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Intel to make 64 bit ARM chips starting next year

Intel is gearing up to start making 64 bit ARM chips starting next year. Before you jump to conclusions, do know that Intel is planning to fabricate 64 bit ARM chips for its partner Altera, signaling a huge wave of change for the company. It is very well known that Intel is struggling in its mobile business, only recently making strides with the Clovertrail and Baytrail SoCs, and they are all based on the x86 architecture. Intel does not only make its own chips, it does fabrication for other companies too, like Altera for example. The current market leader for ARM fabrication is undoubtedly TSMC, which does fabrication for most companies from Nvidia to Qualcomm. So, in perfect sense, Intel is now a competitor to TSMC rather than Qualcomm or Nvidia.

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Qualcomm introduces Zeroth, Brain-inspired Neural Processing Units

The leader in smartphone chipsets, Qualcomm, is once again thinking ahead of the curve with its new project termed Zeroth. The new processor architecture is inspired by brains and is modeled on real life neurons. Zeroth is capable of learning and adapting based on feedback. This is very similar to how an actual human interprets and reacts.

Qualcomm-Zeroth

In its demo video, Qualcomm shows how a robot built around the Zeroth processor adapts to its environment. It displays adaptive behavior in response to real life feedback instead of falling back on pre-coded decision parameters. According to Qualcomm, the technology has already advanced to allow for other companies to develop applications making use of its capabilities. Devices based on Zeroth will be able to see and process data like humans do. This has been achieved by creating mathematical models that accurately characterize biological neuron behavior when transmitting or receiving information. Spiking neural networks encode and transmit data efficiently for gathering environmental information and then processing, fusing them together. Continue reading “Qualcomm introduces Zeroth, Brain-inspired Neural Processing Units”

Qualcomm Snapdragon Powerful Processors Giveaway #3

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Thanks to the great response for the second Qualcomm Snapdragon Powerful Processors Giveaway, we are pleased to announce the 3rd and final giveaway in the series. All you have to do is just answer a couple of questions and you can walk away with one brand new Snapdragon device – LG G2 which is powered by a blazing fast Snapdragon 800 processor. Dive into the contest below and send in your entry. Continue reading “Qualcomm Snapdragon Powerful Processors Giveaway #3”

Qualcomm Snapdragon Powerful Processors Giveaway #2

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Thanks to the great response for the first Qualcomm Snapdragon Powerful Processors Giveaway, we are pleased to announce the 2nd giveaway in the series. All you have to do is just answer a few questions and you can walk away with one brand new Snapdragon device – Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 with a really large 6.3 inch screen and tons of other features. Dive into the contest below and send in your entry. Continue reading “Qualcomm Snapdragon Powerful Processors Giveaway #2”

New Nexus 7 announced with Full HD display, Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU and Wireless Charging starting from $229

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Google announced the new Nexus 7 today at an event in San Francisco where the updated Nexus 7 tablet was one of the main highlights of the event. We have seen plenty of leaks of this device including an unboxing so not much was left for the official announcement except for the confirmation of the specs , the pricing and launch date. The biggest difference on this Nexus tablet is the update Full HD screen which makes it the highest resolution screen on a 7 inch tablet and also crushes the competition especially the iPad mini. It is the first tablet to run Android 4.3 out of the box which we have covered separately. The new Nexus 7 is marginally thinner than the first gen Nexus 7 and lighter too. It is slightly narrower than the previous model. Another big change is the move from Nvidia Tegra 3 to a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor in terms of the internals. And yes it is still made by Asus. Continue reading “New Nexus 7 announced with Full HD display, Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU and Wireless Charging starting from $229”

Qualcomm Snapdragon Powerful Processors Giveaway #1

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I’am sure most of you would remember the Qualcomm Snapdragon powered Giveaways last year on FoneArena. We are pleased to announce that for the next several weeks, we are running the giveaways again, thanks to Qualcomm. All you have to do is just answer a few questions and you can walk away with one brand new Snapdragon device – Sony XPERIA Z. The contest was a great success last year with a record number of entries and it would have not been possible without support from you guys! Looking forward to your participation in this year’s giveaways too. Dive into the contest below and send in your entry. Continue reading “Qualcomm Snapdragon Powerful Processors Giveaway #1”

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 powers the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A with 150 Mbps data speeds

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800

While the rest of the world is just warming up to the idea of LTE, Samsung has gone ahead and announced the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A for Korea with high data speeds upto 150 Mbps. And anything with LTE in it, is usually powered by one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chips and the Galaxy S4 LTE-A is no exception. Powering the high speed phone is the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 SoC which blazed through benchmark tests that we ran recently. The flagship top tier chip is powering the Galaxy S4 and its LTE-A chip by providing the promised speeds of up to 150 Mbps.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Benchmarks

Snapdragon 800 MSM8974 Reference devices

We are here in San Francisco on invitation from Qualcomm to benchmark their Snapdragon 800 processor (MSM8974) which features a 28nm HPm quad core Krait 400 CPU capable of running at 2.3 GHz per core and the new Adreno 330 GPU. It is expected to be the fastest mobile processor in the market and even beat the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa and Qualcomm’s own Snapdragon 600 processor in terms of benchmarks and performance. Dive in and take a look at the jaw dropping numbers in the Benchmarks. Continue reading “Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Benchmarks”

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 to power future Windows RT 8.1 tablets

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It is a well known fact that Qualcomm is one of the leading chip providers for the Windows RT ecosystem as well as the Windows Phone ecosystem. At the Computex event in Taipei, they have gone ahead and announced that their Snapdragon 800 series of powerful high end chipsets will include support for the Windows RT 8.1 platform. Powered by quad core processors with upto 2.2 GHz clock speeds per core, this marks a huge upgrade from the yesteryear dual core S4 plus chipsets that were used for the first Windows RT tablets, like the Dell XPS 10 for example. The Adreno 330 graphics is supposed to offer even greater graphics performance, and with additional support of in-built LTE and USB 3.0, the performance and feature gains for the Windows RT 8.1 are massive.

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Qualcomm expands its Tablet Reference Design to support Snapdragon 400 chips for emerging markets

Qualcomm Reference Design

Qualcomm has announced that they have expanded its Qualcomm Reference Design (QRD) portfolio with a reference design made specifically for 7-inch and 10-inch version of tablets running on its Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 MSM 8230 and MSM 8030 processors. The tablets support 3G HSPA+ connectivity, WiFi and 1080 encoding and decoding. The QRD provides access to third-party providers of tested and verified hardware and software components and there have been 200 public QRD-based product launches to date in collaboration with more than 40 OEMs in 14 countries, Continue reading “Qualcomm expands its Tablet Reference Design to support Snapdragon 400 chips for emerging markets”

Qualcomm unveils new Snapdragon 400 Quad Core chip MSM8926, with in-built multi mode LTE

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Qualcomm, one of the leading chip manufacturers for mobile devices, has just unveiled a new variant of the Snapdragon 400 chipset, with support for Quad Core processors and multi mode 3G/4G LTE connectivity. This move enables Qualcomm to capture some of the lost low-end chip marketshare that has been recently been inundated with chipsets from companies like MediaTek. The MSM8926 chip, as it is codenamed, adds support for quad core Cortex A7 processors and mainly, multi mode 3G/4G LTE connectivity, which will enable mass market devices to sport LTE modems at very low prices.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Processor to speed-up smart phones, this summer

HTC One and the Samsung S4 might be competing with each other for their fair share of the ‘super-fast-phone’ market, but there’s one thing common between them that makes these great devices what they really are – and that is the processor . Both phones, run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon latest processors. Continue reading “Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Processor to speed-up smart phones, this summer”

Pelican Imaging , Lytro-like camera technology coming to Smartphones in 2014

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If you follow the tech scene closely , you must have heard about these slightly expensive cameras sold in the name of Lytro. The main highlight of Lytro cameras is the ability to focus objects in the picture after you have clicked the picture. One company Pelican Imaging based in Mountain View, California ( yes the same town as Google) is working on array camera technology for mobile devices.And we might see one of the first devices with such technology debut in 2014 which is not that far away. Users always struggle to get the focus right on both cameras and mobile devices and a technology which promises Click now , focus later will be a a great solution and a feature to boast on your mobile phone. Continue reading “Pelican Imaging , Lytro-like camera technology coming to Smartphones in 2014”

Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Features Walkthrough – Video

snapdragon 800

At MWC 2013 in Barcelona, we were able to get some videos demonstrating the features and power of the newly announced Snapdragon 800 series processors from Qualcomm.

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Alcatel One Touch Fire Hands-On

Alcatel One Touch Fire is one among the recently announced smartphones that run on Firefox OS. It was announced alongside the ZTE Open and we got our hands on one during the MWC 2013 here in Barcelona, Spain.

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