ARM Community: Smart Connected Devices - ARM Community

Now that Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2012 has wound down, here are a few more videos and insights I captured from a few of the ARM Partners: Texas Instruments, ST-Ericsson, ZTE and last but not least Proxama.

Texas Instruments
At the Texas Instruments (TI) stand I got to demo the recently released ARM Cortex-A9 based Samsung Galaxy Beam smartphone which features the built in TI DLP Pico Projector technology. This gives you the ability to project the screen of your smartphone onto the wall which could come in handy for displaying slides in an impromptu meeting or a college student who wants to show off their ga...

Strolling into the ARM Powered Lounge at this year’s ARM TechCon gives one a real insight into the breadth of devices ARM appears in – and the prototypes on the horizon that will quite literally change the way people live.

First up, a prototype of ‘smart glasses’ that have been developed by Australian neuroscientist Dr. Stephen Hicks, Department of Clinical Neurology at Oxford University, and his team, to help people with visual impairment regain their independence. If all goes according to plan they will be commercially available by 2014.

Hicks and his team have used a Texas Instruments (TI) OMAP 3530 system-on-a-chip for the original prototype, featuring an ...

For the first time, ARM is honored to be invited to join the opening ceremony of COMPUTEX TAIPEI 2011 as the VIP guest. ARM’s president, Tudor Brown attended the opening ceremony in TWTC of Nangang and together with Taiwan’s President Dr. Ying-Jeou Ma, TAITRA’s Chairman Dr. Chih-Kang Wang, TCA’s Chairman Mr. J.T Wang, TCA’s Convener of the Board of Supervisors Mr. John Hsuan, government officials from Taipei City Hall and Ministry of Economic Affairs, and other IT companies’ representatives to slide the tablets and kick-off this year’s COMPUTEX Show.


ARM Powered Products took center stage at this year’s Computex.
The changing face of computing was never so obvious than at this year’s Computex – no doubt that this is the 3rd era of computing. Our roving correspondent ...

At first glance I had to wonder why one of Bloomberg Businessweek’s mobile beat reporters, Olga Kharif, was writing an article on household appliances. But after reading the first sentence it all made sense. Kharif’s piece explores the new world of smart, connected appliances and how traditional manufacturers like Whirlpool will now have to slug it out with new entrants hailing from the mobile / telco world, like Samsung and LG.

These upstarts from the land of smartphones, apps and mobile web browsers bring a different take to the world of white goods – and the potential for profit is huge. According to Kharif’s article, the market for connected appliances may reach $6.2 billion by 2015 – that is a big pie. Ironically, the key to success in this market will be similar to what makes companies competitive in the cell phone and ...

Whether for business or leisure, traveling has become a significant part of many of our lives. Do you remember the pre-smart mobile device days when the only thing you brought to travel with was… a book? If you know any frequent travelers, or are one yourself, here are my suggestions for 2010-ing your travel routine – it’s the second installment of my ultimate ARM Powered Gadget Guide! If you missed Part 1, you can find it here.

Great Gifts for Traveling
Barnes & Noble Nook Color – Although “people-watching” is arguably one of my favorite pastimes, the Nook is a much better way to kill time in the airport. The Nook is a fresh take on the eReader form factor with its 7-inch LCD color touchscreen and over 2 million book and magazine titles to choose from, built in WiFi, games and...

It’s only when preparing for my US Visa interview that I realised how much technology I was using and abusing daily
With a look back on my experience, you might see that you too are nearly as much of a geek as I am

First, I needed to submit my application online (DS-160) so I used the ARM Cortex-A8 based Toshiba AC-100 to fill-in the form (of course). The webcam came in handy to submit the picture and an ARM Powered® HP Photosmart C309n gave me all printouts needed for the interview.
Having to go to London, I thought the train journey would be a great occasion to organise emails and catch up...

How will tomorrow’s cars change the driving experience? To find the answer, here’s what you need to do: First, book your trip to ARM Technology Conference 2010 (Techcon). When you arrive, go straight to the exhibit hall and look for a silver Chevrolet Corvette. Found it? Good. Slip into the driver’s seat, where you will immediately notice that this is no ordinary Corvette. Within seconds, you’ll experience two ARM Powered® systems that show how driving is about to become more informative, more convenient, and, above all, more connected.



The two demo systems, a digital instrument cluster and a multimedia head unit, are the creations of QNX Software Systems . Techcon is still weeks away, so let's take a quick virtual tour to see what these systems can do.

Simplify your driving with smart instrument cluster
QNX’s digital instrument cluster demonstrates how automakers can replace physical speedometers and gauges wit...

This year has been an exciting and transformative year in mobile. I can’t believe it was just a few years ago when we first introduced the Cortex-A8 and this year the Cortex-A8 has been featured from some of the most innovative smartphones, tablets, and connected DTVs. Software and hardware have come together to deliver a fully connected experience across multiple device platforms. The Cortex-A9 is already headed mainstream into mobile and smart connected devices, enabling multicore performance and flexibility. So here we are today celebrating the arrival of the Cortex-A15 MPcore processor. So ...

Nielsen has claimed that China has passed US on mobile internet usage, according to China Passes U.S. in Mobile Web by James Kendrick from jkOnThe Run. I really believe this is happening, just by seeing the market change in the past 5 years in China.

It is reported that the number of internet users in China is 420 million as of June 2010, of which 277 million are mobile internet users at the same time. 11.7% of the mobile internet users only use a mobile phone to access to the internet. (Source: China Internet Network Information Center) This number has grown very fast in the past 3 years, from 44 million in June 2007 to 277 million in 2010. Mobile phones and new kinds of smart mobile devices are becoming the primary intern...

It’s no surprise that consumers have fallen in love with tablet computing. Thanks to devices like the iPad and upcoming Android tablets, users have come to learn that mobile computing is more than just looking up directions on GoogleMaps or finding the nearest lunch spot on Yelp. New mobile computing trends have created a shift in the way that we’re connecting and consuming information on a daily basis. One of the hottest trends we’re seeing more of these days has been the convergence of entertainment and computing, which will increasingly become more of a design focus for device makers in the near future. Last week, there was a lot of chatter surrounding a slew of TV tablets that will soon be hitting the market, including the rumored Motorola Verizon TV tablet . TV tablets coming soon, this is an exciting prospect.

While enjoying TV content on ...

I love this industry. Day in and day out you hear about the next great device that is going to hit the market. Handset, tablet, eReader or something in between, there is always innovation on the horizon. And then when all the speculation is over and the actual launch occurs, we rarely seem to be disappointed. This week it was Motorola and Verizon’s turn with the unveiling of the Droid X and they did not let us down.

As the official press release says, this is a “Pocket Sized Home Theater” and more apparently. Not only do you get the HDMI connectivity and 720P video encode you might expect in the top of the line devices these days, but you also get access to Verizon’s new Blockbuster On Demand presented by V CAST and NFL Mobile for all your TV, Movie, and football viewing. They have even added DLNA support so you can access all of your personal content.

The great innovation continues in the communicati...

I have to admit that with the launch of the iPad tablet this month and the momentum we are seeing on tablet development in Taiwan, I am now wondering if Netbooks are destined to the archive of technology mishaps – just like the UMPCs and MIDs of the past? Fudzilla seems to be asking a similar question in their post here.

Let’s go back to 2007 when the industry was in just giving up on UMPCs moving onto MIDs. Behind this industry fever was a number of companies that were intent to bring PC technology down to a mobile device. At that same time of course the mobile industry was moving quickly to bring the internet and other PC like features to an increasing capable set of smartphones.

Smartphone that I Wanted to Take Home
Though there were some great devices at CTIA, but the one device that I wanted to slip into my pocket was the Samsung ...

CES has always been where future ideas are tested and the impact of well placed bets becoming a reality. At 2006, people starting talking about HDTVs connected to the internet, ARM realized that to become a leader in these devices we must support the internet. This kicked-off internal discussions that were initially focused on getting ARM into computing, but very quickly it boiled down to “it’s the internet stupid” and that the internet would be critical for ARM’s success in the future. This initiated engineering efforts by ARM and our Partners to make this a reality. Fast forward four years and I can say the bet paid off in spades and in ways, we did not imagine. Let me show you what impressed me …

eBooks/Readers explosion … this was the year of the eBook/eReader at CES, they were everywhere and a couple received best of show in their categories. The Barnes and Noble nook, Alex by Spring Design, and Entourage edge; all integrated a second screen and Google’s ...

I was looking for a Christmas present for my teenage daughter last week and was looking to buy her a low cost “Pay as you go” phone. Pre-pay feature phones usually cost less than £100 in the UK and offer a functional, if limited, user experience. Some of the more popular styles have been low cost touch screens that imitate the look of more expensive smartphones, but without the slick user experience (rich graphics, vast app stores, snappy response). So I found myself in Car Phone Warehouse looking at the phones from the big 6 OEMs (Apple, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson) and was amazed to see that a £99 Nokia touch screen cell phone (Nokia 5530) was a S60 device – a full blown smartphone running on a fast ARM11. I checked the price on Amazon and in the USA it is available unlocked for $199. These are impressively low price points and make smartphones, without contract, available to a much wider audience. The smartphone market is expected to grow to beyond 500M pcs per annum by 2012 and a good percentage, maybe half, of th...

At ARM TechCon3 last week, we had a chance to catch up with Brian Carlson of TI and Bill Galione of ST-Ericsson.

Brian Carlson took us through some of the emerging ARM based mobile computing devices using TI’s OMAP 3 technology. The highly responsive Palm Pre which is powered by the ARM Cortex-A8 which supports multiple applications at a time. The Archos internet tablet is the first OMAP 3 Android product that runs at 800 MHz. This very fast device can open multiple windows at one time and has a handy touch magnifying tool for close up reading. Carlson says there is much to look forward to from the OMAP 4 and the ARM Cortex-...

Follow the new ARM-Events blog, featuring ARM TechCon3 for the latest updates from ARM & the ARM Community on the show floor.

Software Sessions: Free Pegatron Nettop-while supplies last!
A Pegatron Nettop will be given to the first 80 pre-registered attendees who attend the ARM Software Sessions at ARM TechCon3 on Thursday, Oct 22 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM.

The Latest Mali Graphics Demos – Eye Candy or Reality?
Saoud Moco gives a sneak peak of the exciting Mali demos to be show at ARM TechCon3, Oct 21-23, 2009.

ARM TechCon3: Workshops and Seminar at Techmart
Ken Haven's talks about some of the great workshops and seminars to be held at ARM TechCon3.

ARM TechCon3: Design to the Power of Three
ARM TechCon3 features three critical areas of design, energy efficiency and design, internet everywhere, and MCU and tools.

ARM Software Sessions at ARM TechCon3
Don’t miss out on the ARM Software seminar series presented by ARM software experts are on Cortex-A software devel...

One question that is continually asked of me since I have been at ARM is if product X, operating system Y, or form factor Z is going to “win” the handset market. My response to this is always no, and then I provide the following explanation. The mobile phone market is around 1.3 billion units a year, and there are over 3 billion mobile individual subscribers. No one handset, form factor, or operating system can dominate a market that size. Also, the mobile phone is the most personal electronic device that allows people to reflect their individuality (or not).

What does this phone say about its owner?

Different Needs, Different Devices
Originally, when mobile phones were just phones the diversity in the form factor and capabilities were quite small. The big differentiators were color of the case, talk time and whether it was a flip or candy bar phone.

Did you want your phone in Candybar or Flip?

Today mobile phones have morphed into so many form factors and capabilities depending on the needs of the individual co...

ARM processor-based mobile computing platforms have been drawing more eyes in China in the past several months. Many companies both in the handset industry and the PC industry are interested in this “new” market. Moreover, the chipset vendors have become key partners in this market because they have the chips and reference designs. High-performance ARM mobile computing platforms, such as Cortex-A8 based platforms, are more intricate than previous platforms. So direct support from the chipset vendors is very important to the ODM/OEMs so that they can finish their first design. I have had several calls each week from these companies asking for an update on this market, including any partners whom they can work with. Some of the calls are very interesting because they are from some companies which I never heard of in Shenzhen area where the most gray market players are located. Gray market refers to the small manufacturers in China spinning out devices with little to no branding or marketing. They say they want to do ARM based smart mobile devices....

China has a huge gray market now..hundreds of small and medium-sized companies who are struggling in this market. They are very flexible and want to do any device that...

Having seen the ads on YouTube and read the PR I’m looking forward to getting my hands on a N900.


The jump to our latest Cortex-A8 processor in the form of TI’s OMAP3 chip means that users can enjoy greater responsiveness for widgets, browsing and everyday use. A second important feature of the N900 that you will see widely adopted over the next year or two is the take up of OpenGL ES 2.0and the accelerated graphics that lies beneath. This combination of Cortex-A8 or dual core Cortex-A9 together with capable GPU’s like our Mali400 will become the mainstream solution for handheld computing over the next couple of years. OEMs are demand...

China, one of the largest PC, mobile phone and consumer electronic markets in the world, is at the center where all companies in the industry are competing with each other. And now, it’s one of the critical markets for ARM based mobile computing devices. We are working with our partners including Silicon vendors, OS vendors, software service companies as well as OEM/ODMs to enable the market in China.

Convergence is happening everywhere in the industry: fixed line and wireless; embedded and PC, especially mobile and internet. Everyone is talking about mobile internet in China such as the operators, internet companies, wireless service providers etc. There were 298 million internet users in China by the end of 2008, among which 117.6 million users also accessed internet through mobile phone; growth of 133% more than 2007， according to CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center). I am expecting the next 100 million internet users in China will access the internet through mobile devices rather than PCs.

Chinese people are one of the craziest and most endurable users I have ever seen. Many young generation people will spend 2-3 months’ salary just for a latest “cool” Nokia phone, and then change to another one in half-year time. They like to try new devices and services, and they ar...

ARM Powered Smart Mobile Devices Press Tour took place from coast to coast in the US and then on to the UK. From this two week tour the articles listed below are some the of the news coming from the various media.

Windows to run on ARM processors by 2013

ARM has legs

ARM Outlines Next-gen Netbooks and Smartbooks*

Can ARM Come Between Microsoft and Intel?

ARM hopes to lure Microsoft away from Intel

ARM-Based Pegatron Netbook Protoype

ARM-Powered Pegatron Netbook Showcased

Pegatron shows netbook with Palm Pre's CPU

...

Android is an excellent example of the great OpenSource initiatives that are happening around the ARM architecture. Android and the Symbian Foundation are unique in the OpenSource community in that they are both complete mobile phone stacks, which allow OEMs and Silicon Partners (SiPs) to develop their own handsets. Allowing them to focus on differentiation, rather than the rewriting yet another SMS client. However it is critical that anyone who is takes advantage of the Android codebase does it in such a way that they can take full advantage of future versions, optimizations and bug fixes.


It is easy to build a toy Android on another architecture, but can you make it production worthy?

With OpenSource Freedom Comes Responsibility

The Android codebase is 2+GByte of source code, and the many man years of effort t...

Today I received a Palm Pre to evaluate as one of the first phones to employ the ARM Cortex-A8 processor core (Breakdown showing the Cortex-A8 based TI OMAP3430 in the Palm Pre). The Pre is a very exciting device for a number of reasons, including its WebOS and also because it is Cortex-A8 based.

ARM Cortex-A8 delivering performance never seen in your hand before.

So why is the Cortex-A8 such a leap forward for the mobile handset? If you want full details, you can refer to in-depth technical manuals for the Cortex-A8 and the TI OMAP3430. But in one simple sentence the Cortex-A8 delivers over 2x the performance that you have seen in a cell phone before, while not sacrificing battery life. When designing the Cortex-A8 we had to adhere to the Golden design rule of not exceeding 300mW, almost 10x lower than what you see from other mainstream processor architectures t...

The immediate future of mobile devices is visible at industry shows like CES, MWC and CTIA. I want to share my pick of the smart mobile device technology that is going to revolutionise the user experience of Smartphones over the next year. As it happens, on the last day of Mobile World Congress my mobile phone disappeared which means I’m back using my battered and bruised old cell phone for a while and on the lookout for something new and shiny.

If you looked carefully at some of the devices on show at CES in Las Vegas and MWC in Barcelona you would have witnessed the start of what will turn out to be a profound change for the mobile industry. In the thousands of devices on show there were a handful that represented the next generation, with high-performance processors, high-definition video capability and stunning screens. They were generally slim, cool, high-performance, web-centric mobile devices powered by the ARM Cortex-A8 processor or Qualcomm Snapdragon (both ARM v7 architecture). The applications processor represents the brains of the Smartphone, MID or netbook and having a Cortex-A8 typically provides a 3- to 5x jump...