Global Mobile Operators Select Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G Modem for Mobile 5G NR Trials in 2018

Move over 4G there’s a New Sheriff in Town: Mobile 5G

2018 is the year when the world opens its eyes to mobile 5G connectivity. Qualcomm is all set to showcase their Snapdragon X50 5G NR modem. Qualcomm has tied up with a number of OEMs to bring mobile 5G network to the world, with the first smartphone having the Snapdragon X50 5G NR mobile 5G network coming out in the first half of 2019. Chinese brand Vivo has also said that consumers can expect the first mobile 5G smartphone somewhere next year.

Some of the major mobile phone OEMs partnering with Qualcomm in their Snapdragon X50 5G modem trials are Xiaomi, Global, Nokia, Oppo, HTC, ZTE, LG and HMD. Notably absent from this list, are the companies- Samsung, Apple and Huawei, accounting for over 50% of the world’s smartphone market. Most of these names signing up for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 5G modem have major presence in Asia rather than the US. There’s a more than possible chance that Asia maybe the first to see the likes of mobile 5G.

OEMs partnering with Qualcomm for mobile 5G: 

Fujitsu, Novatel wireless, Netgear, Sharp, WNC, Telit, Wingtech and NetComm Wireless are some of the other OEMs to sign up for mobile 5G with Qualcomm.

Devices manufactured by these OEMs will function at bandwidths of 6GHz and millimeter wavelength spectrum bands and will supposedly come out in 2019.

Other devices featuring Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 5G Modem with mobile 5G:

Other than OEMs featuring Snapdragon X50 5G modem, other devices to have mobile 5G are Always Connected PCs, VR Headsets and AR Headsets and Extended Reality Headsets. The speeds of this mobile 5G network are never seen before with speeds reaching 5Gbps and offering faster downloads, faster browsing speeds, better streaming from apps and instant cloud access on smart phones. The snapdragon X50 5G modem is also supposed to offer low latency in Always Connected PCs and ultra-low latency in HMDs.

The Qualcomm snapdragon X50 5G modem is going to be compatible with both 4G and mobile 5G networks.

Network Operators pairing up with Qualcomm on the mobile 5G Journey: 

Many network operators are also partnering up with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 5G network for mobile 5G. Some of the more prominent names are AT&T, Sprint China Telecom, British Telecom, China Unicom, China Mobile, NTT DOCOMO, Verizon, Orange, Telstra and Singtel besides others.
The aim is to combine Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50 5G modem with Smartphone and other device’s designs that are compatible with mobile 5G and which are also compliant with mobile 5G standards. After that smartphones and other devices supporting mobile 5G will go in for commercialization.

Showcasing the Qualcomm Snapdragon X50 5G modem: 

Qualcomm is all set to showcase mobile 5G with their Snapdragon X50 5G modem in Barcelona at the Mobile World Congress. Qualcomm has a booth all set up with their mobile 5G modem delivering Speeds of several gigabytes per second.

A HTC headset with mobile 5G connectivity was recently launched at an industry event in Taiwan.

Intel May Cut Prices in Response to AMD Ryzen 1700 Launch

Sometimes companies cuts the prize for its product to boost its sales or sometimes it is forced by the competitor. Intel is gradually cutting down the price for its popular Core i5 and i7 chipsets processors in order to remain competitive in the market after AMD launch of new processor line up. AMD Ryzen has simply taken the industry by storm with highly competitive pricing which can do a lot more damage for the Intel within a short while.

New Pricing for Intel Core processors

Intel has slashed the prices for its Core processor range in a dramatic fashion. The Core i7-7700K has fallen from $380 to $300, Core i-7600K from $270 to $200 while Core i5-6600K dropped to $179 from $270. The adjusted price after the launch of the Ryzen series has emerged on the Micro Center but there is no confirmation it has been done by Intel or is it a part of Micro Center promotion. This pricing can only be seen on the Micro Center website but same isn’t true for the Amazon website where prices had remained unchanged.

Currently AMA has seized multiple spots on the Amazon’s top selling microprocessor lists which were earlier populated with the Intel Core series offerings. In the month of October last year Intel had as many as 12 microprocessors in the top 15 list with an average price of $264. AMD only had three slots for itself during the same time with its X-6300, FX 8350 and FX 8320 processors. Today AMD holds 6 slots in the list while Intel is having just 9 for itself. This shows that the competitive pricing followed by the AMD is helping it in improving the sales on the Amazon.

Pricing plays a crucial role in the sale of processors

The pricing present at the Micros Center can be stated as the new normal or stable pricing for Intel processor for some time to come. Apart from a number of factors comes into play when something thinks about a particular bran do processor. As per user need it can be easily assumed that people will go for the Ryzen 7 1700 when they have to deal multi-threaded applications and parallel workloads. If the user is looking for a single threaded performance along with gaming then Core i7-7700K is the best choice.

Intel has been quick to cut the price of the Core i5 series which suggests a pre-emptive move before AMD launches the new Ryzen 5 counterparts. If a customer is looking for a processor which can offer credible multi-threaded performance along with a decent single threaded scaling then Core i7-6800K is a better option. But on the pricing front people might get tempted to opt for Ryzen 1700K as it is $40 cheaper than Intel’s $550 pricing for 6800K variant. Quite interestingly AMD is keeping a strong hold over multiple slots in the top-selling CPU lists which are certainly going to show in its Q1 earning at the end of March.

5 Things You Might Not Know About 6th Generation Intel Core Processors

Skylake 6th Generation Intel Core Processor Officially Announced

The Skylake 6th Generation Intel Core processors have been officially announced by Intel at the IFA 2015 event in Berlin. Enhanced for Windows 10, the new 14nm chip has the potential of waking in around half a second and compared to PC from five years ago, they tend to deliver two and a half times the performance² and triple the battery life³. However there is more to the latest 6th Gen Intel Core processors than the iterative speed improvement.

1. They can power more than just laptops

The Skylake 6th Generation Intel Core processors can be utilised in diversity of designs inclusive of compact tablets, versatile 2-in-1 devices, hulking gaming towers, ultra-thin laptops sleek All in One systems together with mini PCs. The architecture of the chip tends to be adequately flexible to gauge up in power for mobile workstations as well as down for smaller, plug-and play gadgets such as the Compute Stick.

2. Support USB-C/Thunderbolt

The latest 6th Gen Intel Core processor also tends to support Thunderbolt 3/USB Type-C, enhancing bandwidth as well as connectivity speeds of around 40 Gbps, eight times faster than the prevailing USB 3.04standard. Moreover a do-it-all USB Type C connector tends to integrate DisplayPort, HDMI, USB, power and VGA functions.

3. Enables to unlock a PC with your face

Security is a big concern presently which is the reason why the 6thGen Intel Core processors are designed to function with RealSense camera technology of Intel. Utilising a RealSense camera with Windows Hello, one would be capable of using facial recognition in order to log in to one’s PC. Using RealSense with Intel’s True Key Technology would also remember passwords for the user.

4. Can handle 4K

In comparison to a 5 year old PC, a system upgrade established on the latest 6th Gen Intel Core processors could deliver around 2.6 times improved productivity performance5, 6and around 30 times enhanced graphics6, 7. Moreover, the 6th Gen Intel Coreprocessors can export 4K video for sharing up to 18 times quicker with dedicated hardware support for 4K playback. At the latest IDF 2015 event in San Francisco, Intel demonstrated this function with an immersive triple screen gaming rig running a VRX enhanced type of iRacing video game.

5. They enable you to go completely wireless

If your laptop seems to be running on battery power and connected to the Internet through Wi-Fi but one would prefer to plug the laptop powered by 5th Gen Intel Core processors into a TV, monitor or projector, then a cable would be needed. A device powered by the 6th Gen Intel Core processors would not require one since it is well-suited with Intel’s Wireless Display – WiDi technology from the start.

Skylake H processors have been trademarked as Core i3, i5 and i7 though they are designed for workstation or gaming-rig class presentation with 35- or 45- watt TDPs together with four cores. With one CPU, the Core i7-6830HK would power a new generation of overclockable laptops and for those wanting added mobile performance than a Core i7 could gather, Intel will be introducing the first set of mobile Xeon CPUs for the workstations.

Snapdragon 820 will Change Smartphones in 2016

Qualcomm’s New Snapdragon 820 – Fastest Performance Chip

Qualcommhas been leading the smartphone processor manufacturer for several years and the company has played an important role in altering the façade of the industry. Recently Qualcomm had launched the new Snapdragon 820 and its high end smartphone processor is evidently the fastest performance chip ever developed. After a full year of instabilities for the company, this new sort of processor has all new designs in delivering the performance leap which Android enthusiast would prefer.

Though the Snapdragon 810 was initially capable, the 820 have benefits which could ease some of the anxieties that any enthusiast has. Foremost is that the chip has a new custom architecture and abandons the `off-the-shelf’ cores of the 810. Moreover, it has adequate power saving and task off-loading features which Qualcomm tends to extend battery life as well as performance.

The processor of Qualcomm’s new 64-bit Kryo cores on-board, which is a custom-design is said to be holistically integrated with the rest of the SoC in order to give the best in heterogeneous computing.Besides this the Kryo cores tends to reach clock-speeds of 2.2 GHz and the CPU offers twice the peak performance of the Snapdragon 810 with twice the battery efficiency also, according to Qualcomm.

Hexagon Digital Signal Processor – Offload Tasks/Less Power

The latest CPU is being developed based on the latest 14nm FinFET process and should prove to be advantageous over larger process size such as those in most of the 2015 flagship chipsets. Qualcomm is ensuring that the Snapdragon 820 is capable of handling tasks professionally through intelligent task distribution and their new Symphony System Manager certifies that you can run the right task on the appropriate processor.

 However, though some SoCs limit such system management to only CPU cores. Symphony could handle the complete SoC in different alignments to locate the competent variation of load allocation. According to Qualcomm, specialized cores are selected to get the task done as fast as possible. With their updated Hexagon 680 DSP in place, together with battery savings it could be more encouraging that earlier. The Hexagon Digital Signal Processor tends to offload tasks which could be done quickly on this processing unit, consuming less power than the CPU.

New Image Technology – Enhanced Adaptive Brightness/Reduced Noise

It will be assigned with sensor processing tasks and as a low power island just like the other devices provided earlier. With a sensor assisted processor together with their new image processing technology it would bring about efficiency in the field of smartphone practise which could be quite substantial drainers. Regarding the image technology, the Snapdragon 820 claims the capability of intelligently categorizing objects in images, or images in various classifications based on the context.

Its Spectra Image Sensor Processor – 14-bit dual-ISP, attached with Snapdragon Scene Detect, tends to achieve deep learning technology in improvement as it learns with more data. Qualcomm states that their technology could provide enhanced adaptive brightness together with reduced noise.

Besides this, one may also perceive drops in HDR as well as motion artifacts. Overall, the Snapdragon 820 seems to be a fanciful chip and is claimed that it passes the thermal requirements from OEMs. As they have smartly called their new design `Kyro’ – wherein `Cyro’ is defined as involving cold, they not only need to live up to their promises but also to the name.

IBM Announces 7 nm Computer Chip Breakthrough

The latest breakthrough in technology seems to have overcome the main issue, which had posed one of the most "grand challenges" of the industry. IBM has created a test version of a semiconductor, which has the ability to shrink down the circulatry. This prototype is the first of its kind in the world. The microchip industry is always evolving and there are better products available in the market every new day. This ever evolving industry has to face immense difficulties due to the extent of their growth and due to various technological and physical limitations. But inspite of all the hindrances IBM has been successful in creating a chip with seven nanometers transistors.

Gradual advancement

The leader of this industry, Intel has been the recipient of several technical hurdles throughout. Technologists have even begun to question one of their foundation theories; they are questioning whether the long withstanding pace of chip improvement, the Moore's Law, could possibly continue beyond the present 14-nanometre generation of chips. Every generation of chip technology can be differentiated with the aid of the least size of fundamental component, which switches the current at nanosecond intervals. Now the advancement in technology has made the transition from the 14 nanometer to the manufacturing of 10-nanometer generation of chips.

Ever-evolving technology

This advanced technology created by IBM is basically an advanced version of the ultradense computer chips which has approximately four times the capacity of the other most powerful chips. As the advancements are brought forward in every generation of the chips, each of them brings forth an estimate of around 50% reduction in the region required by a given amount of circuitry. The new chips created by IBM are suggestive of a possibility that the semiconductor technology shall continue to shrink at least through 2018.

Individual identity

The advanced feature in these chips are the presence of the This advanced technology created by IBM is basically an advanced version of the ultradense computer chips which has approximately four times the capacity of the other most powerful chips. IBM has used silicon-germanium in their chips. In the other variants of chips, pure silicon is used. But IBM instead of using pure silicon has opted for silicon-germanium, which happens to be the key ingredient of the molecular-size switches. This also aids in faster transistor switching and in the lower power requirements.

Yet to be released in the market! 

However, it must be duly noted that most of these are mere speculations and experimentation. Nothing has been launched in the market as of yet. There are numerous complex procedures, which will test whether the product is viable for sale in the market. IBM shall take the final decision in collaboration with their development partners at the State University of New York's Polytechnic Institute in upstate New York. In the previous year, IBM had released a statement, which had declared their 3 billion dollars investment over a time period of five years to forward their chip technology and meet the demands of cloud computing, mobile products, data and other technologies.

Intel launches 15-core Xeon E7 v2 with three ring buses

As a series of E7 -4000 Intel offers its new server processors. However, the Xeons are based on the Ivy Bridge architecture and were upgraded primarily by new bus systems and AVX. They are previously codenamed Ivy Bridge -EX processors, Intel now on the series E7 -4000. The entire platform was previously codenamed Ivytown. Commonly is also the name E7 - v2, because these processors are the successor of the 2011 series introduced E7.

As this is also E7 - v2 designed for servers with up to eight sockets in which as many full x86 cores are working in parallel. Even if the model number 4000 suggests a proximity to the Core i 4000 Haswell, the Xeons are always based on the previous desktop architecture. In the case of E7 - v2 is the Ivy Bridge, Intel's first design with 22 nm feature size. By now probably good routine production process had started, the power consumption could remain largely the same and the fastest models are coming with up to 155 watts TDP.

The E- 8880 v2 is also of 15- Kernel, which only needs 130 watts. While Haswell processors are manufactured with various these, Intel has chosen for the Xeon E7 - v2 for only one reason. That is, It can offer three blocks for the L3 cache, each of which is connected to three units with up to five cores. Therefore, there is a flexible option for the number of nuclei is possible. In a study submitted to the Conference ISSCC Intel speaks of "chop options" presentation in their presentation. So they gave the reason for the right block with five cores and L3 cache should not actually be present in up to ten cores. So Intel just needs the manufacture for all new Xeons and can configure the functional cores so that the desired number of cores needed.

Since there is not a shared L3 cache for all cores as with previous Intel designs, the cores cannot communicate over a single ring bus. Which allow a direct connection of the three 5 -core blocks. Because of the location in the middle of this L3 cache can communicate with the left directly with adjacent data. The three ring buses are two Home Agents controlled with two memory controllers while since Sandy Bridge was always only one such controller for bus and memory interface at the desktop and mobile CPUs. Overall, the cache can be large with a fully equipped E7 v2 up to 37.5 Mbytes; an entire new Xeon consists of up to 4.3 billion transistors.

Production costs are also reflected in their price. In the cores themselves, there are the Ivy Bridge design extensions to the instruction sets. Thus, the E7 - v2 now dominated by AVX vector processing, as a new interface, there are PCI Express 3.0 with 32 lanes per socket. That does not sound much, but is also extended by the revised QPI bus, which connects the base. The new QPI 1.1 depending on the model with up to eight GT / s at work.

 In addition, there are now eight per socket instead of four memory channels. The two of them can also be connected together, which effectively corresponds to DDR3 - 2666. As individual channels memory is possible by DDR3 -1600. Both modes are supported by the storage drivers, codenamed Jordan Creek, which have not changed over the older Xeons. Using these blocks can be addressed up to 12 DIMMs per channel, giving a maximum of 48 terabytes of RAM for an eight- socket system with the still rare 64 -gigabyte Registered DIMMs.

The processor can be operated in lockstep mode with enhanced error correction but the faster performance mode with channel bundling is more than in half the RAM. It comes in the configuration of a system with the new Xeons so on the application range in some applications benefit from a lot of memory, other scale better with more cores or cache. Therefore, there is a need for the E7 - v2 in so many varieties, 20 models to choose from.

Because so different application profiles and processors, Intel also specifies different values for the benefit of computing power compared to the previous generation. At least twice as fast -with only 50 % more cores used in the server when as databases or Web applications are running. In highly optimized code with AVX for supercomputers gives a better result of three and a half times up to speed.