IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 7/26/2013

What's New in Android 4.3

As expected, today Google made a management release for Android 4.2 official at their breakfast with Sundar event, bumping the release up to Android 4.3 and introducing a bunch of new features and fixes. The update brings everything that Google alluded was coming during Google I/O, and a few more.
On the graphics side, the big change is inclusion of support for OpenGL ES 3.0 in Android 4.3. Put another way, Android 4.3 now includes the necessary API bindings both in the NDK and Java for ES 3.0. This release brings the numerous updates we’ve been over before, including multiple render targets, occlusion queries, instances, ETC2 as the standard texture compression, a GLSL ES 3.0, and more.

We’ve also talked about the changes to the 2D rendering pipeline which improve performance throughout Android, specifically intelligent reordering, and merging, which cuts down on the number of draw calls issued to the GPU for 2D scenes. This improvement automatically happens with Android 4.3 and doesn’t require developer intervention, the pipeline is more intelligent now and optimizes the order things are drawn and groups together similar elements into a single draw call instead of multiple. In addition like we talked about, non-rectangular clips have hardware acceleration, and there’s more multithreading in the 2D rendering pipeline.
Google has been trying to increase adoption of WebM and along those lines Android 4.3 now includes VP8 encoder support for Stagefright. The platform APIs are updated accordingly for the ability to change settings like bitrate, framerate, and so forth. New DRM modules are now added as well, for use with MPEG DASH through a new MediaDRM API.

On the connectivity side we get a few new features, first is the WiFi scan mode which we saw leaked in a bunch of different ROMs. This exposes itself as a new option under the Advanced menu under WiFi settings, and during initial out of box setup. This new scanning mode allows Google to continue to further build out its WiFi AP location database to improve WiFi-augmented location services for its devices.
Like we saw hinted not so subtly at Google I/O, 4.3 also includes support for Bluetooth low energy (rebranded Bluetooth smart) through the new Broadcom-sourced Bluetooth stack. This OS-level support for BT Smart APIs will do a lot to ease the API fragmentation third party OEMs have resorted to in its absence.
Likewise Bluetooth AVRCP 1.3 is now included which supports better metadata communication for car audio and other devices, as well as better remote control.
Security gets improvements as well, Android 4.3 moves to SELinux MAC (mandatory access control) in the linux kernel. The 4.3 release runs SELinux in permissive mode which logs policy violations but doesn’t break anything at present.
A number of other security features are changed, including fixes for vulnerabilities disclosed to partners, better application key protection, removal of setuid programs from /system, and the ability to restrict access to certain capabilities per-application. Lastly there’s a new user profiles feature that allows for finer grained control over app usage and content.
We'll be playing around with the new features on the new Nexus 7 as well as the other Nexus devices getting the update (Nexus 4, Nexus 10, Nexus 7 (2012), and Galaxy Nexus). Google has already posted the factory images for those devices as well if you're too impatient to wait for the OTA and want to flash it manually.
Source: Google

Gallery: What's New in Android 4.3

Google's Breakfast With Sundar Pichai Event - Live Blog
We're in San Francisco again for Google, and this time we're expecting news about the next release of Android, and perhaps some news on the Chrome OS front, and a new Nexus 7. Join us inside for our live blog.

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NVIDIA Demonstrates Logan SoC: < 1W Kepler, Shipping in 1H 2014, More Energy Efficient than A6X?
Ever since its arrival in the ultra mobile space, NVIDIA hasn't really flexed its GPU muscle. The Tegra GPUs we've seen thus far have been ok at best, and in serious need of improvement at worst. NVIDIA often blamed an immature OEM ecosystem unwilling to pay for the sort of large die SoCs necessary in order to bring a high-performance GPU to market. Thankfully, that's all changing. Earlier this year NVIDIA laid out its mobile SoC roadmap through 2015, including the 2014 release of Project Logan - the first NVIDIA ultra mobile SoC to feature a Kepler GPU. Yesterday in a private event at Siggraph, NVIDIA demonstrated functional Logan silicon for the very first time.

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NVIDIA Confirms Ship Date for Shield - July 31

After a bout of recent bad news regarding Shield's launch date slipping due to a mechanical issue with a third party component supplier, comes news that NVIDIA will meet its end-of-July ship deadline for the Tegra 4-packing handheld gaming console. Earlier today, NVIDIA sent off an email with some good news to customers who have preordered Shield, confirming that their units with the mechanical issue fixed will be shipped out on July 31.

“We want to thank you for your patience and for sticking with us through the shipment delay of your SHIELD. We have great news to share with you - your SHIELD will ship on July 31st.

Our goal has always been to ship the perfect product, so we made sure we submitted SHIELD to the most rigorous mechanical testing and quality assurance standards in the industry. We built SHIELD because we love playing games, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we do.”

We've played with NVIDIA's final Shield hardware a while back, and came away decently impressed. Now all that remains is the full review.
Source: NVIDIA Blog

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The AnandTech Podcast: Episode 23

In this episode Brian and I talk about Nokia's Lumia 1020, Microsoft's struggles in the phone space, the HTC One mini, a giant battery for the Galaxy S 4, Aptina and ARM's Cortex A12.

The AnandTech Podcast - Episode 23

featuring Anand Shimpi, Brian Klug
iTunes

RSS - mp3, m4a

Direct Links - mp3, m4a
Total Time: 1 hour 4 minutes
Outline h:mm

Nokia Lumia 1020, Windows Phone - 0:00

HTC One mini - 0:23

HTC One 4.2.2 - 0:27

SGS4 with a Giant Battery - 0:29

SGS4 Wireless Charging Pad - 0:33

ARM Cortex A12 - 0:36

Aptina - 0:55

The AnandTech Podcast: Episode 22

This is a special episode where Dustin and I debate the merits of Haswell on the desktop, from an enthusiast's perspective.

The AnandTech Podcast - Episode 22

featuring Anand Shimpi, Dustin Sklavos
iTunes

RSS - mp3, m4a

Direct Links - mp3, m4a
Total Time: 1 hour 28 minutes
Outline h:mm

Haswell on the Desktop - The Entire Time

NZXT Phantom 530 Case Review
With the 530 model, NZXT continues to fill out their product line with a Phantom for every season and price tag. But is the 530 the Phantom they and we needed?

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NVIDIA GeForce 326.19 Beta Drivers Available

Following the release of the WHQL 320.49 drivers earlier this month, NVIDIA has moved on to their next driver branch, R325. The first release of these drivers, 326.01, was published in a limited form as part of the Windows 8.1 preview, and today NVIDIA is following that up by releasing the first full beta of R325 with the 326.19 beta drivers.
As is usually the case NVIDIA’s release notes mostly focus on the performance of these drivers. Among other things, NVIDIA notes that 326.19 “Increases performance by up to 19% […] in several PC games vs. GeForce 320.49”, calling out Tomb Raider and Codemasters’ racing games in particular.
Meanwhile users on the cutting edge of display hardware will want to pay attention to the fact that this is the first full GeForce driver to support “tiled” 4K displays such as the Asus PQ321Q, which requires support for 2 device “mosaic” mode to properly drive the display at 3840x2160@60Hz. Outside of 3 display Surround modes, this functionality was previously limited to NVIDIA’s Quadro cards as a product differentiator.
As usual, you can grab the drivers for all current desktop and mobile NVIDIA GPUs over at NVIDIA’s driver download page. And thanks to reader SH SOTN for the heads up.

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HTC Announces One mini - 4.3 inch display, aluminum, and Snapdragon 400

We knew it was coming, and after a long wait and endless leaks the HTC One mini is upon us. Smaller phones seem to be something everyone wants more of to augment the ever-growing size of the flagships, and with the HTC One mini we get some of that, although the miniaturized HTC One isn't quite as powerful as its full fledged brethren. The One mini isn't exactly that miniaturized flagship that everyone was looking for, rather a more midrange, cost-reduced version of the One with a number of concessions made to get there.

Starting off, the HTC One mini continues the same predominantly aluminum construction and virtually the same exact design language, although there is visibly more polycarbonate around the edges. I'm told that the One mini doesn't use exactly the same construction methods as the One, you can see this bear itself out in the photos with the plastic wrapping around the edges a bit more on the front and back. The backside is still curved and segmented into three pieces, with the bottom and top strips serving as the primary and secondary cellular antennas from what I can tell. In that plastic band for the top antenna separation is also still a secondary microphone, for stereo audio on video and ambient noise suppression on calls. You'll notice the vertical strip running along the middle to the camera module is gone, and with it, the NFC functionality which necessitated it. The power button is also now silver since there's no IR Tx/Rx port behind it, and the volume rocker is now two discrete buttons instead of one.
Flash moves to a centered 12-o-clock position above the rear-facing camera aperture, which is still 4.0 MP with 2.0 µm "ultrapixels," although there's no OIS this time around for cost reasons, which is a bit unfortunate since that was half of what made the HTC One's camera exciting.

HTC One mini Specifications
	HTC One mini
SoC	1.4 GHz Snapdragon 400 (MSM8930 - 2 x Krait 200 CPU, Adreno 305 GPU)
RAM/NAND/Expansion	1GB LPDDR2, 16 GB NAND
Display	4.3-inch LCD 720p, 341 ppi
Network	2G / 3G / 4G LTE (MSM8930 MDM9x15 IP block)
Dimensions	132 x 63.2 x 9.25 mm, 122 grams
Camera	4.0 MP (2688 × 1520) Rear Facing with 2.0 µm pixels, 1/3" CMOS size, F/2.0, 28mm (35mm effective) no OIS 1.6 MP front facing
Battery	1800 mAh (6.84 Whr)
OS	Android 4.2.2 with Sense 5
Connectivity	802.11a/b/g/n + BT 4.0, USB2.0, GPS/GNSS, DLNA
Misc	Dual front facing speakers, HDR dual microphones, 2.55V headphone amplifier
Bands	GSM/EDGE: Quad Band WCDMA/HSPA+ 42 Mbps: EMEA: 900/1900/2100 MHz Asia: 850/900/1900/2100 MHz LTE Cat. 3: EMEA: 800/1800/2600 MHz Asia: 900/1800/2100/2600

On the front the One mini retains the stereo boomsound speakers, front facing camera module (1.6 MP), and capacitive button placement. The display is 4.3-inch 720p LCD – as an aside it's amazing that 4.3-inch and 720p is now a midrange feature just a year after 720p's introduction. The HTC One mini runs Android 4.2.2 with the updates to Sense 5 we already talked about in that update to the HTC One.

Hardware Comparison
	HTC One mini	HTC One	HTC One S	iPhone 5
Height	132.0 mm	137.4 mm	130.9 mm	123.8 mm
Width	63.2 mm	68.2 mm	65 mm	58.6 mm
Thickness	9.25 mm	9.3 mm	7.8 mm	7.6 mm
Mass	122 grams	143 grams	119.5g	112 g

So how mini is the One mini, and how much of a spiritual successor to the HTC One S is it? Turns out it's somewhere inbetween the One S and One in size and mass, and still somewhat tall of a phone if you're comapring dimensions in the table I've made above. I don't have any hands-on impressions with the device to share for various spatial reasons, but I'm hoping it maintains the same kind of quality that the One does without making sacrifices.
Update: A number of people have asked how the One mini compares in size and mass to the iPhone 5, I've tossed that in the table as well.

HTC One (left), HTC One mini (right)

What made the HTC One S awesome was that it was every bit as powerful as the One XL but in a smaller, sleeker, metal chassis. With the HTC One mini it's obvious that this isn't a flagship device squeezed into a smaller, more pocketable device like the One S was, but rather a phone catered to a different lower-end market entirely. Among enthusiasts that's not at all what everyone has been clamoring (sometimes quite loudly) for, but it will bring HTC a much needed update into a different price point not commonly home to such material or build quality. I'm going to wait until I finally get the chance to hold and review a One mini before passing judgement.
The HTC One mini will launch in some markets (Europe, others) in August and globally in September this year. HTC isn't naming a price for the One mini, but with the specs above it has to be competitive given the relatively midrange spec list and targeting. There's no official word on availability, operator partners, or pricing for the USA market, but it is inevitably coming here in some shape or form.

Gallery: HTC One mini

New Elements to Samsung SSDs: The MEX Controller, Turbo Write and NVMe

As part of the SSD Summit in Korea today, Samsung gave the world media a brief glimpse into some new technologies. The initial focus on most of these will be in the Samsung 840 Evo, unveiled earlier today.
The MEX Controller
First up is the upgrade to the controller. Samsung’s naming scheme from the 830 onwards has been MCX (830), MDX (840, 840 Pro) and now the MEX with the 840 Evo. This uses the same 3-core ARM Cortex R4 base, however boosted from 300 MHz in the MDX to 400 MHz in the MEX. This 33% boost in pure speed is partly responsible for the overall increase in 4K random IOPS at QD1, which rise from 7900 in the 840 to 10000 in the 840 Evo (+27%). This is in addition to firmware updates with the new controller, and that some of the functions of the system have been ported as hardware ops rather than software ops.
TurboWrite
The most thought provoking announcement was TurboWrite. This is the high performance buffer inside the 840 Evo which contributes to the high write speed compared to the 840 (140 MB/s on 120GB drive with the 840, compared to 410 MB/s on the 840 Evo 120GB). Because writing to 3-bit MLC takes longer than 2-bit MLC or SLC, Samsung are using this high performance buffer in SLC mode. Then, when the drive is idle, it will pass the data on to the main drive NAND when performance is not an issue.
The amount of ‘high-performance buffer’ with the 840 Evo will depend on the model being used. Also, while the buffer is still technically 3-bit MLC, due to its use in SLC mode the amount of storage in the buffer decreases by a factor three. So in the 1TB version of the 840 Evo, which has 36 GB of buffer, in actual fact can accommodate 12 GB of writes in SLC mode before reverting to the main NAND. In the 1TB model however, TurboWrite has a minimal effect – it is in the 120GB model where Samsung are reporting the 3x increase in write speeds.
In the 120GB and 250GB models, they will have 9 GB of 3-bit MLC buffer, which will equate to 3 GB of writes. Beyond this level of writes (despite the 10GB/day oft quoted average), one would assume that the device reverts back to the former write speed – in this case perhaps closer to the 140 MB/s number from the 840, but the addition of firmware updates will go above this. However, without a drive to test it would be pure speculation, but will surely come up in the Q&A session later today, and we will update the more we know.
Dynamic Thermal Guard
A new feature on the 840 Evo is the addition of Dynamic Thermal Guard, where operating temperatures of the SSD are outside their suggest range (70C+). Using some programming onboard, above the predefined temperature, the drive will throttle its power usage to generate less heat until such time as the operating temperature is more normal. Unfortunately no additional details on this feature were announced, but I think this might result in a redesign for certain gaming laptops that reach 80C+ under high loading.

Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe)
While this is something relatively new, it is not on the 840 Evo, but as part of the summit today it is worth some discussion. The principle behind NVMe is simple – command structures like IDE and AHCI were developed with mechanical hard-disks in mind. AHCI is still compatible with SSDs, but the move to more devices based on the PCIe requires an update on the command structure in order to be used with higher efficiency and lower overhead. There are currently 11 companies in the working group developing the NVMe specifications, currently at revision 1.1, including Samsung and Intel. The benefits of NVMe include:

One big thing that almost everyone in the audience must have spotted is the maximum queue depth. In AHCI, the protocol allows for one queue with a max QD of 32. In NVMe, due to the way NAND works (as well as the increased throughput potential), we can apply 64K queues, each with a max QD of 64K. In terms of real-world usage (or even server usage), I am not sure how far the expanding QD would go, but it would certainly change a few benchmarks.
The purpose of NVMe is also to change latency. In AHCI, dealing with mechanical hard drives, if latency is 10% of access times, not much is noticed – but if you reduce access times by two orders of magnitude and the level of latency stays the same, it becomes the main component of any delay. NVMe helps to alleviate that.
Two of the questions from the crowd today were pertinent to how NVMe will be applied in the real world – how will NVMe come about, and despite the fact that current chipsets to not have PCIe-based 2.5” SSD connectors, will we get an adapter from a PCIe slot to the drive? On the first front, Samsung acknowledged that they are working with the major OS manufacturers to support NVMe in their software stack. In terms of motherboard support, in my opinion, as IDE/AHCI is a BIOS option it will require BIOS updates to work in NVMe mode, with AHCI as fallback.
On the second question about a PCIe -> SSD connector, it makes sense that one will be released in due course until chipset manufacturers implement the connectors for SSDs using the PCIe interface. It should not be much of a leap, given that SATA to USB 3.0 connectors are already shipped in some SSD packages.
More information from Korea as it develops…!

Gallery: New Elements to Samsung SSDs: The MEX Controller, Turbo Write and NVMe

Samsung launch the 840 EVO: Up to 1TB and Faster Writes for 120GB

As part of the 2013 Samsung SSD Global Summit here in Korea, Samsung announced that latest member to their SSD lineup – the Samsung SSD 840 EVO, under the banner ‘SSDs For Everyone’. This new drive will be available in 120 GB/250 GB/500 GB/750 GB/1 TB capacities, using 19nm Toggle 2.0 TLC, compared to the Samsung SSD 840 which uses 21nm Toggle 2.0 TLC and the 840 Pro which uses 21nm Toggle MLC. We also upgrade to the Samsung MEX Controller onboard, one up from the MDX.

Samsung SSD 840 EVO Specifications
Capacity	120GB	250GB	500GB 750GB	1000GB
Sequential Read	540MB/s	540MB/s	540MB/s	540MB/s
Sequential Write	410MB/s	520MB/s	520MB/s	520MB/s
4KB Random Read (QD32)	94K IOPS	97K IOPS	98K IOPS	98K IOPS
4KB Random Write (QD32)	35K IOPS	66K IOPS	90K IOPS	90K IOPS
Cache (LPDDR2)	256MB	512MB	512MB	1GB

Samsung SSD 840 EVO vs 840 Pro vs 840 vs 830
	Samsung SSD 830 (256GB)	Samsung SSD 840 (250GB)	Samsung SSD 840 Pro (256GB)	Samsung SSD 840 EVO (250 GB)
Controller	Samsung MCX	Samsung MDX	Samsung MDX	Samsung MEX
NAND	27nm Toggle-Mode 1.1 MLC	21nm Toggle-Mode 2.0 TLC	21nm Toggle-Mode MLC	19nm Toggle-Mode 2.0 TLC
Sequential Read	520MB/s	540MB/s	540MB/s	540MB/s
Sequential Write	400MB/s	250MB/s	520MB/s	520MB/s
Random Read	80K IOPS	96K IOPS	100K IOPS	97K IOPS
Random Write	36K IOPS	62K IOPS	90K IOPS	66K IOPS
Warranty	3 years	3 years	5 years	3 years

The big thing Samsung want to push with the EVO is the increased write speed for the low capacity models. Using a new feature called 'TurboWrite' (more info on this as we get it), compared to the previous 840, whereby the 120 GB model was rated at 130 MB/s and 86K/32K 4K random IOPS, the new 120 GB model is hitting a rated 410 MB/s write speeds. The peak 1 TB model is rated for 540/520 MB/s sequential read and write, with 98K/90K IOPS respectively. The 1 TB models will also feature 1 GB of LPDDR2 DRAM Cache.

Enterprise storage is also the focus of the SSD Summit, with Samsung unveiling the XS1715, an ultra-fast NVMe (Non-Volitile Memory Express) SSD with up to 1.6 TB of storage. The XS1715 is the first 2.5” SFF-8639 SSD using PCIe 3.0 to provide a maximum sequential speed of 3 GB/s, along with 740k IOPS. The XS1715 will be available in 400GB, 800GB and 1.6 TB versions, with plans to develop the line of NVMe devices.
More information from the Summit as it occurs throughout today and tomorrow!

Gallery: Samsung launch the 840 EVO: Up to 1TB and Faster Writes for 120GB

UPDATE: Pricing is as follows:

Thus for the 1TB model, $650 makes the drive $0.65/GB. At the 250GB price point, the basic Evo package is $190, compared to the current 840 standard price of $175 at Newegg.

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Aptina Announces AR1331CP 13 MP CMOS with Clarity Plus - We Take a Look

Earlier this week, Aptina invited me out to their San Jose office to take a look at their new Clarity+ CFA (Color Filter Array) technology and 13 MP AR1331CP CMOS image sensor which includes it. Clarity+ is Aptina's new 2x2 RC,CB CFA which includes two clear pixels where the traditional Bayer array places green pixels. Others have tried (and failed) with clear pixel filter arrays in the past, Aptina believes it has the clear pixels in the right place with their new filter and the right opportunity with industry state and availability of powerful ISPs. Aptina claims it can realize a 3-4 dB improvement in SNR with Clarity+ over Bayer, while keeping the same sharpness, avoiding color artifacts that plagued other clear pixel filters, and taking only a 0.2 dB hit in the 38 or so dB of dynamic range for a smartphone sensor.
If you've been reading along with our smartphone coverage for some period of time, you'll know one of the big challenges facing mobile device and image sensor makers has to do with size – pixel size to be exact. The prevailing industry trend has been a steady march towards smaller pixels for a number of related reasons – with smaller pitch you can include more pixels in the same area, or keep the same number of pixels in a smaller area, thus allowing the handset maker to reduce the z-height of their image module thanks to a smaller area it has to form an image onto. The tradeoff of course is less area over which each pixel can integrate light during an exposure, something which up until this last 1.1µm step has largely been able to be mitigated by pixel design. The step from 1.4µm to 1.1µm however does come with a tradeoff in sensitivity, and as a result you see industry moves to mitigate this with OIS, multiple exposures, or avoiding it altogether.

Gallery: Aptina Clarity+

Pixels in a digital camera only count photons, not the wavelength (color) of those incident photons. To resolve more than an image of luminance, you need a color filter array, and interpolate (demosaic) the color of each pixel based on its neighbors. The dominant color filter array for the last twenty or so years of digital imaging has been Bayer, a 2x2 pixel array consisting of RGB pixels, arranged RG,GB, with twice the number of green pixels to mimic human eye response which peaks in sensitivity in the green. This has been dominant in part thanks to how simple it is and how well it works – for most practical imaging applications, Bayer is great. Of course, adding a color filter means rejecting some light, in this case only photons inside the spectral response of the filter get passed, and in the smartphone space where pixels are getting smaller and smaller, every photon matters. For that reason, there's been much attention on using clear pixels somewhere in the array to increase sensitivity. There have been a number of different arrays tried, RG,CB, and 4x4 RG,BC arrays, all with some tradeoff.
An immediate question is how Aptina avoids losing dynamic range in a CMOS sensor with clear pixels (the claim is 0.2 dB loss from the ~38 dB of dynamic range). The answer is that the clear pixel structure has been accordingly modified so it doesn't saturate before the blue and red pixels.

Aptina's Clarity+ system is a subtractive system with clear pixels in the place of Bayer's green, blue and red in the same place, and still 2x2. The result is equivalent sharpness and lack of color artifacts, assuming good recovery of the green channel from clear without introducing more noise. Apina does this by using the luminance image from the clear pixels early on in the imaging pipeline to suppress any chroma noise, and resolves chroma from the RB and recovered G channels.

The next question is then – how does Aptina's image processing pipeline fit into a world built around Bayer? The near term solution is for handset makers to use Aptina's own ISP which includes Clarity+ onboard, something it tells us to expect the first round of devices to ship with. Another alternative is an Aptina stage in the image processing pipeline that converts the RC,CB image data into Bayer-domain RG,GB data for use in current image processing pipelines. Long term, however, Aptina has already ported various stages of its image pipeline to current SoCs with good results, and is talking with the big SoC vendors about inclusion in the next round of tapeouts. The nice thing is that RC,CB still looks a lot like Bayer after the green channel is recovered, from an image processing perspective, as opposed to some of the other alternative filters. Aptina will continue to ship its CMOS sensors in Bayer as well as Clarity+ variants, with the CP suffix obviously connoting inclusion of the new color filter array.

(left) AR1331CP with Clarity+, (right) AR1230 with Bayer

How does this all work in practice? Aptina showed us a demonstration of its new AR1331CP 13 MP 1.1µm image sensor versus its AR1230 12MP 1.1µm sensor of its image sensor. At higher lux levels, there wasn't any visible reduction in image sharpness, and at low lux (10-8) the gain in SNR with the same integration time is dramatic.
Moving beyond Bayer is something the smartphone industry has tried and failed to do before, with Clarity+ it looks like Aptina might have a much better chance at doing so without any of the loss of resolution, introduction of color artifacts, or other tradeoffs that other proposed clear pixel filters have introduced. There's still the issue of ISP and getting third party silicon vendors to adopt the platform, but handset vendors are enthusiastic enough about improving sensitivity in low light scenarios that there's sufficient pressure to do so.
Source: Aptina (whitepaper - PDF)

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The ARM Diaries, Part 2: Understanding the Cortex A12
A couple of weeks ago I began this series on ARM with a discussion of the company’s unique business model. In covering semiconductor companies we’ve come across many that are fabless, but it’s very rare that you come across a successful semiconductor company that doesn’t even sell a chip. ARM’s business entirely revolves around licensing IP for its instruction set as well as its own CPU (and now GPU and video) cores.
Today we focus on one of ARM's newly announced microprocessor cores: the Cortex A12.

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AnandTech Mobile: Pinch to Zoom & Pipeline FP Now Supported

Yesterday, with the help of our friends over at Box, we launched the first responsive version of AnandTech. To recap, our single site design will now present you with one of four different views depending on your browser's reported resolution (not user agent string). You'll get a smartphone portrait, smartphone landscape, tablet or desktop view depending on what resolution your browser supports.
Based on your feedback from Monday our developer John has added a couple of additional frequently requested features:
1) Support for Pinch to Zoom is now enabled in the mobile view.
2) The most recent 8 Pipeline stories are now integrated on the front page (all other front pages had them integrated already).
Next on the list are higher res icons :)

Gallery: AnandTech Mobile: Pinch to Zoom & Pipeline FP Now Supported

Micron Announces 16nm 128Gb MLC NAND, SSDs in 2014

Earlier today Micron announced its first 16nm MLC NAND device. The 128Gbit device is architecturally identical to the current 20nm/128Gbit 2-bit-per-cell MLC device that's shipping today but smaller. That means we're talking about a 16K page size and 512 pages per block (two planes). Micron didn't share many details of the new device other than to say that it'd be available in the same package (152-ball BGA 14x18mm) and feature roughly the same performance as the current 20nm part. The performance claim is an interesting one since performance typically decreases with each NAND generation as we've seen in the past. Micron's exact wording was "similiar performance" to existing 20nm 128Gbit MLC parts, which doesn't necessarily mean identical.

Micron NAND Evolution

50nm

34nm

25nm

20nm

16nm

Single Die Max Capacity

16Gbit

32Gbit

64Gbit

128Gbit

Page Size

4KB

8KB

16KB

Pages per Block

128

256

512

Read Page (max)

75 µs

100 µs

115 µs

Program Page (typical)

900 µs

1200 µs

1300 µs

1600 µs

Erase Block (typical)

3 ms

3.8 ms

Die Size

172mm²

167mm²

118mm²

202mm²

Gbit per mm²

0.186

0.383

0.542

0.634

Rated Program/Erase Cycles

10000

5000

3000

~3000

The one bit of information that Micron is unfortunately not sharing is the actual size of its 16nm 128Gb NAND device. Citing competitive concerns, Micron is only saying that it's the industry's smallest 128Gb MLC NAND device.
Micron is targeting 3000 program/erase cycles for its 16nm NAND device. Micron's 16nm NAND is sampling now, and will be in production in the Q4 of this year. Micron expects to ship SSDs based on its 16nm NAND in 2014. If the 20nm ramp is any indication, we should expect 16nm NAND in drives in around a year from now.

Gallery: Micron Announces 16nm 128Gb MLC NAND, SSDs in 2014

Razer Hammerhead Pro Audio Impressions

Razer has been well known in the gaming space for making high end and relatively pricey peripherals. While their sweet spot has definitely been input devices (mouse and keyboard, primarily), they’ve launched their fair share of gaming audio products as well, mostly centered around over-ear headphones that typically look really cool. Between the in-your-face neon green of the Orca and Kraken, the aviator style of the Blackshark, and the futuristic Tiamat, all of Razer’s recent headsets have made a design statement. Unfortunately, none of them have sounded very good. And I really mean none of them, excepting the ambitious and expensive Tiamat 7.1. No matter which Razer headset you look at, you can get substantially better audio quality for the money elsewhere.
So when Razer told me they had come up with a pair of earbuds that emphasized audio quality, I scoffed. A couple of days later, a set of Hammerhead Pros showed up on my doorstep and I got to test them for myself. The Hammerhead is an in-ear-monitor (IEM) with 9mm Neodymium magnet dynamic drivers priced at $49.95, while the Pro adds an inline microphone for an extra $20. Design and build quality are pretty stellar, with all of the connected pieces being machined from aluminum. There’s some great detailing throughout the design, including knurled aluminum accents and the Razer motto “For gamers, by gamers” stamped into the back of each earbud. Between the black brushed finish of the aluminum and the neon green of the cable, you’re left with a pretty eye-catching set of IEMs.
Given Razer’s recent efforts in the mobile computing space, their motivation in creating a more portable audio solution is pretty clear. It’s a pretty interesting price point, at the intersection of the low end of the audiophile-grade IEMs and the “fashion” earbuds, popularized by the House That Dre Built amongst others. The Hammerheads are certainly styled well enough to compete with the latter, but my interest was looking at them relative to the best budget IEMs. This includes the Klipsch S4, the Etymotic MC5, and my personal pick for best $50 IEM at the moment, the Logitech Ultimate Ears 600, of which I just so happen to own a set.
The Hammerhead sound signature is definitely bass-heavy and tonally warm, though the mids are a bit muddled and instruments aren’t particularly well detailed at the top end. This isn’t really an issue if you’re listening to pop, as the bass-heavy nature of the tracks tends to suit the response of the dynamic driver, but for instrumentally-heavy songs, it certainly isn’t ideal. When compared to the UE 600, a very detailed and responsive set of IEMs, the mids and highs really lack a lot of clarity. The UE 600 is interesting because it’s one of the only balanced armature IEMs you can get at this price point, a feature typically reserved for premium IEMs. Balanced armature drivers tend to respond faster and thus have more accurate, if less bassy, sound profiles. In comparison, the Hammerhead’s overall sound signature ends up feeling not particularly refined, though the bass response is quite nice. It’s neither as crisp nor as balanced, though depending on your music selection it can certainly sound better than the at-times mid-heavy UE 600. Run through a Jay-Z/Kanye West playlist, and the UE 600 just sounds thin, while the warmth of the Hammerhead really shines through. Of course, it should go without saying that audio quality is very subjective, and personal preferences may vary when it comes to sound signature.
Comparing against the UE 600 is probably a bit unfair, because that’s legitimately one of the single best in-ear audio experiences you can get for a street price of $50, with an original MSRP of double that. It’s a legitimately premium set of monitors that’s available on the cheap. Relative to urBeats and most other fashion earbuds, the Hammerheads are a distinct step up, and of course, like any set of half-decent headphones, they’re a huge improvement from OEM-bundled headsets like Apple’s EarPod and the HTC One’s surprisingly not-awful earbuds. I come away pleasantly surprised, because I certainly wasn’t expecting Razer to deliver a competitive audio experience at this price point. For anyone whose primary usage will be music, I would still recommend a set of audio-centric IEMs in this price range, primarily the UE 600s or possibly Klipsch S4s, but the Hammerheads are worth a look. They’re visually impactful and well put together, sound decent (if a bit bass-heavy), and aren’t badly priced, either. For the style conscious, it’s an IEM that could certainly strike the right balance.

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MSI GE40 Review: a Slim Gaming Notebook

With Intel’s Haswell launch officially behind us, we’re getting a steady stream of new notebooks and laptops that have been updated with the latest processors and GPUs. MSI sent their GE40 our way for review, a gaming notebook that’s less than an inch thick and pairs a Haswell i7-4700MQ with NVIDIA’s new GTX 760M GPU. At first glance, it has a lot in common with the new Razer Blade 14-inch laptop that we recently reviewed; on second glance, it has even more in common. Read on to find out the good and the bad of MSI’s GE40.

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Introducing AnandTech Mobile: A Responsive Design Update
For the past couple of months our ad sales team has been engaged with Box, an enterprise file sharing and cloud content management company. Box was looking for a way to increase its exposure and brand awareness, and we had a platform to do just that. Rather than rely on typical advertising, Box was thinking of something a little more, er, outside of the box.
Box is absolutely amazing to work with. Rather than asking what we could do for them, they asked us what they could do for us. What immediately came to mind was the overwhelming number of requests for a responsive version of AnandTech. We presented the idea of sponsoring the design and creation of AnandTech Mobile to Box, and they loved it. Over the past month we've been modifying AnandTech and preparing the first responsive implementation of the site. Today, AnandTech Mobile is live.

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Samsung Galaxy S 4 Qi Wireless Charging Pad and Cover - Mini Review

For a while now, wireless charging has been slowly gaining momentum, and one of the phones that includes support is Samsung’s Galaxy S 4 (SGS4). For the past week, I’ve been using a review unit of Samsung’s wireless charging accessory kit for the aforementioned smartphone which includes both a Qi compatible wireless charging pad and battery back.
Using the wireless charging accessory is simple – you remove the stock battery back, snap on the new one, and plug the wireless charging pad into the Samsung charger that originally shipped with the phone. This last point is critical, as the wireless charging pad requires the 2 amp charger that Samsung supplies with the SGS4. I’ve touched on charging in the past before, but this charger includes the 1.2 V signaling across the D+ and D- pins which signals 2 amp (tablet-class) compatible charging to Samsung devices, like the charging pad. Using a normal BC 1.2 compatible charger won’t work, as that specification only stipulates up to 1.5 amp delivery on its dedicated charging port.

Of course, since the charging pad and SGS4 are Qi compliant, you can obviously use a variety of wireless charging pads that implement that standard to charge the device. I tested on my go-to Energizer dual position Qi charger, and the SGS4 with wireless charging back worked as expected.
The only downside with the wireless charging back is that it does add noticeably to the thickness of the SGS4. I broke out my calipers and measured an increase in thickness of just over 1.7 mm with the wireless charging back attached instead of the stock one.

Samsung Galaxy S 4 Charging Back Thickness (Measured)
SGS4 No Battery Cover	7.20 mm
SGS4 Stock Battery Cover	7.94 mm
SGS4 Wireless Charging Battery Cover	9.70 mm

It’s not a huge difference, but it is noticeable. I suppose one benefit to this added thickness is that the front vertex of the camera no longer is the thickest part of the SGS4, which adds a bit of protection if you’re laying it back-first, on a flat surface.

The back of the wireless charging back has two sets of two contact pads that mate up with the inside of the SGS4. I tested with my DMM and on one set you get a steady 5 volts when aligned with the charging pad, on the other nothing. I strongly suspect the wireless charging downstream controller is in this battery back, so Samsung can keep their handsets relatively standards-agnostic and just ship whatever wireless charging standard back they want. In addition this obviously would help keep the BOM cost lower on the device and avoids shipping controllers that customers might not use.

So the big last question is – how well does it work and how fast does it charge the SGS4? For a while now I’ve been measuring charge times for devices, something I believe enters just as strongly into the battery and power side of a device as its time through our battery life tests. The SGS4 is already one of the fastest charging devices out there considering its battery size thanks to the speedy (albeit proprietary) 2 amp charging signaling. Because there’s overhead involved with wireless charging, this obviously gets diminished with the wireless charger. I measured a fully drained to fully charged time of 3.922 hours with the wireless charging back attached and Samsung’s charging pad connected to the 2 amp charger.

That’s a measurable and obvious increase in time over the dedicated 2 amp charger connected over USB (2.883 hours, so about 35 percent longer charge time), but that’s the price you pay for the added convenience of not having to plug anything in. On the device side wireless charging is implemented properly, you see the wireless charging splash screen while charging you see the wireless charging logo with the device off, and wireless charging indicators in Android.
As I mentioned earlier, wireless charging is slowly gaining momentum. It isn’t everywhere, but it’s starting to become more and more of a given instead of a one-off. I’m still waiting for my Qi-compliant nightstand table from IKEA, or charging pads at my local cafe, but who knows when that’ll finally (if ever) happen. Obviously uptake for Samsung would be faster were the SGS4 compatible without the need for an accessory back and charging pad, but the tradeoff would obviously be a thicker phone. I’m pleased with the wireless charging accessory, it works like it’s supposed to, and wireless charging definitely is an added convenience after you’ve used it for a while. The wireless charging pad from Samsung runs for $49, and the wireless charging cover runs $39, both of which are a little steep but still around what I would expect for the pad. Of course the nice thing about Qi is that after you have the cover, you can always shop around for a pad that suits you.

Gallery: Galaxy S 4 Wireless Charging Kit

Source: Samsung (Wireless Charging Pad) (Wireless Charging Cover)

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ASUS PQ321Q First Look

Beyond monitor reviews for AnandTech, I do reviews of TVs and Projectors for a number of sites. Ever since Sony launched their VPL-HW1000 4K projector at CEDIA in 2011, the idea of 4K, or Ultra High Definition (UHD), in the home has been picking up speed. Unfortunately I think for the home theater world this has as much to do with 3D not making vendors much of a profit, and OLED being continually delayed, and needing to have some technology to fill in a gap that provides a source of revenue. Flat panels keep falling in price and vendors keep needing to find a way to get consumers to upgrade to something better to make money.

When it comes to computers, smartphones, and tablets, these benefits totally change. There is native high-resolution content available, and we sit much closer to our 32" desktop monitors relative to how close we are to a 50" flat screen TV. As a result we were all excited to see the ASUS PQ321Q be announced in June and have been waiting for a review sample to arrive. It did this week and while the full review will be coming as soon as possible, this is a quick look at the performance out of the box, and how it works.

Gallery: ASUS PQ321Q Exterior and OSD

Sitting next to a 30", 2560x1600 display, the ASUS (on the left) looks around the same size. It has a nice, thin design that looks good on the desk, but necessitates a large power brick to accomplish. It feels very solid, as you expect from a display that costs $3,500, and has a slight anti-glare finish applied to it. The amount seems to be quite low, as I don't see any fogginess or sparkles or other issues on the screen. I'm not sure if it is a design decision, or something that will be changed down the road, but currently the labels to control the OSD are on the back of the display and not the front. ASUS includes a sticker if you want to have them on the front (which I attached), but if you are only going to use them to initially calibrate the monitor then you'll have a nice, clean front without it on.
For my testing I also installed the preview copy of Windows 8.1 to use DPI scaling. At 100% text on the ASUS is very small and hard to read. Setting it to 150% and now on applications that support it, it looks very sharp. Images and screenshots look amazing, but typing this in Chrome right now it looks fuzzy. This is going to be an issue with Windows and HighDPI displays until every vendor manages to update their software to support resolution scaling better. Viewing webpages in Firefox they are crisp and sharp compared to Chrome, so software vendors really need to catch up.

Using an NVIDIA GTX 660 Ti card, with the most recent drivers, you can enable MST mode on the ASUS to provide a full 3840x2160 signal at 60p over a single DisplayPort cable. I know with some earlier UHD monitors I had heard this could be an issue and you would be limited to 30p, but on the ASUS it worked great as soon as I changed the menu setting.
For some initial testing, I used CalMAN 5.1.2 and the sRGB mode on the ASUS PQ321Q. All measurements were done as they are with other monitor reviews, using a profiled C6 meter and targeting 200 nits of light output and a gamma of 2.2.

Looking at these charts for the grayscale, we see that the overall error starts low but rises up to a dE2000 over 3.0 by the end. There is a lack of blue at the top end, and that leads us to a warmer that reference CCT of 6279 on average. The gamma tracks pretty well, with an overall average of 2.14, and the average grayscale dE2000 is only 1.99 in the end. The largest issue with this test was getting the brightness level correct. There are only 31 steps of brightness control, so I wound up with a white level of 204 nits instead of the target 200 nits. Very close, but that is a pretty coarse adjustment.
Testing maximum and minimum brightness levels for white level, black level, and contrast provided the following data.

	Maximum Backlight	Minimum Backlight
White Level	408 nits	57 nits
Black Level	0.5326 nits	0.0756 nits
Contrast Ratio	766:1	755:1

We have a huge range in brightness, from 57 nits up to 408 nits, and a small level of control over it. If you are trying to target a number like 200 exactly, you will be slightly off, but you can get pretty close. It's just surprising to see such small control for such a huge range.
With colors, the ASUS PQ321Q isn't quite as good as with the grayscale. The main issue looks to be a lack of red and blue saturation, which causes a lack of magenta saturation as well. Looking at the CIE chart you see those points fall short of their targets. You'll also see that green goes a bit too far, giving us some color errors that are over 3.0 except for Cyan.

On the more strenuous Gretag Macbeth testing, SpectraCal has added a 96-point test that goes above and beyond the 24-point test we have always run. The average dE2000 I found with the two version were 2.61 and 2.65, so they produce very comparable results. I will use the 96-point version going forward as it provides a larger number of data points, and if one sample is bad and 95 are good, will produce an average value that better indicates that. For smartphones and tablets we will continue to use 24-point versions, as those tests are not automated like the PC versions are.

As we saw with the standard color CIE chart, reds and oranges are the worst offenders, as they are a bit out of the gamut but lacking in saturation on the red end. Cyans, Magentas and greens are better, but the overall color reproduction isn't perfect straight out of the box.
Our final initial test is the saturation test. As you might expect with a gamut where under-saturation is an issue, the errors get larger as saturation approaches 100%.

This is a fast look at the ASUS PQ321Q. The full AnandTech review will follow shortly as I push it through its paces to see what it can do. Any additional features that people want to see tested you can let me know in the comments and I will try my best to accomplish them.

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Google Offers $35 Media Streaming Stick "Chromecast"
It's available in the U.S. starting today, with other countries to follow

Neuron Chip "Learns" to Recognize Distinct Gestures Via Retina Sensors
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ARM Beats Profit, Revenue Expectations, but Misses on Margin Growth
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DARPA Plans Hydra Mothership for Underwater Attacks
Hail Hydra!

Quick Note: "Gran Turismo" Movie in the Works
The producers of "Fifty Shades of Grey" will be working on it

Apple's Q3 Earnings, iPhone Sales Beat Analyst Expectations
Apple sold 31.2 million iPhones for the quarter

Turkey's Top Hacker Defaces Skrillex's Webpage, Posts Poetry
Eboz/KriptekS works alone, claims to have defaced 90,000 webpages, compromised Gmail

Ford and Toyota Sever Partnership to Develop Hybrid Trucks
Each automaker will go their own way with hybrid truck development

7/24/2013 Daily Hardware Reviews
DailyTech's roundup of reviews from around the internet for Wednesday

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Available Tags:Android , NVIDIA , AnandTech , GeForce , HTC , Samsung , MSI , Gaming , Notebook , Galaxy , Wireless , ASUS , Google , Via , iPhone , Ford , Toyota , Hardware ,

Thursday, July 25, 2013

IT News Head Lines (AnandTech) 7/26/2013

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