So Blackberry (formerly known as Research In Motion or RIM) is up for sale. Basically, apart from some cash in the bank, its main value now seems to be patents and, perhaps, some security technology. The murderers are in Cupertino and Mountain View, Apple’s iPhone (and iPad) and Google’s Android along with its licensees,… Read More
The multiplication of chips capable to run Multimedia processing (sound, image or video) in a mobile device, smartphone or media tablet, like Application Processor (AP), Baseband (BB), Codec or companion chip, each of these embedding one or multiple processor can be seen as a good opportunity to simplify the device architecture…… Read More
Repeat after me: SoCs are paperweights if they can’t be programmed. Succeeding with a new part today means supporting a robust developer program to attract and engage as many creatives as possible. NVIDIA has teamed up with Mentor Graphics in just such an adventure. If you read just the press release, you may have missed the real … Read More
“It’s not like we started it,” said Larry. “After all the idea of going Thermonuclear was first broached by Steve to Eric at their outdoor café meeting in Palo Alto way back in 2010. We’re just following by example and as Steve was wont to quote Picasso; “good artist copy, great artist steal” so why not go Thermonuclear with our Android… Read More
By now, you’ve probably read about the Imagination Technologies acquisition of MIPS somewhere, hopefully in the Eric Esteve article here. There’s an interesting side effect not being talked about much.… Read More
In response to the growing mobile audience and increasing cost of data plans, SemiWiki has uploaded Android and Apple IOs applications. The SemiWiki mobile apps are available to you at no cost and are advertisement free. The Android app is available TODAY but the IOs app is still PENDING Apple approval (up to 60 days) versus Google… Read More
The Q2 numbers for smartphones are now all in and the basic story is that Google is now registering an incredible million Android phones per day, half of them made by Samsung. That’s 85% of all the smartphones shipped last quarter. Android has (per IDC) 68% market share of all smartphones out there.
Apple grew by double digit… Read More
I wasn’t going to write about the cell phone business again for some time. After all, this is a site about semiconductor and EDA primarily. But the cell-phone business in all its facets is a huge semiconductor consumer and continues to grow fast (despite my morbid focus on those companies that do anything but).
But Research… Read More
Talk about an unusual position. Intel finds themselves very much currently outside when it comes to mobile SoCs for phones and tablets. After several attempts at soul-searching and a true understanding of the term “low-power” (not meaning 3W, but instead < 1W), they finally have a part – in the form of “Medfield”, aka the Atom… Read More
TI has parlayed its heritage in digital signal processing and long-term relationships with mobile device makers into a leadership position in mobile SoCs. They boast a relatively huge portfolio of design wins thanks to being the launch platform for Android 4.0. On the horizon, the next generation OMAP 5 could change the entire… Read More
