This post will however briefly cover the ‘soft’ side of the SOC and three key skills / processes that there seems to be agreement are required for a SOC to be effective and forward looking.

The first of these is understanding the business and business systems in detail and being able to put any event in the context of the business.  Which systems are affected?  Which business processes does this impact?  What is the relative priority?  This means the team needs to understand more than just vulnerability x and y and their generic severity rating.  They must understand your business context and be able to effectively relate events to this.  Tools can also help here in terms of event correlation and scale of the issue, this is where the new breed of ‘big data’ real time analysis and correlation tools such as Splunk, Palantir, or Security Analytics.

The second key skill / process is that of effective incident handling. This must again focus on your specific business and the priorities in case of an event, such as evidence gathering, escalation, keeping services running, regulatory requirements.  The event must be related to these factors with an understanding of it’s impacts to your business.  The more effective and streamlined this process can be, the lower the impact will be when the inevitable issues from virus infections to ful scale breaches occur.

The third key area is around business processes.  Any process that involves users of the companies system will likely be key attack vectors.  Technology can’t ever stop all attacks – this is why social engineering is still the number 1 way any attackers gain a foothold in most environments.  The security team must work with the business to perform threat assessment and modelling sessions to understand the attack vectors and work with the users to minimise or mitigate them.  Solid user training, awareness and engagement will also help here.

Attackers who want to get into your system for whatever reason from financial gain to hacktivism are constantly changing and improving their game.  We need to work hard to keep up and keep them out or at least contained.  A well formed and smoothly functioning SOC that is closely aligned to the business is a key part of any organisations defence.

K

Key features of the update:

• ACES Compatibility for Greater Production Workflow Efficiency (EOS C500/EOS C500 PL)
• Automatic Functions (EOS C300) and New Recording Mode (EOS C300/EOS C300 PL)
• Shifting Display Location during Magnified Focus Assist (EOS C100, EOS C300/EOS C300 PL, EOS C500/EOS C500 PL)

Full Press Release:

MELVILLE, N.Y., April 3, 2013 – Canon U.S.A., Inc. a leader in digital imaging solutions, announced today new firmware and application software upgrades for the Company’s Cinema EOS System lineup of cameras. New ACES compatibility software for the Cinema EOS C500 and Cinema EOS C500 PL Digital Cameras will be available as a free download expected in June 2013. Additional Cinema EOS firmware upgrades, including a new 1,440 x 1,080 pixel recording mode at 35Mbps for the Cinema EOS C300 and Cinema EOS C300 PL Digital Cameras, are expected to be available as free downloads starting in October 2013, all from the www.usa.canon.com.

In response to strong demand from professionals working in the fields of motion picture, commercial and television production, the firmware and application software upgrades will offer enhanced color management efficiency and camera functionality, contributing to improved video production workflow efficiency.

ACES Compatibility for Greater Production Workflow Efficiency (EOS C500/EOS C500 PL)

Cinema EOS C500 and Cinema EOS C500 PL camera users will be able to download a new version of Canon’s Cinema RAW Development Software for working with 4K RAW data. The new version provides support for the Academy Color Encoding System (ACES) color management standard, as defined by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and standardized by the Society of Motion Picture & Television Engineers (SMPTE). Compatibility with ACES helps make efficient workflows possible, enabling color management using a uniform color space – even when handling video captured using multiple cameras with different color characteristics.

Automatic Functions (EOS C300) and New Recording Mode (EOS C300/EOS C300 PL)

A new firmware upgrade for the Cinema EOS C300 Digital Camera adds Push Auto Iris and One-Shot Autofocus (AF), two outstanding automatic functions incorporated in the Cinema EOS C100 Digital Camera (released in November 2012). These functions enable users to automatically adjust lens aperture and focusing through a simple one-touch operation, which can be particularly useful for cinematographers and videographers shooting without the support of an assistant.

In addition, a firmware upgrade for the Cinema EOS C300 and Cinema EOS C300 PL Digital Cameras adds a 1,440 x 1,080 pixel recording mode at 35Mbps, a resolution widely used in terrestrial digital television broadcasting. This new mode will expand the versatility of the XF codec and can be a useful addition for broadcast applications where the reduced bandwidth requires less transmission time while still maintaining a high level of image quality.

Shifting Display Location during Magnified Focus Assist (EOS C100, EOS C300/EOS C300 PL, EOS C500/EOS C500 PL)

Firmware upgrades for the EOS C500 and EOS C500 PL, EOS C300, EOS C300 PL, and EOS C100 Digital Camera models enable the Magnified Focus Assist function’s magnified view area within the viewfinder and LCD monitor to be shifted to locations other than the center of the screen, allowing users to confirm focus across the entire display area.

About ACES

Professionals in the cinema, television and other high-quality digital production industries commonly make use of multiple cameras when shooting video. As these cameras employ different sensors, each offers varying color characteristics. In addition, users can select from a diverse range of camera settings during image capture, such as aperture, focus position, frame rate and recording format, and because of this, images shot for a single scene can produce different results in terms of color and gradation, depending on the camera used.

Furthermore, when inputting, editing and outputting video, professionals may use various displays, each with its own color space, resulting in differences in how colors appear depending on the device used, even when viewing the same footage. For example, the viewfinder of a camera used during filming, the PC display used to edit the images, and the projector or television for viewing the video each offer varying color characteristics, causing the colors in the video to appear differently.

Therefore, color management takes a great deal of time and effort to correct for camera- and display monitor-related color differences.

ACES is a color management architecture developed by AMPAS, and standardized by SMPTE, that aims to improve efficiency among complex color management workflows by delivering uniform color expression through a standardized color space used during the video production workflow. Through compatibility with ACES, video captured using different cameras and settings can be aligned with the ACES color space, which offers a wide color range and high dynamic range. ACES provides an archive-ready file format, and also delivers high workflow efficiency by allowing users to confirm images with the same appearance even when using display devices with varying color characteristics during input and output.

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- 3x performance of 2012 superphones
- 64-bit support for future consumer apps + current and future enterprise apps
- Scalable beyond 16 cores

…

First Cortex-A50 series chips available from 2014

Update: TSMC 16nm FinFET to enter mass production within one year after 20nm ramp-up, says Chang [DIGITIMES, April 18, 2013]

TSMC’s 16nm FinFET process will enter mass production in less than one year after ramping up production of 20nm chips, company chairman and CEO Morris Chang said at an investors meeting today (April 18).

Chang indicated that TSMC already moved its 20nm process to risk production in the first quarter of 2013. As for 16nm FinFET, the node will be ready for risk production by the year-end, Chang said.

While stepping up efforts to bring newer nodes online, TSMC has revised upward its 2013 capex to US$9.5-10 billion. The foundry previously set capex for the year at US$9 billion.

In addition, Chang reiterated his previous remark that production of TSMC’s 28nm wafers and revenues generated from the process in 2013 will triple those of 2012. The node technology will continue to play the major driver of TSMC’s revenue growth in 2013, said Chang, adding that the foundry’s share of the 28nm foundry market will remain high this year.

Nandan Nayampally highlights the ARM® Cortex™-A57 processor [ARMflix YouTube channel, Oct 30, 2012]

Introductory information: ARM information page [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 5, 2013]

TSMC?

TSMC reports big Q4 net profit jump [Formosa EnglishNews YouTube channel, Jan 18, 2013]

Morris Chang with Jen-Hsun Huang [ComputerHistory YouTube channel, Nov 15, 2007]

Important note: The video was recorded in 2007, so an important addition has to be given in a preceding note from Morris Chang Wikipedia article:

… In 2005, he handed TSMC’s CEO position to Rick Tsai.

As of June 2009, Chang has returned to the position of TSMC‘s CEO once again [because things were not going well]. …

The essence of TSMC’s contract chip manufacturing operation, as it stands now, can be summarized by this diagram (more information around that is in the excepts included towards the end of this post from TSMC’s Annual Report released on April 2, 2013):

And here is another essential introductory information about TSMC:
TSMC OIP [Open Innovation Platform] 2012 – Sit down with Suk Lee, TSMC [chipestimate YouTube channel, Oct 26, 2012]

Investing in FinFET Technology Leadership Presented by ARM [ARMflix YouTube channel, Nov 12, 2012]

Background information:
- The future of the semiconductor IP ecosystem [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Dec 13, 2012]
- ARM information page [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 5, 2013]

Next-generation Solutions: One Size does not Fit All by Nandan Nayampally, Director of Apps Processor Products, Processor Division, ARM [ARMflix YouTube channel, Jan 3, 2013]

ARM TechCon 2012 – Simon Segars Keynote launching the Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 processors [ARMflix YouTube channel, Oct 30, 2012]

Background information:
- ARM information page [‘Experiencing the Cloud’, Feb 5, 2013]
- Cortex-A57 Processor [ARM microsite, Oct 30, 2012]
- ARM Cortex-A57 – So Big is Relative but How Relative is Your Big? [SoC Design blog of ARM, Oct 30, 2012]
- ARM TechCon 2012 Day 1 – Cortex-A50 Launch, Panel Discussion and Busy Sessions [ARM Events blog, Oct 31, 2012]
- big.LITTLE in 64-bit [SoC Design blog of ARM, Nov 1, 2012]
- Cortex-A57 – Connected Community – ARM [ARM community page, Nov 12, 2012]

Finally here is the press release describing the news summarized by me in the headline of this post as “With 28nm non-exclusive in 2013 TSMC tested first tape-out of an ARM Cortex™-A57 processor on 16nm FinFET process technology”:

ARM and TSMC Tape Out First ARM Cortex-A57 Processor [joint press release, April 2, 2013]

Hsinchu, Taiwan and Cambridge, UK – April 2, 2013 – ARM and TSMC (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today announced the first tape-out of an ARM® Cortex™-A57 processor on FinFET process technology. The Cortex-A57 processor is ARM’s highest performing processor, designed to further extend the capabilities of future mobile and enterprise computing, including compute intensive applications such as high-end computer, tablet and server products. This is the first milestone in the collaboration between ARM and TSMC to jointly optimize the 64-bit ARMv8 processor series on TSMC FinFET process technologies. The two companies cooperated in the implementation from RTL to tape-out in six months using ARM Artisan® physical IP, TSMC memory macros, and EDA technologies enabled by TSMC’s Open Innovation Platform® (OIP) design ecosystem.

ARM and TSMC’s collaboration produces optimized, power-efficient Cortex-A57 processors and libraries to support early customer implementations on 16nm FinFET for high-performance, ARM technology-based SoCs.

“This first ARM Cortex-A57 processor implementation paves the way for our mutual customers to leverage the performance and power efficiency of 16nm FinFET technology,” said Tom Cronk, executive vice president and general manager, Processor Division, ARM. “The joint effort of ARM, TSMC, and TSMC’s OIP design ecosystem partners demonstrates the strong commitment to provide industry-leading technology for customer designs to benefit from our latest 64-bit ARMv8 architecture, big.LITTLE™ processing and ARM POP™ IP across a wide variety of market segments.”

“Our multi-year, multi-node collaboration with ARM continues to deliver advanced technologies to enable market-leading SoCs across mobile, server, and enterprise infrastructure applications,” said Dr. Cliff Hou, TSMC Vice President of R&D. “This achievement demonstrates that the next-generation ARMv8 processor is FinFET-ready for TSMC’s advanced technology.”

This announcement highlights the enhanced and intensified collaboration between ARM and TSMC. The test chip was implemented using a commercially available 16nm FinFET tool chain and design services provided by the OIP ecosystem and ARM Connected Community partners. This successful collaborative milestone is confirmation of the roles that TSMC’s OIP and ARM’s Connected Community play in promoting innovation for the semiconductor design industry.

About ARM

ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM’s comprehensive product offering includes RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, video engines, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and the company’s broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. Find out more about ARM by following these links:

• ARM website: http://www.arm.com/

• ARM Connected Community: http://www.arm.com/community/

• ARM Blogs: http://blogs.arm.com/

• ARMFlix on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/ARMflix

ARM on Twitter:

• http://twitter.com/ARMMobile

• http://twitter.com/ARMCommunity

• http://twitter.com/ARMEmbedded

• http://twitter.com/ARMLowPwr

• http://twitter.com/KeilTools

• http://twitter.com/ARMMultimedia

About TSMC

TSMC is the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industry’s leading process technology and the foundry’s largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IPs, design tools and reference flows. The Company’s managed capacity in 2012 totaled 15.1 million (8-inch equivalent) wafers, including capacity from three advanced 12-inch GIGAFAB™ facilities, four eight-inch fabs, one six-inch fab, as well as TSMC’s wholly owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC China, and its joint venture fab, SSMC. TSMC is the first foundry to provide 28nm production capabilities. TSMC’s corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC please visit http://www.tsmc.com.

# # #

Form 20-F Filings with U.S. SEC (4/2/2013) for Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC 台積公司) [TSMC, April 2, 2013]

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2012

…

… Over the years, our customer profile and the nature of our customers’ business have changed dramatically. While we generate revenue from hundreds of customers worldwide, our ten largest customers accounted for approximately 54%, 56% and 59% of our net sales in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively. Our largest customer accounted for 9%, 14% and 17% of our net sales in 2010, 2011 and 2012, respectively. …

… We believe we are currently the world’s largest dedicated foundry in the semiconductor industry. We were founded in 1987 as a joint venture among the R.O.C. government and other private investors and were incorporated in the R.O.C. on February 21, 1987. …

…

As a foundry, we manufacture semiconductors using our manufacturing processes for our customers based on their own or third parties’ proprietary integrated circuit designs. We offer a comprehensive range of wafer fabrication processes, including processes to manufacture CMOS logic, mixed-signal, radio frequency, embedded memory, BiCMOS mixed-signal and other semiconductors. We estimate that our revenue market segment share among total foundries worldwide was 45% in 2012. We also offer design, mask making, bumping, probing, assembly and testing services.

We believe that our large capacity, particularly for advanced technologies, is a major competitive advantage. Please see “— Manufacturing Capacity and Technology” and “— Capacity Management and Technology Upgrade Plans” for a further discussion of ourcapacity.

We count among our customers many of the world’s leading semiconductor companies, ranging from fabless semiconductor and system companies such as Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Altera Corporation, Broadcom Corporation, Marvell Semiconductor Inc., MediaTek Inc., NVIDIA Corporation, OmniVision Technologies and Qualcomm Incorporated, to integrated device manufacturers such as LSI Corporation, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments Inc. Fabless semiconductor and system companies accounted for approximately 85%, and integrated device manufacturers accounted for approximately 15% of our net sales in 2012.

…

We manufacture semiconductors on silicon wafers based on proprietary circuitry designs provided by our customers or third party designers. Two key factors that characterize a foundry’s manufacturing capabilities are output capacity and fabrication process technologies. Since our establishment, we have possessed the largest capacity among the world’s dedicated foundries. We also believe that we are the technology leader among the dedicated foundries in terms of our net sales of advanced semiconductors with a resolution of 65-nanometer and below, and are one of the leaders in the semiconductor manufacturing industry generally. We are the first semiconductor foundry with proven low-k interconnect technology in commercial production from the 0.13 micron node down to 28-nanometer node. Following our commercial production based on 65-nanometer process technology in 2006, we also unveiled 55-nanometer process technology in 2007. Our 65-nanometer and 55-nanometer technologies are the third-generation proprietary processes that employ low-k dielectrics. In 2008, we also qualified our 45-nanometer and 40-nanometer process technologies with ultra low-k dielectrics and advanced immersion lithography. In the fourth quarter of 2011, we have begun volume production of 28-nanometer products with first-generation high-k/metal gate transistor. In 2012, we continued 20-nanometer technology development to provide migration path from 28-nanometer for both performance driven products and mobile computing applications.

…

Our capital expenditures in 2010, 2011 and 2012 were NT$186,944 million, NT$213,963 million and NT$246,137 million (US$8,322 million, translated from a weighted average exchange rate of NT$29.577 to US$1.00), respectively. Our capital expenditures in 2013 are expected to be approximately US$9 billion, which, depending on market conditions, may be adjusted later. Prior to 2012, our capital expenditures were funded by our operating cash flow. Starting 2012, our capital expenditures were partially funded by the issuance of corporate bonds. The capital expenditures for 2013 are also expected to be funded in similar ways as in 2012. In 2013, we anticipate our capital expenditures to focus primarily on the following:

• adding production capacity to our 300mm wafer fabs;
  
• developing new process technologies in 20-nanometer, and 16-nanometer nodes;
• expanding buildings/facilities for Fab 12, Fab 14 and Fab 15;
• other research and development projects;
• capacity expansion for mask and backend operations; and
• solar and solid state lighting businesses.

…

… We plan to continue to invest significant amounts on research and development in 2013, with the goal of maintaining a leading position in the development of advanced process technologies. Our research and development efforts have allowed us to provide our customers access to certain advanced process technologies, such as 65-nanometer, 55-nanometer, 45-nanometer, 40-nanometer and 28-nanometer technology for volume production, prior to the implementation of those advanced process technologies by many integrated device manufacturers and our competitors. In addition, we expect to advance our process technologies further down to 20/16-nanometer and below in the coming years to maintain our technology leadership. We will also continue to invest in research and development for our mainstream technologies offerings to provide function-rich process capabilities to our customers.

…

We manufacture a variety of semiconductors based on designs provided by our customers. Our business model is commonly called a “dedicated semiconductor foundry.” The foundry segment of the semiconductor industry as a whole experienced rapid growth over the last 26 years since our inception. As the leader of the foundry segment of the semiconductor industry, our net sales and net income were NT$419,538 million and NT$161,605 million in 2010, NT$427,081 million and NT$134,201 million in 2011, and NT$506,249 million (US$17,427 million) and NT$166,159 million (US$5,720 million) in 2012, respectively. The sales in 2011 increased slightly by 1.8% from 2010, mainly due to growth in customer demand and more favorable product mix, partially offset by the effect of U.S. dollar depreciation. Our sales in 2012 increased by 18.5% from 2011, mainly due to continuous growth in customer demand and increase in sales of our 28-nanometer products, which commanded a higher selling price.

…

Technology Migration.

Our operations utilize a variety of process technologies, ranging from mainstream process technologies of 0.5 micron or above circuit resolutions to advanced process technologies of 28-nanometer circuit resolutions. The table below presents a breakdown of wafer sales by circuit resolution during the last three years:

Percentage of total wafer revenue ⁽¹⁾ for the year ended December 31

Resolution	2010	2011	2012
28-nanometer	-	1%	12%
40/45-nanometer	17%	26%	27%
65-nanometer	29%	29%	23%
90-nanometer	14%	9%	9%
0.11/0.13 micron	12%	8%	6%
0.15 micron	4%	6%	4%
0.18 micron	13%	12%	11%
0.25 micron	4%	4%	4%
0.35 micron	4%	3%	2%
≥0.5 micron	3%	2%	2%
Total	100%	100%	100%

⁽¹⁾ Percentages represent wafer revenue by technology as a percentage of total revenue from wafer sales, which exclude revenue associated with design, mask making, probing, and testing and assembly services. Total wafer revenue excludes sales returns and allowances.

…

Our gross margin fluctuates with the level of capacity utilization, price change and product mix, among other factors. In 2012, our gross margin increased to 48.1% of net sales from 45.4% of net sales in 2011. The higher margin in 2012 was primarily due to higher capacity utilization and cost reductions, which contributed favorably to our gross margin by 5.5 and 2.8 percentage points, respectively, partially offset by price decline and higher portion of wafer sales in 28-nanometer technology bearing lower than corporate average margins at initial production stage, which negatively impacted our gross margin by 5.3 percentage points.

…

… Research and development expenditures increased by NT$6,572 million in 2012, or 19.4%, from 2011, mainly due to a higher level of research activities for 20-nanometer technologies and higher employee profit sharing expenses and bonus. In 2011, research and development expenditures increased by NT$4,123 million, or 13.9%, from 2010, mainly due to higher spending in developing 20-nanometer technology, partially offset by lower employee profit sharing expenses and bonus. We plan to continue to invest significant amounts in research and development in 2013.

…

Capital expenditures in 2012 were primarily related to:

• adding production capacity to 300mm wafer fabs;
• developing process technologies including 20-nanometer node and below;
• expanding buildings/facilities for Fab 12, Fab 14 and Fab 15;
• other research and development projects;
• capacity expansion for mask and backend operations; and
• solar and solid state lighting businesses

…

Employees

The following table sets out, as of the dates indicated, the number of our full-time employees serving in the capacities indicated.

As of December 31

Function	2010	2011(1)	2012(1)
Managers	3,142	3,601	3,865
Professionals	12,729	13,665	15,844
Assistant Engineers/Clericals	2,650	2,796	3,079
Technicians	14,711	15,395	16,479
Total	33,232	35,457	39,267

The following table sets out, as of the dates indicated, a breakdown of the number of our full-time employees by geographic location:

Location of Facility and Principal Offices as of December 31

	2010	2011(1)	2012(1)
Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan	20,703	20,107	21,534
Southern Taiwan Science Park, Taiwan	9,158	9,041	8,964
Central Taiwan Science Park, Taiwan	29	1,410	3,558
Taoyuan County, Taiwan	-	1,333	1,378
China	1,903	2,134	2,353
North America	1,355	1,343	1,395
Europe	48	53	50
Japan	32	32	32
Korea	4	4	3
Total	33,232	35,457	39,267

⁽¹⁾ Including employees of our non-wholly owned subsidiaries, Xintec Inc. and Mutual-Pak Technology Co., Ltd., since 2011.

As of December 31, 2012, our total employee population was 39,267 with an educational makeup of 3.6% Ph.Ds, 34.4% masters, 25.9% university bachelors, 12.8% college degrees and 23.3% others. Among this employee population, 50.2% were at a managerial or professional level. …

…

Major Shareholders

The following table sets forth certain information as of February 28, 2013, with respect to our common shares owned by (i) each person who, according to our records, beneficially owned five percent or more of our common shares and by (ii) all directors and executive officers as a group.

Names of Shareholders	Number of Common Shares Owned	Percentage of Total Outstanding Common Shares
National Development Fund	1,653,709,980	6.38%
Capital World Investors	1,488,857,477	5.74%
Directors and executive officers as a group	291,940,745	1.13%

I have been abused long enough. I am literally being abused and tormented and out right tortured by the mental health system. My life is being shortened by having this testosterone I do not desire and am being forced to live in a body that I do not identify as.

I have my endo appointment on the 25th of the month and on the 9th of the month I see my 3rd mental health doctor in 4 months. They can’t keep doctors and I restart from scratch with each one.

I will walk out of my endo with a prescription for HRT or I will order them online that night and self medicate.

Filmtools will be at NAB again this year to give you exclusive coverage of the show – new products and information, as well as interviews with industry leaders. Videos will be uploaded constantly during each day of the show, moments after capturing each interview and/or product demo. You’ll be able to watch all the exciting news and information from companies like Canon, TV Logic, Zeiss, Manfrotto, and so many more.

Stay tuned for event coverage daily throughout the week as Filmtools visits different booths on the show floor, starting April 8th! See you there!

Check us out online at www.Filmtools.com or stop by our brick and mortar location in Burbank, CA for all of your expendables and film equipment needs!

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Continue to get 0% financing on your new Canon Cinema EOS C300/C300 PL, C500/C500 PL, and select Lenses for 24 months!

As a helpful reminder, Canon’s instant rebate for the Canon Cinema EOS C300 & C300 PL cameras runs through April 30th, 2013. This brings the cost of the camera down to $13,999 to you, the customer!

Also, don’t forget about the new EOS C300 firmware update!

Canon Cameras and Accessories are available at Filmtools in Burbank, CA and online at www.Filmtools.com. Call us up, stop by, or drop us an e-mail and ask about the Canon Cinema EOS line of products and you can benefit from this great deal from Canon!

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Make sure to check us out online at www.Filmtools.com or stop by our brick and mortar location in Burbank, CA for all of your expendables and film equipment needs!

If it turns out that chemical weapons were in fact used, that would certainly represent a tactical escalation, but it is difficult to see how it changes the fundamental dynamics on the ground. Dying from mustard gas in Aleppo is horrible, but so is being blasted apart by mortars outside Damascus. One of the many American interests in the conflict surely is to minimize the civilian death toll, but with 70,000 already slain — debating the weapons that are used is a conversation about tools, not lives. In the medium term, American interests center on constraining Iranian influence, ensuring that Syria does not become a breeding and training ground for terrorists, minimizing the spread of regional instability, and guarding against the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons. These are the yardsticks that must guide U.S. action, not arbitrary red-lines.

Securing Syria’s chemical weapons is not simply a matter of a few surgical air strikes. The regime still maintains a significant anti-air capability and the Pentagon concludes that an operation with any chance success would involve up to 75,000 American troops. Those forces would not be limited to the liberated areas in the North, they would have to push into the heart of regime-controlled territory to access major storage facilities in Damascus and Homs. Policymakers need to be realistic and ask themselves if they are prepared to make that kind of commitment and honestly evaluate whether that type of invasion would increase or decrease the likelihood of securing the full-range of U.S. interests.

Staggering military might, however, is not the only tool at the president’s disposal. Working with international partners to prepare for a post-regime future is an area where the U.S. can actually leverage a significant value-add and do so with a much smaller footprint. The Supreme Military Command needs to be further unified and its various groups need to practice operating under a cogent institutional framework. This is not only critical to achieving tactical successes against the Syrian Army, but also essential for building the habits and mechanics of trust that will be needed for a successful new government.

It is often said that there is not one revolution in Syria, but dozens. What is unifying the rebel groups at the moment is a common enemy, but once the regime falls, scores of groups with very different ideologies and very different visions of a free Syria will emerge in a country awash with weapons and devoid of civil and security infrastructure. The only hope for avoiding a series of multi-fronted civil wars is for the new government to quickly stand up credible institutions that can rein in the extremists and mediate these fundamental disputes in non-violent ways.

The U.S. can help encourage this process now by working with international partners like Turkey, Qatar, and Jordan to centralize the flow of military and non-military aid into the country. Currently the various rebel groups maintain largely proprietary support channels which fuels divisions and makes unifying command and control very difficult. Many components of the Free Syrian Army are already coordinating action in northern Syria, but that cooperation needs to be enhanced through formal structures that have a chance of outliving the present conflict. Resources are power and the international community needs to invest in developing an inclusive platform that can control and disseminate resources in non-political ways, engaging the Aid Coordination Unit of the Syrian Opposition Coalition as well as the Supreme Military Command, and local civilian councils. If there is a red-line in Syria, it should be related to attaining that goal.

This essay was originally published by PolicyMic

When Samsung’s Exynos 5 Octa was announced, it was believed to be compatible with 3G networks only. As such, the HSPA+ (global) version of the Galaxy S 4 was the only handset to feature the company’s eight-core SoC — the LTE model shipping with Qualcomm’s 4G-capable, quad-core Snapdragon 600 instead. That’s apparently changed, with the Korean giant tweeting that the Exynos 5 Octa now supports LTE on 20 bands. So why even make a Snapdragon 600 version of the Galaxy S 4, then? Perhaps Samsung can’t produce as many chips as Qualcomm to meet the upcoming worldwide demand for its new flagship. This appears likely, with inews24 and new-samsunggalaxys4 reporting that the Exynos 5 Octa with LTE is currently reserved for Korean models only (SHV-E300S, SHV-E300K and SHV-E300L, to be exact).

Source: SamsungExynos (Twitter), inews24 (translated), new-samsunggalaxys4

Over 5 years of working within the system and having been full time for over a year. I swear on my life. I will walk out of my Endo’s appointment on 4/25 with a prescription or I will order online and self medicate. I know the risks. I researched it. I will risk it to be me.

I do not need pity or sympathy. I do not need someone who says they understand.  I need someone that says, “I see that you have tried and even lived full time while applying for work for over a year. Here is your letter. Lets get you going and healthy and monitor you.”

Note that Giada until recently was operating on the international market in the Intel-AMD-Microsoft space only as its first ARM-based products were introduced only at CES 2013.

it168.com (one of the top 1000 sites in the world) compared the new Allwinner A31 based Giada I980 tablet with Samsung Exynos 4412 (1.2-1.6 GHz Cortex-A9 based quad-core with Mali-400 MP4), NVIDIA Tegra 3 (T30L: (1.2-1.3 GHz Cortex-A9 based quad-core with 416 MHz ULP GeForce), and Rockchip RK3066 (up to 1.6GHz Cortex-A9 dual-core with Mali-400 MP4) based tablets.

The results in relative terms were quite impressive which could indeed provide great opportunity for Giada’s global expansion in 2013:

Notes:
- Samsung Exynos 4412 is used in some version of Samsung Galaxy S III, Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1,Samsung Galaxy Camera, Lenovo K860, Newman N2, Ramos W30HD , Meizu MX 4-Core, and Samsung Galaxy Note II
- NVIDIA Tegra 3 T30L version is used in Asus Transformer Pad TF300T, Microsoft Surface, Nexus 7, Sony Xperia Tablet S, Acer Iconia Tab A210, Lenovo IdeaTab A2109, Toshiba AT300 (Excite 10)
- Rockchip RK3066 is used in Teclast P76e Dual-core, Teclast P76t, Teclast P98, Teclast P85, Window (YuanDao) N70S, Window (YuanDao) N101, Cube U9GT3, Cube U9GT4, Cube U21GT ,PIPO S2, Cube U30GT, Cube U9GT V, Cube U18GT Elite Dual Core, CHUWI V8 Dual-core, CHUWI V99, Aoson M11, Pipo S1, Ployer Momo8, Ployer Momo11, Ployer Momo12 etc.

Giada [杰拓] I980 (Extreme quad-core version)

This tablet has essentially the same parameters and price as the pioneering Onda V972:
- List price: ¥ 1299 [$209]
- Retail price: ¥ 1247 [$201]
Source: http://detail.zol.com.cn/345/344976/price.shtml
- Screen: 9.7 inch capacitive touch
- Resolution: 2048×1536 [Retina]
- System Memory: 2GB
- Storage capacity: 16GB Flash flash drive
- Camera: dual cameras (front: 2MP, rear: 5MP)
- Time to market: March 2013
source: http://detail.zol.com.cn/mid/index344976.shtml

Giada [杰拓] I980 true quad-core data speak [it168.com, March 12, 2013]

[IT168 Information] Recently a number of media have erupted in: the New Year 2013 most anticipated high standard quad-core tablet – the Giada 杰拓 I980 detonated following the tablet market primary trends, all businesess are into the hot state tablet upstart.

Quad-Core, listen to it too much, you will be bored. Therefore we will take a look directly at the 12 core Giada 杰拓 I980, where is the strength in the end?

Giada I980

Giada 杰拓 I980 is reaching Seiko-perfect  shape, alloy integration of the back cover and high gloss tablet screen interface, impressive at first glance. But what makes your heart beat is the perfect integration of the strong quad-core CPU and the eight-core super image processing GPU. It is based on the quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 Allwinner processing chip, how strong is its processing performance?

Giada I980

As can be seen from the figure, the Giada 杰拓 I980 equipped with the Allwinner A31 chip (1GHz clock speed) in the AnTuTu V3.0.3 versions of the multiple test scores had about 13,000, just similar to the Tegra3 with 1.3GHz peak frequency from the score point of view, stronger than any Cortex-A9 dual-core chips solutions.

Graphics processing capabilities are extremely important for electronic products. So, what about the performance of the eight-core super image processing of Giada 杰拓 I980?

Giada 杰拓 I980 graphics performance by GLBenchmark2.1.5 and  with Nenamark2 show for everyone, contrast-chip solution for the resolution of 1280 × 800 test results.

Giada 杰拓 I980 graphics processing performance by GLBenchmark2.1.5 and and with Nenamark2 will show you the comparison of chip solutions for the 1280×800 resolution.

Giada I980

Giada I980

By comparing the above data we can see that the graphics processing performance of the Allwinner A31 chip, equipped and driven with SGX544 MP2, is excellent, the test result of Mali400 MP4 GPU, used in the Samsung Orion version at a high-frequency, is similar, and markedly better than the ULP Geforce GPU on Tegra3.

Having such an excellent 12-core blossoms to complete a variety of games, video processing, a pure zero wait is to own own and experience. You no longer have to endure a hardware being heavy and uncomfortable.For the Giada 杰拓 I980, the core is more than the heart.

Vendor information (currently in Chinese only):

Giada [杰拓] I980 quad-core version [March 6, 2013]

Vendor Background

The Leading Cloud Computing Equipment Supplier-Mini PC / Tablet

The foundation of JEHE (Dongguan) Technology Park

A new milestone of JEHE Group

On June 28, 2012   the foundation ceremony was launched for JEHE (Dongguan) Technology Park in an area of hundreds of acres and located in Leyuan industrial park, Xiegang Town, Dongguan City. It is regarded as a key construction project in Dongguan in 2012. Government officials and JEHE leaders together with more than hundred of JEHE’s staff representatives attended the ceremony and witnessed the great moment in the development history of JEHE Group- A new milestone, which marked JEHE’s great achievement during the process of expanding its operating system and scale and also signified JEHE’s bright future

JEHE’s staff representatives in the ceremony

JEHE Group, founded in 1999, has already been developed to be a high-tech computer accessory enterprise with powerful R&D capability and rich production experience. Now JEHE Group has the brands: Giada (杰拓), SL and Yueson, and provides OEM/ODM production and solutions for Motherboard, Graphics card and Mini PC to companies and individuals from home and abroad. Cooperated with world-class IT companies: Intel, NVIDIA and AMD,  JEHE Group has been striving to create brand new standards for tablet and Mini PC in the industry.

The blueprint of JEHE (Dongguan) Technology Park

JEHE（Dongguan）Technology Park is located in Leyuan industrial park, Xiegang Town, Dongguan city with an area of 200 acres (up to 130,000sqm) and investment of 600 million at the first phase. JEHE Group aims to establish a professional and systematical large technology park in order to further expand JEHE’s operating system and scales. Once the new base is established, which means a lot to drive Dongguan economic development while taking full advantage of JEHE’s resource and capital available.

Mr.Lin Kunjie, CEO of JEHE Group, addressed the ceremony

Mr.Lin Kunjie, CEO of JEHE Group, said: “The future JEHE will be continually committed to R&D and sales but also strive to establish advanced and high quality enterprise culture with the support and effort of all JEHE people and the success will be beyond the hundred acre park”

The foundation stone laying ceremony

witnessed by Municipal officials and JEHE’s staff representatives

Hu Yifeng, deputy secretary and mayor of Xiegang town, also said: “JEHE Technology Park is regarded as the key construction project in 2012 in Dongguan and will infuse vigor into Xiegang’s economic development  after completed and contribute to the industrial transformation and upgrading. All people in Xiegang sincerely hope its successful completion and wish JEHE’s better and brighter development in the future.

In the celebration of gongs and drums, the foundation ceremony was commenced in the best wishes of Mr.Chen Wenshen of Dongguan city deputy director, Mr.Lin Kunjie of JEHE’s CEO and JEHE’s staff representatives and announced the beginning of JEHE’s new journey.

See also: Group Profile in Chinese of the Shenzhen JIEHE Technology Development Co., Ltd (深圳市杰和科技发展有限公司 版权所有)

JEHE Giada (杰拓) Company Profile for CeBit 2012 [Jan 9, 2012]

Company At A Glance

• GIADA: A brand under Shenzhen JIEHE Technology Development Co., Ltd
• The first NVIDIA AIC partner in mainland China
• The Top 3 Best Seller in China mainland since 2003
• A leading manufacture in China concentrating on stylish mini PC, All-in-one PC, motherboard and VGA card
• Over 1000 employees, more then 150 R&D engineers
• 30 sales offices in China, 1 logistic center in HK, partners over the world

R&D

• Increase resources into R&D, and have built up an experienced team over 150 engineers and focus on Innovation
• Closely follow the guidance of core partners to develop more competitive products

Manufacturing

• Total 10,000 sqm manufacturing /storage area. More than 700 assemblers
• 400K VGA card & Mainboard and 100K mini PC per month productivity
• Sound manufacturing process control & quality control system,
• ISO9001/14000 complied control
• All products complied with RoHS CE, FCC, UL certificate

New Industrial Park in Dongguang is under construction

• Total 50,000 sqm manufacturing /storage area and 10,000 sqm office for R&D
• New assemblers recruitment will be more than 2000
• Total 60 Product Lines , Productivity for System (mini PC, AIO & Tablet over 400K PCs/M)
• (Phase I : 30 Production Lines ready in 2012)
• (Phase II : 60 Production Lines ready in 2013)

Marketing

• Concentrated on brand promotion—-GIADA
• Develop distribution channel and provide marketing support

Service

• Global Warranty and technical service
• RMA center in HK

About Giada [杰拓]

 

GiadaTechnology is the leading cloud computing equipment supplier. The brand name “Giada” is derived from the Italian meaning “Jade”, which symbolizes the quality and style of each and every product that Giada produces in its state of the art manufacturing facility. With a strong R & D division and product knowledge, Giada has established itself as a leading manufacturer in performance, creativity and design.

“Enrich and improve today’s life style of living and become one of the world’s leading brands in the technology business. We aim to deliver on our promise based on the advantages of our exceptional innovation, quality and style.” says KJ Lin, Giada’s CEO.

The new Giada’s Mini PC will focus on the consumer’s computing needs and versatility in today’s modern world. The high-performance, quiet and eco-friendly (approx. 30W) system is excellent for business and commercial applications (digital signage, healthcare industry, office, and school systems).In addition, Giada’s Mini PC is an idea space-saver for home entertainment systems (blue-ray 2.0 and 1080p) and at home offices.  Giada has produced an assortment of product lines, including a slim system that provides the best solution for a variety of applications for customers and industries. The creation of a mini pc that weights approximately five pounds has revolutionalized the computer industry standards.

Giada other attributes includes numerous recognitions and awards for its continuing commitment and support to meet the highest consumer and environmental standards in the industry. Giada complies with ISO9001/14000 specifications and meets ROHS CE, FCC and UL certifications. Giada leads the industry with key technology for products that excel in terms of intelligent thermal management, graphics performance, materials and environmental protection.

The name “Giada” will mean a commitment to quality, value, fashion, simplicity & high performance. Based on years of experience, Giada looks forward in becoming one of the fastest growing and leading brands in the world.

Giada TECHNOLOGY’S SNEAK PREVIEW FOR CES 2013 [Dec 20, 2012]

Witness Giada Technology Bring Their Full Stylish Giada Mini PC Line-ups and New Tablet To CES 2013
Show you the best customer experience in cloud computing

Giada Technology, the globally known manufacturer of mini pc and tablets is going to take part in the annual exhibition Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2013 to exhibit their innovative products with new technologies and applications such as Digital Signage and medical system for cloud computing.

A little more will be coming onto the table at CES with something more special bringing innovation in the tablet market. “‘Style Meets Performance’ is our new company slogan and we always work to be innovative in a stylish way.” said Eric Chang, Giada’s US General Manager. “We’ve come up with something to show our fans next year at the show and we are very excited.”

Giada’s Mini PCs, because of their elegant compact design, is the favorite choice among consumers and business that don’t want to compromise features and performance for the sake of size. Thanks to their stylishly small form-factor and quiet operation, Giada’sMini PCs are ideal for small spaces and quiet environments including home theater use, smaller homes/apartments, and office/home office use will also be presented at the CES.

Product Highlight and Booth

Contact us directly for information regarding products scheduled to be unveiled at the show.

Booth: Las Vegas Convention Center / South Hall 4 / 35275

Giada D2305 –Powerful Entertainment Center

The ultimate home theater PC. Featuring 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i5 processor, Full HD, 7.1 channel, 500GB HDD, Bluetooth® audio, and a Blu-ray Disc™ drive option. Stream videos effortlessly onto your big screen with this stylish device.

Giada i53–High Performance Mini PC in a Small Package
Proof that good thing really does come in small packages. Smaller than a typical hardcover book, the stylish i53 is packing impressive performance – 3rd generation Intel® Core™ i5 processor, Full HD 1080p, choice of a 2.5” HDD or an SSD, Bluetooth audio, and a full compliments of I/O ports.
New Barebone PC systems will be showcased at the Giada’s booth. These systems are based on Intel Atom D2500 and 3rd generation Intel Core i5 and are designed to allow a custom assembly of desktop with user defined system parameters.

Giada F102D- Silent Performer with Fanless Design
A unique line of absolutely silent desktop systems Giada Fanless with fanless cooling and metallic chassis is represented with the F102D based on NM10 chip and Intel N2600 with TDP of only 3.5 W. The system is equipped with all necessary interfaces and thanks to its compact size of only 190x149x26 mm will have the minimum footprint on your office or home desk.

Giada ARM base mini pc Q11- The Best Solution for Android OS mini pc [see: Giada Q11 [Jan 30, 2013]]
The company will also demonstrate a desktop system Q11 which represents the line of new ARM based products. This device boasts ultra-thin fanless case with metallic chassis. The system is built on a 1.0 GHz Allwins[ner] A10 chip (ARM Cortex A8 platform) with a new graphics core Manli 400 MP4 with support for Open GL ES2.0 specification. The device is equipped with 8GB flash memory, 1GB of DDR3 RAM, 2.5” drive and integrated Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It also allows for optional installation of a 3G module. With support for Android 4.0 operating system and a double channel LVDS interface this system ideal for building TV-consoles for home, office and hotels, smart TV systems and broadband consoles.

Giada Barebone D300- More Easy installed for industry application
The focal point of Giada’s showcase is a multifunctional barebone system D300 based on the JC186 chassis. The D300 can boast with small size – only 236x182x50 mm – and is based on a hybrid module Socket rPGA-989, equipped with SO-DIMM RAM and a whole set of interfaces including COM, LAN, VGA, DVI, HDMI, USB, PS/2, IR. The system’s target area is markets of industrial control systems, traffic management systems, security systems and tracking devices, commercial terminals and other similar applications requiring small size, wide range of interfaces, simplicity and reliability.

You are welcome to visit Giada’s booth at CES 2013 in Las-Vegas, Nevada, USA from 8th till 11st of January 2013. The booth location is Las Vegas Convention Center, South Hall 4, Booth 35275.
Learn more about Giada’s entire lineup of mini pcs at Giadatech.com/usa/

About Giada
Giada Technology is the leading cloud computing equipment supplier and is a wholly owned subsidiary of JIEHE Technology Development Company, Ltd. Giada derives its name from the Italian word for Jade, denoting the companies commitment to developing and manufacturing high quality compact eco-friendly desktop PCs and Tablet with an eye toward energy efficiency without sacrificing features and performance. Giada products are distributed and resold through channel partners. Giada products proudly features AMD® and Intel® Core™ &Atom™ processors. Giada mini pc has various applications in Digital Signage, medical system, Bank system, Education system, Surveillance System, business, Restaurant, POS system, manufacturing and automation and Home Automation etc.

New device* products available before CES 2013 in the US

* i.e. excluding motherboards, graphic cards, chassis etc.

• Giada N50 – Stylish Mini PC for Everyday Computing [Dec 28, 2012]
• Giada i53-i5 – High Performance Mini PC in a Small Package [Dec 21, 2012]
• Giada i53B, Giada i35GB, Giada i35B – Build Your Own System With Giada Barebone Distributors [Dec 11, 2012]
• Giada D2305-i5, Giada i53-i5, Giada i53-i3, Giada i53-family, Giada i35G, Giada N50, Giada F102D, Giada i35V, Giada A51V – Stylish and Compact Mini PCs, Media Centers [Dec 10, 2012]
• Giada F102D – Fanless and compact Mini PC [Dec 10, 2012]
• Giada A51 – Small and Stylish Media Center and Casual Computing [Dec 10, 2012]
• Giada D2305-i5 – Secure and Powerful Entertainment Center [Dec 10, 2012]
• Giada i35V – Affordable Mini PC for Everyday Computing [Dec 8, 2012]
• Giada i53-family – High Performance Mini PC in a Small Package [Dec 7, 2012]

Before that only:

• Mini PC Uni-box, Giada Mini PC N3, Giada Mini PC F100, Giada Mini PC A50, Giada Mini PC i50, Giada Mini PC N10, Giada Mini PC D2301 – Mini PCs [Dec 20, 2011]

All x86, 90+% Intel, some AMD

Distributors

Online Retailer

The company’s only tablet PC currently (March’13) on its English site: Giada i972

Unprecedented User Experience

Fashion and Innovative Products with Powerful Performance

• Download the Drivers
• Download the Specification Sheet

IDEAL FOR

• Home entertainment
• Home / Business office and a wide range of industrial applications

KEY FEATURES

• ARM Based solution – Rockchip RK3066 ARM® Cortex™ -A9 Dual core 1.5GHz
• Operation System-Android™ 4.1
• 1GB DDR3,16GB NAND FLASH
• HDMI Output for 2160P HD video, “Better than cinema” entertainment experience
• Wireless solution (IEEE 802.11 b/g/n) to optimize your internet experience
• Camera: 2.0 & 5.0 Megapixel
• 9.7” TN screen with 1024 x 768 high definition
• Capacitive Multi Touch (10 Points) G+G
• Built-in External USB 3G Dongle

Company News

Giada Unveils New Flagship Mini Desktop PC, the D2305 with Inte® 3rd. Generation Core™ Processors, HD Graphics, And Features Commonly Found On More Expensive PCs [2012-10-18]

GIADA® TECHNOLOGY EXPANDS COMPACT PC LINEUP WITH NEW I53 DESKTOP; GOOD THINGS REALLY DO COME IN SMALL, QUIET PACAGES [2012-09-19]

Giada Announces i35V Series Mini PC with Included mSATA SSD [2012-09-17]

Giada Technology F-Series – Fanless Mini PCs for Industries, Digital Signage, and Offices [2012-08-16]

Giada A51 mini PC – meet your second home PC [2012-05-21]

Giada Announces Fanless F101 with Intel Atom N2600 for Industrial Applications [2012-03-06]

Giada Announces i35G for Consumer & Commercial Applications [2012-03-03]

The company’s tablet PCs currently (March’13) on its Chinese site: as translated by Google

Giada I980 quad-core version

CPU: AllwinnerChi A31 processor quad-core (Cortex A7 Quad-core + SGX544MP2)
screen size parameters: 2048 * 1536
screen size: 9.7 inches retina screen

Giada I720 dual-core price king

CPU: dual-core processor (1.5GHz frequency)
system: Android 4.1
Screen size parameters: 800 * 480
Screen Size: 7 inch SD LCD

The Giada I971u dual-core version

CPU: dual-core processor 1.5GHz (1.6GHz Max)
system: Android 4.1
Screen size: 9.7-inch high-definition wide-angle LCD screen
Camera: Front 200W pixels / rear 500W pixels

The Giada I700u dual-core version

CPU: Dual-Core Processor 1.5GHz (1.6GHz Max)
system: Android 4.1
Screen size: 7-inch high-definition wide-angle LCD
Camera: Front 200W pixels / rear 500W pixels

Giada I971 Standard Edition

Screen size: 9.7-inch IPS HD LCD screen
resolution: 1024 * 768
Memory: 1G DDR3
cameras: front 200W pixel rear 500W pixels

The Giada I971e Value Edition

CPU: High Performance A10 processor clocked at 1.2GHz (1.5GHz Max)
system: Android 4.0
Screen size: 9.7 inches wide viewing angle, high-definition LCD

Giada I700v

System: Android 4.0
screen size parameters: 800 * 480
Screen size: 7-inch LED display
Memory: 512M DDR3

Giada I970s

Screen size parameters: 1024 * 768
screen size: 9.7 inches LED-backlit IPS wide viewing angle definition screen
dimensions: 242.5 x 189.1 x 10.6mm

The Giada I700e Value Edition

CPU: high performance A13 processor clocked at 1.0GHz (1.2GHz Max)
Resolution: 800 x 480
Screen size: 7-inch capacitive screen SD

Giada I800

System: Android 4.0
Screen size parameters: 1024 * 768
screen size: 8-inch LED display
Memory: 1G DDR3

Giada I690s

CPU: A10 1.2GHz (1.5GHz Max)
system: Android 4.0
Memory: 512M DDR3
Camera: 30-megapixel front

Giada I700 Standard Edition

CPU: High Performance A10 processor clocked at 1.2GHz (1.5GHz Max)
Resolution: 1024 x 600
Screen size: 7-inch wide-angle HD LCD

Giada I690

CPU: A10 1.2GHz (1.5GHz Max)
system: Android 2.3
Screen Size: 7 inch LED screen 800 * 480
Size: 199.4 x 122 x 11.5 mm

Giada I970

CPU: A10 processor 1.5GHz Max
system: Android 4.0
Screen size parameters: 1024 * 768
screen size: 9.7 inches LED-backlit IPS display

Giada I90

System: Android 4.0
Screen size parameters: 1024 * 768
screen size: 9.7 inches LED-backlit IPS wide viewing angle screen

Giada I70

System: Android 4.0
Screen size parameters: 800 * 480
screen Description: 7 inch LED capacitive touch screen
camera: 30-megapixel front

Giada N7-B (C)

CPU: ARM 11
camera: 2 million pixels
Video: HDMI1.3 1080P
System: Android 2.3

Giada N72

CPU: high-performance A8 processor clocked at 1GHz
resolution: 1024 * 600
screen: capacitive multi-touch screen
Bluetooth: Support

Giada N72L

System: Android 2.3
Resolution: 1024 x 600
Screen size: 7-inch high-definition screen
Screen Description: capacitive multi-touch screen

These headlines tell everything. And don’t forget, end of March is the end of PRISM when all top level decisions for the next fiscal year have already been taken. Now put these two media reports against each other:

With that the strategy to stick to Windows RT as a product, but not as a name, is crystall clear. Nevertheless between these two news dates we have other news articles in the world which are casting doubts on the future of Windows RT as a product.

Look at the bulk of news headlines between March 21 and March 28 to see the kind of mixed reporting. As these headlines coming from the proper Google search:

• Is Microsoft merging Windows RT into Windows 8 for “Blue” update?
• Microsoft Surface Pro, RT, Windows 8 Phones Battle For Confused Customers: Who Wins?
• Microsoft: Windows RT Not Going Anywhere
• Intel vs. Microsoft: how Atom processors could kill Windows RT [The Verge, March 21, 2013]
• Microsoft defends Windows RT. Did it do more harm than good? [Computerworld, March 22, 2013]
• Microsoft defends Windows RT but dodges responding to key criticism [BGR, March 22, 2013]
• Microsoft Exec Promises Windows RT Will Get Better ‘Over Time’ [Business Insider, March 22, 2013]
• Windows RT to also receive Windows Blue, Surface RT users can now rejoice
• Should Microsoft Give Up on Windows RT?
• Microsoft exec: Look at the bright side of Windows RT
• Microsoft Says Windows RT Is the Future, But Can it Survive the Present? [CIO, March 22, 2013]
• Microsoft Exec Sings High Praise for ARM and Windows RT, Downplays Legacy App Support 
• Microsoft Still Doesn’t Get It [Seeking Alpha, March 23, 2013]
• Microsoft: Windows RT will get better over time, just you wait
• Microsoft Stands Strong Behind Windows RT
• This Week in Tablets: Does Windows Blue spell the end for RT?
• Do we need another Windows OS? [CNET, March 23, 2013]
• Surface RT, Windows RT Dead? Microsoft Defends It Against OS Attacks

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A multibillion dollar company whining about average people not paying it enough attention may seem the pinnacle of first-world problems, but Qualcomm has legitimate business reasons to be concerned about its profile. The fact is that brand recognition translates to consumer influence, which in turn means bargaining power when Qualcomm goes to sell its processors to OEMs. It sounds stupid and greedy, but in fact, it’s smart and greedy.

The good news for those of us watching as Qualcomm tries to emerge from the shadows and into the light is that the company seems ready to do embarrassing, amazing, splashy stupid things in order to raise its public profile. The company’s keynote at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas is a perfect example, which centered on the laughable “Born Mobile” slogan, as introduced by one of the worst on-stage attempts at play-acting in trade show history (Samsung’s Galaxy S4 show wasn’t at a trade show, so it doesn’t technically count). The Verge’s supercut accurately captures the Qualcomm CES madness in a two-and-a-half-minute clip.

And unlike Intel, which just had actors depicting engineers dress up and dance, Qualcomm is actually using engineers to try to ‘go viral.’ Last year, the company had its engineers sit down and “help brainstorm” so-called “viral video,” which resulted in gems like this surprisingly dry demonstration of phones melting butter to display heat produced by various mobile SoCs. There’s a record scratch sound effect in there, that’s how you know it’s viral.

The problem is that no one wants to be the quiet technology partner anymore, and for good reason: in consumer tech, operating behind-the-scenes is less lucrative than selling to consumers. Qualcomm is amping up its PR and marketing efforts to try to elbow out a space in the public consciousness, complete with this dragon thing apparently designed to play on people’s love of Game of Thrones, but its approach still seems a little half-baked. As far as media campaigns go, however, messy misfires are almost always more entertaining to watch than uncontested successes, so Qualcomm could get its wish, albeit in a roundabout way.

Medo? Medo.

Note that the most interesting thing is that “phablet” category according to them (see much below) is in-fact a small-size tablet (8″, 7.85″, 7″) with baseband (4G/3G/2G), not a similar or different size tablet simply with A31s and Wi-Fi. It is remarkable that the above mentioned Onda V818mini is not such a phablet, although it is the first product based on A31s. It would be quite interesting therefore to monitor the end products promised in the press release below for  2Q 2013.

Update: A31 Introduction by Allwinner Technology Co., Ltd [ARM Partners site, March 13, 2013]

A31 features:

• Quad-core Cortex-A7 CPU utilising 40nm ARM POP Technology

…

• PMIC AXP221
  • PMIC AXP221 is specially made for A31 processor, which is capable of dynamic voltage and frequency adjustment. A31 processor can support up to 30 days standby time.

“Phablets” Rage On: Cutting Edge Quad-Core Phablet A31s Processor Officially Announced by Allwinner Technology

Android Tablet Chipmaker’s A31s Chip Prepared for Widespread Market Adoption,

End Products Shipping Worldwide in 2Q 2013

March 20, 2013 – Allwinner Technology, a worldwide leader in mobile application processor design, today introduced the A31s: the world’s first quad-core Cortex™-A7 SoC designed specifically for phablets.

Jack Lee, Marketing Director, Allwinner Technology, said, “Market research projects that phablet shipments grew at an astounding 4,504% growth rate last year, and they’re projected to hit 150 million units in 2013 (Source: ABI Research). We designed the quad-core A31s specifically for phablets, and that means we’re able to deliver clean radio connectivity, low power consumption, 1080p video and WXGA display support with this exciting system-on-a-chip.”

He continued, “Allwinner supports brands to get great products to market faster. We work closely with our experienced design house partners to ensure product reliability, production scalability, and industry-leading times-to-market. We also work together with brands’ key OEM factory partners as needed.”

Phablets, hybrids between smartphones and tablets, are disrupting the traditional smartphone market and shaping the way people consume mobile media content. A31s, through its turnkey solutions, enables the next generation of low power, connected, and high definition phablets for its brand and hardware partners. It offers optimized connectivity to EDGE, 3G, LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, GPS, AGPS, and NFC radios.

“Companies like Allwinner are at the forefront of pushing technology to deliver an increasing array of form factors and price points to consumers,” said Ian Drew, executive vice president, Marketing, ARM. “The Allwinner A31s SoC, powered by the combination of the quad-core ARM Cortex™-A7 processor and ARM 40LP POP™ IP technology, demonstrates the level of innovation that is enabled by ARM’s business model. Allwinner’s A31s will create the next generation of exciting low power, high performance platforms that will give consumers the always-on and always-connected lifestyles they want.”

Key Features:

- Quad-core Cortex™-A7 CPU with a fifth power-saving standby core

- PowerVR™ SGX544MP2 GPU with eight unified shader cores

- HawkView camera ISP with enhanced image quality and rapid image capture

- Custom low power companion PMU designed specifically for multi-core CPUs

- Integrated audio codec with multiple mic support and CrispTalk noise cancellation

Low Power

Power consumption is a critical focus of Allwinner’s new quad-core Cortex™-A7 A31s design. AXP221s, a highly-integrated custom low power companion PMU, provides 2.2A rapid charging capability, precise up to 1% power level detection, and a 21-channel, highly efficient power supply management system optimized for multi-core architectures. And integrated inside A31s, a lightweight fifth core provides low power for standby operation. Results show A31s’s low power focus has paid off: devices running on a 4000mAh-rated battery can get up to 7 hours of battery life while playing video, and up to half a month of battery life while on standby.

Powerful Multimedia

3D graphics, GUIs, and the web blaze at lighting-fast speed on A31s platforms, thanks to its eight unified shader core PowerVR™ SGX544MP2 GPU. Tony King-Smith, EVP marketing, Imagination Technologies, said, “We are pleased to be strengthening our strategic partnership with Allwinner. We are delighted that the Allwinner A31s is using the advanced and trend-setting graphics capabilities of PowerVR™ as a key feature in this rapidly developing and highly competitive market.”

Additionally, the A31s can drive HD resolution up to 1280×800 pixels, decode video up to 2160p, and encode video up to 1080p – perfect for mainstream phablets. And A31’s proprietary, integrated HawkView ISP packs a powerful punch: crystal-clear image quality, 0-second image capture, 10 photo bursts per second, and auto-focus in under a second. ISP integration also means lower system costs.

Crisp Communication

Phablets require high quality voice communication and seamless connectivity with baseband. A31s’s fully integrated audio codec delivers by providing dedicated 24-bit input and output audio channels, supporting up to four microphones (3 analog, 1 digital), and running Allwinner’s proprietary CrispTalk noise cancellation feature. Codec integration reduces system costs, lowering prices for all partners in the chain.

About Allwinner

Allwinner Technology is a leading fabless design company dedicated to smart application processor SoCs and smart analog ICs. Its product line includes multi-core application processors for smart devices and smart power management ICs used by brands worldwide.

With its focus on cutting edge UHD video processing, high performance multi-core CPU/GPU integration, and ultra low power consumption, Allwinner Technology is a mainstream solution provider for the global tablet, internet TV, smart home device, automotive in-dash device, smart power management, and mobile connected device markets. Allwinner Technology is headquartered in Zhuhai, China.

Contacts
pr@allwinnertech.com
Visit our webpage at:
www.allwinnertech.com

Allwinner Technology A31s

• CPU Cortex-A7 Quad-Core
• 1MB L2-Cache
• GPU SGX544MP2
• Capable of 3G, 2G, LTE, WiFi, Bluetooth, FM, GPS with a minimum of external components
• 2160p video decoding
• H.264 HP 1080p@30fps video encoding
• HDMI1.4 1080p@60fps output
• Integrated Camera ISP
• 32-bit DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR2

Block Diagram               Quad-core phablet processor

Features                         Quad-core phablet processor

CPU

• ARM Cortex-A7 Quad-Core
• 256KB L1 Cache
• 1MB L2 Cache

GPU

• PowerVR SGX544MP2
• Comply with OpenGL ES 2.0, OpenCL 1.x, DX 9_3

Audio

• Two sets of I2S/PCM interfaces for Baseband and Bluetooth
• Two integrated differential analog MIC for headset and phone
• Integrated digital MIC
• Dedicated headphone/speaker/receiver outputs
• Two-channel audio ADC with 96dBA SNR
• Two-channel audio DAC with 100dBA SNR

Video

• UHD H.264 2160p video decoding
• Multi-format FHD video decoding, including Mpeg1/2, Mpeg4 SP/ASP GMC, H.263, H.264,etc.
• BD Directory, BD ISO and BD m2ts video decoding
• H.264 High Profile 1080p@30fps or 720p@60fps encoding
• 3840×1080@30fps 3D decoding, BD/SBS/TAB/FP supported
• 3840×1080@30fps 3D encoding
• Comply with RTSP, HTTP, HLS, RTMP, MMS streaming media protocols

Display

• Integrated LVDS/RGB/CPU LCD interface 1280×800 resolution
• Integrated HDMI1.4 1920×1080@60fps

Camera

• Support 0.3M/1.3M/2M/5M CMOS sensor
• Support 8/10/12-bit YUV/Bayer sensor

ISP

• Static and dynamic defect pixel correction, and lens shading correction
• Anisotropic non-linear Bayer interpolation with false color suppression
• Programmable color correction, dynamic range compression and contrast enhancement
• Advanced spatial de-noise filter
• AE/AF/AWB
• Anti-flick detection

Memory

• 32-bit DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR2 controller
• 8-bit NAND Flash controller with 64-bit ECC

PMIC

• PMIC AXP221s
• 21-CH power output and 2.2A Flash charging
• Comply with USB 3.0 power supply standard

OS

• Support Android 4.1/4.2 and above
• Compatible with Microsoft Windows 8

Features                         Quad-core phablet processor

Phablet

Consequently there is a new Allwinner Technology-Mobile Applications / Phablet page inside the Allwinner Technology-Mobile Applications microsite:

 

FEATURES

	A31s
CPU	Quad-Core Cortex A7
GPU	SGX544MP2
Baseband	4G/3G/2G
Wireless	WIFI+BT+FM+GPS+NFC
Size	8″, 7.85″, 7″
Resolution	1280×800, 1024×768,1024×600
Video	2160P
Memory	1GB DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR2

And the company also published a new Pro A31 Kit page added to other Dev-Kits pages

 

	Pro A31 Kit	Pro A10 Kit	Hackberry A10 Board	A10 CubieBoard	A13 OLinuXino
SoC	A31	A10	A10	A10	A13
Location	Shenzhen	Shenzhen	Austral	Guangzhou	Bulgaria
Hardware	Full Function	Full Function	Board	Board	Board
Software	Android SDK	Android SDK	Linux SDK	Linux SDK	Linux SDK
Doc	Full Doc	Full Doc	Community	Community	Community
Website	www.wits-tech.com	www.wits-tech.com	www.miniand.com	www.cubieboard.com	www.olimex.com
Targeting	Enterprise	Enterprise	Developer	Developer	Developer

Note that modemless SoC vendors like Allwinner, Rockchip etc. will tremedously benefit from this type of endgame, as Ericsson will become a modem-only SoC vendor with the so called thin modem business taken over. This part of ST-Ericsson is dealing with the highly strategic and competitive LTE multimode thin modems (including 2G, 3G and 4G multimode), i.e. the well proven in last year trials Thor M7400 SoC solution (to come in devices of H2 2013), and its enhanced (with Single RF Chip Carrier Aggregation and ability to achieve 150Mbps) mass market follow-up, the Thor M7450 SoC solution (designed in 28nm, now sampling and to come in devices of 2014) based on the revolutionary architecture introduced in Thor M7400 which enables market-leading power consumption. All the so called legacy modems (as well as the remaining parts of the ST-Ericsson business) will be taken over by STMicroelectronics, but no further development will be done for them (and only selective development for the remaining parts of the ST-Ericsson business).

Financial responsibility for the respective businesses was taken over by the two parent companies from March 1st, 2013. The break up will be completed in Q3 2013. While Ericsson and STMicroelectronics will take over around 1800 and 950 people (employees and contractors) respectively. Of the remaining workforce approx. 1600 will be be made redundant in the process. For the remaining 200 employees and contractors in the so called connectivity business the future will be decided by the outcome of selling that business.

Here are

• the details,

and then

• a collection of related press releases

Details

STMicroelectronics, Ericsson End Venture After Failed Sale [Bloomberg, March 18, 2013]

“In 2009 the situation was different, we started with a great base of European customers,” STMicroelectronics Chief Executive Officer Carlo Bozotti said on a conference call. “Unfortunately this customer base has changed.”

…

Potential buyers that were approached, including customer Samsung Electronics Co., declined to make an offer, people familiar with the matter said last week. Samsung is “a great customer for us and we continue to work for a lot of products with this company,” Bozotti said today, declining to comment on any talks for Samsung taking over the venture.

STMicro, Ericsson split mobile chip unit, 1,600 jobs go [Reuters, March 18, 2013]

“All possible scenarios were considered but the option announced today was always a real possibility,” STMicro chief executive Carlo Bozotti told a conference call on Monday.

ST takes on mobile chips…but not the market [EETimes, March 18, 2013]

In a conference call Monday morning (March 18) Carlo Bozotti, CEO of ST (Geneva, Switzerland) promised continued support for ST-Ericsson’s existing products and customers but also indicated that ST would not be trying to replicate ST-Ericsson’s platform-level engagement with the mobile devices market. This approach puts a question-mark over the future relevance of ST’s fully-depleted silicon-on-insulator (FD-SOI) manufacturing process, a proprietary technology that is out of the mainstream of global CMOS manufacturing, but which has reportedly shown technical advantages for mobile applications where power consumption and battery life are key parameters.

…

“ST will not continue the so-called ModAp – ModAp is the integration of the application processor and the modem in one chip – in terms of new development,” said Bozotti during the conference call. “Of course, we will go on as long as needed with the existing products to support our customers. So we have not called – and we will not call – for any end of life.”

Moving on to stand-alone application processors, Bozotti said: “Of course our focus area is the digital consumer, is automotive. In the case of portable equipment we will not offer a complete platform for the market. However, we may develop dedicated solutions using our FD-SOI technologies for high volume requirements in the area of portable equipment.”

…

With regard to the decision to exit the joint venture Bozotti said: “This is extremely intense R&D. The dynamic of the wireless market is with increasing polarization in terms of key customers in this market. And also we are seeing an increasing trend of vertical integration of their activities including the design and manufacture of semiconductor chips,” Bozotti said.

Ericsson’s Management Hosts Strategic Way Forward For ST-Ericsson Conference (Transcript) [Seeking Alpha, March 18, 2013]

In April of 2012, last year, ST-Ericsson announced its strategic plan. And in October of 2012, Ericsson and ST together announced that we are, as parents, conducting a strategic review of the business plan and the future ownership structure of the joint venture. In — on December 10 of the last year, 2012, ST then makes an announcement that they intend to exit as a shareholder in ST-Ericsson. And then following that announcement, Ericsson, on December 20, announces to all of you that we have taken a decision to not acquire the full majority of ST-Ericsson. Now during a few months here in the beginning of the year, we have been exploring various strategic options for the ST-Ericsson assets, and that’s obviously the context of today’s call.

Key Points

• Ericsson and STMicroelectronics have agreed on a separation of the
  company into three parts – Ericsson takes on thin modem operations

The aim that we have with this takeover is obviously to maximize the value. And also, we believe that the modems here have a good fit into the strategies of our company. ST-Ericsson, then, unfortunately will have to carry out the restructuring activity in the remaining — remainder of the joint venture, we’ll come back to that.

• Agreement aims to maximize assets and the future plans for both
  parent companies as it relates to their respective strategies
  
• ST-Ericsson to restructure current operations prior to separation
  
• The closing of the transaction is expected during Q3, subject to
  regulatory approvals
  
• Costs for implementing this strategic plan, including Ericsson’s part of
  ST-Ericsson’s restructuring, is provided for in the provisions of SEK
  3.3 B. taken in 2012

So how will this work? So if we look at the split-up of the joint venture, and we again start with Ericsson on the right-hand side of this slide: We take on the design, the development and the sales of the LTE multimode thin modems, and that includes, then, 2G, 3G and 4G multimode. This will be approximately 1,800 employees and contractors. The main sites will be Sweden, Germany, India and China. And we will then be financially responsible for this part of the JV from March 1, 2013.

On the ST side, they will take over the existing products in the JV other than the LTE modems, then, and then also all other related business as well as certain assembly and test facilities. This will be approximately 950 employees and with the main sites being France and Italy. And they will also then be financially responsible for that from 1st of March this year.

In the JV, then, they will — it will be then restructuring activity that have commenced today. And the remainder of the joint venture will then be, over time here, reduced and run down. And then also, we will look at selling the connectivity business. All in all, this is approximately 1,600 employees and contractors, and you’ll have around 200 of those being employees and contractors in the connectivity business. So this is the split-up of the JV.

Modems of Strategic Value for Industry

• Ericsson takes control of the thin modem business targeting smartphones and tablets
  – Significant amounts invested to establish industry leading technology and IP
  – Leverage our heritage and investment in leading research, global standardization and industry leading infrastructure solutions
• Thin modem architecture covers
  – Low power, highly integrated multi-mode multiband modems for GSM/GPRS/EDGE, TDSCDMA, HSPA+, LTE (TDD/FDD), LTEAdvanced
  – Widest array of frequency bands and a feature set that includes Single RF Chip Carrier Aggregation, VoLTE and IMS

First of all, we’ve said in the past that we believe that the modem assets have a strategic value to the wireless industry, so this is consistent with what we’re trying to explain here. We are taking over the thin modem business, and the target market is the smartphones and the tablets. We’ve invested significant amounts of money to establish this position from a product perspective, from a testing perspective and where we are with the thin modems today within the joint venture. This also leverages our heritage and the investment in our R&D standardization and in, of course, our leading infrastructure solutions.

In terms of the thin modem architecture and what it covers, we believe we have advantages on low power. It’s highly integrated multimode, multi-baseband, with a variety of GSM, GPRS, EDGE, TD, HSPA, LTE TDD/FDD and then LTE Advanced. So it’s very comprehensive. And of course, some of the other features that will — sets this apart: It’s a Single RF Chip Carrier Aggregation. It includes VoLTE and IMS.

Total Addressable Market

• +400 m thin modem units in 2013 for smartphones/tablets
• Best estimate of the market for thin modems is an ASP of approximately USD 13-18 in 2013.
• Ericsson aims to be top 3 in that market
• Connected devices: M2M, Modules (via industrial partners), and other data centric devices
• License business model towards ModAp market: +400 m ModAp market

… in terms of the market itself that we’re targeting. Again, focus on the thin modems, and we see over 400 million units on the thin modems in 2013. That’s the green area, and that’s growing at 10%. We see the average sales price of approximately $13 to $18. And it’s — our aspiration is to be in the top 3 in this market.

In addition, there are other markets to connected devices: machine-to-machine, modules, data-centric devices. And then of course, there’s an opportunity to move toward a license business model with the ModAp in the ModAp market. But we’re very clear: the thin modem is a — going to be our focus, it’s going to be a focused organization. And again, it’s a 400 million unit in 2013, moving to greater than 600 million, from a market perspective, in 2017.

…

Next Steps and Ambitions

If we then look at the next steps. So we will now obviously finalize the formal break-up of the JV. ST-Ericsson will carry out the necessary restructuring of what this will remain — will — what will remain in the JV, and then we will move on with the necessary approvals. We think that the break-up will be completed by the third quarter 2013.

If we look at the product portfolio, then. The modem 7450 will have a volume ramp-up in the first half of 2014. And then it will be — the follow-up product will be the M7500. That work — will have a volume ramp-up in the first half of 2015. When we look at these — we are excited about the modem company, obviously, and the thin modem products. We will look at success in an 18- to 24-month time frame. Again, as Doug mentioned, the — our ambition is to be top 3 in the thin modem market and, of course, that this segment should add to Ericsson overall profitability.

Introducing ST-Ericsson latest advanced LTE modem  (This is a slideshow without audio) [STEricssonVideos YouTube channel, Feb 24, 2013] i.e. the M7450

[the previous transcript continued]
Question-and-Answer Session

…

So what we’ve been trying to tell you is that we take over the thin modem products, which is, today, it’s 7400 which the mass-market product will be 7450. The legacy modem products will all be with ST, so this is the thin modem business. And all the assumptions around the ramp-up and so forth is in this slide: We have — the first half of 2014 will be the volume ramp-up of 7450, first half of 2015 will be the ramp-up of M7500. So that’s the business that Ericsson is taking over. And it’s correct to assume that, this year, in 2013, we don’t think there will be a lot of revenue on these modems.

…

Q: … I guess I would have thought that, if your position in thin modem multimode LTE was that exciting and an established semis company might have been better positioned to leverage that. …

… we … think that the modem, thin modem, business has a strategic value for the industry. We think it’s important, with more alternatives. That is — obviously goes hand-in-hand with our company overall mission around the network society, 50 billion connected devices, and so forth. So from that point of view, I think the strategic intent is quite clear. I also think that we have been reviewing a lot of different strategic options. This, what we present today, is the best solution out of all the different options that we have looked at. And we are here today to really welcome the modem company into Ericsson. And we are also convinced that we will be able to add value to the industry, which we have been stating for, for quite some time now.

… first and foremost, we have a product, okay? That product is in the market. It‘s been trialed, so the development effort has been worthwhile. We also have customers. I also think that, Ericsson working with the modem company and other partners in the industry, we have a very important role to play when it comes to connecting the access points with the networks. And I think we have — I think we have a very good role to play in this, and also very skilled engineers. That kind of work together end to end.

Q: … you’ve said your ambition is to be a top 3 player in this market. So would this mean that you may have to raise your investments in this business going forward? And secondly, you mentioned good customer traction with your existing thin modems, but I believe 7400 was being sampled, too, last year. But you are essentially indicating that there will be no revenue for — from 7400 this year. So I mean, how does this change with 7450? Are you already seeing some customers signing up on the product?

… We have — first and foremost, what we will take over once this — we have gotten all of the regulatory approvals is a thin modem operation with around 1,800 employees and contractors. We think that — given the portfolio ambition and the sales ambition we have, that the resources we have in that unit will be sufficient to deliver on the ambitions. So that’s what we have said and that’s what we will repeat again.

Showcasing Thor M7400 at CES [STEricssonVideos YouTube channel, Jan 15, 2013]

[the previous transcript continued]
Just to start with the — as you say, the 7400, that has been in customer testing. It’s been in field operator testing in the past, first global field operator testing. The 7450 has always been our expected mass product. 7450 has a smaller footprint, carrier aggregation and a variety of different other attributes, but it’s based on the 7400 software that has gone through this testing. So we’ve had very positive feedback and interest on the 7400, in terms of the architecture, and certainly on the 7450 and our current plans and timelines that we have with the 7450.

Q: So basically, if I look at the market, most of your competition is moving towards an integrated model where you have baseband and apps processor, but it seems that you are trying to focus more on the modem technology. And I’m just trying to understand what do you — why do you think this strategy is going to be more successful than what your competition is doing. And also, basically, your ambition is to be a top 3 player in this market long term. Once we get there, what do you think would be the long-term profitability in this business?

What we’re doing is we have been a very focused team, just as Jan said. As we’ve made this split, it’s going to be a very focused, competent team that’s just focused on the thin modems. As we presented earlier, we believe there’s a big-enough market in the thin modem area. And certainly, our expertise is more on the modem side than the application processor side, and that’s where we want to put our focus and our strength.

… then on the profitability, I think that what we will — the way we will measure success here in this business will be — will obviously be around achieving a top 3 position in the thin modem market. We have talked about the size of that market in terms of 400 million units, approximately, for 2013; also with the ASP there of between $13 and $18. We also will measure success in getting high volumes of the 7450 modem. And then we will also measure success when this LTE thin multimode modem business adds to the Ericsson group profitability. So those are the first, I would say, midterm objectives. And as we have said before, we will measure this in an 18- to 24-months perspective, so that’s kind of the time frame. We are — we also, then, have given you an indication on the resources in the unit that we take over, and we have also said that we think that this will be sufficient for the product portfolio ambition and so forth. So I think we have given you quite a lot for you to model a possible break-even point and so forth of this business.

Q: I would like to start quickly on the — well, what you’re planning to do actually with the ModAp business. So STMicro told us this morning that they are planning to discontinue basically working on that. And you are now clearly focusing on making your same — standalone modem. But do you have the ambition to eventually license your IP so that other companies that don’t have the existing modem capabilities are able to do ModAp processors?

Yes. So our primary focus is going to be the thin modem product itself. We certainly will look at machine-to-machine connected devices and potential for licensing the thin modem to customers that have the application processor. And that’s probably where we are right now in terms of our business plan and our revenue models.

Q: … as you fairly mentioned, there’s only one company shipping such products today, but there is also a lot of roadmaps that we’ve seen from some other of your — some of your other new competitors now are planning to release this kind of products as well at the end of this year and early next year. So how do you expect that to play over the long term? Do you think you have something that already gives you a head start of 6 month or 1 year on this front?

… we feel very committed to this thin modem because we have been monitoring the progress of not only ours but our competition in terms of the attributes and the characters of the unique selling points. We’ve invested a lot in this thin modem. We’ve seen the test results and where we see going forward with the 7450. So we’re confident, but we also know it’s going to be a tough market. But as we said in the past 6 months, we believe this is an asset that’s important to the industry.

Q: … will it be treated as licensing revenues?

No.

Demonstrating 150Mbps with Thor M7450 [STEricssonVideos YouTube channel, Feb 27, 2013]

THOR M7450 – LTE ADVANCED [ST-Ericsson product microsite, Feb 24, 2013]

Bringing Carrier Aggregation to the mainstream market

With the roll out of LTE and LTE Advanced technologies, device manufacturers face a number of new challenges. Operators require terminals that support an increased number of frequency bands and consumers expect increased data speed and improved battery lifetime. Device makers, however, cannot compromise device design and will need modem solutions that can do more within the same footprint.

Carrier Aggregation is one of the most important features in LTE Advanced that helps to address these challenges. It overcomes the fragmentation of the frequency spectrum by using multiple component carriers to increase the transmission bandwidth and data rate for an individual user.

The Thor M7450 is a multimode multiband platform supporting Carrier Aggregation with a single chip RF transceiver and support for over 17 bands. The complete modem is a highly integrated two chip solution with integrated memory. It delivers download speeds up to 150Mbps and is based on the revolutionary architecture introduced in Thor M7400 which enables market-leading power consumption.

Thor M7450 solves the design challenges and adds a number of new features in a solution footprint which makes it possible for phone manufacturers add LTE advanced without increasing size.

HIGHLIGHTS

For global devices

• LTE FDD/TDD, HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, GSM

• Single radio transceiver with support for 17+ bands

A streamlined modem

• Highly integrated two chip solution with integrated RAM and single chip RF Carrier Aggregation

• Power efficient architecture

For all devices

• Interfaces for data devices and smartphone application processors

• Complete and pre-tested reference design

Thor M7450 Carrier Aggregation [STEricssonVideos YouTube channel, Feb 26, 2013]

THOR™ M7400 LTE AND HSPA+ [ST-Ericsson product microsite, Feb 15, 2011]

Paves the way for global LTE devices

The Thor™ M7400 is a new generation of multimode mobile broadband modem. It supports the latest LTE and HSPA+ technologies. The small form factor and high power efficiency of the M7400 enable slim form factor smartphones, tablets and other mobile broadband enabled devices. The advanced multimode RF design offers new level of flexibility to support regional LTE FDD/TDD/HSPA bands in Asia, Europe and North America in combination with global HSPA/EDGE.

A breakthrough in modem architecture delivers an optimum combination of hardware acceleration, for lowest power consumption, and flexible execution in software allowing feature and performance enhancements in existing hardware.

Equipped with the latest communication interfaces it enables efficient integration between application processor and modem, including memory-less modem design when combining with an application processor.

HIGHLIGHTS

Truly global

• LTE FDD/TDD, HSPA+, EDGE

• Radio supporting up to 16 LTE/WCDMA/GSM bands

A streamlined modem

• Smallest two-chip thin modem solution

• Power efficient architecture

• Highly integrated radio solution

For all devices

• Interfaces for data devices and smartphone application processors

• Memory-less modem design possible when combined with an application processor

• Complete and pre-tested reference design

Making a CS fallback from LTE to 3G, and back again, while streaming video [STEricssonVideos YouTube channel, Feb 27, 2013]

CS-Fallback – An Introduction [WirelessMoves, Feb 19, 2012]

One approach to deploying LTE without packet switched voice call functionality at the beginning is to instruct mobile devices to use a 2G and 3G network when the user makes or receives a voice call and return to LTE afterwards. This solution is referred to as CS fallback and has been specified in 3GPP TS 23.272. As it’s likely that it will be deployed over time in quite a number of networks and used over many years, I thought I have once again a closer look at the specs and write a little primer about it. A little warning: This is somewhat of a propeller head post which requires some background knowledge on the circuit switched core network of GSM and UMTS and how LTE works.

…

International Roaming

As CS fallback is not a Voice over IP technology, it is likely that it will mostly be used in LTE networks before VOLTE becomes available. Furthermore, CS fallback can be used as a backup solution in roaming scenarios in which voice capable LTE devices are roaming in a foreign LTE network in which VOLTE is not available or in case no roaming agreement is in place for IMS voice services.

Pros and Cons of CS fallback

The main advantage of CS fallback is that it will enable network operators and device manufacturers to introduce LTE devices with a single cellular radio chip before VOLTE becomes available and network are deployed widely enough to prevent having to hand over the call to UMTS or GSM too often (how that is done is another story).

…

Summary

CS fallback sounds easy but from the description above I think it is quite clear that it is not quite that. A new interface to be implemented in the MSC software and the MME, the use of roaming retry functionality that is not used so far (please correct me if I’m wrong) and the new CS fallback flag in the location update message will keep network and device engineers busy for a while. A lot of effort for a “temporary” solution.

Making VoLTE [Voice over LTE] voice calls that last [STEricssonVideos YouTube channel, Feb 27, 2013]

What is VoLTE | Voice over LTE | Tutorial [Radio-Electronics.com, Feb 18, 2010]

The Voice over LTE, VoLTE scheme was devised as a result of operators seeking a standardised system for transferring voice traffic over LTE. Originally LTE was seen as a completely IP cellular system just for carrying data, and operators would be able to carry voice either by reverting to 2G / 3G systems or by using VoIP.

…

In many ways the implementation of VoLTE at a high level is straightforward. The handset or phone needs to have software loaded to provide the VoLTE functionality. This can be in the form of an App.

The network then requires to be IMS compatible.

While this may appear straightforward, there are many issues for this to be made operational, especially via the vagaries of the radio access network where time delays and propagation anomalies add considerably to the complexity.

See also: LTE / Voice calls and  LTE / Enhanced voice quality [both in Wikipedia]

The world’s first dual mode high definition VoLTE [STEricssonVideos YouTube channel, Feb 26, 2013]

Company press releases

ST-ERICSSON UNVEILS ULTRAFAST THOR M7450 LTE ADVANCED MODEM WITH FIRST SINGLE RF CARRIER AGGREGATION SOLUTION [press release, Feb 24, 2013]

Thor M7450 Modem includes support for 150Mbps and an extensive number of frequency bands.

Barcelona, February 24, 2013 – Today at Mobile World Congress 2013, ST-Ericsson, a world leader in wireless platforms and semiconductors, announced the Thor™ M7450 LTE Advanced modem which uses a single radio for Carrier Aggregation. The M7450 supports all relevant 3GPP specified frequency bands having 10 flexible RF ports enabling 17 frequency bands or more in the same device. With this modem, ST-Ericsson significantly increases the number of LTE bands compared to devices currently on the market allowing device manufacturers to address a global market with less number of device variants.

With the roll out of LTE and LTE Advanced technologies, device manufacturers face a number of new challenges. Operators require terminals that support an increased number of frequency bands and consumers expect increased data speed and improved battery lifetime. Phone makers, however, cannot compromise device design and will need modem solutions that can do more in the same footprint.

“There is an ever increasing demand for mobile broadband access no matter where you are in the world, making the ability to efficiently handle data traffic a top priority for our customers and operators,” says Staffan Iveberg, Senior Vice President of Thor Modem Solutions for ST-Ericsson. “Next-generation modems need to combine extensive frequency band support to offer flexibility for operators and markets – all without increasing the modem size. ST-Ericsson is leading the way with the Thor M7450 LTE Advanced modem.”

Today, many operators only have 5 or 10 MHz bandwidth allocations in each frequency band for LTE which is insufficient for LTE Category 3 or 4 with data rates up to 100 or 150 Mbps. Carrier Aggregation allows bandwidth from two different frequency bands to be combined enabling higher data rates.

“With the Thor M7450, we are continuing to innovate in modem technology to bring increased download speed without compromising on size or power consumption,” continued Iveberg. “No one else is delivering a complete LTE Advanced modem that is both fast and power efficient in this compact size.”

The Thor M7450 is a two chip solution with integrated RAM to enable a compact size. The M7450 is designed in 28nm CMOS technology and builds on the revolutionary architecture introduced in Thor M7400 which delivers market-leading power consumption. It supports 3GPP Release 10, LTE category 4, with downlink speeds up to 150Mbps and VoLTE. With LTE-FDD, LTE-TDD, HSPA+, GSM and TD-SCDMA integrated in the same chipset, the M7450 addresses the need for a simple and cost effective solution for widespread global adoption of LTE devices.

The Thor M7450 is being demonstrated by ST-Ericsson in Barcelona this week and is currently sampling with customers.

For additional information, a white paper is available here.

CHANGING THE GAME: ST-ERICSSON UNVEILS NOVATHOR™ FAMILY OF SMARTPHONE PLATFORMS COMBINING ITS MOST ADVANCED APPLICATION PROCESSORS WITH THE LATEST GENERATION OF MODEMS [press release, Feb 15, 2011]

ST-Ericsson today announced three new application processors, the Nova A9600, A9540, A9500 together with two next generation modems the Thor M7400 and M7300 as well as two additions to its complete highly integrated smartphone platforms the NovaThor T5008 and U4500.

…

ST-Ericsson’s new Thor modems, the Thor M7400 and the Thor M7300, support the latest LTE and HSPA+ dual carrier technologies, while preserving backward compatibility with existing 3G/2G networks, in a small and highly-integrated radio solution that supports up to eight LTE/WCDMA/GSM frequency bands. These modems enable the development of truly global smartphones, tablets and many other mobile broadband-enabled devices.

…

The Thor M7400 can connect to 2G, 3G, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, HSPA+ dual carrier and LTE FDD/TDD networks. It offers peak download speeds of up to 100Mbps in LTE networks. The Thor M7400 supports voice calls via fallback to circuit-switched networks and via the VoLTE (Voice over LTE) standard, it is sampling Q2 2011.

ST-ERICSSON’S HIGH-PERFORMANCE MODEMS PAVE THE WAY FOR GLOBAL LTE DEVICES [press release, Feb 15, 2011]

… The Thor M7400 is the industry’s smallest and first two-chip LTE/HSPA+ modem, which also continues the low power consumption track record from ST-Ericsson’s market-leading HSPA+ modems. …

… “In Thor, ST-Ericsson’s engineers have achieved the optimum combination of hardware acceleration, for low power consumption, and execution in software, enabled by our in-house vector processing technology, which offers the flexibility to continuously add features and performance enhancements to existing chipset hardware,” said Jörgen Lantto, executive vice president, chief technology and strategy officer of ST-Ericsson. “Our radio solution is unique in that it supports the regional LTE FDD/TDD bands in use in Asia, Europe and North America, as well as HSPA/EDGE networks worldwide, allowing device manufacturers to offer truly global devices.”

The ThorM7400 and ThorM7300 modems are based on a common architecture, enabling ST-Ericsson and its customers to benefit from shorter time-to-market by re-using of modem certification and application processor interfaces across platforms, reducing time-to-market. The new Thor modems are also pin-to-pin compatible which enables customers to completely reuse their design across the two platforms. …

Available for operator testing and integration into devices from Q2 2011, the Thor M7400 modem can connect to 2G, 3G, TD-SCDMA, HSPA, HSPA+ dual carrier and LTE FDD/TDD networks. It offers peak download speeds of up to 100Mbps in LTE networks. The ThorM7400 supports voice calls via fallback to circuit-switched networks and via the VoLTE (Voice over LTE) standard.

…

ST-Ericsson developed high-performance vector processing (EVP) to efficiently handle complex computational tasks for all access standards. It is currently used in ST-Ericsson TD-SCDMA platforms.

ST-ERICSSON THOR M7400 MODEM SELECTED AS CES 2012 INNOVATIONS HONOREE [press release, Nov 8, 2011]

… The ST-Ericsson Thor M7400 4G multimode modem delivers the high power efficiency and compact footprint needed to enable sleek and slim form factor smartphones, tablets and other connected devices. The Thor M7400 is a groundbreaking multimode solution, supporting the latest LTE, HSPA+ and TD-HSPA mobile broadband technologies, and enables efficient integration between application processor and modem.

“The Thor M7400 sets a new standard for 4G multimode modems delivering extremely high data performance, low power consumption and size advantage over alternative solutions,” said Jörgen Lantto, executive vice president and chief technology officer at ST-Ericsson. “To further optimize its footprint, the Thor M7400 includes memory-less technology to optimally integrate with application processors in 4G mobile broadband devices. As a result, the Thor M7400 makes ultra-fast web browsing and high speed data connectivity ubiquitous, easy and reliable. We are proud to have our innovative product recognized by the Consumer Electronics Association.”

STMicroelectronics Announces Resignation of Didier Lamouche [STMicroelectronics press release, March 11, 2013]

STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronic applications, announced today that Didier Lamouche, Chief Operating Officer, whose operational role was suspended when he took the assignment as President and Chief Executive Officer at ST-Ericsson in December 2011, has decided to resign from the company effective March 31, 2013 to pursue other opportunities.

“Over the past years Didier has brought his strong contribution to ST, initially as the Chief Operating Officer, and then taking the challenging task to lead ST-Ericsson” saidCarlo Bozotti, President and CEO of ST. “We thank him for his outstanding contribution and wish him all the best for his future”.

About STMicroelectronics

ST is a global leader in the semiconductor market serving customers across the spectrum of sense and power and automotive products and embedded processing solutions. From energy management and savings to trust and data security, from healthcare and wellness to smart consumer devices, in the home, car and office, at work and at play, ST is found everywhere microelectronics make a positive and innovative contribution to people’s life. By getting more from technology to get more from life, ST stands for life.augmented.

In 2012, the Company’s net revenues were $8.49 billion. Further information on ST can be found at www.st.com

ST-ERICSSON ANNOUNCES CHANGE IN EXECUTIVE MANAGEMENT [ST-Ericsson press release, March 11, 2011]

Following the STMicroelectronics’ announcement issued earlier today, ST-Ericsson, a joint venture of STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), announced today that Didier Lamouche, president and chief executive officer, has decided to resign from the Company to pursue other opportunities.

Hans Vestberg, Chairman of the ST-Ericsson’s board of directors, said: “Didier Lamouche came into ST-Ericsson when the company was in a very challenging situation and has been instrumental in bringing the company to the point where it is more focused on strategy execution, a much lower breakeven point and positive momentum where the new LTE modem-based products are ready for market introduction this year. On behalf of ST-Ericsson’s board, I thank Didier for his strong contribution to ST-Ericsson.”

Lamouche will remain in his current position until March 31, 2013.

ABOUT ST-ERICSSON

ST-Ericsson is a world leader in developing and delivering a complete portfolio of innovative mobile platforms and cutting-edge wireless semiconductor solutions across the broad spectrum of mobile technologies. ST-Ericsson was established as a 50/50 joint venture by STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) in February 2009, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.

www.stericsson.com 
www.twitter.com/STEricssonForum

ST-ERICSSON ANNOUNCES GLOBAL WORKFORCE REVIEW [ST-Ericsson press release, March 18, 2011]

ST-Ericsson, a joint venture (JV) of STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) and Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC), today announced a plan for a global workforce review, following the announcement made today by Ericsson and STMicroelectronics about the future of the joint venture.

The proposed key steps of agreement between the parent companies include each parent taking on parts of ST-Ericsson. It is proposed that Ericsson will assume approximately 1,800 employees and contractors, with the largest concentrations in Sweden, Germany, India and China. It is also proposed that ST will assume approximately 950 employees, primarily in France and in Italy, to support ongoing business and new products development within ST.

In addition, ST-Ericsson is pursuing external options for the future of the connectivity business, which employs around 200 employees worldwide.

In connection with the transfer of the majority of its workforce to the parent companies, ST-Ericsson will carry out restructuring of its current operations which could impact some 1,600 employees worldwide, out of which in a range of 500-700 are in Europe, including 400 to 600 positions in Sweden and 50 to 80 positions in Germany.

ST-Ericsson – with the support of both parent companies – will honor all obligations to employees, including those related to restructuring.

The proposed changes are subject to negotiations with work councils and employee representatives as required.

Ericsson and STMicroelectronics agree on strategic way forward for ST-Ericsson [STMicroelectronics press release, March 18, 2013]

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) and STMicroelectronics (NYSE:STM) today announced an agreement on the way forward for the joint venture (JV) ST-Ericsson. As communicated by the parent companies in December 2012, both have been working together toward a strategic solution for the JV.  After months of intensive joint work, the parent companies have selected the strategic option which maximizes their respective future prospects and growth plans.

The main steps agreed upon to split up the JV are the following:

• Ericsson will take on the design, development and sales of the LTE multimode thin modem products, including 2G, 3G and 4G multimode
• ST will take on the existing ST-Ericsson products, other than LTE multimode thin modems, and related business as well as certain assembly and test facilities
• Starting the close down of the remaining parts of ST-Ericsson.

The formal transfer of the relevant parts of ST-Ericsson to the parent companies is expected to be completed during the third quarter of 2013, subject to regulatory approvals.

After the split up it is proposed that Ericsson will assume approximately 1,800 employees and contractors, with the largest concentrations in Sweden, Germany, India and China.

It is also proposed that ST will assume approximately 950 employees, primarily in France and in Italy, to support ongoing business and new products development within ST.

Today, it is also announced that Carlo Ferro is appointed President and Chief Executive Officer of ST-Ericsson, effective April 1, 2013. Ferro is currently Chief Operating Officer of ST-Ericsson and succeeds Didier Lamouche who, as previously announced, will pursue opportunities outside the company. Ferro will lead the work in securing both business continuity of ST-Ericsson and effective completion of the transition phase.

Hans Vestberg, President and CEO, Ericsson and Chairman of the Board of Directors, ST-Ericsson said: “I welcome Carlo Ferro as the new President and CEO of ST-Ericsson. Carlo has over twenty years of experience in the semiconductor industry and a strong track record in driving and managing complex transformation projects. He has been a contributor to the solid progress ST-Ericsson has made the past year in terms of strategy execution and significantly lowering the breakeven point.”

“In line with what we announced in December last year, we have now moved to the next step of our exit process and found a solution with Ericsson that fully aligns with our new strategy”, said Carlo Bozotti, President and CEO of ST. “The agreement made with Ericsson represents a major step forward in reaching our new financial model target and allows us to further strengthen the skillsets of our company, by welcoming in ST, at completion, additional strong competences to fuel growth in specific key product areas. Moreover, it protects and leverages the ongoing ST-Ericsson’s business, allowing us to reinforce our relationships with key customers, both of ST and of ST-Ericsson”.

With the proposed transfer of competencies from ST-Ericsson, ST will further strengthen its capabilities in the areas of application processors, RF, analog and power as well as software and complex system integration. In addition, ST-Ericsson’s portfolio includes devices that are complementary to ST’s focus on the fastest growing segments of the wireless semiconductor market, such as system-optimized analog mixed signal and power management devices, high-quality, low-power audio and video enhancements and innovative energy harvesting solutions.

The agreement is fully in line with ST’s financial model target of an operating margin of 10 percent or more and with plans to reduce quarterly net operating expenses to an average quarterly rate in the range of $600 million to $650 million by the beginning of 2014.

In addition, as a result of the agreement, ST expects to incur cash costs, including the covering of ST-Ericsson’s ongoing operations during the transition period and its restructuring costs, in the range of approximately $350 million to $450 million, narrower than the range provided at the end of January 2013.

She was kind as I apologized for my overlooking her presence and worthiness. My mind was distracted, cleaning the cobwebs of old dying spaces within the rooms of my mind, throwing out the garbage of pain and solitude onto the streets of forgotten ones. The stench of remembrance was everywhere to the dismay of the lonely. I was thinking when will the tsunami come and wash it all away. Down the gutter.

She just happened to be checking in at the hotel room beside mine. I thought to myself “I’ve known her before” as I looked for the key to my door. We smiled and said hello to each other as we entered our respective domains.

Inside my room her aura stayed painted on my brain. She had this playful curiosity to her like a kitten toying with the strings; tangling my ganglion.

The conversation grew through these temporary meetings into longer and smarter dialogue, as the attempts to unlock our doors became longer and less important. I think there was a common ground reached even though we were staying on the fourth floor.

We laughed about the stupid and prayed about the smart. Hoping that one day things would be better in this manipulated world. Realizing that the most successful are often the most lost and the most shunned are often the correct ones.

Before I checked out on the last day of my stay, I tried to give her a hug, for I felt it was understood between us,
but as I reached out to proclaim the blood in my heart and veins, her beautiful frame turned into water, that became the tears that bled from my eyes, forming a tsunami of a puddle that I pushed down the drains with my callous foot.

Lol

Sed