Qualcomm

[Winjer]

This is Qualcomm’s world and we’re all just living in it

Qualcomm is the mobile industry’s equivalent of a god: omnipotent and omnipresent, yet invisible to the naked eye. The company that was founded on the premise of building "Quality Communications" can now be found inside every major smartphone in the US. Even the fiercely independent Apple, which designs its own mobile processors, has no choice but to use Qualcomm’s LTE modems. The same is true of Samsung, whose Exynos chip is replaced by a Qualcomm Snapdragon for the US and other markets. But Qualcomm’s influence spreads much wider and deeper still.A week ago, Verizon introduced the Motorola Droid Turbo as its flagship phone for the holidays. Stacked to the gills with the highest of specs, this new Android phone derives its name from Moto’s Turbo Charger, which turns a 15-minute charge into as much as eight hours of battery life. The same accessory is bundled with the Nexus 6, another Moto product, and HTC has a competing Rapid Charger. Samsung also touts a "0 to 50 in 30" tagline for the Galaxy Note 4’s ability to recharge half its power in half an hour. All that branding and marketing is just putting different stickers on the same thing: Qualcomm’sQuick Charge 2.0.

I love how every manufacturer talks up Qualcomm's QuickCharge like they invented it themselves.
— Rich Brome (@rbrome) October 28, 2014

The other "turbo" aspect of the Droid Turbo’s spec sheet is the 2.7GHz Snapdragon 805 system-on-chip that powers it. Like every other non-iPhone flagship device released in the last two years, it uses Qualcomm’s latest processor. The LG G2 and G3, the Sony Xperia Z1, Z2, and Z3, the Nexus 5 and 6, the HTC One of both 2013 and 2014, and every Samsung Galaxy variant to reach the United States are all built around a multi-core Qualcomm heart. Outside the Android realm, Windows Phone is exclusively reliant on Snapdragon processors, to the point where Microsoft directs potential phone manufacturers to the Qualcomm Reference Design as a guide on how to build their handsets. Snapdragon is also the default choice for BlackBerry, whose latest Passport device uses a 2.2GHz Snapdragon 801
We think of Google and Apple as the primary drivers of mobile innovation, but Qualcomm is just as instrumental in setting the pace of change. HTC's Sensor Hub that enables Motion Launch gestures and the Dot View case for the One smartphone wouldn’t be possible without the Snapdragon sensor engine. The current benchmark for smartphone battery life is set by Sony’s Xperia Z3 and Z3 Compact handsets, both running a Snapdragon 801. Calum MacDougall, Sony’s Head of Xperia Marketing, admits that "principally it is the processor" that's responsible for this improved power efficiency and endurance. Motorola managed to update the Moto X to Android 4.4 ahead of some Nexus devices last year, and Qualcomm was once again credited with contributing to that alacrity. In an interview with The Verge this summer, Moto’s software chief (and former Android engineer) Steve Horowitz explained that "great partnerships" like that with the Snapdragon processor maker are the secret to Motorola’s rapid software upgrades.
"AT ONE TIME THERE WERE OTHER PLAYERS IN THIS SPACE, BUT QUALCOMM’S INNOVATION IS WHAT PUT THEM AT THE TOP OF THE INDUSTRY."
It’s impossible to find a smartphone manufacturer that doesn’t speak of Qualcomm in glowing terms. HTC calls its chip supplier an "extremely important partner," while LG echoes Motorola’s language in saying that it has "a great partnership with Qualcomm and both companies respect one another tremendously." LG goes on to add that "at one time there were other players in this space, but Qualcomm’s innovation is what put them at the top of the industry." The central innovation responsible for Qualcomm’s present dominance are those LTE modems that even Apple can’t get away from. The Snapdragon system-on-chip integrates the modem and applications processor into a single chip and is thus dramatically more efficient — both in terms of space and power requirements — than the competition and makes the processor choice for most phone makers a foregone conclusion. These days, it’s a matter of picking between the various strata of Snapdragon models rather than the various processor vendors.
Nvidia continues to fight on with its Tegra series of chips, and the new K1 inside the Nexus 9 and the Shield Tablet is an undeniable performance beast, but the company has essentially withdrawn from the smartphone market. The Tegra 3 on 2012’s HTC One Xwas the last sincere effort to push Qualcomm’s Snapdragon off its perch as the premier mobile processor, though even then it was obvious how important that integrated LTE connectivity would be as the phone was released with a Qualcomm chip in the US.
EVERYBODY LOVES QUALCOMM, EVERYBODY FEARS QUALCOMM
In spite of the high regard that Qualcomm enjoys among smartphone manufacturers, there’s evident unease about the paucity of choice that it presents as the sole provider of competitive processors. Huawei has developed its own quad-core processor, Samsung is maintaining the long-running Exynos series, and LG just announced the octa-core NUCLUN processor. LG is quick to point out that "our NUCLUN AP gives us a bit more flexibility but it was never intended to replace Snapdragon." At this point, it’s almost inconceivable that anything will. Qualcomm’s earned itself a seemingly unassailable lead that won’t be conceded until someone’s able to build a better or more efficient LTE solution. Intel keeps trying and MediaTek is enjoying success as a popular alternative for entry-level smartphones like those in Google’s Android One initiative, but the lion’s share of the smartphone market is powered by Snapdragon technology.
What should scare any potential Qualcomm competitor even more is the fact that the company’s also making inroads into smartwatches and other connected devices. The LGG Watch R is powered by a Snapdragon 400 that handily outperforms and outlasts the Moto 360’s dated Texas Instruments processor. Even the Gear S, which is Samsung’s effort to diversify away from Google’s dominant Android software, can’t avoid using a Snapdragon chip for its processing and connectivity.
By the end of this year, Qualcomm expects more than a billion devices to have shipped with its 3G or 4G technology on board. The company routinely posts annual earnings in the tens of billions of dollars and its most recent financial quarter was closed with an exceedingly healthy $2.24 billion net profit.

IN 29 YEARS OF OPERATION, QUALCOMM HAS SPENT MORE THAN $30 BILLION ON R&D
To reach the top of the mobile world, Qualcomm has done an awful lot right and very little wrong. It picked the right side in the WiMAX vs. LTE war for the next generation of mobile internet technology, and it has integrated new features into its silicon that have been helpful to its partners and beneficial to end users. For a company now occupying a godlike position of preeminence, Qualcomm’s ascent has been prosaically gradual and simple.
There’ll never be a shortage of competition in the white-hot mobile market, but mobile innovation today — whether manifested in the Droid Turbo, HTC Sensor Hub, or Lumia Refocus — is built atop a foundation of Qualcomm chips.

Pessoalmente, já tinha reparado que a Qualcomm tinha vários dos seus CPUs em vários fabricantes de smartphones, mas nunca imaginava que a sua presença fosse tão grande.

[Jorge-Vieira]

Já sabia que a maioria dos fabricantes de dispositivos moveis usam processadores da Qualcomm, mas estava longe de conhecer a realidade dos numeros aquio falados.
É impressionante também o valor dispendido em R&D durante estes anos todos.

[Jorge-Vieira]

Qualcomm confirms plans for high-performance processors for servers

Qualcomm, the world’s largest supplier of application processors for mobile devices, this week confirmed unofficial information that it is working on high-performance system-on-chips for the emerging market of micro-servers based on ARM-architecture processors.
“We are engaged with customers,” said Steve Mollenkopf, chief executive officer of Qualcomm, during a meeting with investors and financial analysts in New York, reports the Wall Street Journal, “It will take us a while to build this business, but we think it is an interesting opportunity going forward.”
While Qualcomm did not reveal any names of its potential customers, it demonstrated a video quoting Jay Parikh, vice president of infrastructure engineering at Facebook, expressing excitement at the prospect of Qualcomm joining its potential suppliers of server chips.
“Qualcomm-based ARM servers gives us the ability to rethink the way that we have built certain parts of our infrastructure,” said Mr. Parikh.

Qualcomm not only builds system-on-chips based on intellectual property it licenses from ARM Holdings and other companies, but develops a wide array of building blocks itself, something that should uniquely position the company on the new market.
Qualcomm designs its own general-purpose processing cores (based on ARMv7 and ARMv8 instruction sets) that offer higher performance than industry-standard Cortex-A cores offered by ARM and integrated by multiple developers of application processors that compete against Qualcomm. High-performance general-purpose cores are a corner stone of any server and Qualcomm’s experience here is very important.
The San Diego, California-based chip developer also designs its own mobile graphics processors that are integrated into its SoCs. Given the trend towards heterogeneous computing, own graphics IP will also be important for Qualcomm’s server business.

Since the main differentiators on the market of micro-servers are going to be performance and tight integration, it is a good thing that Qualcomm is working on server-class chips in general. High-performance cores developed for servers will eventually migrate to mobile SoCs and thus smartphones and tablets. As a result, Qualcomm-based mobile devices will likely offer even higher performance for applications in the future, which is a good news for the market and a bad news for competitors of Qualcomm who do not design their own cores.

Noticia completa:
http://www.kitguru.net/components/cp...s-for-servers/

[Winjer]

A luta entre ARM e X86 a aquecer

Ainda bem, já que o PowerPC já pouco ou nada faz.

[Jorge-Vieira]

Sim, pelo menos a Intel aqui vai ter um rival.

[Jorge-Vieira]

Qualcomm Facing Some Serious Troubles with Snapdragon 810 Production – 2015 Flagships may See Delayed Release

Whoops! Apparently the now most looked forward to devices like Samsung Galaxy S6 and LG G4 may see a delayed release next year thanks to some issues in Qualcomm’s development of latest Snadragon chipset. Snapdragon 810 from Qualcomm is expected to power both these and other flagship devices of 2015. However, latest report indicates that due to some unfortunate reasons – one of which includes processing unit on 810 SoC experiencing heating issues leading to poor performance – Qualcomm is having some troubles with delivering units on time.

Snapdragon 810 will delay Galaxy S6 launch:

Reports coming out of Korea suggest that Qualcomm is facing some serious problems with its Snapdragon 810 unit. As aforementioned, the CPU gets overheated over certain voltage leading into serious performance drops. Another reason cited by Business Korea, from where this report is coming, is that Adreno 430 graphics unit is also being problematic due to an error in the drivers. Third issue that could delay flagships of 2016 launching in time is the RAM controller connected to the application processor is also creating some issues for Qualcomm.

Noticia completa:
http://wccftech.com/snapdragon-810-production-issues

[Jorge-Vieira]

Qualcomm denies Snapdragon 810 delay reports

On track, commercial devices in first half of 2015Last Friday we ran a report on technical issues plaguing Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 810 processor, the company's first consumer SoC based on the 20nm process.
Reports coming out of Korea alleged the chip was experiencing thermal issues, along with memory and GPU bugs. We reached out to Qualcomm and the company reassured us that everything is on track.
Jon Carvill, Qualcomm's Senior Director of Public Relations, told Fudzilla that the company won't comment on any of the rumours or speculation referenced in our report (based on Business Korea's reporting).

"I can tell you that everything with Snapdragon 810 remains on track and we expect commercial devices to be available in 1H 2015," said Carvill.



This means next generation Android flagships are unlikely to be delayed due to any potential issues associated with Qualcomm silicon. Of course, they could face other issues and delays always remain a possibility, but that has nothing to do with Qualcomm or its first 20nm 64-bit part.

Link:
http://www.fudzilla.com/home/item/36...-delay-reports

[Jorge-Vieira]

Top Mobile Chipmaker Qualcomm Laying Off 600 Employees

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf will have plenty of opportunities to practice his Donald Trump impersonation as the company gets ready to hand out approximately 600 pink slips. The layoffs come as Qualcomm faces regulatory investigations into its business practices in three different territories -- China, European Union, and the United States -- though the world's biggest mobile chip player insists the two are not related.

Instead, Qualcomm is laying off workers in an attempt to restructure its business. The company also plans to shuffle its teams and projects, as its outlook for 2015 wasn't anything to get too excited about. For a company that specializes in mobile hardware, one of the hottest markets right now, a soft outlook is not a good thing.

Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf is trying to reinvigorate the company's mobile chip business.

"We regularly evaluate our businesses to determine where efficiencies can be obtained and priorities addressed," a spokesperson told CNET. "On occasion, that requires we adjust the size or skill mix of our work teams in order to shrink or eliminate some projects and start and grow new projects."

Qualcomm is currently home to around 31,300 employees, which includes full-time, part-time, and temporary workers. Some 300 of those will be let go in California where Qualcomm has several offices, including its headquarters, while the other half of the layoffs will affect Qualcomm's international workforce.

Noticia completa:
http://hothardware.com/news/top-mobi...rqsaefwqfw7.99

[Jorge-Vieira]

Qualcomm to Fix Wi-Fi

Qualcomm is releasing new chipsets for access points that leverage MU-MIMO technology. Current-gen Wi-Fi systems can become easily overwhelmed when multiple users access the system simultaneously. The core reason is because Wi-Fi wasn't designed to serve multiple users at the same time. Wi-Fi sends a single stream of data to a user, then that transmission is terminated and another stream initiates for another user, but there is never more than one active data stream. These snippets in time become increasingly smaller and more frequent as more users log in, effectively throttling the network bandwidth and speed for all users.

MU-MIMO (Multi-User Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output) is a revolutionary new antenna technology that enables communication with multiple devices simultaneously over multiple streams of data. This enables the host router to act more as a switched ethernet fabric and will exponentially increase the ability for wireless routers to handle groups of users. Qualcomm's new chipsets will enable this capability with 802.11ac networks. Qualcomms offerings are going out to the enterprise first, and several vendors will begin offering products supporting MU-MIMO in the middle of 2015.

Noticia completa:
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/41813/...ogy/index.html

[Jorge-Vieira]

Qualcomm rumored to layoff 1500 staff, up from the 600 being reported

Qualcomm is reportedly letting go of a decent chunk of its worldwide staff, with 158 jobs in San Diego being cut, and up to 100 elsewhere around California. On top of that, we have around 600 jobs in total being let go from Qualcomm's global workforce.

Then, a nice source pointed us in the direction of a thread on Reddit by "lgotlaidoff" who said "Just got fired today. Upto 1500 people to be fired in coming weeks. The "600" number that they are talking in media is pure BS".

A spokesperson from Qualcomm said in a statement: "We regularly evaluate our businesses to determine where efficiencies can be obtained and priorities addressed. On occasion, that requires we adjust the size or skill mix of our work teams in order to shrink or eliminate some projects and start and grow new projects". The layoffs will begin on February 11, 2015 according to a filing by the company with the California Employment Development Department.

Noticia completa:
http://www.tweaktown.com/news/41852/...ted/index.html

[Jorge-Vieira]

Cat. 9 LTE Annoucned With Snapdragon 810 – Qualcomm Puts All Rumors To Rest

After news surfaced that Samsung might be equipping its in-house Exynos SoC with Cat. 10 LTE Modem, capable of delivering download speeds of up to 450 MB/s, looks like Qualcomm has beat its manufacturing partner to it. The manufacturer has announced today that it will be adding Carrier Aggregation Technology 9 to its upcoming Snapdragon 810, giving the SoC fast download speeds.
Cat. 9 LTE Added To The Snapdragon 810 Making It The First 64 bit Snapdragon Processor With Download Speeds Up To 450 MB/s.

In a press release today, the manufacturer has officially announced that the Snapdragon 810 and by extension all devices powered by the SoC will be coming with LTE Cat. 9 on board. This addition ends up making the Snapdragon 810 a complete package in terms of performance, efficiency and now download speeds. The Snapdragon 810 will be compatible with all major standards, including GSM, Edge and the rest.

The Snapdragon 810 has Cat. 9 LTE over three 20MHz LTE carriers and is the first Snapdragon SoC to feature Cat. 9 LTE, said the company in a press release. The Snapdragon 810 can be expected to be available to consumers by early 2015, which further dispels any rumors about the processor’s production problems/delays. The Snapdragon 810 has also been tested with multiple commercial network and test equipment companies. Cat. 9 LTE on the Snapdrgon 810 is compatible with all technologies supported by 4G, including GSM/EDGE, CDMA1x/EVDO, TD-SCDMA and WCDMA/HSPA+.

Noticia completa:
http://wccftech.com/cat-9-lte-snapdr...#ixzz3LbWXcJC4

[Jorge-Vieira]

Qualcomm In Troubled Waters – More SoC Problems Surface

Qualcomm’s been quite a lot in news lately about its SoC status. Recently, the chipmaker was said to have been facing problems with its next, top of the line 64 bit Snapdragon 810 SoC. The Snapdragon 810 is allegedly going to power quite a lot of major flagships next year, including Samsung’s Galaxy S6, so production delays on Qualcomm’s end could end up having far reaching repercussions.
Qualcomm however refused any such reports, and claimed soon later that the Snapdragon 810 was on time and commercial devices would be available in the first six months of next year. Well, we have more news today about Qualcomm’s troubles, this time with its first 64-bit SoC, the Snapdragon 615.

by Ramish Zafar
Qualcomm’s been quite a lot in news lately about its SoC status. Recently, the chipmaker was said to have been facing problems with its next, top of the line 64 bit Snapdragon 810 SoC. The Snapdragon 810 is allegedly going to power quite a lot of major flagships next year, including Samsung’s Galaxy S6, so production delays on Qualcomm’s end could end up having far reaching repercussions.
Qualcomm however refused any such reports, and claimed soon later that the Snapdragon 810 was on time and commercial devices would be available in the first six months of next year. Well, we have more news today about Qualcomm’s troubles, this time with its first 64-bit SoC, the Snapdragon 615.

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Snapdragon 615 Facing Design Problems – Issues With 64 Bit Architecture?

After the Snapdragon 810, sources are now claiming that Qualcomm is facing design problems with the Snapdragon 615, the company’s first 64 bit SoC. Even though the Snapdragon 615 was announced quite a while back, the SoC is yet to see healthy market adoption. In fact, sources are claiming that OEMs are now shifting to Qualcomm’s competitor Media-Tek for mid-range, 64 bit SoCs.
With both the Snapdragon 810 and the Snapdragon 615 facing issues, could it be that folks over at Qualcomm are finding it hard to get their fingers wrapped completely around 64 bit mobile SoCs? One wouldn’t expect so, with Qualcomm being one of the major manufacturers on the planet at the moment. If these rumors do turn out to be true then 2015 could be a very interesting or disappointing year for mobile devices all around

Noticia completa:
http://wccftech.com/qualcomm-trouble...#ixzz3LbX1r94p

[Jorge-Vieira]

Snapdragon 810 Hands-On: Meet Qualcomm's 2015 Superchip

It seems like only yesterday that Qualcomm introduced its powerful 64-bit Snapdragon 805 chip, featured in such flagship phones as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the Google Nexus 6. But just in time for CES 2015, the company has announced its new Snapdragon 810 processor, which will provide the ability to film and stream 4K video, better security, and greater and more power-efficient performance.
Scheduled to debut sometime during the first half of the new year, chances are that you'll see the 810 in many flagship smartphones and tablets in 2015. Here are the top features the new chip has to offer.
MORE: Samsung Galaxy S6 Rumor Roundup
4K Video Boost

There are several smartphones that can capture video in 4K resolution already, such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and the LG G3. However, the Snapdragon 810 chip will improve the experience of viewing that video, as it will be able to power 4K displays on smartphones and tablets, and will boost colors where appropriate to create a more true-to-life image.
During the demo, a rep captured a slow panning video of the New York City skyline that was streamed from one of Qualcomm's experimental smartphones to a 4K Sony Bravia television. The detail of the video was clear and detailed enough to show intricate details like the etching on a stone flower pot. However, the image on the television was a few shades darker than the real scene.

Noticia completa:
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/snapdrag...ews-20006.html

[Winjer]

Tanto os fabricantes para PC, como de TVs, como de tablets e smartphones, estão a apostar forte na transição para os 4K.
Atrás só ficam as consolas e os seus 900p. LOL

[Winjer]

Snapdragon 810: Can big.LITTLE keep the dream alive while Qualcomm works on Krait’s successor?

In the lead-up to CES 2015, Qualcomm has revealed a few more details about its upcoming Snapdragon 810 SoC — the company’s first flagship 64-bit chip, which will most likely power the top Android devices released in the first half of 2015. The Snapdragon 810 is an interesting chip for a number of reasons, but most notably it’s the first flagship Snapdragon S4/800 chip tonot feature Qualcomm’s own Krait CPU cores. Instead, Qualcomm went with off-the-shelf ARM Cortex A57 and A53 cores — not for performance reasons, as far as we can tell, but more so that it could compete with Apple’s perceived 64-bit advantage. Where is your own in-house 64-bit CPU core, Qualcomm?Don’t get me wrong, the Snapdragon 810 is a beast of an SoC. Other than the CPU oddity, it looks like it will be a superb chip. There’s the Adreno 430 GPU, which should be impressively powerful; 64-bit dual-channel LPDDR4 RAM; Dolby Atmos 11.1 sound; H.265 video encode and decode in hardware, up to 4K; and, of course, wireless capabilities that will blow your socks off. It sounds like Snapdragon 810 will support LTE Cat 9 (450Mbps down), Bluetooth 4.1, and 802.11ac WiFi. Some sites are also reporting that 802.11ad (WiGig) up to 4Gbps will be supported. Qualcomm is also making a bit of fuss over the Snapdragon 810’s dual 14-bit ISPs (image signal processors), which can support camera sensors up to 55 megapixels and other cool computational photography applications (more on that later).
Cortex A53 and A57 relative performance, compared to Cortex A7 and A15, at current process node (28nm) and future nodes (20/16nm)

The CPU, though, is definitely a weird one. Instead of two or four Krait CPU cores, the Snapdragon 810 moves to a big.LITTLE configuration of four big Cortex A57 cores and four little Cortex A53 cores. These are off-the-shelf cores designed by ARM (as in the company that created the ARM instruction set), built on TSMC’s 20nm HPm process. The idea behind big.LITTLE is that the big, power-hungry cores only spin up when heavy lifting needs to be done, with the little cores keeping the plates spinning in between those bursts of activity. In theory, this provides high performance without sucking down too much power. In practice, early implementations of big.LITTLE weren’t very good; hopefully this implementation, with improved task scheduling support from Android, will be better.
Beyond the CPU — and really, when it comes to mobile computing, the CPU is only a small part of the overall equation — the Snapdragon 810 has some very interesting hardware features. The dual ISPs, for example, could mean that we’re about to see smartphones with a Pelican light field camera, or a dual-sensor pseudo-optical-zoom camera fromCorephotonics. If you’ve read my impressions of Dolby Atmos, you’ll know that I’m very excited about its arrival on the Snapdragon platform. Hardware encode and decode of 4K video is certainly a nice-to-have, and it’ll probably be a good bullet point on the box, though I don’t know how useful it will actually be.
The Snapdragon 810 will arrive early in 2015, with the first smartphones and tablets being demonstrated at CES 2015 in January. The first half of 2015 will likely be dominated by the 810 — and then, if all goes to plan, we should finally hear about Qualcomm’s own 64-bit CPU core. When that new CPU core will actually be ready to go, however, remains to be seen.