$99 Motorola Defy Satellite Link enables 2-way satellite communications on smartphones through 3GPP NTN technology

Motorola Defy Satellite Link

Motorola Defy Satellite Link is a Bluetooth device that can affordably bring 2-way satellite communication to any smartphone thanks to the latest 3GPP NTN (Non-Terrestrial Network) technology implemented in the MediaTek MT6825 connecting to the Bullitt Satellite Connect platform. Satellite phones and hotspot has been around for years through products such as the Iridium Go! Satellite Wi-Fi hotspot that goes for over $1,000 without a data plan, pricing that does not make it conducive to mass adoption. But silicon vendors and phone manufacturers have started to add more affordable 2-way satellite connectivity to smartphones, for example with the Snapdragon Satellite initiative, currently using Iridium, but with plans to switch to 5G NTN in due time. Motorola Defy Satellite Link key features and specifications: SoC – MediaTek M6825 chip compliant with 3GPP R17 NTN standard (bands: 23/255/256), support for Geosynchronous Equatorial Orbit (GEO) constellations GNSS – GPS, Glonass, Galileo, Beidou Host […]

Linux 6.2 release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V, and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.2 release

Linux 6.2 has just been released with Linus Torvalds making the announcement on LKML as usual: So here we are, right on (the extended) schedule, with 6.2 out. Nothing unexpected happened last week, with just a random selection of small fixes spread all over, with nothing really standing out. The shortlog is tiny and appended below, you can scroll through it if you’re bored. Wed have a couple of small things that Thorsten was tracking on the regression side, but I wasn’t going to apply any last-minute patches that weren’t actively pushed by maintainers, so they will have to show up for stable. Nothing seemed even remotely worth trying to delay things for. And this obviously means that the 6.3 merge window will open tomorrow, and I already have 30+ pull requests queued up, which I really appreciate. I like how people have started to take the whole “ready for […]

MediaTek Dimensity 7200 Armv9 Cortex-A715/A510 processor targets mainstream 5G smartphones

MediaTek Dimensity 7200

Manufactured with a 4nm processor, the MediaTek Dimensity 7200 is an octa-core Armv9 processor designed for mainstream smartphones. with two Cortex-A715 cores, six Cortex-A510 cores, a Mali-G610 MC4 GPU, as well as 5G, WiFi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3 connectivity. So far, I had only seen Armv9 SoCs with a mix of Cortex-A510 “LITTLE” cores, Cortex-A710/A715 “big” core, and Cortex-X2 or Cortex-X3 “flagship cores” as found in the Dimensity 9200 processor,  but the Dimensity 7200 is one of the first Armv9 processors – one other being the Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 – without a Cortex-X core in order to provide a more affordable solution. MediaTek Dimensity 7200 specifications: CPU 2x Arm Cortex-A715 up to 2.8GHz 6x Arm Cortex-A510 2MB L3 cache GPU – Arm Mali-G610 MC4 with MediaTek HyperEngine 5.0 APU – MediaTek APU 650 AI accelerator DPU/VPU – MediaTek MiraVision 765 engine for display and 4K HDR video decoding/encoding Memory […]

MediaTek Genio 700 Cortex-A78/A55 IoT processor targets industrial and Smart Home applications

MediaTek Genio 700

MediaTek Genio 700 is an octa-core Arm processor with two Cortex-A78 cores, six Cortex-A55 cores, a Mali-G57 GPU, and a 4 TOPS AI accelerator designed for consumer and industrial IoT applications. The new processor is a cost-down version of the Genio 1200 premium AIoT processor introduced last year with four Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55 cores. The Genio 700 offers many of the same features but with lower performance/capabilities, including a 3-core GPU and an AI accelerator limited to 4.0 TOPS, as well as support for dual displays up to 4K + Full HD (instead of 2x 4K), and 32MP single cameras (instead of 48 MP). MediaTek Genio 700 specifications: CPU – Octa-core processor with 2x Cortex-A78 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, 6x Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz GPU – Arm Mali-G57 MC3 GPU VPU Encoding up to 4Kp60 with H.265/HEVC Decoding up to 4Kp75, AV1, VP9, HEVC, […]

Linux 6.1 LTS release – Main changes, Arm, RISC-V and MIPS architectures

Linux 6.1 LTS

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux 6.1, likely to be an LTS kernel, last Sunday: So here we are, a week late, but last week was nice and slow, and I’m much happier about the state of 6.1 than I was a couple of weeks ago when things didn’t seem to be slowing down. Of course, that means that now we have the merge window from hell, just before the holidays, with me having some pre-holiday travel coming up too. So while delaying things for a week was the right thing to do, it does make the timing for the 6.2 merge window awkward. That said, I’m happy to report that people seem to have taken that to heart, and I already have two dozen pull requests pending for tomorrow in my inbox. And hopefully I’ll get another batch overnight, so that I can try to really get as […]

MediaTek Kompanio 520 and Kompanio 528 processors targets entry-level Chromebooks

MediaTek Kompanio 528

MediaTek Kompanio 520 and Kompanio 528 octa-core Arm processors are designed for entry-level Chromebooks with all-day battery life and a display up to 2520 x 1080 resolutions. As time passes “entry-level” gets a new meaning as the new SoCs are equipped with two Cortex-A76 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz, six Cortex-A55 cores @ 2.0 GHz, and an Arm Mali-G52 GPU. That’s almost Rockchip RK3588 territory although not quite… MediaTek Kompanio 528 and 520 specifications: Octa-core CPU 2x Arm Cortex-A76 cores up to 2.2GHz (Kompanio 520 is limited to 2.0 GHz) 6x Arm Cortex-A55 cores up to 2GHz GPU – Arm Mali G52 MC2 2EE AI accelerator – Dual-core AI processing unit (APU) Memory –  LPDDR4x up to 3733Mbps Storage – eMMC 5.1 flash with hardware command queue Display 2520 x 1080 @ 60Hz 1920 x 1080 @ 60Hz (Ext) Video Encoding – 1920 x 1080 @ 60fps H.264 or […]

MediaTek unveils Dimensity 9200 Octa-core Cortex-X3/A710/A510 5G mobile processor

MediaTek Dimensity 9200

MediaTek has just launched the Dimensity 9200 octa-core flagship 5G mobile processor with one Cortex-X3 core, two Cortex-A710 cores, and four Cortex-A510 cores, as well as the latest Arm Immortalis-G715 GPU. Manufactured for a TSMC 4nm processor for efficiency, the new flagship processor supports mmWave 5G and sub-6GHz cellular connectivity, LPDDR5x 8,533 Mbps memory, UFS 4.0 storage, and embeds a faster MediaTek APU 690 AI processor   MediaTek Dimensity 9200 specifications: Octa-core CPU subsystem 1x Arm Cortex-X3 core at up to 3.05 GHz 3x Arm Cortex-A710 cores at up to 2.85 GHz 4x Arm Cortex-A510 cores up to 1.80GHz 8MB L3 cache 6MB system cache GPU – Arm Immortalis-G715 with support for Vulkan 1.3, hardware-based ray tracing engine AI Accelerator – MediaTek APU 690 AI processor with MDLA (MediaTek Deep Learning Accelerator), MVPU (MediaTek Vision Processing Unit), SME (I don’t know what that is), and DMA Memory I/F – LPDRR5x 8,533 […]

MediaTek T830 to power 5G FWA routers and mobile hotspots

MediaTek T830

MediaTek T830 is a consumer premise equipment (CPE) SoC with a quad-core Cortex-A53 processor, an integrated Sub-6GHz 5G modem, hardware-based network acceleration engines,and optional support for Wi-Fi 6/6E, and son the new WiFi 7. It’s unrelated to the MediaTek Filogic 830 WiFi router SoC and instead, offers an upgrade to the MediaTek T750 5G chipset for higher performance multi-gigabit CPE products, such as fixed wireless access (FWA) routers and mobile hotspots (Mi-Fi) with up to 7 Gbps 5G speeds. MediaTek T830 specifications: CPU – 4x Arm Cortex-A55 cores @ up to 2.2 GHz GPU – Unnamed 3D GPU Networking accelerators MediaTek Network Processing Unit QoS Acceleration and Tunneling Offload Engine for VLAN / PPTP / L2TP / GRE Memory I/F – LPDDR4x / LPDDR5 Storage I/F – nMCP (NAND-based Multi-Chip Package) suggested. SPI, eMMC 5.1, and ONFI (Open NAND Flash Interface) supported Display I/F – MIPI DSI interface for up […]