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Qualcomm's Halo wireless charging tech headed to Formula E, safety cars get first dibs
Ahead of the Frankfurt Motor Show this week, Qualcomm has come out to announce that it'll be bringing its Halo wireless charging technology to the first-ever Formula E electric vehicle race next year. But before y'all get too excited, only the safety cars will be equipped with Halo for the first season, which goes from September 2014 to June 2015 in London, Rome, Berlin, Beijing, Kuala Lumpur, Los Angeles and many more places. As with these safety cars plus trial vehicles from London taxi firm Addison Lee, the current-gen Halo requires electric vehicles to stay still on large charging pads, which isn't ideal for racing cars. That said, Qualcomm CMO Anand Chandrasekher told us that his folks are already looking into bringing dynamic charging to racing cars starting in the second season. In other words, these battery-powered vehicles will eventually be able to recharge while still running on the race track!
Qualcomm's Anand Chandrasekher says eight-core processors are 'dumb'
In response to a question about whether Qualcomm will create an eight-core processor like MediaTek's upcoming model, Senior VP Anand Chandrasekher told a Taiwanese publication "we don't do dumb things." He added that "you can't take eight lawnmower engines, put them together and now claim you have an eight-cylinder Ferrari." Instead, he said Qualcomm is focused on good modems, long battery life and affordability, rather than "simply throwing cores together." Though MediaTek had no comment on that, it claimed earlier that all eight cores in its upcoming CPU can operate at the same time to improve stability and battery life -- unlike the Exynos 5's big.LITTLE configuration, for instance. Whether you agree with Chandrasekher or not, eight seems better than four, meaning most CPU outfits -- including Qualcomm -- will likely jump on the octa-core bandwagon.
Qualcomm COO Steve Mollenkopf talks 28nm supply, low-end market and displays
It goes without saying that it's been a good year for Qualcomm -- so good that the mobile chipmaker invited us over to its San Diego headquarters to share the story. There we met up with President and COO Steve Mollenkopf, who started off the session by reflecting on the 28nm production "issues" since mid-year. Without naming any participating foundries, Mollenkopf carefully reiterated that the supply struggled to match the "tremendous demand" of the new 28nm Krait-based products at the time, but he thinks Qualcomm will be out of that problem starting this month. "It was something that we had this year and last fiscal year, but moving forward, I don't see that to be an issue," said Mollenkopf. Judging by the increasing number of devices carrying Qualcomm's quad-core chipsets, we certainly hope this is the case.
Anand Chandrasekher resigns from Intel after 24 years, leaves scandal mongers hanging
Well, as tech industry resignations go, this one's not exactly sensational, but Anand Chandrasekher's plan to leave Intel is no doubt a popular topic of conversation with chip makers this week. The chief of the company's Ultra Mobility Group (UMG) and the man behind Atom, apparently resigned "to pursue other interests." Intel Architecture Group's Mike Bell and Dave Whalen will co-manage UMG in Chandrasekher's stead -- and that's about it for sordid details. His resignation isn't apt to be marked by a Mark Hurd-style scandal, and we have a feeling this is a pretty straight forward changing of the guards, but, then again, we said the same thing when Dirk Meyer left AMD.
Intel talks Medfield: will ship in a phone and have the longest usage time
We had a feeling we'd be hearing about Intel's Atom for smartphones here at Mobile World Congress, and Intel did in fact take the stage today to talk about its forthcoming Medfield processor. The company has announced that it's starting to sample or test its 32nm Medfield processor for mobile devices with its customers (obviously, it's not telling us which ones) and more importantly that it will ship in a phone. Yep, Intel's Senior Vice President Anand Chandrasekher spoke quite firmly about how the platform will in fact ship in smartphones and that it will also support Android. He pulled out the phone above just as a proof point, and while he didn't say who made it, we have a sneaking suspicion it's that Aava Mobile phone we've heard about. Chandraskher also took direct aim at ARM (he even called out ARM's CEO Warren East), and hammered home Intel's focus on battery life. He didn't quote an exact run time, but he did say that "on active power we are the most efficient architecture on the planet." We actually believe he repeated that it will have the "longest usage time" at least three times -- we're thinking he's serious. What about standby? He was a bit more vague on that, but did say it would be competitive there as well. We'll be doing our best to track down that Medfield-powered handset up there, so stay tuned. Update: Our friend Chippy from CarryPad caught a bit of Anand's talk on video. Hit the break for that. Update 2: We asked Anand for clarification on the time frame of these Medfield handsets -- he wouldn't detail that exactly, but he did say that the platform will go into production this year. %Gallery-116548%
Intel briefly shows off Medfield-based smartphone
Intel promised way back in 2009 that we'd be seeing Medfield-based smartphones in 2011, and it looks like those have now gotten one step closer to reality. While there's unfortunately few details to be had, that's apparently a Medfield-based smartphone of some sort in the hand of Intel's Anand Chandrasekher above, who apparently showed off the phone (possibly a prototype) ever so briefly at the company's sales and marketing conference last week. Could it be a sign of things to come at MWC next month? Maybe, maybe not, but we'll be there to find out.
Intel Moorestown tablets will arrive before smartphones, won't hit for at least six months
Digging all the Moorestown tablets and phones we've been seeing at Computex? Yeah, us too, but it looks like we're still going to be waiting a considerable amount of time for them to hit the market. According to Intel's Anand Chandrasekher, the first Moorestown devices won't pop up for at least six to twelve more months. That may be after the end of 2010 mark we had heard before, but let's hope Intel is using the time to get things just right. Anand also said that the first Moorestown products will be tablets rather than smartphones, the latter arriving sometime in the first half of 2011 -- not too surprising given handset manufacturers' history of designing and optimizing around ARM silicon and the fact that the smartphone flavor of the Intel-friendly MeeGo OS is still in development.
Intel making 'important announcement' today -- a Nokia netbook / MID?
Possible big news on the way later today. According to Bloomberg, Intel's very own Mr. MID, Anand Chandrasekher, will announce Nokia as a new customer of its mobile processors. This is important because Nokia is a long time friend of ARM and Intel by its own admission can't currently compete with ARM when it comes to the ultra-low power consumption requirements of smartphones. So whatever Nokia's got cooking will presumably be running on Intel's upcoming Moorestown MID platform or its ultra-low power Medfield silicon targeting mainstream smartphones in 2011. On the other hand, Nokia's CEO already expressed interest in entering the laptop race with Intel or the ARM-based Snapdragon rumored to be at the core. But if this announcement results in yet another Atom-based netbook, well, good luck with that Nokia.[Via IntoMobile]
Intel debuts 2GHz Atom Z550 processor, demos Moorestown platform
In celebration of the Atom's one-year anniversary, Intel's unveiled Z550, the latest processor in the family and as the rumors suggested, it clocks in at a pretty impressive 2GHz along with support for Hyperthreading, all in under three watts of power usage. Additionally, it took the veil off of the Z515 with Intel Burst Performance Technology, which can bump the speed up to 1.2GHz. In more forward-thinking news, senior VP and general manager Anand Chandrasekher demoed its Moorestown MID platform on stage at a presentation, which we last heard was supposed to show itself in a more tangible form sometime this month via an Archos netbook. We've contacted Intel for video of that demonstration, so you're just gonna have to wait a bit for that.Update: The Moorestown demo was (how should we put this)... lame -- from a consumer's standpoint anyway. Instead of demonstrating it in a hand-held MID, Intel was again showing off silicon in a desktop rig strapped to enough life support to keep AMD afloat. The demo did show the 10x less idle power consumption promised but we've got a ways to go (2010 or before) before we see Moorestown product.
Intel concedes ARM's superiority over Atom, fake iPhone crisis averted
When low-level Intel execs throw down a verbal assault on Silicon Valley-buds Apple, guess what the result is? Fake fight! Fortunately, Intel's Anand Chandrasekher just stepped in, referee-style, and dropped the retraction hammer on his loose-lipped, ARM-bashing underlings with the following correction: "Intel's low-power Atom processor does not yet match the battery life characteristics of the ARM processor in a phone form factor; and, that while Intel does have plans on the books to get us to be competitive in the ultra low power domain - we are not there as yet. Secondly, Apple's iPhone offering is an extremely innovative product that enables new and exciting market opportunities. The statements made in Taiwan were inappropriate, and Intel representatives should not have been commenting on specific customer designs." So... friends, or are we doomed to repeat the whole toasted bunny thing again? [Via cnet news]
Video: Moorestown MID platform taken for a spin around the Intel labs
We finally nabbed a video of the first Moorestown silicon -- a mashup of Intel's Lincroft and Langwell chips and a third party power management chip -- slapped together and running on a validation board inside of an Intel lab. It's nothing like the form factor of that crazy MID mockup Intel's been showing. Nevertheless, first silicon out of fab is pretty significant, especially when it promises 10x the power savings of Menlow (made famous by the Atom CPU) which Moorestown replaces. Full video after the break.Update: Viddler's having capacity issues today -- try refreshing if the video doesn't load the first time or try this direct link.
Intel unveils world's first working Moorestown MID platform
This sexy MID has been dropping jaws for more than a year now. Unfortunately, the plastic mock-up has always been a non-working, gutless model with little more than a glossy screen and backlight to demonstrate the form factor Intel's gunning for with its future Moorestown Mobile Internet Devices. That all changed today when a world's first working, Moorestown prototype (which we think is the device above) hit the stage at Intel's Taipei, Developer Forum in the familiar hands of Anand Chandrasekher. Moorestown consists of a Lincroft micro-architecture that integrates the 45nm processor, graphics, memory controller, and video encode/decode functions onto a single, tiny chip with 10x less idle power draw than those first-gen, Atom-based MIDs and UMPCs. That's pretty Impressive. As we've heard before, we can expect the new Moorestown MIDs to hit in 2009 / 2010 with support for wireless 3G, WiMAX, GPS, Bluetooth and digital mobile TV. We can hardly wait. We'll update you with video just as soon as we can track it down. Until then, check Anand's original video demonstration of the concept from 2007 after the break.Update: Sadly, it now appears that the demonstration was little more than a validation board running fresh from the factory, three-day old Moorestown silicon in an Intel lab. Significant, but hardly a working MID prototype. A working Moorestown MID like that pictured above remains the stuff of Intel's graphics department fantasy for the time being.Read -- World's first Moorestown platformRead -- Moorestown MID prototype on display in Taipei
Intel reveals Core 2 Duo info and ULV Core Duo CPU
Intel is using this week's Computex trade show to reveal various bits of information about upcoming additions to the Core Duo family, including details on the chipset that will support the new Core 2 Duo (formerly known as Conroe) processors as well as the existence of an impending low voltage version of the current Core Duo CPU. Senior Vice President Anand Chandrasekher announced that the 965 chipset will come in three versions (P965, G965, and U965) sporting either Core 2 Duos or Core 2 Extremes -- the latter chip coming in July in a 2.93GHz version, followed by a 3.2GHz model later this year -- along with DDR2 memory as fast as 800MHz. As for the new ULV Core Duo processor, the company claims that it will sip an average of just 0.75 watts (compared to the one to two watts consumed by the already efficient Core 2 Duo), and be available in a 1.06GHz configuration called the U2500 for $289 this summer. Release dates for the Core 2 Duo chip are still unknown, although a press conference being held tomorrow may contain that key piece of info, which is already being reported by some sources as July 23rd.
