Smartphones
This week Samsung Electronics and Synopsys announced that Samsung has taped out its first mobile system-on-chip on Samsung Foundry's 3nm gate-all-around (GAA) process technology. The announcement, coming from electronic design automation Synopsys, further notes that Samsung used the Synopsys.ai EDA suite to place-n-route the layout and verify design of the SoC, which in turn enabled higher performance. Samsung's unnamed high-performance mobile SoC relies on 'flagship' general-purpose CPU and GPU architectures as well as various IP blocks from Synopsys. SoC designers used Synopsys.ai EDA software, including the Synopsys DSO.ai to fine-tune design and maximize yields as well as Synopsys Fusion Compiler RTL-to-GDSII solution to achieve higher performance, lower power, and optimize area (PPA). And while the news that Samsung has developed a high-performance SoC using the Synopsys.ai...
IFA 2018: Huawei Kirin 980 Keynote Live Blog
Our big keynote of the IFA 2018 show is from Huawei, with CEO Richard Yu set to take the stage and detail the newest Kirin 980 chipset for us...
1 by Ian Cutress on 8/31/2018Huawei To Announce Kirin 980 Today at IFA
In the smartphone wars, the chip inside powering the devices is becoming ever more important. Raw performance plus accelerators are pushing the boundaries of what we used to think...
11 by Ian Cutress on 8/31/2018Sony Launches The Xperia XZ3: First Sony OLED Smartphone
Today Sony launched the successor to this year’s not-so-old XZ2 which was released only 6 months ago at MWC. The new XZ3 is an iterative design over the XZ2...
39 by Andrei Frumusanu on 8/30/2018HTC U12 Life Launched: 6-inch Mid-Range with Two-Tone
In a raft of smartphone announcements at IFA 2018, next on the list is from HTC with the U12 Life. The U12 Life is the more mid-range version of...
8 by Ian Cutress on 8/30/2018Honor Launches €329/£279 Honor Play: Hands-On
Today at Honor’s event in Berlin we saw the global launch of the new Honor Play smartphone. The Honor Play had been announced in China and India back in...
7 by Andrei Frumusanu on 8/30/2018Honor Previews the Honor Magic 2: A No-Notch FullView Smartphone with Kirin 980
At the end of the presentation today for the Honor Play, George Zhao, CEO of Honor, showcased the upcoming Honor Magic 2. Following on from the original Honor Magic...
11 by Ian Cutress on 8/30/2018IFA 2018: Honor Play Launch, a Live Blog
After some meetings this morning, the next event on our list is the western launch of the Honor Play: a Kirin 970 smartphone that focuses on AI. Honor is...
3 by Ian Cutress on 8/30/2018Kishonti GFXBench 5.0 Aztec Ruins: OpenGL & Vulkan Benchmark Hands-On
Today Kishonti have finally released their final update to GFXBench version 5.0. The update introduces the new Aztec Ruins scene in two complexity modes as well as OpenGL, Vulkan...
40 by Andrei Frumusanu on 8/24/2018Qualcomm Begins Sampling of 7nm Next-Gen SoC
Today Qualcomm is announcing that it has begun sampling its next generation Snapdragon SoC. The announcement is unusual as in the past we’ve never really had sampling announcements from...
18 by Andrei Frumusanu on 8/22/2018Hot Chips 2018: The Google Pixel Visual Core Live Blog (10am PT, 5pm UTC)
Hot Chips has started! One of the first talks today is from Google, detailing the Pixel Visual Core processor found in the latest Pixel smartphones. The talk is called...
14 by Ian Cutress on 8/20/2018Samsung Announces The Galaxy Note 9: 4000mAh And New S-Pen
Today at the Unpacked Event at the Barclays Center in New York Samsung launched alongside a new smartwatch, the Galaxy Watch and a new home speaker, the Galaxy Home...
54 by Andrei Frumusanu & Nate Oh on 8/9/2018The LG G7 Review: A Rushed Attempt?
This year was a change in pace for LG, as we saw the company change its usual release plans for its “mainline” flagship device, the LG G7, which was...
69 by Andrei Frumusanu on 8/9/2018Samsung Unpacked 2018 Pt.2 - Live Blog (11am ET)
We're here in New York City for Samsung's second Unpacked event of the year. This time around it's no secret what Samsung will be presenting: the Galaxy Note 9...
16 by Andrei Frumusanu & Nate Oh on 8/9/2018Qualcomm Reveals The Snapdragon 670 Platform: Dual Big Cores + Adreno 615
Today Qualcomm is announcing a new entry in the 600-series mid-range line-up. In a surprise move, the new Snapdragon 670 is a direct successor to the Snapdragon 660, and...
25 by Andrei Frumusanu on 8/8/2018Motorola Enables 5G: A Moto Mod for the z3
The concept of modular phones has gone from non-existent, to completely modular everything, and back again. The more you can embed into a phone at once, the slimmer the...
13 by Ian Cutress on 8/6/2018Galaxy Note 9 Leaks In Officially Uploaded Video
Samsung is said to have uploaded a promotional Galaxy Note 9 video onto its New Zealand YouTube media channel, depicting the new design as well as a couple of...
19 by Andrei Frumusanu on 8/3/2018Huawei Takes #2 Smartphone Manufacturer Spot in 1H18
Huawei has released its business results for the first half of 2018, and has posted new record sales figures of 95+ million units. Most importantly, the company has now surpassed...
20 by Andrei Frumusanu on 8/3/2018Apple Announces Q3 FY 2018 Results
This afternoon, Apple announced their earnings for the third quarter of the 2018 fiscal year, and as we’ve all come to expect, they did very well again. Revenue for...
34 by Brett Howse on 7/31/2018Samsung Starts Production of 16 Gb LPDDR4X Chips Using 2nd Gen 10nm Tech
Samsung this week announced that it has begun manufacturing its new LPDDR4X memory chips using its second-generation 10 nm-class fabrication process (which is traditionally called 1y nm). The new...
12 by Anton Shilov on 7/27/2018The OnePlus 6 Review: Among The Best Of 2018
Over the last several years OnePlus has evolved from a vendor looking to disrupt the smartphone market to a company whose flagships are now eagerly awaited every year. The...
90 by Andrei Frumusanu on 7/27/2018