You may have noticed a trend recently — pairing slightly less powerful cores that sip power, with more robust ones that can chug through demanding applications. NVIDIA’s Tegra 3 will be packing an underclocked fifth core, while ARM’s big.LITTLE initiative matches a highly efficient 28nm A7 with the beefy A15. Now Freescale is planning to use the same trick, but you won’t find its asymmetrical CPUs in your next tablet or smartphone. Its platform, which marries a Cortex M4 to a Cortex A5, isn’t meant to compete with the latest Snapdragon. These chips will find homes in factories and in-dash infotainment systems which have increasingly sophisticated UIs, but don’t need to push thousands of polygons. Software development tools will land before this quarter is out and the first batch of silicon will be announced in Q1 of 2012. Looks like the era of “dual-core” meaning two identical cores has officially come to an end.

Continue reading Freescale joins ARM A5 and M4 cores at the hip for performance and power savings

Freescale joins ARM A5 and M4 cores at the hip for performance and power savings originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This just in: Microsoft is ready to take the plunge into mobile modernity… at its own pace. During a recent interview with All Things D, Windows Phone President Andy Lees revealed a few details about Redmond’s future crop of handsets, which will apparently include both LTE capabilities and dual-core processors. The exec confirmed that LTE-equipped devices are indeed in the pipeline, but declined to specify whether they’d hit the market this year or next. Turns out, Microsoft wants to wait until current LTE networks prove capable of supporting more power-efficient smartphones. “The first LTE phones were big and big [users] of the battery,” Lees said. “I think it’s possible to do it in a way that is far more efficient, and that’s what we will be doing.”

Lees was similarly opaque about Microsoft’s plans to incorporate dual-core CPUs into its mobile lineup, saying only that they’re on the way. According to him, however, even single-core Windows Phones can hold their own against the dual-core competition: “They’re all single core, but I suspect that they will be faster in usage than any dual-core phone that you put against it, and that’s the point.” Lees went on to wax Panglossian about Microsoft’s strategy, claiming that the absence of LTE and dual-core processing doesn’t necessarily mean that his company is behind the times. “I think that what our strategy is is to put things in place that allow us to leapfrog, and I think that’s how we’ve gone from worse [sic] browser to the best browser,” he explained, “and I think the same is true with hardware.” Check out the full interview for yourself, at the source link below.

Shocker! Microsoft to produce dual-core, LTE Windows Phones, other modern things originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Oct 2011 13:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CinemaNow’s movie library is about to get a bit larger and a good deal sharper, thanks to a new deal with Intel. Yesterday, the video on-demand service announced that it’s now offering a slate of 1080p HD movies for the first time, available on PCs packing a second generation Intel Core CPU. According to the company, “several hundred” new releases and other popular films from 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. have already been added to its library, in addition to the 15,000 movies and TV shows already on file. CinemaNow didn’t offer an exact number of titles, nor did it provide names of any specific films, but you can stream through the entire press release for yourself, after the break.

Continue reading CinemaNow strikes deal with Intel, adds new movies in 1080p HD

CinemaNow strikes deal with Intel, adds new movies in 1080p HD originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Oct 2011 15:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Continue reading Samsung unveils Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, packing 1.2GHz dual-core CPU and coated in Honeycomb

Samsung unveils Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, packing 1.2GHz dual-core CPU and coated in Honeycomb originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 30 Sep 2011 06:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve probably never heard of NetLogic Microsystems, but you can bet that its technologies may very well end up in your next smartphone, tablet or vehicle. Broadcom has just announced its intentions to pick up the aforesaid company for a cool $3.7 billion in cash, with the “definitive merger agreement” already approved by the boards of both. According to Broadcom, the deal will extend its portfolio with “a number of critical new product lines and technologies, including knowledge-based processors, multi-core embedded processors, and digital front-end processors,” and according to a televised CNBC interview with president and CEO Scott McGregor, he’s hoping to extend Broadcom’s reach in the automotive industry. His view? We’re getting dangerously close to streaming television (and more) to a serious quantity of motorcars, but beyond wild aspirations, there doesn’t seem to be too many hard plans being made public. The full release is hosted up after the break.

Continue reading Broadcom buys NetLogic Microsystems for $3.7b in cash, hopes to add more processors to lineup

Broadcom buys NetLogic Microsystems for $3.7b in cash, hopes to add more processors to lineup originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Sep 2011 10:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We don’t mind eyeballing a few impossibly clean renders when we get wind of a new toy, but there’s nothing like the real McCoy. Today’s bones slipped out of a (now pulled) HDblog hands-on of the Acer Aspire 3951 Ultrabook, possibly leaked ahead of an IFA 2011 embargo. The genuine article looks nearly identical to its rendered counterpart, albeit a bit thicker and more plasticky. The unveiled 13.3-inch MacBook Air competitor reportedly sports a second generation Intel Core processor, boots from sleep in under two seconds, and is only 13mm thick. The price? While there is no official word on this exact model, Acer head-honcho JT Wang mentioned last week that the outfit was prepping to launch a new Ultrabook in September for about $800. Lines up nicely with the Acer 3951′s rumored $770-960 price range, doesn’t it?

Acer Aspire 3951 photos leaked, new Ultrabooks to launch in September originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Aug 2011 19:13:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s been a long time since Intel tried to tempt the world with a new Itanium chip. The VLIW 64-bit processor last received a serious update in 2008, with the 2-billion transistor Tukwila. Now Chipzilla is upping the ante — moving to 32nm process, adding up to four more cores, and tacking on more than one billion additional transistors. Poulson also adds a new feature called Intel Instruction Replay Technology, which adds a buffer for more quickly recovering from errors, allowing the chip to pick up from the last known good instruction instead of having to completely flush the pipeline. Those looking to upgrade will also be happy to hear that the upcoming IA-64 CPU is pin compatible with Tukwila, so customers can simply drop the new processor in to existing systems. Check out the full PR after the break.

Continue reading Intel talks up next-gen Itanium: 32nm, 8-core Poulson

Intel talks up next-gen Itanium: 32nm, 8-core Poulson originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:38:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you’ve been waiting to catch a whiff of some Cedar Trail freshness, looks like you’re just gonna hold your breath a little bit longer. DigiTimes is reporting that the next-gen Atom chip has been pushed back from its anticipated September launch to November. Apparently Chipzilla is having issues with the graphics drivers and has been unable to pass Windows 7 certification. The new low-power CPUs should still be ready in time for the holiday season though, and will likely find their way into plenty of netbooks that almost nobody will buy.

Cedar Trail may be delayed, new Atoms gone ’til November originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 22 Aug 2011 03:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Say it with us now: “Huzzah!” For years, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon brand has been held back from general understanding by one thing: befuddling model numbers. Hearing about an MSM 8255 doesn’t really stick with the average consumer, and even for members of the press (and folks neck-deep in the supply channel), it wasn’t exactly easy to keep track of. In a bid to put on a more consumer-facing suit, Qually has announced its intentions to move away from complex processor names and move towards a simpler “series” model. For now, you’ll find S1, S2, S3 and S4, with “1′ being a mass market device and “4″ being the product you actually want. The slide just after the break explains where the cutoffs are for each level, but curiously enough, it sounds as if more of these will be added as technologies improve, speeds increase and capabilities soar. In other words, we hope your great-grandson is eager to get his hands on a Snapdragon S498. Wait, wasn’t this suppose to reduce complexities?

Continue reading Qualcomm overhauls complex naming scheme, introduces simpler Snapdragon levels

Qualcomm overhauls complex naming scheme, introduces simpler Snapdragon levels originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Aug 2011 10:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve gotten a few peeks at Qualcomm’s next-gen Snapdragon chips, codenamed Krait, but now we’ve got a proper roadmap, including time frames for release, model numbers, and even details about the memory channels. Glancing at the slide above doesn’t reveal anything terribly surprising — the dual-core 8960 (LTE), 8270 (HSPA), and 8260A (HSPA+) will all be shipping to manufacturers later this quarter, in speeds ranging from 1.5GHz to 1.7GHz and come packing the latest Adreno 225 GPU. In Q3 of next year Qualcomm’s 28nm tech will trickle down from the high-end to mid-range phones, just ahead of the launch of those quad-core, 2GHz mobile monsters the company teased back in February. Check out the full PDF presentation at the source for more nitty-gritty details.

[Thanks, Gadgeteer]

Qualcomm Snapdragon roadmap leaks, Krait slithering on the scene soon originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jul 2011 18:08:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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