CNXSoft – Embedded Software Development

After a teaser tweet in July 2012, Jolla officially announced Sailfish OS in November 2012, and today, they’ll announce the first Jolla Smartphone, which is available for pre-order.

Key features of the Jolla smartphone:

• SoC – Dual core processor
• Storage – 16GB Flash + microSD
• Display – 4.5” Estrade display
• Camera – 8MP auto-focus rear camera
• Network – 4G
• Battery – User-replaceable battery

The device will run gesture based Sailfish OS, and you’ll be able to run Android apps.

For a closer look, have a look at the teaser video.

One caveat if that the smartphone should only be available at the end of 2013, and, at the beginning at least, only in Europe. The phone will cost 399 Euros including (24%) VAT, but you can pre-order today via 3 options:

• 100 Euros voucher – Jolla phone + other half (apparently a customizable shell) + priority pre-order status
• 40 Euros (no voucher) – Jolla phone + T-shirt + priority order pre-status
• Register your interest for Jolla – No charge, but you’ll get on a list for an reserved number.

The pre-order options, and specifications are not 100% clear at this stage, but we’ll learn more at Jolla Loveday event in Helsinki later today.

Intel has launched Silvermont, a new microarchitecture for low power SoC targeting smartphones, tablets, and servers in data centers. Silvermont SoC will be manufactured using 22nm Tri-Gate SoC process, and the company claims 3x times more peak performance than current generation Atom processors, or 5 times less power consumption at the same performance level.

Silvermont will be used in Bay Trail, Avoton,  and Merrifield processors:

• Intel’s quad-core “Bay Trail” SoC is scheduled for Q4 2013 tablets, and variants of the “Bay Trail” platform will also be used in market segments including entry laptop and desktop computers.
• Intel’s “Merrifield” is scheduled to ship to customers by the end of this year, and actual smartphones will show up in 2014.
• Intel’s “Avoton” will be used in low power microservers, and provide full server product capability that customers require including 64-bit, integrated fabric, error code correction, Intel virtualization technologies and software compatibility.

Intel will provide support for Android, Linux, and Windows devices for their new Atom SoCs.

A 1h20 webcast is available online for further details about Silvermont. The technical overview starts at 21:50 (Slide 15), and I’ll give a summary of some of the most interesting points.

This new microarchitecture brings performance improvements thanks to:

• Out of Order Execution engine enabling better single-threaded performance.
• A new multicore and system fabric capable of delivering 8 cores.
• New IA instructions and core technologies

as well as better power efficiency:

• Wider dynamic power operating range
• Enhanced power management
• Fast standby entry/exit

The slide below clearly explains the different definitions between Architecture, Microarchitecture and SoC at Intel.

SoC based on Silvermont will support 1 to 8 cores, and multicore SoC will feature modules with:

• Two cores
• Coupled second-level cache (up to 1MB)
• Dedicated point-to-point interface (IDI) to SOC providing independent read and write channels, higher bandwidth, lower latency, and OOO transaction support

Frequency and power management can be adjusted per core.

New instructions are available to improve performance (Intel Core 2 64n ISA + Core Westmere SSE4.1, SSE4.2, POPCNT), and security (Westmere AES-NI, Intel Secure Key), and news technologies such as Real Time instruction tracing, Intel VT-x2, and support for McAfee DeepSAFE will be embedded in the new SoCs.

One of the most interesting part of the presentation is the comparison to competitors.

It’s probably safe to use the “Small” competitor is ARM, and the “Large” competitor is AMD.  We already knew that AMD is not the best when it comes to power consumption, but what’s interesting is that Intel seems to vastly outperform current ARM big.LITTLE SoCs and Tegra 3 (4+1 companion core) when it comes to its power/performance ratio of its future SoCs. This chart is obviously biased since it’s there to show how good Intel microarchitecture is, but that still probably means Intel will be a serious competitors in the tablet and smartphone space, as long as they can also compete on price/performance and price/power ratios.

They also show very good performance and power improvement over the Saltwell microarchitecture both for single-thrreaded and multi-threaded use cases.

Peak to peak used the maximum frequency available, iso-power shows the performance improvement over the same power level, and iso-perf shows the difference in power consumption for a given performance metrics. STW stands for Saltwll, SLM for Silvermont. 1C1T = 1 Core 1 Thread, 2C4T = 2 Cores, 4 Threads, etc…

Going back to Intel vs ARM, they show how the Intel Dual Core Silvermont SoC outperforms ARM Quad core SoCs both in terms of performance and power consumption.

and a tablet comparison with expected results from Silvermont SoCs.

The benchmark used is SPECint*rate_base200, but the ARM tablets used are not described, and we just know they are similar configurations (e.g. number of cores, RAM, etc..), as the Silvermont solution.

We’ll probably need to wait for actual hardware at the end of the year to make a fair comparison, but the results provided by Intel look very promising.

You can download the presentation’s PDF for more slides.

MediaTek has recently announced the MT6572, a  dual-core SoC with integrated Wi-Fi, FM, GPS and Bluetooth functions targeted at the entry segment. This SoC, manufactured using 28nm process technology, comes with a dual core cortex A7 processor @ 1.2GHz combined with a Mali-400 GPU and a multi-mode Rel. 8 HSPA+/TD-SCDMA modem.

Mediatek MT6572 Functional Blocks (Source)

Other characteristics include support for up to HD 720p video playback and recording, 5MP camera, and up to qHD (960×540) displays.

One of the first smartphones based on the platform will be Sunspan D28X and D26X with 4.5″ display, 5MP camera, and running Android 4.2 version of the system. Both devices will come with 1600 mAh battery., and both will cater for the Chinese market with D28X supporting TD-SCDMA (China Mobile), and D26X W-CDMA (Unicom).

MediaTek claims MT6572 can be expected in hundreds of commercial models which will sell in June and beyond. MT6582, the quad core version, is expected in Q3 2013.

If you’ve ever wanted to watch live digital TV on your tablet or smartphone, there’s now a solution. Geniatech WiTV is a tiny battery powered DVB receiver also acting as Wi-Fi access point in order to stream live TV to your mobile devices. You can use this device within your house or on the go, but it has to be within 5 to 7 meters from your tablet or smartphone to work properly.

The specifications released are limited, but we still know the following:

• Frequency range – 177.5 – 226.5MHz (VHF); 474 – 858MHz (UHF)
  

  SianoTV App

• Digital TV standards – DVB-T Mpeg 2, Mpeg 4 and H.264; ISDBT oneseg
• 802.11 b/g/n WiFi Standard Support
• Micro USB for recharging
• Up to 3 hours of TV viewing (TBC)

iOS devices must run IOS 5.0 or IOS5.1, and Android 3.0 or greater is supported. You’ll need to install SianoTV for Android or iOS, scan the channel, and you’re ready to watch free to air digital TV. The application can also record the TV program in your device, in order to watch it later. Since the device is only compatible will DVB-T and ISDBT, this will work in most countries where digital TV has been rolled out, except North America and China.

The WiTV comes with a micro USB to USB cable to recharge the battery, and a user’s manual. The device is not available yet, but you can register you interest for a similar device called “Siano Meron“, and find more information on WiTV page.

Last week, I wrote about low cost quad core tablets based on Actions Semi ATM7029, and today it’s time to look at cheap quad core smartphones, which are all powered by Mediatek MT6589 quad core Cortex A7 SoC, with prices starting at about $130 US. I’ll start by a short overview of Mediatek processor, followed by a few smartphones based on MT6589, starting with higher priced smartphones / phablets with bigger screens and more features to the cheapest ones.

Mediatek MT6589 Overview

Beside featuring four ARM Cortex-A7 cores, this SoC comes with an Imagination Technologies PowerVR Series5XT GPU, namely SGX544, an advanced multi-mode UMTS Rel. 8/HSPA+/TD-SCDMA modem and dual SIM support. On the multimedia side, it supports cameras up to 13MP, 1080p video playback and recording at 30fps, and LCD screens up to Full HD resolution (1920×1080). It is usually interface with MT6620 connectivity combo providing 802.11n Wi-Fi, BT4.0, GPS and FM radio.

A typical smartphone architecture based on MT6589 can be seen in the block diagram below (Source: hardwarebg.com).

Smartphones based on MT6589 get about 12,000-13,000 in Antutu 3.x (I could not find detailed scores), about 3,400 in Quadrant, and 13,000 in Vellamo 2 HTML5 test. Obviously not the best in town, but it will still beat any dual core Cortex A9 SoC.

You’d probably not want this platform to tinker, since Mediatek is not exactly known to release GPL source code, although some of the customers may release (incomplete) GPL code.

Cubot A6589

If you find 5″ smartphones too tiny, Cubot A6589 with its 5.8″ IPS display (1280×720) may be an option. This phone comes with 1GB RAM, 8GB flash, 2 cameras (5 MP front camera, 8MP rear camera), and a 3,600 mAh battery. If you want to know what it looks like, just check out ThL W8 below, as they have a virtually identical look.

Cubot A6589 sells for about $260 US on Pandawill, and for about the same on Aliexpress.

ThL W8

ThL W8 is one of the first smartphone using MT6589. It comes with a 5.0″ IPS display (1280×720), 1GB RAM, 8GB Flash, and runs Android 4.1.2. The device also feature two cameras: a 5.0 MP front camera (up to 2560x 1920), and a 12.0 MP rear camera with flashlight and auto focus (up to 4096 x 3072). The battery has a 2,000 mAh capacity.

You can find this smartphone on most Chinese websites such as Pandawill, Deal Extreme, Aliexpress… from $230 US and up. You can also purchase this model on Amazon.

Tronsmart TS4

The two smartphones mentioned above are on the high-end side, let’s move down in price and features with Tronsmart TS4. This smartphone features a 5.3″ IPS display (960×540), 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, a 8.0 MP rear camera, a 1.2 MP front camera, and comes with a 2,500 mAh battery.

This Android 4.2.1 phone is available for pre-order for $160 on Geekbuying, and I could not find it available anywhere else.

Galaxy S3 Clone (i9300)

And now the cheapest quad core phablet I could find, after filtering some dodgy results… This S3 clone based on MT6589 costs just about $135 from a somewhat reputable seller. The nameless device comes with 512 MB RAM, 4 GB flash, a 4.8″ display with 854×480 resolution, 2 cameras (1.2MP front / 8MP rear), and a 2,400 mAh battery capacity. [Update: This smartphone could be based on MTK6577, the Antutu screenshots points to this direction, and the URL contains MTK6577 instead of MTK6589 used in the title...]

Those are just a few MT6589 (MTK6589?) smartphones, as there are just too many on the market.

AllWinner is currently a Mobile World Congress 2013, and Charbax had the chance to interview Eva, manager at AllWinner, and learn more about new processors, and future plans by the company. They spent some time discussing about AllWinner A31 and AllWinner A20 quad and dual Cortex A7 processors, but since we’ve know about those for a while I’ll skip this part. The most interesting part is about AllWinner A31s, a cost down version of A31, specifically designed for phablets (smartphones with 5″ to 7″ screens).

AllWinner A31s Block Diagram

Like AllWinner A31, AllWinner A31s is also a quad core Cortex A7 processor with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU (8 shader engines) and the following specifications:

• CPU – ARM Cortex-A7 Quad-Core with 256KB L1-Cache/1MB L2-Cache
• GPU – POWERVR SGX 544MP2 with 8 logic cores. OpenGL ES2.0, Open CL1.x and DX 9_3 compliant.
• Memory
  • 32-bit Dual-Channel LPDDR2/DDR3/DDR3L Controller,
  • 8-bit NAND FLASH Controller with 64-bit ECC
• Video
  • UHD H.264 2160p video decoding
  • Multi-format HD video decoding including MPEG1/2,  MPEG4 SP?ASP GMC, H.263, H.264, etc.
  • BD Directory, BD ISO and BD m2ts video decoding
  • H.264 High Profile 1080P@30fps encoding
  • 3840×1080@30fps 3D decoding, BD/SBS/TAB/FP supported
  • 3840×1080@30fps 3D encoding
  • Complies with RTSP, HTTP, HLS, RTMP, MMS streaming media protocol
• Display
  • Dual-Channel LVDS/RGB/CPU LDC Interface 1024×768 resolution
  • Integrated HDMI 1.4 1920×1080@60fps
• Camera
  • Supports 0.3M/1.3M/2M/5M CMOS Sensor
  • Supports 8/10/12-bit YUV/Bayer sensor
  • Integrated ISP
• PMIC – PMIC AXP221s designed for A31s. 21-CH power output and 2.2A Flash charging. Complies with USB 3.0 power supply standard

I extracted this from the video below, and some things do not look right (e.g. 3840×1080@30fps 3D decoding), but compared to AllWinner A31, I understand that A31s “only” support 2160p video decoding, a rather low 1024×768 resolution for screens, and 1080p HDMI output. A31 camera sensor can support between 5 to 8 MP, but A31 can support lower resolution (0.3M) for front camera, to a maximum of 5MP. The PMIC is called AXP221s vs AXP221 for A31. The rest of the specifications appear to be the same. They will mention Android 4.1/4.2 support, as well as “Windows 8″.

The interview starts with AllWinner A31, at 3:04 they switch to A31s for about 2 to 3 minutes, and continue with A20.

Eva also explains A20 is pin-to-pin compatible with A10, but it appears some other modifications are required on the board. She also talks a bit about future products, including a server chipset? (not sure I heard that correctly) in Q2, and a “super processor” in Q3 (AllWinner Cortex A15 coming our way?). Finally she mentioned AllWinner has a close relationship with Ubuntu (I suppose she means Canonical), so that could bode well for AllWinner based Ubuntu tablets or smartphones in 2014.

ST Ericsson already showcased NovaThor L8580 Cortex A9 processor @ 2.8 GHz at CES 2013. The processor features a technology called eQuad, and as I previously noticed there’s no mention of the number of cores at all on the website and many websites reported the processor featured 4 cores. The processor actually features 2 Cortex A9 core, but thanks to FD-SOI technology they are able to do the equivalent of a Quad Core big.LITTLE processor (i.e. 2x Cortex A15 + 2x Cortex A7) electrically.

Power Consumption of L8580 @ 1Ghz / 0.65V using FD-SOI vs Similar Platform with Bulk CMOS technology.

Since this is just done electrically, you can use the same software as before and will consume much less power, whereas big.LITTLE requires a lot of kernel work. A Cortex A9 will obviously be less powerful than a Cortex A15, but since they are able to boost the frequency up to 3GHz (probably limited to 2.5Ghz in actual product) this can compensate the lower performance, and the die size will be much smaller than on a quad core big.LITTLE processor, since you only need 2 cores for similar power consumption and performance. Charbax uploaded a video with a nice explanation of the system at MWC2013. The first part of the video is very interesting as it explains the technology and its advantage. One particularly interesting part is when Charbax asked about big.LITTLE, and ST Ericsson representative explains that big.LITTLE processing is not so interesting now that FD-SOI is available, and it will also end up in cortex A15 processor. He did not say FD-SOI eQuad was a big.LITTLE killer, but it was close . He may be right about IKS big.LITTLE implementation, but with HMP big.LITTLE, where they can use all cores, big.LITTLE will certainly retain its advantage. What do you think?

If you want more information about the other features of this processor, refer to my earlier post “ST Ericsson Demonstrates NovaThor L8580 Multi Cortex A9 SoC @ 2.8 GHz”

Via armdevices.net

Update: If you want to know more about eQuad, you can read FD-SOI eQuad White-Paper (15-page PDF), that explains the technology, and also explains that heterogeneous multiprocessing (HMP) is a promising technology, but it’s highly complex both in terms of hardware and software, and it may take a few years to reach its full potential.