Imagination Unveils OpenGL ES 3.0 Compliant Entry Level PowerVR Series6XE GPUs, and Series6XT Architecture Promising TFLOPS Performance

Imagination Technologies has announced four OpenGL ES 3.0 compliant mobile GPUs based on PowerVR Series6XE Rogue architecture for entry level ($100) smartphones, tablets, and other low-end consumer devices such as wearables and smart TVs, as well as four high-end GPUs based on PowerVR Series6XT Rogue architecture capable of TeraFLOPS computing power. PowerVR Series6XE GPUs The new PowerVR Rogue GPUs will deliver the same fillrate performance as equivalent Series5XT multi-processor configurations but offer more in terms of features and functionality, including OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL 1.x, and DirectX 9.3. Four entry-level GPUs have been introduced at CES 2014: PowerVR G6050 – Smallest fully-featured GPU core by Imagination with support for OpenGL ES3.0 and OpenCL 1.x. PowerVR G6060 – Same as G6050, but adds PVRIC2, the company’s second generation lossless PowerVR Image Compression. It reduces bandwidth requirements, and it likely to be used in entry-level tablets, HD TVs and STBs. PowerVR G6100 […]

Intel Unveils Edison Board for Wearables at CES 2014 Keynote

After an earlier Intel presentation about Intel RealSense Technology by Mooly Eden, Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, the newly appointed Intel CEO, Brian Krzanich, officially opened CES 2014 with the pre-show keynote. This time there was nothing about processors for PCs, and the announcement the most interesting and relevant to this blog was Intel Edison, a tiny SD-card sized board powered by a dual core Quark SoC. Specifications: SoC – Unnamed and new dual core Intel Quark SoC @ 400MHz manufactured with 22nm process technology. MCU – Unnamed Intel MCU (MCS 51??) to manage I/Os and other baseline functions. System Memory – LPDDR2 Storage – NAND Flash Connectivity – Wi-Fi and Blutooth 4.0 LE Dimensions – Just like an SD card The board will support Linux, and common open source tools used by the marker community. It will also support Wolfgram language and Mathematica. There will also be […]

Type 115 Words per Minutes on your Smartphone with TREWGrip mobile Keyboard

Robert price can type 137 words per minutes on a desktop computer, and managed to achieve an amazing 115 words per minutes on a smartphone by using TREWGrip mobile qwerty keyboard. You may not be able to achieve the same speed yourself, but TREWGrip is an interesting portable wireless keyboard that should help you type much faster on your smartphone, or even mini tablets. It seems unintuitive at first, as the keys are actually located at the back of the keyboard as shown above, with illuminated indicator keys showing at the top showing where to type. The keyboard also have a 3-axis gyroscope to use it an an Air mouse. The keyboard communicates with your mobile device via Bluetooth classic. You’ll need some training to use this keyboard efficiently, but the company claims “the average user can achieve 90% of their QWERTY keyboard typing speed with only 8-10 hours of […]

Intel Unveils RealSense Technology with 3D Camera, Voice Recognition

RealSense_3D_Camera

Mooly Eden, Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager, gave a presentation at CES 2014 about Perceptual Computing, introducing Intel RealSense Technology that is currently comprised of a 3D “depth” camera, and Nuance Dragon Assitant voice technology in order to bring “Natural, Intuitive, and Immersive user experiences”. Dragon Assistant is a personal voice assistant that uses natural language understanding for Windows 8 Ultrabooks, notebooks, all-in-ones (AIOs), and tablet devices, and will be available in computers (Ultrabooks, AIO computer, and Tablets) from Acer, Dell, HP, Asus, Toshiba, and Lenovo in 2014. It’s very similar to what’s you’ve got with Siri on iOS or Google voice search, but the quick demo they’ve shown it could understand you without being specific. You awake the assistant by saying “Hey dragon”, and they tried with queries such as “I want to watch an episode of Family Guy” that started Hulu with a list of relevant […]

Freescale Announces WaRP (Wearables Reference Platform) Powered by Freescale i.MX 6SoloLite

We’ve seen more and more wearable products recently, be it smartwaches, smart rings, fitness bands, etc.., and we can expect several announcements at CES 2014 for wearables. Freescale has just launched their Wearable Reference Platform (WaRP), comprised of the WaRPboard, a tiny board based on Freescale i.MX 6SoloLite running Android, and a daughter board with KL16 Cortex M0+ MCU and several sensors. The main chips and corresponding features on the board are as follows: Freescale i.MX 6SoloLite Cortex A9 processor @ 1GHz with 2D graphics Vivante GC355 and  GC320 GPUs. KL16 Sub-Family General Purpose Cortex M0+ MCU. Xtrinsic FXOS8700CQ, 6-Axis Sensor with Integrated Linear Accelerometer and Magnetometer. Xtrinsic MMA955xL Intelligent Motion-Sensing Platform. It cane be programmed to provide freefall detection, tilt and 3-D orientation detection, tap and double tap detection, dead reckoning, shock, vibration and sudden motion detection and power management. The company expect WaRP to be used in devices such as […]

Lenovo Introduces Nvidia Tegra based All-in-One Android Computers

Lenovo has unveiled two new Android computers just before CES 2014: N308 and ThinkVision 28, respectively powered by Nvidia Tegra 3 with a 19.5″ display and Tegra 4 with a 28″ UHD display. Lenovo N308 Lenovo N308 specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core Cortex A9 processor System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8/16 GB SSD or 320/500 GB HDD, and 6-in-1 card reader Display – 19.5″ display (touch screen ??), 1600×900 resolution Connectivity – Wi-Fi and Bluetooth Webcam – Front camera for 720p video conference USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports Audio – Built-in stereo speakers, microphone, and headphone port Battery – Up to 3 hours of usage Lenovo computer cones with a keyboard and mouse, and runs Android 4.2.2 Jelly Bean. With a 19.45″ display, it’s not really portable, so the integrated battery is probably there to allow you to move it from one room to […]

NVidia Announces Tegra K1 32-bit & 64-bit SoCs with a 192 Core Kepler GPU

Nvidia announced their newest mobile SoC at CES 2014, but instead of calling it Tegra 5, they went for Tegra K1, as it’s the first to feature a 192 cores GPU based on Kepler architecture, the same as used in PC graphics card. There will be several version of the chip one based on four Cortex A15 cores, one featuring a dual core Nvidia Denver CPU based on ARMv8 64-bit architecture, and Tegra K1 VCM for the automotive market. The company showcased the power of their new processor with an Unreal Engine 4 demo and the same face demo showed last year on an Nvidia GPU card, and Tegra K1 easily outperform older generations games console such as Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, at and the same time consume just about 5 Watts of power, versus 100 Watts for Microsoft and Sony consoles. The GPU in the Tegra K1 also […]

Samsung Unveils “Samsung Smart Home” and Smart Home Software Protocol (SHP) at CES 2014

2014 could be the year where home automation becomes mainstream, as after Archos Connected Home, Samsung has now announced their own “Smart Home” service enabling users to control and manage their home devices, as well as Smart Home software Protocol (SHP) to enable connectivity between Smart Home products from Samsung and other manufacturers. Your smartphone, smartwatch (Galaxy GEAR), or smart TV will be the control center of your home, and you’ll be able to manage refrigerators, washing machines, smart TVs, lights, and more. Communication between your phone and the appliance will go through the company’s cloud-based Smart Home Server. At launch, Samsung will provide three main service features as shown in the illustration above: Device Control – Mobile devices or Smart TV can be used to monitor or control home appliances via Smart Home app from nearly anywhere. Voice control is also available so you could say “good night” to […]