MasHD Blog

Qualcomm has unveiled two new SOC's (System on a Chip) today . The two , named the Snapdragon 660 and 630 are set to serve as the mid range processor option for smartphones , tablets and a  host of other devices which require fast image processing , dual camera technologies , fast  graphic rendering , power efficency and LTE connectivity . Qualcomm 660 & 630  This chip is technically the new flagship of the 600 line . The 14nm chip , designed with  4 2.2Ghz Kryo 260 cores and 4  1.8Ghz Kryo 260 cores - effectively a 8 core chip with a Big.little design . The core designs are custom made by Qualcomm based on the ARM  A53 and A72/A73 designs . The chip features Adreno 512 chip with Vulcan API graphics , Hexagon 642 co processor , Spectra 160 image processor engine , Bluetooth 5.0 ,X12 - LTE modem (600mbps DL 150mbps UL) and Quickcharge 4) The 630 on the other hand is built on the same 14nm architecture and has the same layout with the only diff...

Qualcomm has anounced three new Soc's for 2016 . The new Snapdragon 625 , 435 and 425 are three of the latest 64bit capable mid range processors from the manufacturer .Qualcomm also launched a new smartphone LTE modem -the X6 which has the capability to hit speeds of 1 gigabit -impressive considering that data will be transfered over the air .the three chips are said to be in some midrange 2016 smartphones while the x16 modem is said to be in 2017 flagship smartpones (most probably mated with the Snapdragon 830?) . Snapdragon X16 Modem  This is Qualcomms next gen mobile modem , the component -designed with 2017 flagships in mind will boast a mindblowing gigabit wireless transfer speed ,for comparisson the Snapdragon 820's X12 modem only supports upto 600 m/bps Features -1000 mbps data data download speed -14nm FinFet design -Support for LTE -U -4x4MiMO for faster data input and output -available in 2017 Snapdragon 625 Features -Octa core  2Ghz  (Cortex A...

Qualcomm has unveiled details of its next gen mobile superchip - The Snapdragon 820 . the processor , a second gen 64bit flagship processor aims to power next gen smartphones while keeping things cool thanks to Qualcomm's own custom chip design and a new GPU . At the heart of the Snapdragon 820 are 4 Kryo cores , these are said to be custom core designs which means Qualcomm will no longer use stock Cortex designs resulting in "hopefully" lower thermal signatures and lesser power consumption ,Qualcomm did not go deeper into explaining about its processing cores , but we can be sure the chips to fall into the 14 -18nm mark as the previous generation (S810) was 20 nm GPU  performance is one place the new Snapdragon 820 will definitely find itself home , the new chip packs the Adreno 530 , a GPU that packs 40% more power and 40% less power consumption than the outgoing Snapdragon 430 of the S810 , this combined with the support for OpenGL ES 3.1 , Android Extension Kit...

Qualcomm has unveiled three low to mid end processors today , the three processors - the Snapdragon 212 , 412 and the 616 are new additions to the Snapdragon lineup with the 616 taking the top dog spot on the list as it replaces the mid range Snapdragon 615 used in many phones today , The 412 replaces the older Snapdragon 410 and the 212 replaces the older 210 Soc announced last year Snapdragon 616 The Snapdragon 616 brings a minor refresh to the already superb 64bit Snapdragon 615 Soc , the only speed difference comes from the increased clock speed of one of the 4 core clusters found on this 4+4 processor , the rest of the specs  including the Adreno 405 graphics , X5 LTE and the 28mm die is left unchanged Snapdragon 412 Snapdragon 412 chip follows a similar refresh as the 616  , the overall chip has received a clock speed boost to 1.4Ghz from the 1.2Ghz found on the S410 . The memory channel    interface has received a boost from 533Mhz to 600 Mhz ,...

Qualcomm has unveiled 4 new products for its Snapdragon 400 and 600 categories , the new chips , which are said to employ 64Bit architecture are said to roll into next gen products in the second half of this year . Snapdragon 415  This is the successor/sidekick to the Snapdragon 410 processor unveiled last year , the chip uses a 64bit architecture and it is built on the established 28nm Cortex A53 platform , this has a Adreno 405 GPU along with 4G LTE support Specs at a glance  *Octa core - Cortex A53 cores @1.4Ghz  *Adreno 405 GPU *Qualcomm X5 4G LTE modem (Cat4 speeds) *Camera support upto 13mp  *Display support upto 720p  *Video Recording upto 1080p @30fps Snapdragon 425 This processor shares a similar platform with the Snapdragon 415 ,but its clockspeed and some hardware capabilities are increased over its smaller sibbling Specs at a glance  *Octa core - Cortex A53 cores @1.7Ghz  *Adreno 405 GPU *Qualcomm ...

Samsung has started to drop its all plastic image with the introduction of the new Note , Alpha and E series of metal banded smartphones and apparently they are doing a really good job for now , While Samsung was busy making new metal , their competition has also gone a step further and finally smartphones today are starting to look like well polished and capable handsets compared to their predecessors from a year back , that being said Samsung has not forgotten its flagship S series and that too is said to get a metal frame in the next iteration -the Galaxy S6 . According to a Bloomberg report , the next Samsung flagship is said to pack the latest heat in the smartphone game , but sadly that heat might also be a factor in what processor the phone might pack as Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 810's are said to have overheating problems . Samsung - a company that basically makes everything has its own in house Exynos Octa (4+$ Cortex A57 and A53 core) processors that might replace Q...

Nvidia launched their Tegra Note reference tablet last year , the tablet featured a stylus , front facing speakers , front and rear cameras and of course , Nvidia's flagship Tegra 4 processor , the tablet was sold at a bargain price of $199 and it was adopted as a reference design by HP,Evga ,Micromax and many other smaller OEM's who wanted a off the shelf product , to which they can add their name to . The tablet however didn't sell that many units , but Nvidia hopes that the introduction of their processors in Tablets will make the chipset popular among tablet manufacturers as they are the only capable mobile CPU maker that can take on the expansion of Qualcomm . Nvidia promotes their chipsets as being  "gaming oriented" and this can be attributed to the fact that Nvidia uses its own CUDA and Kepler mobile GPU's in their mobile devices . With the Tegra 4 ending its life cycle , the flagship baton is passed down to the Nvidia K1 , which at the moment ...

Qualcomm has officially unveiled their new 64Bit mobile processors - the Snapdragon 808 and the 810 , The processors lead the new squadron of 64bit processors starting with the low end Snapdragon 410, 610 and 615 , The 808 is the lower spec'ed version of the two processors .The Snapdragon 808 uses 2 Cortex A57 cores and has 4 A53 cores making it a "Hexa-core" processor , The 808 has a new GPU called Adreno 418 , the Adreno 418 GPU puts it 30% ahead of the Adreno 330 found on the Snapdragon 800 but it slips under the Adreno 420 found on the Snapdragon 805 . The 808 has a 64-bit wide LPDDR3-933 interface ,giving it a 1,866MHz data rate and 15GB/s bandwidth , the Chip has a H265/HEVC decoder ISP but it can not encode it .The processor is only rated for a maximum resolution of 2560x1600 . The Snapdragon 808 is scheduled to be launched in the first half of 2015 The other chip launched today was the Snapdragon 810 , the number itself show us that this is the flagship...

Today , Microsoft announced their new API for DirectX 12 , the new version will allow developers better control on their graphics and allow more complex rendering features which will bring better games for consoles like the Xbox One ,Pc's and future mobile devices . Microsoft however , wants the Directx 12 API to exist as a console like API because devs can work with consistency and have better predictability . Direct3D 12 however will spread the work load across multiple cores , lowering the strain on the hardware , according to Microsoft ,40% of existing Directx 11 hardware will be ready for DirectX 12. Chipmakers like Intel were pleased with the anouncement and said that their new 4th Gen Core i7's will support it at launch.Nvidia said that their current Kepler,Fermi and Maxwell architectures will support DirectX 10 , but AMD was not impressed with the presentation . Although Direct3D 12 added efficient resource handling , the presentation did fail to show any ma...

After a lot of speculation and rumors , the Oppo Find 7 is finally official , The phone - or should i say phones because there are 2 versions of the Oppo 7 , will now take over the flagship title from the Oppo Find 5 of last year . The Design of both smartphones follow the traditional Oppo Find 5 styling with a twist of modern elements such as carbon fiber and a eye catching notification light system. First up , we have the Oppo Find 7 QHD This is Oppo's flagship product between the two Oppo's launched today , the phone's QHD name tag comes from its Quad HD (2560x1440p) resolution display of 5.5" which gives a eye popping 534 PPI. The phone , like the top flagship smartphones released this year , is powered by a Snapdragon 801 clocked to 2.5 Ghz . The phone will have 3GB of Ram, 32GB internal storage and a MicroSD card expansion slot providing upto 64GB storage . The camera on the Oppo Find 7 QHD is of a 13 megapixel Sony Exmor RS sensor with Dual-LED f...

Related - Motorola 360 smartwatch LG G Watch Google has gone official with their new project called Android Wear - the latest alliance brings Android to the still untapped market of smartwatches and wearable technology . Although many companies produced in house Android wearables , the platform was never official nor was it very effective because developer tools were virtually non existent and were proprietary . However with the launch of Android Wear , Google has teamed up with HTC , LG,ASUS ,Motorola and Samsung and some lesser known brands like Fossil to create a totally new platform from scratch .The project will also be supported by big microprocessor companies like Intel,Qualcomm,Broadcomm,Mediatek and imagination who will work to produce even smaller microprocessors for future devices. As for now , the project requires the smartwatch to basically sync notifications from any Android app installed on the paired smartphone . The Google smartwatches will also need to work...

Rumors are circulating that smartphone maker HTC plans to show off a new smartwatch at MWC 2014 in Spain next week. The rumors come from a source that claims to be familiar with HTCs plans. This is tipped to be the first of three HTC wearables in the works. The HTC smartwatch is said to be a prototype based on the Qualcomm Toq. HTC will reportedly be showing the watch off to carriers at the show with no plans to show it to the public at this time. Rumors also suggest that HTC will be developing a watch using the Google Now service. The third wearable is rumored to be an electronic bracelet that plays music. The source of the rumor says that the last two smart wearables may not be displayed at the show. HTC has been struggling to compete on the smartphone market as Samsung and Apple command the lion's share of the market for smartphones and tablets. Samsung has its Galaxy Gear smartwatch, which has seen limited success. Apple has been rumored to be working on its own smartwa...

Related articles Snapdragon 805 Snapdragon 802 We mentioned a bit ago that Qualcomm had rolled out a new Snapdragon 802 processor aimed at bringing Ultra HD content to TVs and set top boxes. Qualcomm has also announced its new entry into the hardware space for improving infotainment systems in cars. The new Qualcomm Snapdragon 602A was designed specifically for the automotive market. The Snapdragon 602A is an automotive-grade infotainment chipset that has a quad-core Krait CPU and Adreno 320 GPU. The Snapdragon 602A also features Hexagon DSP, integrated GNSS baseband processing, and additional cores for high performance audio, video, and communications. Qualcomm designed the 602A to meet all the industry standards for temperature, quality, longevity, and reliability. The Snapdragon 602A is also AEC-Q100 compliant. The chip is also pre-integrated with a Gobi 9x15 multimode 3G/4G-LTE and QCA6547 Qualcomm VIVE 2-stream, dual-band 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth LE 4.0 modules. The...

Related articles Snapdragon 805 Snapdragon 602A Qualcomm has made an important announcement today at CES 2014. The company has announced its latest Snapdragon processor called the Snapdragon 802. This processor isn't aimed at tablets and smartphones, rather Qualcomm is aiming the Snapdragon 802 at the next generation of smart TVs, set top boxes, and digital media players. The Snapdragon 802 was designed by Qualcomm to power Ultra HD video content and console quality gaming on smart TVs and other devices like set top boxes. The Snapdragon 802 is also designed to allow concurrent use. That means the 802 will allow users to play an online game while video conferencing or surf the web while streaming a movie. The Snapdragon 802 has enough muscle to allow the playback of up to four HD videos on the same TV. The chip also supports the ability to send some of those HD movies to connected devices. That means that you can watch one HD streaming movie while three other people in the...

Qualcomm has announced today a new generation Snapdragon 805 chipset with better 2.5GHz quad-core processor and 4K graphics. The Snapdragon 805 delivers 4K display support in addition to the 4K video recording support, which was already available on the Snapdragon 800. More interestingly, the new chipset features a brand new Adreno 420 GPU, which has 40% more processing power than the previous generation Adreno 330 chips. The latest Snapdragon 805 chipset also comes with an improved quad-core processor. The cores have a new Krait 450 architecture and have a maximum clock speed of 2.5GHz and memory bandwidth of up to 25.6GB/s. The Krait 450 is still a 32-bit processor, so we guess there is one more generation hardware to pass before Qualcomm outs 64-bit processor cores. Qualcomm has also embedded a completely new modem called Gobi 9x35. It's manufactured on a 20nm process and is smaller, more power efficient, and, of course, faster. It supports LTE Category 4, dual-band WiFi ac a...

According to a September 23 preliminary ITC ruling, HTC is infringing on Nokia’s patents with the One, and its construction. The patent refers to transmission and phone call reception enhancement, and last week, Nokia scored a win against HTC in a US court. The Wall Street Journal quotes people familiar with the matter that claim knowledge of HTC and Qualcomm joint efforts to alter the chip inside the One, in order to prevent an import ban. The ITC will consider the matter in January and, if the preliminary ruling will be still in place, HTC imports (not only for the One) could be banned in the US, unless the Taiwanese phone maker successfully tweaks the chip to stop, together with Qualcomm, the infringement. Pocketnow

The smartwatch era is officially here and Qualcomm has just announced their very own smartwatch to rival the Galaxy Gear, and many others. Wearable computing is only going to grow, and Qualcomm wants to help lead the charge by jumping in early. Today at Qualcomm Uplinq 2013 they’ve announced the Qualcomm TOQ always-on smartwatch. The next wave of mobile devices and experiences is here, and Qualcomm keeps quoting a saying, which is “The Digital 6th sense” where devices where bring a truly immersive experience like never before. One of many devices that will be taking advantage of this initiative is the TOQ watch. Always-on, days of battery life, and more. Yes we said days of battery life, not hours. The exact details and specs aren’t yet known of the Qualcomm TOQ smartwatch, but obviously it will be powered by many of their own technologies. In order to deliver a thin, lightweight, yet efficient display that can promise all day battery life we have a Qualcomm Mirasol display. For tho...

An image of what is reportedly the BlackBerry A10, an upcoming BB 10 smartphone, has been leaked. The photo confirms that the handset will be build around a 5" display. The source claims that the BlackBerry A10, which is codenamed Aristo, will be equipped with a 1,280 x 720 pixel display, like its Z10 predecessor, rather than a full HD screen as available on most recent high-end smartphones. Other BlackBerry A10 we know so far include a Snapdragon chipset with a 1.5 GHz quad-core Krait processor along with 2 GB of RAM and an 8 megapixel primary camera. The design of the BlackBerry A10 looks quite similar to that of the BlackBerry Z10 except that this time the piece at the bottom is colored white, rather than black. BlackBerry A10 will run on BlackBerry 10 OS, but unfortunately, there is no word on the pricing and the launch date of the smartphone.

Sources close to Oppo are reporting that the next Oppo Find model could launch as early as September and will get the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. The Find 5 has been doing extremely well in China and across the globe, and as we expected, work on the next generation phone has already began. According to sources close to Oppo, the new Find model (possibly the Find 6) will feature a Snapdragon 800 CPU and 8 mega-pixel front camera. The rest of the hardware will remain the same as the current Find 5, so 1080 5-inch display, 2GB RAM, NFC and 13 mega-pixel Sony Exmor sensor. The real question here though is this an all new Oppo Find 6 or an updated version of the current Find 5? via - GizChina

One of the most debated Samsung Galaxy S4 stories preceding the official unveiling was the one related to the processor or processors powering the “next big thing”. Some sources told us the S4 was going to come in a single Exynos 5 Octa-based version, others that there will be a Snapdragon 600 model too, while a few even said the Snapdragon variant was going to be the only one. And then Sammy made the 5-incher official, but for some reason decided to keep part of the mystery going. Two GS4 versions were announced, but nothing about the splitting of the world was mentioned, so we were left guessing. Naturally, we thought Sammy would be employing the same strategy used on the S3, meaning North America was to get the Snapdragon GS4, while the rest of the world was in for the Exynos treat. It would have made perfect sense, only it won’t happen that way. Instead, most likely to make sure there won’t be any supply shortages, Samsung will be launching the Qualcomm version in many cou...