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Going Out of Order: Samsung Announces Orion Cortex A9 SoC
Last night LG announced that it would be using NVIDIA's Tegra 2 in its Optimus Series smartphones starting in Q4 2010. The most exciting part of Tegra 2 is its use of two ARM Cortex A9 cores. The Cortex A9 is ARM's first out-of-order architecture and should deliver a performance boost similar, at worst, to what we saw in the ARM11 to Cortex A8 transition. But NVIDIA isn't the only company working on a Cortex A9 SoC.
Samsung was unwilling to talk about its Cortex A9 plans at CES, but today it announced the successor to Hummingbird: Orion. Samsung's 45nm Orion SoC implements two Cortex A9 cores running at 1GHz, each with a 64KB L1 cache (32KB+32KB) and a large 1MB shared L2 cache. At 45nm peak power consumption should be greater than the Cortex A8 based Hummingbird, but average power consumption may be lower thanks to the improvement in IPC that accompanies the Cortex A9.
The GPU specs are unusual. Samsung lists Orion as having up to 5x the GPU performance of its previous generation SoC (presumably Hummingbird). We just finished talking about how great Hummingbird's PowerVR SGX 540 is, but to outperform it by 5x would require a serious GPU. I'm not sure I believe Samsung's claim. It is interesting that 5x is the same number NVIDIA used in its announcement yesterday.
TI is also working on a Cortex A9 based SoC - the OMAP 4. Due to ship in Q4 2010 with devices available in 2011 the OMAP 4 series sounds a lot like Orion. However OMAP 4 will use the SGX 540, not whatever higher performing option Samsung turned to for Orion.
If you like you keep your smartphones for a while, it seems like now would be the worst time to buy. Within 6 months you should have much faster options at your disposal (Update: it's unclear when Orion will ship, but at least NVIDIA will have dual core A9 based products in the market by then).
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Caring for the Elderly: iOS 4.1 Speed Boost on the iPhone 3G
iPhone 3G users have been unhappy, and rightfully so. When iOS 4.0 debuted, we talked about new features like multitasking for the iPhone 3GS and how much faster the camera application felt compared to iOS 3.1.3. iPhone 3G customers, however, gained little in terms of new features from the update except newfound slowness.
Discontent has been growing, with a number of users pointing fingers at Apple and citing planned obsolesnce as a possible motive. Steve Jobs later promised that iPhone 3G performance would improve, and that an update was coming to address speed on the aging platform.
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AMD Reveals Competitive Fusion APU TDPs: 9W for netbooks, 18W for notebooks
The first Fusion project we heard about was Llano for mainstream notebooks/desktops. Llano will integrate a 32nm derivative of the current Phenom II architecture with a relatively capable DirectX 11 AMD GPU. Llano isn't due out until sometime in 2011 so details are still light. However, AMD just released some details on its lower end Fusion APUs that will begin shipping in Q4 2010 (OEM system availability in Q1 2011).
Bobcat is the CPU core. Last month we went in depth on its architecture. In short, Bobcat is an out-of-order alternative to Intel's Atom that has the potential to offer significantly higher performance. But since we're talking about APUs, Bobcat is only a part of the equation.
AMD will be shipping two Bobcat based APUs in Q4: Ontario and Zacate. Both APUs implement two Bobcat cores and a DX11 AMD GPU with an undisclosed number of cores. Ontario is aimed at netbooks/nettops while Zacate can be used in ultra thins and value notebooks/desktops.
Today at IFA in Berlin AMD announced the Ontario and Zacate TDPs as well as shared a photo of a low power AMD Fusion APU (possibly Ontario?). The Ontario APU is rated at 9W, while Zacate is rated at 18W.
Read on for more analysis of AMD's announcement.
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Creepy Crawlers Could Help Fight Superbugs
Antibiotics in cockroach brains could treat MSRA and E-Coli
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Oracle's Ellison Unleashes War of Words Over Mark Hurd HP Lawsuit
Oracle CEO responds to suit against new Oracle Co-President Mark Hurd
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Super Talent Debuts USB 3.0 Flash Drives with RAM Cache Tech
Ram Cache tech promises up to 300% performance improvement in some uses
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Nikon Unveils Coolpix P7000, S80 Digital Cameras
P7000 is a high-end offering with the S80 featuring an OLED touchscreen
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LG: We'll Have Dual-Core Smartphones By Year's End
The Optimus is primed to take on Samsung's Orion
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LCD Filter Could Make Screens 400 Percent More Energy Efficient
A new grating pattern allows more light to pass through the filter to enhance efficiency
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Researchers Hope to Shrink Room-sized Artificial Kidney, Make Implantable Device
Goal is to shrink implant to the size of a coffee cup
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Google TV, Chrome OS Ready for Fall Battle With Apple TV, iPad
Competitors strategies mirror in TV market mirror their strategies in the smart phone market
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Researchers Help Severely Paralyzed Humans "Speak" With Their Thoughts
New smaller, impenetrable microelectrodes could help paralyzed patients communicate safely
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Android-powered HP PhotoSmart Printer With Detachable Tablet Revealed
HP's latest wireless printer features a detachable 7" display/tablet
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Verizon's Galaxy S to Blast Off on Thursday
Bleeding-edge Android smartphone goes on sale Thursday at stores
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Dell Gains PC Market Share as Acer Stumbles
"If you ain't first, you're last" - Ricky Bobby
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Samsung Mobile Display Production Capacity to Get 10x Increase Next Year
Production will hit 30 million monthly with new facility
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Oracle Co-President Replaced by Former HP CEO Mark Hurd
HP's former CEO finds a new home thanks to his friend and colleague Larry Ellison
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Small RNA Kills Cancer Cells Without Side Effects
Chains of small RNA cause cancer cells to self destruct
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