qualcomm Archives - Argyll Free Press

Qualcomm Starts 2016 Big: The Snapdragon 820 Chipset and Grabs Audi as Customer

January 6, 2016 By Karen Jackson Leave a Comment

Qualcomm starts 2016 big: the Snapdragon 820 chipset and grabs Audi as customer. These announcements were made during the CES 2016 event, which takes place in Las Vegas.

CEO of Qualcomm, Steve Mollenkopf, gave away crucial information about the first smartphone to be powered by the company’s new Snapdragon 820 chipset.

The smartphone is called LeTV Le Max Pro – an odd name if I’ve ever seen one.

LeTV is a Chinese tech behemoth that has not expanded outside of the Middle Kingdom, yet. The LeTV Le Max Pro comes with an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner, which can be found at the back of the handset, and Qualcomm’s chipset will enable it to support WiFi 802.11 ad, also known as WiGig, notes Android Police.

The Snapdragon 820 will come packed with a home-grown quad-core Kryo proc that runs at 2.2 GHz. The graphics department will be handled by the insanely powerful Adreno 530 GPU. Qualcomm’s chipset will also support tri-band Wi-Fi, Quick Charge 3.0, and LTE Category 12 connectivity – the latter has proven to provide massive data speed.

The chip manufacturer hasn’t revealed any other information, apart from the proc details. There’s no info regarding pricing nor a set release date. Yet, we are hopeful that Qualcomm will shed some light on everything during the CES 2016 event, which is currently taking place.

Phone Arena picked a few rumours that suggest that the LeTV Le Max Pro will come with Google’s Android 6.0 Marshmallow, that the smartphone will showcase a 5.5-inch Quad HD display that’s capable of outputting a resolution of up to 1,400 x 2,400 pixels.

In other news, Mollenkopf also announced that the company has just signed a deal with Volkswagen AG’s Audi unit so 2017 model vehicles will have built-in Qualcomm-developed processors.

Mollenkopf continued to add that [the company] as well as Volkswagen, understands that the car is currently being reinvented, and technological advancements are changing how a vehicle is used, sold and even serviced.

And this is just the beginning, notes Qualcomm’s Chief Executive Officer.

Audi will make use of the chipmaker’s 620 chipset in its 2017 models, as well as their newly announced 820A processor that is specially designed for vehicles. The chip helps to power the car’s communications and infotainment.

The San Diego-based company is trying its hardest to broaden its horizon by slightly moving to other mediums outside of the smartphone industry, from where it gains the majority of its income.

Qualcomm has lost quite a lot of marketshare over the last year as competition in chipmaking in the mobile industry has been increasing. Stocks dropped 33 percent in 2015, and it marks the worst annual performance for the company since the tech bubble burst that took place in 2001.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight Platform Makes Drones Cheaper

September 14, 2015 By Cristopher Hall Leave a Comment

We all know that when it comes to mobile phones processors, Qualcomm is top dog. But what about drones?

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight platform is the company’s answer to the ever growing drone market. It’s been reported that Qualcomm is aiming at a second wave of growth.

The complexity of smartphone chips is growing at an exponential rate, and Qualcomm is noting that now they have powerful-enough procs that make them best suited for drones. Amazon and Facebook have both reported testing drones for either product delivery or drone-delivered internet access.

In a recent statement, regarding their Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight platform, the company notes that they believe they can bring robotics to a whole new level. Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight platform is aimed at helping manufacturers and developers across the world to build consumer drones. The company notes that they don’t shy away from robots either.

It’s going to be a platform that consists of a highly integrated board. This board will be based on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 proc.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight platform will consist of a Snapdragon 801 SoC paired with a quad-core 2.26GHz proc. It will support dual-band Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. It has support for real-time flight control system, 4K video processing and GNSS, which is Global Navigation Satellite System.

Another sweet feature is that it has quick charge enabled – it’s the size of a business card.

Now, consumers wishing to acquire a drone are met face to face with a huge question. Do I want to buy a powerful and expensive UAV? Or will I get the same amount of fun out of a cheap drone?

This confusion will most likely disappear with Qualcomm cementing its position in the drone industry.

They even have their first customer. Yuneec, a Chinese drone manufacturer will launch a drone based on Qualcomm’s board in 2016.

Every drone manufacturer meets this challenge – all the parts that make a drone are expensive. From cameras to navigation to wireless tech. They all come from different vendors, and keeping it cheap is a pain in the chipset.

However, expensive drones that will be the epitome of the industry will still remain highly sought after. Take the DJI Phantom 3 drone, it costs $799, it can shoot in 2,7k and it can fly around for twenty five minutes on a single charge.

Yet, Parrot continues to make bank with their toy-like drones. They cost slightly over $200 and they come in all shapes and sizes.

I would very much love the Qualcomm Snapdragon Flight platform to reduce the prices of UAVs, but how cheaper can you get?

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Faster Internet Near, Researchers at Qualcomm Institute Say

June 29, 2015 By Kenneth Scott Leave a Comment

Faster Internet awaits us in the near future, researchers say at Qualcomm Institute say.

At UC San Diego’s Qualcomm Institute, researchers have not only made fiber optic data transmissions faster, but they completely out-done themselves. Researches have increased the power of optical signals almost twenty times of what we currently have.

You shouldn’t be afraid anymore that our fibre optic networks can’t hold all that data being trasnferred, and that the system will overload.

While researching, at one point, the data was being distorted because it travelled so fast, for so long, and researches were needed to use pricey electronic regenerators in order to boost the signal. But they seem to have solved this annoying nuisance.

Nikola Alic, a corresponding author from the Qualcomm Institute at University of California – San Diego had this to say – ” Today’s fibre optic systems are a little like quicksand. With fibre optics, after a certain point, the more power you add to the signal, the more distortion you get, in effect preventing a longer reach.”

Researchers at Qualcomm Institute have managed to send data over a record-breaking 12.000 kilometres through fiber optic without using the expensive electronic regenerators, and the data received wasn’t distorted and could be used without problems.

“Our approach removes this power limit, which in turn extends how far signals can travel in optical fibre without needing a repeater.” Alic has noted.

Why is this possible? Because of advancements in wideband frequency combs that researches have managed to further develop at the Qualcomm Institute.

This new advancements in frequency combs ensure that the signal distortion called Crosstalks that appears once streams of information are bundled together through long distances, can be predicted, and thus, fully reversible, at the receiving end of the fibre optic!

This is great news for those of us stuck in with lousy internet. But a question arises. Are we going to have to pay more for a faster internet, or prices will remain the same?

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 AnTuTu Results

February 21, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

The Snapdragon 810 AnTuTu result was 61,499. This is a record breaking result for the popular benchmark tool from AnTuTu.

After it has been scarred with overheating concerns and long lasting delays in the recent weeks (claims that have been entirely rejected by the company), it seems like the Snapdragon 810 that features a 64 bit 1.56GHz octa-core is going to make it to smartphones after all. And with the results we got from our testing, we can honestly say that you couldn’t wish for any more power than this.

According to the tests we’ve performed on it, the high performance, high profile Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chipset seem like it’s offering even more power than the Exynos chip that will most likely power Samsung’s new Galaxy S6 smartphone.

Keep in mind that benchmarks offer just an indication of how the chipset will perform in an actual tablet or smartphone. However, these tests showed us an insight of what we can expect the chipset to deliver when actually being used inside a device. The Snapdragon 810 put on a 2K display in an Android 5.0.2 test unit, revealed to us a score of 61,499 in the very popular test suite from AnTuTu. This is definitely a record-breaking score.

Samsung’s Exynos 7420 chip, according to some recently leaked information recorded a score in the same benchmark of 60,978. The South Korean company ditched Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipset in favor of the Exynos 7420 one. Even though there isn’t much of a difference in the scores of the Snapdragon 810 and Exynos 7420, there is definitely a huge gap between Qualcomm’s newest chipset and the older Snapdragon 805 and 801.

Samsung Galaxy Note 4, powered by the 805 scored in the benchmark tests in AnTuTu 49,136 and the Sony Xperia Z3, powered by the 801 scored 42,334. On top of this, it seems that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipset offers more processing power than Apple’s A8 chip which can be found in iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The Apple A8 chip scored “only” 46,940.

Even though Samsung has not yet confirmed that it will use its own Exynos chip in the Galaxy S6, numerous reports definitely point toward that direction. Even Qualcomm admitted that a major customer has dropped them as manufacturers of chipsets in favor of others.

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 810 chipset is expected to be used in many upcoming smartphones and other devices. It’s also been said that it will power the Sony Xperia Z4, the LG G4 and HTC One M9. For the people that plan to purchase one of the new tide of flagship devices, do not worry, this chip does not compromise the life of the battery in favor of sheer performance.

Other than offering great power, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 also supports 4K displays, many battery management adjustments made especially so that your high-end smartphone of choice will go through a day full of heavy use with great ease, as well as enhanced camera specifications along with many other impressive new features.

The first device that will use the new Snapdragon 810 chip from Qualcomm has been recently unveiled. The LG G Flex 2 is set for launch later this month.

Image source: trustedreviews.com

Qualcomm Connected House Impressions

January 13, 2015 By Roxanne Briean Leave a Comment

We have been teased with a concept of a smart home or connected home for many years now. This year’s edition of CES revealed that a connected home is more of a reality than ever before. Qualcomm has revealed its smart home and showed just how technology is able to impact the way we live our lives. However, this year, the focus was on things people can buy separately; install them in their homes and how we can make use of them in our day to day lives.

Home can be much more when it is connected. Kids spend time on tablets, the adults spend their time on computers while everyone uses a smartphone. Our activities revolve around playing games, surfing the Web, watching movies and listening to music. There are five or more devices that are connected in our homes these days but in the future that number could rise to 50 or even more than that. Qualcomm asks what’s the use of so many smart devices when there is not a smart network capable of bringing together all of them.

Qualcomm networking claims to be able to make your home more digital, smarter and a lot more connected. From Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Powerline that are able of handling media traffic, to hybrid networks and small cells that are able of maximizing flexibility and performance, Qualcomm’s connected home is supposed to redefine how and where we live so we can enjoy a better lifestyle.

Image source: geek.com

Qualcomm Connected House is proof that the future is now. The front door “speaks” to the smoke alarms inside the house and lights flash when you leave the fridge door open. Everything inside the house can be controlled remotely with a smartphone and is linked together.

Some interesting features include a smart lock that unlocks the door when someone who lives in the house is near it. Smart TVs inside the house warn parents when their children are surfing the internet when they are supposed to be sleeping and a system allows the users to set all the clocks inside the house with just one touch of a button.

All the products Qualcomm uses in its house can also be bought separately and are developed by Qualcomm and other companies. All of these devices run the AllJoyn Software which is an open source project initiated in 2011 by Qualcomm. It lets devices using the software to communicate between each other. Qualcomm partnered with numerous other companies to create more smart devices for the house and to develop the software even further.

Events are triggered when the user performs actions within the house. For example, if a person opens the door on the fridge an event will be triggered and lights will flash or a sound will be heard.

Image source: slashgear.com

In the front door of the house the August smart lock can be found. The lock works by sensing the August app on the home owner’s tablet or smartphone. In order for the lock to be opened, a person with a code must approach the door with Bluetooth enabled on their tablet or smartphone and access the address from the August app. The lock verifies the identity of the user via Bluetooth and allows him or her access inside the house. Red lights on the front panel of the smart lock will turn green and the device will open the door by unlocking it. In order of having access to another person’s home, the home owner must send you an invitation via Facebook or using the address book.

CES 2015 proved that we’re all already living inside the connected dream. Numerous new products presented at CES 2015 were improvements on previous ones. One of our favorite things from CES 2015 regarding a connected home was Parrot Pot. Parrot Pot uses the concept of the Flower Power sensor and improved it by developing a flower pot that is able of keeping someone’s plants alive without them having to worry about when and how much to water them.

Another interesting device was the Misfit Bolt. There is nothing new about smart light bulbs but Misfit Bolt significantly lowered how much the these kinds of products cost and made it a lot easier for everyone to install such things into their own home. D-Link and Honeywell had their share of the spotlight and many other companies besides them presented a series of sensors, hubs and cameras that are able to make our homes smarter.

Smart homes have been dreamed about for years now and they have even been present in entertainment from anywhere between the McFly home in Back to the Future to one of the Halloween specials in The Simpsons. Qualcomm and other companies seem to bring the dream closer to reality and we can’t wait to see if the future will find us living in such homes or at least using some of these devices separately.

The Snapdragon 810 AnTuTu result was 61,499. This is a record breaking result for the popular benchmark tool from AnTuTu.

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