STEPPING UP | Qualcomm adds security, battery life features to phone chips

Qualcomm Inc on Wednesday revealed new security and battery life features on its latest Snapdragon 845 mobile phone processor, a chip that customarily powers high-end Android-based phones from Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and others.

The chips are increasingly important to Qualcomm’s financial picture while its patent licensing business is under attack from Apple Inc.

Qualcomm’s latest chip features a range of improvements to help it deal with artificial intelligence tasks like recognizing and categorizing images, Keith Kressin, a senior vice president at the company, told Reuters in an interview.

For the first time, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chip also features physically separate processor called a “Secure Processing Unit” for storing information like fingerprints and iris scans, similar to technology found on Apple’s iPhone. Previous Qualcomm chips had a “trusted zone” that was not physically separate from the rest of the processor.

“With biometric identification on the rise, it was important to take (security) to the next level,” Kressin said.


The company tweaked various parts of the chip for so-called machine learning applications. While that includes things consumers might notice like image recognition, it also includes behind-the-scenes improvements. For example, the chip will help ensure that a user’s fingers do not accidentally register as taps when gripping the sides of an edge-to-edge display.

Kressin said the chip will also help phones register touch screen inputs when wet. That is a critical improvement because even though many top phone models from Samsung and others are now water resistant, they are difficult to operate with water on the screen.

The newest Snapdragon also has features aimed at virtual and augmented reality headsets. One feature called “Adreno foveation” will let the edges of a headset screen operate at lower resolutions while the center of the screen is sharper, similar to how human peripheral vision is fuzzier than central vision. The technique can save battery live, Kressin said.

Qualcomm does not disclose revenue figures for its Snapdragon chips. But they are an increasingly important part of its business because its lucrative patent licensing business is under attack in a series of legal actions from Apple.

Qualcomm is also facing a $103 billion takeover bid from Broadcom Ltd, which earlier this week said it would nominate a slate of directors to Qualcomm’s board.

source: interaksyon.com

Intel creates new business division for connected gadgets

SAN FRANCISCO — Intel Corp has set up a business division aimed at making money out of a new technology wave that can link up a host of electronic devices.

The Santa Clara, California chipmaker and other technology companies are betting that what they call the ‘Internet of Things’ – a trend toward connecting everything from bathroom scales to skyscraper ventilation systems via the Internet – will create massive demand for new electronics and software.





As Intel strives to make sure it’s not caught off-guard by future technology trends, its new ‘Internet of Things Solutions Group’ will report directly to Chief Executive Brian Krzanich, according to Doug Davis, the group’s general manager.

“Krzanich is saying, ‘I want a higher level of focus on this to help us grow it and put the level of attention on it that it deserves,’” Davis told Reuters on Tuesday.

The world’s biggest chipmaker, Intel dominates the personal computer industry but was slow to adapt its chips to be suitable for smartphones and tablets. A three-decade Intel manufacturing veteran who took over as CEO in May, Krzanich has made developing mobile chips a higher priority within Intel.

In September, Krzanich announced that Intel was working on a new line of ultra-small and ultra-low-power microchips for wearable devices like smartwatches and bracelets, along with an ingestible version for biomedical uses.

The new solutions group combines an existing Intel business focused on chips for commercial and industrial devices with Intel’s Wind River subsidiary, which sells software for commercial and industrial devices.

“We’re pulling together a couple of pieces that are already doing well and we want to accelerate those efforts. This creates a primary focus around ‘Internet of Things,’” Davis said.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell)

source: interaksyon.com

Intel to launch low-power version of powerful server chips

SAN FRANCISCO — Chipmaker Intel Corp said it is planning to launch a low-power version of its brawny server processors, potentially heading off competitors hoping to expand into the data center with energy efficient-chips based on smartphone technology.

Intel has already launched a line of its Atom mobile chips that are tweaked to work as low-power server chips.

The announcement, which was made on Monday at an event with industry analysts and media, means Intel will go a step further by offering a low-power version of its powerful Xeon processor with built-in features including connectivity and memory.


It also reflects the willingness of CEO Brian Krzanich, who took over in May, to make major changes to how Intel approaches its different markets.

By launching lower-power chips for servers, Intel is trying to stay ahead of Advanced Micro Devices, Applied Micro Circuits Corp and other smaller rivals hoping to disrupt the top chipmaker’s dominance of the data center with upcoming components designed with low-power smartphone technology licensed from ARM Holdings.

“Intel’s announcements demonstrate they will try to defend their turf against ARM-based servers and specialty processors,” said Pat Moorhead, an analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. “Up until today, it was a bit of a guessing game for Intel that today has at least 95-percent server market share.”

Diane Bryant, in charge of Intel’s data center business, said the new component, based on the upcoming Broadwell version of Intel’s Xeon high-performance chips, will launch next year.

Energy-sipping chips similar to those used in smartphones and tablets lack the horsepower of traditional server processors made by Intel. But data centers that combine many low-power chips instead of just a few heavy-duty processors may provide more computing power for less money and use less electricity.

Microservers have yet to gain serious traction with traditional corporate customers like banks and manufacturers, and the potential size of the market remains unclear.

The new version of Broadwell is part of Intel’s move to integrate more features onto its chips, like memory and graphics. “System on chips,” as they are known, are already widely used in smartphones and tablets, but less in the data center. Intel is also beginning to make “system on chips” for laptops.

Intel dominates the PC and server markets, but it was slow to design chips for the mobile market, where chips using technology from ARM Holdings have become ubiquitous.

source: interaksyon.com

Chipmaker Intel faces long march to mobile salvation

Intel Corp, the world’s biggest chipmaker, opened a new front on Thursday in a long and stuttering campaign to get its processors into mobile phones, although it appears to still have a long way to go.

It joined PC maker Acer Inc in Bangkok to unveil the Liquid C1 smartphone, a $330 device running Google Inc’s Android operating system, which will be launched first in Thailand and then rolled out across Southeast Asia, one of the fastest-growing markets for mobile phones.

“We’ve made a conscious effort to go after these fast-growing markets as our first foray into the business,” Mike Bell, who heads Intel’s mobile division said in a telephone interview.

The company’s ninth such device in nine months, the Liquid C1 represents how far Intel has come in convincing bigger name manufacturers to take a chance with its mobile chips as the sales of personal computers and laptops plunge.

But analysts say it also shows how far it still has to go to get a foothold in a market dominated by the likes of Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp.

“First and foremost they have to prove they can play in this space at all,” said Scott Bicheno, senior analyst at Strategy Analytics. “There’s no obvious technical fault with Intel’s chips. It’s just that the incumbents are very well established.”

Intel has little choice but to get into mobile. It saw revenue fall 3 percent in the last quarter on weak sales of PCs, part of a steady decline in revenue growth since 2009.

It has also watched as devices like Apple Inc’s iPad cannibalize sales of PCs.

So, in the past year, the company has launched phones with Intel chips in Europe, Africa, Latin America, Russia, India and China.

Some were effectively designed and built by Intel as what it calls “calling cards”, convincing carriers like Orange to brand and offer the phones on their own networks in France and the United Kingdom. Last year, it persuaded Chinese hardware manufacturers like ZTE Corp and Lenovo Group Ltd to build their own phones with Intel chips.

Sales have not been stellar.

Intel declined to share data, as did ZTE and Lenovo. But Melissa Chau, senior research manager at technology research group IDC, said while Lenovo shipped more than 1 million units of its best-selling phone in China in the third quarter of last year, it shipped only about 20,000 of its first Intel phone, the K800.

“That’s the scale we’re talking here,” she said.

HISTORICAL

The problem for Intel is a historical one. By its own admission it has been slow to move in a fast-changing landscape where even a decade ago it was clear that desktop PCs and even laptops were giving way to smaller, lighter, connected devices for which lower power consumption was at least as important as processor power.

In the past year or so, however, Intel seems to have shifted focus to mobile applications. It acquired Infineon Technologies’ wireless chip business in 2011 and hired and promoted phone experts like Bell.

“These guys are phone specialists and they’ve really turned us around in terms of the way we approach the market, the way we approach design,” said Uday Marty, managing director for Intel in Southeast Asia.

It seems to be working, at least in terms of quality. UK-based Bicheno says the Motorola RAZR iphone that he has been using, which has an Intel chip, performs as well as any other Android phone.

“They’ve learned a huge amount about the mobile world and how different it is, through their years of failures,” said Caroline Gabriel, head of research at consultancy Rethink Wireless. “Intel did not understand the process of getting devices onto carrier networks in the past, but it does now.”

Intel has several aces up its sleeve. For one thing, it has longstanding relationships with the likes of Acer, Lenovo and Asustek Computer Inc, all of whom are in a similar predicament: as PC makers, they all need to grow their mobile business.

But even then, they have been slow jumping aboard. Industry sources in Taiwan said that Intel had offered extensive lures to try its mobile chips. Intel executives acknowledged they had shouldered some costs but said it did not extend as far as buying a production line of the PC makers.

Intel, too, has used its experience in optimizing its computers chips for Microsoft Windows software to work closely with Google on making Android run well on its devices.

“We are not just investing in chips, we’re investing heavily in the software to run around them,” said Bell.

QUESTIONS REMAIN

But questions remain. First, some analysts point to Intel’s somewhat low-key entrance into the mobile sector, threatening to typecast the company as a low-end phone chip maker.

This would doom it to playing a high-volume, low-margin game against low-cost chip makers in Taiwan like Mediatek.

Intel counters that it is targeting the $200-$500 segment because that’s where a lot of the growth is, and that it intends to eventually offer chips that, like its PC chips, range across all price points.

Intel executives also say they Will be offering a chip either later this year or early in 2014 that works on the 4G LTE networks already deployed in the United States and currently being rolled out in Europe.

The problem there, says Gabriel of Rethink Wireless, is that it will then be lagging the likes of Qualcomm and STElectronics.

Another concern is whether Intel can move beyond its usual partners. Persuading the likes of Acer and Lenovo to push out a smartphone is one thing, analysts say, but what about established phone makers like HTC Corp, let alone dominant players Samsung and Apple? Only then would Intel be able to get the volumes necessary for decent margins.

In the long run, analysts said, a company with the resources of Intel had a reasonable chance of building at least some business in mobile.

“Given Intel’s vast resources, I am not one to easily discount their ability to get into any market that they target,” said Francis Sideco, senior principal analyst at the IHS research firm.

And as Intel’s Bell points out, the rapid fall of players like BlackBerry and Nokia, and the equally rapid rise of Samsung and Apple, suggest that just because Intel is a bit player now, it may not always be.

“I was at a different firm building phones a couple of years ago and the company that was going to dominate Earth was RIM,” said Bell, who has worked at both Palm and Apple. He was referring to the Blackberry maker that has seen market share slip heavily in the past few years.

“We’ll see two years from now who’s the market leader.”

source: interaksyon.com

Texas Instruments to cut 1,700 jobs worldwide to reduce costs

NEW YORK — Texas Instruments is eliminating 1,700 jobs or almost 5 percent of its global workforce to cut costs in its wireless business as it moves away from making smartphone application chips, sending its shares up almost one percent in late trade.

The Dallas, Texas based chipmaker had said in September that it would halt costly investments in its OMAP mobile application chip business, which supports features like video, for tablet computers and smartphones.

TI has been under pressure in wireless, where it has lost ground to rival Qualcomm Inc and the world’s biggest smartphone makers Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd who have been developing their own chips instead of buying them from a supplier like TI.

Instead of pursuing the phone market TI is trying to sell OMAP in a broader market that requires less investments and includes industrial clients like carmakers.

TI said on it expects to take charges of about $325 million related to the job cuts and other cost reduction measures, most of which will be accounted for in the current quarter. Its previously announced financial targets for the fourth quarter do not include these costs, TI said.

The company, which has 35,000 employees around the world, expects annualized savings of about $450 million by the end of 2013 from the action.

source: interaksyon.com