Much like the Nexus One started the Snapdragon revolution two years ago, this could be TI’s time to shine. If that OMAP4460 starts looking old and tired to OEMs in the coming year, there is always the upcoming OMAP4470 (which is armed with the much-newer and faster SGX544 GPU) to maintain compatibility and increase performance, too.
One official benchmark (GLBenchmark 2.1) to show the GPU performance differences:
OMAP4460 Multimedia Device Silicon Revision 1.x – Technical Reference Manual [PRELIMINARY, February 2011–Revised October 2011, 5620 pages]
- NOTE: Missing functionality in OMAP4430 Multimedia Device Silicon Revision 2.x – Technical Reference Manual [July 2010–Revised October 2011, 5564 pages]
Overview
The OMAP4460 high-performance multimedia application device is based on enhanced OMAP™ architecture and uses 45-nm technology.
• The architecture is designed to provide best-in-class video, image, and graphics processing for 2.5/3G wireless terminals, high-performance personal digital assistants (PDAs). For that purpose, the device
supports the following functions:
– Streaming video up to full high definition (HD) (1920 × 1080 p, 30 fps)
– 2-dimensional (2D)/3-dimensional (3D) mobile gaming
– Video conferencing
– High-resolution still image (up to 16 Mp)• The device supports high-level operating systems (OSs) such as:
– Linux®
– Palm OS™
– Symbian OS™
– Windows™ CE, WinMobile™• The device is composed of the following subsystems:
– Cortex™-A9 microprocessor unit (MPU) subsystem, including two ARM® Cortex-A9 cores
– Digital signal processor (DSP) subsystem
– Image and video accelerator high-definition (IVA-HD [IVA 3 as called in marketing materials]) subsystem
– Cortex™-M3 MPU subsystem, including two ARM Cortex-M3 microprocessors
– Display subsystem
– Audio back-end (ABE) subsystem
– Imaging subsystem (ISS), consisting of image signal processor (ISP) and still image coprocessor (SIMCOP) block
– 2D/3D graphic accelerator (SGX) subsystem
– Emulation (EMU) subsystem
Texas Instruments OMAP4460 Block Diagram
OMAP4430 and OMAP4460 comparedMemory Adapter
The purpose of the MA is to improve the missed latency of the L2 cache between the ARM Cortex-A9 processor and external memory. One of the PL310 master ports is connected to the MA and is used for all accesses to SCRAM. The PL310 address filtering mechanism is used to split incoming addresses between the MA connected to one of the PL310 master ports and the local interconnect connected to the other PL310 master port.Cache Management Unit
The CMU provides the ability to perform maintenance operations on Cortex-A9 MPU caches by physical address range. This reduces the execution time required by the Cortex-A9 CPUs to perform cache maintenance operations, while improving the overall throughput of maintenance operations. This frees the CPUs for other useful work. The registers inside the CMU are configured using the 32-bit interconnect configuration port from the local interconnect. The CMU operates at half the clock speed of the CPU core.…
EMIF Controller [EMI Module]
The EMIF [External Memory InterFace] module provides connectivity between the device and the LPDDR2-type memories and manages data bus read/write accesses between external memories, the microprocessor unit (MPU), and the direct memory access (DMA) controller.
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The EMIF is an L3 bus peripheral that provides an interface to the LPDDR2 memories.
The diagram below shows the interconnection between the EMIF module and the other modules.
Digital locked loops (DLLs) are used to delay the input DQS signals during reads so that these strobe signals can be used to latch incoming data on the DQ pins, as required by the LPDDR2 standard.
Physical layers (PHYs) are hard macros that convert single-data rate (SDR) signals to DDR signals.
EMIF of OMAP4430 and OMAP4460 comparedL3 Interface
The EMIF supports three local interfaces: one connects to the system interconnect, one to a low-latency master, and one comes from the MPU half of the EMIF-to-MPU connection. These interfaces are used to request all external memory device accesses, to access the EMIF registers, and to transfer all data to and from the EMIF controller. … A third interface arranges the connection between the EMIF and the MPU. It is separated to the MPU half of the EMIF-to-MPU L3 Interface and the EMIF half of the EMIF-to-MPU L3 Interface.[PRCM module]
• The device includes state-of-art power-management techniques required for high-performance mobile products.
• Comprehensive power management is integrated into the device.• The device also integrates:
– On-chip memory
– External memory interfaces
– Memory management
– Level 3 (L3) and level 4 (L4) interconnects
– System and connecting peripheralsCortex-A9 MPU Subsystem Description
The Cortex-A9 MPU subsystem [is based on the symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) architecture and] integrates the following submodules:
• ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore
– Two ARM Cortex-A9 central processing units (CPUs)
– ARM Version 7 ISA™: Standard ARM instruction set plus Thumb®-2, Jazelle® RCT and Jazelle DBX Java™ accelerators
– Neon™ SIMD coprocessor and VFPv3 per CPU
– Interrupt controller (Cortex-A9 MPU INTC) with up to 128 interrupt requests
– One general-purpose timer and one watchdog timer per CPU
– Debug and trace features
– 32-KB instruction and 32-KB data level 1 (L1) caches per CPU• Shared 1-MB level 2 (L2) cache
• 48 KB bootable ROM
• Local power, reset, and clock management (PRCM) module
• Emulation features
• Digital phase-locked loop (DPLL)
TI OMAP4460: Cortex-A9 MPU – ABE – DSP subsystemsABE Subsystem Description
The ABE subsystem handles audio processing for the application. It manages the audio and voice streams between the Cortex-A9 MPU subsystem and/or DSP, and the physical interfaces.The ABE subsystem allows:
• Buffering of audio samples
• Mixing audio with voice downstream and/or microphone upstream (sidetone)
• Postprocessing of equalization, 3D effects, bass-boostThe ABE subsystem consists of:
• Audio engine (AE) subsystem, which performs real-time signal processing such as:
– Muxing and mixing voice and data streams
– Postprocessing operations such as sampling rate conversion, volume control, 3D effects
– Execution of whole data transfers in the ABE subsystem using audio traffic controller (ATC)The AE subsystem includes an AE and has the following on-chip memories available: 64-KB data memory (DMEM); 6-KB coefficient memory (CMEM); and 18-KB sample memory (SMEM).
The ATC manages the data movement in the ABE subsystem and is in charge of interrupt generation to the DSP and Cortex-A9 MPU subsystems.
• Four general-purpose timers (GPTIMERs) and one watchdog timer (WDTIMER)
• Peripheral interfaces:
– Three multichannel buffered serial ports (McBSPs) for inter-IC sound ( I2S™) external connectivity
– One multichannel audio serial port (McASP) supporting Sony/Philips digital interconnect format (S/PDIF) output
– One MIPI SLIMbus interface to support new generations of MIPI-compliant components
– One digital microphone (DMIC) for three stereo digital microphones support
– One multichannel pulse-density modulation (McPDM) interface, which ensures communication with the TWL6040 audio companion chip• Internal interfaces for connection with the DSP and Cortex-A9 MPU subsystems and other modules in the device
• Dedicated power domain (ABE power domain)
DSP Subsystem Description
This information is not available in the public domain.
IVA-HD [IVA 3 as called in marketing materials] Subsystem Description
The IVA-HD subsystem is a set of video encoder/decoder hardware accelerators. It supports up to 1080p × 30 fps, slow-motion camcorder, triple play (HD and SD capture and JPEG capture), real-time transcoding of up to 720p, and video conferencing up to 720p.
The IVA-HD subsystem is composed of:
• Improved motion estimation acceleration engine (iME3), which is used in encoding processing
• Improved loop filter acceleration engine (iLF3), which performs deblocking filtering
• Improved sequencer (iCONT1) based on the ARM968E-S™ microcontroller. It includes memory and INTC and is used as a primary sequencer.
• Intraprediction estimation engine (iPE3). It is used in encoding processing.
• Calculation engine (CALC3), which performs transform and quantization calculations
• Motion compensation engine (MC3), which creates an interprediction macroblock with given motion vectors and modes from the reference data
• Entropy coder/decoder (ECD3), which uses Huffman and arithmetic codes during the process of encoding and decoding the stream
• Video DMA processor (iCONT2), which is also based on the ARM968E-S microcontroller and can be used as secondary sequencer
• Video DMA engine (vDMA), which is a DMA engine for data transmission between external memories and shared L2 memory
• Synchronization box (SyncBox) embedded in each hardware accelerator and in both iCONTs
• Mailbox for communication between IVA-HD and external to it processors (DSP, Cortex-A9, and Cortex-M3)
• Shared L2 interface and memory
• Video local interconnect for connection between the submodules of the IVA-HD, and between the IVA-HD and DSP subsystems
• IVA-HD system control module (SYSCTRL), which controls the clocks in the subsystem and PRCM handshakingThe IVA-HD subsystem can process three data formats for internal data: picture or slice, macroblock header, and residual data.
The IVA-HD supports [the following codec standards natively; that is, all functions of standards are accelerated (without any intervention of the digital signal processor [DSP])] the following formats:
• MPEG-1/-2/-4 such as MPEG-2 MP, ML, and MPEG-4 as SP/ASP
• Divx 5.02 and above
• Sorenson Spark [V0 and V1] (decode)
• H.263 P0 (encode and decode) and P3 (decode)
• H.264 Annex G (scalable baseline profile up to 720p)
• H.264 BP/MP/HP
• [H.264: Fast Profile/RCDO Encode and Decode]
• H.264 Annex H (partial) [up to 720p30]
• Stereoscopic video
• JPEG [(also MJPEG)] (encode/decode)
• VC-1 [WMV9/RTV] SP/MP/AP
• AVS-1.0
• RealVideo® 8/9/10 (decode only)
• On2® VP6.2/VP7 (decode only)[IVA-HD 1.0 will use eXpressDSP Digital Media (xDM) standard as the principle software interface. The xDM standard defines application programming interfaces (APIs) through which an application invokes a
particular class of codec, such as video decode or audio encode.xDM developers kit, technical documentation and full compliant codecs can be downloaded from http://focus.ti.com/docs/toolsw/folders/print/tmdxdaisxdm.html.
Software released on IVA-HD 1.0 will be xDM-compliant and will be available during 2010.]
TI OMAP4460: DSP – IVAHD – Display subsystemsDisplay Subsystem Description
The display subsystem provides the control signals required to interface the OMAP system memory frame buffer (SDRAM) directly to the displays. [The display subsystem (DSS) provides the logic to display a video frame from the memory frame buffer on a liquid-crystal display (LCD) panel or a TV set.] It supports hardware cursor, independent gamma curve on all interfaces, multiple-buffer, and programmable color phase rotation. The display subsystem allows low-power display refresh and arbitration between normal and low-priority pipelines.
The display subsystem consists of the following sections:
• Display controller: It can read and display the encoded pixel data stored in memory and write the output of one of the overlays or one of the pipelines into the system memory. It supports the following components:
– Three video pipelines, one graphic pipeline, and one write-back pipeline. The graphic pipeline supports pixel formats such as: ARGB16-4444, RGB16-565, ARGB16-1555, ARGB32-8888, RGBA32-8888, RGB24-888, and BITMAP (1, 2, 4, or 8 bits per pixel). It allows selection of the
color-depth expansion.
– Write-back pipeline: it uses poly-phase filtering for independent horizontal and vertical resampling (upsampling and downsampling). It allows programmable color space conversion of RGB24 into YUV4:2:2-UYVY, YUV4:2:2-YUV2, or YUV4:2:0-NV12, and selection of color-depth reduction from RGB24 to RGB16.
– Two LCD outputs, each one with dedicated overlay manager, for support of passive matrix color and monochrome displays (up to 8-bit interface) and active matrix color displays (up to 24-bit interface). Secondary LCD output is available through parallel CMOS interface for MIPI®-DPI 1.0
support.
– One TV output with dedicated overlay manager
– Own direct memory access (DMA) engine• Remote frame buffer interface (RFBI) module.
– Support for MIPI-DBI protocol
– 8-/9-/16-bit parallel interface
– Programmable pixel modes and output formats• Two MIPI display serial interfaces (DSIs) with the following main features:
– Support for MIPI-DSI (four data-lane complex inputs/outputs (I/Os) for DSI1 and two data-lane complex I/Os for DSI2)
– Support for video mode and command mode
– Data interleaving support for synchronous and asynchronous streams
– Bidirectional data link support• High-definition multimedia interface (HDMI) encoder with the following main features:
– HDMI 1.3, HDCP 1.2, and DVI 1.0 compliant
— Including support for the 3D Stereoscopic frame-packing formats of HDMI v1.4 standard (720p, 50Hz, 720p, 60Hz and 1080p, 24Hz)
– Deep-color mode support (10-bit for up to 1080p and up to 12-bit for 1080i/720p)
– Support for uncompressed multichannel audio
– Integrated high-bandwidth digital content protection (HDCP) encryption engine for transmitting protected audio and video content
– Integrated transition minimized differential signaling (TMDS) and TERC4 encoders for data island support• NTSC/PAL video encoder with the following main features:
– Output to on-chip video digital-to-analog converter (VDAC) providing composite analog output signal: NTSC-J, M; PAL-B, D, G, H, I; PAL-M
– Support for square pixel sampling
– Programmable horizontal synchronization, vertical timing, and waveformsNOTE: The NTSC/PAL video encoder and VDAC function are not supported.
Face Detect Module Description
The face detect module is a stand-alone module that performs face detection and tracking on a picture stored in the SDRAM memory. It communicates with the Cortex-A9 MPU, DSP, and Cortex-M3 MPU
subsystems.Face detect is typically used on:
• Video encoding
• Face-based priority auto-focusing
• Red-eye removalThe face detect module comprises:
• Face detection core with embedded DMA engine for data memory access
• RAM and ROM memories
• L3 and L4 port interfacesCortex-M3 MPU Subsystem Description
[The dual Cortex™-M3 microprocessor (MPU) subsystem controls the imaging subsystem (ISS) and manages some controls of the video and display subsystem. It contains two ARM® Cortex-M3 processors (CPUs) that share a common level 1 (L1) cache (shared cache). One of the CPUs is dedicated to sequencing still image coprocessor (SIMCOP) accelerators, and the other CPU is dedicated to the ISS and display subsystem control. A single image real-time operating system (RTOS) runs on both cores, thereby minimizing the code size. The integrated interrupt handling of the dual Cortex-M3 MPU allows efficient control of the ISS.]
The Cortex-M3 MPU subsystem includes the following components:
• Two Cortex-M3 CPUs: One for SIMCOP control, and the other for RTOS, ISP, and display subsystem control
• ARMv7-M and Thumb-2 instruction set architecture
• Dedicated INTC with up to 64 physical interrupt events
• Two-level memory subsystem hierarchy
– L1
— 32-KB shared cache memory
– L2 ROM + RAM
— 64-KB RAM
— 16-KB bootable ROM
• Cortex-M3 system bus directly connected to the ISS interconnect
• MMU for address translation
• Integrated power management
• Emulation feature embedded in the Cortex-M3
TI OMAP4460: Display – Face Detect – ISS – Cortex M3 MPU subsystemsISS Description
[The imaging subsystem (ISS) deals with the processing of the pixel data coming from an external image sensor, data from memory (image format encoding and decoding can be done to and from memory), or data from SL2 in IVA-HD for hardware encoding. With its subparts, such as interfaces and interconnects, image signal processor (ISP), and still image coprocessor (SIMCOP), the ISS is a key component for the following multimedia applications: camera viewfinder, video record, and still image capture.]
The ISS processes data coming from the image sensor, memory, and IVA-HD subsystem. The ISS is responsible for multimedia applications such as: camera viewfinder; video record with up to 1080 p at 30 fps with digital zoom and still image processing, such as image capture up to 16 Mp with digital zoom and rotation. The ISS supports a pixel throughput of up to 200 Mp/s. It assures good performance with sensors up to 16 Mp and more (higher resolution can be achieved through multiple passes). The ISS can implement third-party algorithms for further flexibility when working with image sensors.
The ISS consists of:
• The ISP, which deals with on-the-fly or memory-to-memory data processing. It allows data collection for autoexposure, autowhite balance, autofocus, resizing, and histogram generation.
The ISP consists of:
– Image pipe interface (IPIPEIF) for synchronization signals (HD, VD) for the ISIF, IPIPE, RSZ, and hardware 3A (H3A) modules, and data transfer from video port, SDRAM, ISIF. Various pixel data manipulation functions.
– Image pipe (IPIPE) front-end and back-end modules for raw data processing and RGB and YUV data processing, respectively. They support:
— Sensor data linearization for dynamic range extension
— Programmable 2D lens shading compensation correction
— Black-level compensation
— Gamma correction
— RGB color correction
— RGB to YUV4:2:2 color conversion
— 3D look up table (LUT) for color correction
— 2D edge enhancement
— False chroma suppression
– H3A for autowhite balance, autoexposure, and autofocus
– Pattern generator (PG) for internal data generation for test purposes. It provides the ability to test some of the ISP submodules without the use of an external image sensor.
– Two independent resizers, which allow YUV4:2:2 to YUV4:2:0 planar Chroma filtering and downsampling. The resizers support input and output flows with up to 200 Mp/s, and memory-to-memory rescaling in the range ×1/4096 scale down, and ×20 scale up.– Image sensor interface (ISIF) can process the incoming data and supports the following main functions:
— Sensor data linearization
— Supports VGA read out mode
— Color space conversion
— Digital clamp with horizontal/vertical offset drift compensation
— Vertical line defect correction
— Programmable 2D-matrix lens shading correction
— 10-to-8 bits A-Law compression table inside
– Buffer logic (BL), which processes and manages the requests to the module and memory subsystem• Peripheral serial interfaces for connection with sensors and memories:
– Two PHYs, CSIPHY1 and CSIPHY2, for physical connection to external sensors
– Peripheral serial interfaces CSI2-A and CSI2-B/CCP2 for image data transfer from sensors to memory or ISP• Peripheral 16-bit parallel interface, BT656 and SYNC mode
[Parallel interface (CPI)
• 16 bits wide
• up to 148.5 MPix/s
• BT656 and SYNC mode (HS, VS, FIELD, WEN)
…The camera subsystem can manage a parallel interface and [up to] two serial image sensors. Depending on the configuration of the shared pins, two of the interfaces can be active at the same time. However, only one data flow can use the ISP. Moreover, if the parallel interface is used data from it goes to ISP and the other used interface must send it to memory.]
• SIMCOP module for memory-to-memory operation; JPEG encode/decode hardware acceleration; high-ISO filtering; block-based rotation; warping and fusion; and general-purpose imaging acceleration.
The SIMCOP includes the following main submodules:
– Two imaging extension (iMX) modules – programmable image and video processing engines
– Noise filter 2 (NSF2) – for advanced noise filtering and edge-enhancement
– Variable-length coder/decoder for JPEG (VLCDJ) module
– Discrete cosine transform (DCT) module
– Lens distortion correction (LDC) module
– Rotation accelerator (ROT) engine
– Hardware sequencer, which offloads sequencing tasks from the MPU
– Shared buffers/memories
– DMA controller• Timing control module for CAM global reset control, CAM flash strobe, and CAM shutter
• System interfaces and interconnects comprising:
– Two configuration interfaces
– One 128-bit master data interface
– Internal ISS interconnects for image data and configuration
– On-chip RAM interface
– Circular buffer (CBUFF) and burst-translation engine (BTE) for efficient communication with external memory (SDRAM/TILER support)2D/3D Graphics Accelerator [SGX Subsystem] Description
The 2D/3D graphics accelerator subsystem is based on POWERVR® SGX540 core from Imagination Technologies. It supports phone/PDA and handheld gaming applications. [The POWERVR SGX540 v1.2.0 architecture is scalable and can target all market segments from mainstream mobile devices to high-end desktop graphics.] The SGX can process different data types simultaneously, such as: pixel data, vertex data, video data, and general-purpose data processing. [Targeted applications include feature phones, PDAs, and handheld gaming applications.]
The SGX subsystem has the following features:
• Universal scalable shader engine ( USSE™), multithreaded engine incorporating pixel and vertex shader functionality to reduce die area
• Advanced shader feature set in excess of Microsoft VS3.0, PS3.0, and OGL2.0
• Industry-standard API supports Direct3D™ Mobile, OGL-ES 1.1 and 2.0, OpenVG™ 1.1, and OpenMAX™
• Fine-grained task switching, load balancing, and power management
• Programmable high-quality image antialiasing
• Advanced geometry DMA driven operation for minimum CPU interaction
• Fully virtualized memory addressing for OS operation in a unified memory architecture
• Advanced and standard 2D operations, such as vector graphics, BLTs, ROPs, etc.
• Programmable video encode and decode support for H.264, H.263, MPEG-4 (SP), WMV9, and JPEGOn-Chip Debug Support [EMU Subsystem] Description
[Debugging a system containing an embedded processor involves an environment that connects high-level debugging software, executing on a host computer, to a low-level debug interface supported by the target
device. In between these levels is a debug and trace controller (DTC) that facilitates communication between the host debugger and the debug support logic on the target chip.A combination of hardware and software that connects the host debugger to the target system, the DTC uses one or more hardware interfaces and/or protocols to convert actions dictated by the debugger user to
JTAG® commands and scans that execute the core hardware.The debug software and hardware components let the user control multiple central processing unit (CPU) cores embedded in the device in a global or local manner. This environment provides:
• Synchronized global starting and stopping of multiple processors
• Starting and stopping of an individual processor
• Each processor can generate triggers that can be used to alter the execution flow of other processors.System topics include but are not limited to:
• System clocking and power-down issues
• Interconnection of multiple devices
• Trigger channelsFor easy integration into applications, a set of libraries (APIs) for debug-IP programming and a software message library are being provided. CToolsLib is a collection of embedded target APIs/library to enable
easy programmatic access to the chip tools (CTools), which are system-level debug facilities included in the debug subsystem capabilities of TI devices. More information about the APIs, download files, and
other useful links for available libraries can be found on the CToolsLib Wiki site: http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/CToolsLib]The on-chip debug support has the following features:
• Multiprocessor debugging lets users control multiple CPU cores embedded in the device, such as:
– Global starting and stopping of individual or multiple processors
– Each processor can generate triggers that can be used to alter the execution flow of other processors
– System clocking and power down
– Interconnection of multiple devices
– Channel triggering• Target debugging, using IEEE1149.1 (JTAG®), or IEEE1149.7 (complementary superset of JTAG) port
• Reduction of power consumption in normal operating mode
• Real-time software trace allows the OMAP software masters to transmit trace data from OS processes or tasks on 256 different channels.The debug subsystem includes:
• IEEE1149.7 adapter
• Generic TAP for emulation and test control ( ICEPick-D™)
• Debug access port (DAP)
• Processor trace subsystem
• System trace subsystem
• EMU configuration interconnect
• Cross-triggering unit (XTRIGGER)
• Debug resource manager (DRM)ICEMelter:
• Controls the wake-up and power-down of the emulation power domainCORE instrumentation interconnect:
• Initiator ports:
– L3 interconnect (for software instrumentation and performance probes)
– OCP-WP
– IVA-HD instrumentation (HWA profiling)
– CM2 instrumentation
• Target port:
– EMU instrumentation interconnectOCP watch-point (OCP-WP):
• Monitors L3 interconnect transaction when target transaction attributes match the user-defined attributes or trigger on external debug event
• Only one instance, shared among the following L3 targets:
– GPMC
– L4_PER
– L4_CFGPower management events profiler (PM instrumentation)
Clock management events profiler (CM instrumentation)
Statistics collector (performance probes)
TI OMAP4460: EMU subsystem – PRCM module –
System Peripherals – SAR RAM – SAR ROMPower, Reset, and Clock Management [PRCM module]Description
The PRCM module allows efficient control of clocks and power according to the required performance, and reduction of power consumption.
[Power management (efficient use of the limited battery resources on a mobile device) is one of the most important design aspects of any mobile system. It imposes strong control over limited available power resources to ensure they function for the longest possible length of time.
The device power-management architecture ensures maximum performance and operation time for user satisfaction (audio/video support) while offering versatile power-management techniques for maximum design flexibility, depending on application requirements.
This introduction contains the following information:
• Power-management architecture building blocks for the device
• State-of-the-art power-management techniques supported by the power-management architecture of the deviceTo provide a versatile architecture supporting multiple power-management techniques, the power-management framework is built with three levels of resource management: clock, power, and voltage management.
These management levels are enforced by defining the managed entities or building blocks of the power-management architecture, called the clock, power, and voltage domains.
A domain is a group of modules or subsections of the device that share a common entity (for example, common clock source, common voltage source, or a common power switch). The group forming the domain is managed by a policy manager. For example, a clock for a clock domain is managed by a dedicated clock manager within the power, reset, and clock management (PRCM) module. The clock manager takes into consideration the joint clocking constraints of all the modules belonging to that clock domain (and, hence, receiving that clock).
NOTE: In the following sections, the term module is used to represent the device IPs (that is, modules or subsystems), other than the PRCM module, that receive clock, reset, or power signals from the PRCM module.
Clock Management
The PRCM module manages the gating (that is, switching off) and enabling of the clocks to the device modules. The clocks are managed based on the requirement constraints of the associated modules. The following sections identify the module clock characteristics, management policy, clock domains, and clock domain management.
…Power Management
The PRCM module manages the switching on and off of the power supply to the device modules. The power to the modules can be switched off when they are not in use to minimize device power consumption. Independent power control of sections of the device allow the PRCM module to turn on and off specific sections of the device without affecting the others.
…Voltage Management
The PRCM module controls the voltage scaling (that is, switching the voltage in discrete steps or in a continuum within a range of possible values) of the power sources of the device. This allows control of the
device power consumption according to the performance criteria defined. Higher performance is ensured with higher voltage and clock frequencies (and hence higher power consumption), while lower performance can be supported with lowered power consumption by reducing or completely gating the power supply to specific areas of the device and gating the associated clocks.
…]The PRCM module is divided into:
• Power and reset management (PRM), based on the SmartReflex™ framework with the following features:
– Dynamic clock gating
– Dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS)
– Dynamic power switching (DPS)
– Static leakage management (SLM)
– Adaptive body bias (ABB)
– Retention-till-access (RTA) for memories• Clock management 1 (CM1) for clock generation, distribution, and management for the Cortex-A9 MPU, ABE, and CORE always-on power domains. The clock management allows reduction of dynamic
consumption.• Clock management 2 (CM2) for clock generation, distribution, and management for other modules
System and Connection Peripherals
The OMAP device supports a comprehensive set of peripherals to provide flexible and high-speed (HS) interfacing and on-chip programming resources.
System Peripherals [see on the above diagram]
• Seven general-purpose timers (GPTIMER)
• One watchdog timer (WDTIMER)
• One 32-kHz synchronization timer (32KTIMER)• System control module, which contains registers for the following functions:
– Static device configuration
– Debug and observability
– Status
– Pad configuration
– I/O configuration
– eFuse logic
– Analog function control
– System boot decoding logic• System mailbox with eight mailbox message queues
[Communication between the on-chip processors – Cortex-A9 MPU, DSP and Cortex-M3 MPU – of the device uses a queued mailbox-interrupt mechanism. The queued mailbox-interrupt mechanism allows the software to establish a communication channel between two processors through a set of registers and associated interrupt signals by sending and receiving messages (mailboxes). ]
• One SPINLOCK module [provides hardware assistance for synchronizing the processes running on multiple processors in the device] with 32 hardware semaphores, which can service tasks between the Cortex-A9 MPU, DSP, and Cortex-M3 MPU subsystems
• One chip-to-chip (C2C) interface, which [is a serial, low-latency, peer-to-peer communication protocol that enables the extension of an internal protocol bus to one physical device over a printed circuit board (PCB). It] services the communication between the OMAP device and external devices
Connection Peripherals
… [see later]
On-Chip Memory Description
The on-chip memory is divided into L3 OCM RAM, SAR ROM, SAR RAM, and memories in the subsystems (Cortex-A9, Cortex-M3, ABE, and IVA-HD).
• The L3 OCM RAM consists of 56KB of on-chip SRAM.
• The save-and-restore (SAR) ROM [see on the above diagram] consists of 4KB and contains a linked list of descriptors used by the system DMA (sDMA).
• The SAR RAM [see on the above diagram] consists of 8KB divided into four blocks. It is used as context-saving memory when the device goes into off mode.Memory Management Description
The memory management is performed from:
• sDMA controller with up to 127 requests, 32 prioritizable logical channels, and 256 × 64-bit FIFO
[The system direct memory access (SDMA) module, also called DMA4, performs high-performance data transfers between memories and peripheral devices without microprocessor unit (MPU) or digital signal
processor (DSP) support during transfer. A DMA transfer is programmed through a logical DMA channel, which allows the transfer to be optimally tailored to the requirements of the application. ]• Dynamic memory management (DMM) module, which performs global address translation, address rotation (tiling), and access interleaving
[The dynamic memory manager (DMM) module is typically located immediately in front of the synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) controller (SDRC), as shown in the below diagram.
In a broad sense, the DMM manages various aspects of memory accesses such as:
– Initiator-indexed priority generation
– Multizone SDRAM interleaving configuration
– Block object transfer optimization – tiling
– Centralized low-latency page translation – MMU-like featureThe dynamic qualifier for memory management highlights the software configurability, and hence the runtime nature, of the four aspects of memory management handled by the DMM.]
External Memory Interface Description
There are two main interfaces for connection to external memories: general-purpose memory controller (GPMC) and dual-channel SDRAM controller (SDRC).
The GPMC [an unified memory controller dedicated to interfacing external memory devices] supports:
• Asynchronous SRAM memories
• Asynchronous/synchronous [, and page mode (available only in nonmuxed mode) burst] NOR flash memories
• NAND flash memories
• Pseudo-SRAM devicesThe SDRC/EMIF [provides connectivity between the device and LPDDR2-type memory and] allows:
• Connection between the device and LPDDR2-type memory. It supports double-data rate (DDR) and single-data rate (SDR) protocols. The EMIF is the interface between LPDDR2 SDRAM and the Cortex-A9 MPU subsystem, ISS, IVA-HD subsystem, SGX, and DMA controllers.
• PHY is the DDR physical interface, which implements data-rate conversion in compliance with LPDDR2 JEDEC requirements.
TI OMAP4460: DMM Module – External Memory Interface – L3 OCM RAM – Connection Peripherals – sDMA ControllerSystem and Connection Peripherals
The OMAP device supports a comprehensive set of peripherals to provide flexible and high-speed (HS) interfacing and on-chip programming resources.
System Peripherals
… [see earlier]Connection Peripherals
• Three universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter (UART) modules as serial-communication interfaces
• One UART + IrDA SIR up to FIR + TV remote control interface (CIR)
• McBSP module to provide full-duplex serial communication between the OMAP and other applications chips and codecs
• Five HS I2C™ controller modules; four of them are general-purpose modules with rates up to 3.4 Mbps, and the fifth one, in the PRCM module, performs dynamic voltage control and power sequencing with an external power IC.
• HDQ™/ 1-Wire® – Benchmarq HDQ and Dallas Semiconductor 1-Wire protocols interface
• Two HS MMC/SD/SDIO modules with 8-bit data bus interface, that can act as an initiator on L3 interconnect thanks to an embedded DMA
• Three HS MMC/SD/SDIO modules with 4-bit data bus interface
• Six general-purpose input/output (GPIO) modules with 32 I/Os each
• One keyboard controller, which supports up to 9 × 9 matrix keypads
• One MIPI SLIMbus interface
• Four multichannel serial peripheral interface (MCSPI) modules
• One HS universal serial bus (USB) On-The-Go (OTG) module with embedded PHY, compliant with the USB2.0 (up to 480 Mbps) standard for HS functions and with the OTG supplement
• One HS multiport USB host module, which can be used for interchip connection or with an off-chip transceiver. It is compliant with the USB2.0 standard. The USB host module allows communication with USB peripherals with data rates up to 480 Mbps for HS, up to 12 Mbps for full-speed, and up to 1.5 Mbps for low-speed.
• One full-speed USB module compliant with the USB1.1 standard for full-speed functions
• One MIPI high-speed synchronous serial interface (HSI) module with two full-duplex serial communication interfaces. It is used for communication between the OMAP device and an external device, with data rates up to 192 Mbps for transmission, and up to 225 Mbps for reception. The MIPI HSI supports 16 logical channels on each destination (RX/TX).
| GLBenchmark 2.1 |
