AMD earlier today announced its Ryzen 3000C-series processors targeted at Chromebooks, a segment where the company feels it can bring more to the table than Intel's entry-level Celeron, Pentium Silver, and Pentium Gold mobile processors. Responding to a questionnaire by TechPowerUp, AMD revealed a handful details about these processors. The Ryzen 3000C-series processors are based on the 12 nm "Picasso" silicon, while the Athlon Gold and Athlon Silver parts are based on 14 nm. The "Picasso" based parts combine up to 4 "Zen+" CPU cores, with an iGPU based on the "Vega" graphics architecture, with up to 10 NGCUs. AMD has optimized all SKUs for a 15 W TDP target.

Responding to a question on storage specification or possible collaboration with MediaTek on WLAN controllers, AMD responded that it wishes a diverse hardware ecosystem for its OEM partners, without getting into specifics. There was no denial on the MediaTek bit. The Ryzen 7 3700C practically maxes out the "Picasso" silicon within the 15 W TDP envelope, which got us wondering if AMD has its eyes on the premium Chromebook segment, possibly even Google's first-party Chromebook Pixel brand. To this company responded that while the 3700C has a solid feature-set for premium Chromebooks, there are no first-party Pixel products on the anvil. AMD has just entered the market, and possibly wants to make a dent on the bulk of the Chromebook market first.

Intel has a dominating position over the client-segment 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 NIC controller market. The company's wireless NICs have a near monopoly over WLAN cards inside notebooks, including those powered by AMD processors. Intel further leverages its own brand NICs under the vPro feature-set, providing an end-to-end management solution covering even the NIC. AMD needs to change this, especially if it wants its PRO feature-set to match up to vPro.

AMD is planing to enter the network hardware segment by developing WLAN controllers of its own, which will power future generations of Ryzen processor-powered notebooks, including Ryzen PRO ones; and possible become a staple for desktop PC motherboard vendors on the AMD platform. To cut through the toughest part about coming up with new NICs - the web of IP, AMD has decided to partner with MediaTek, which manufactures mobile SoCs, and cellular MODEM chips, and has the required IP to make standalone WLAN controllers. The first AMD WLAN controllers could build on existing MediaTek IP blocks.

MediaTek today announced its T750 5G chipset to power next generation 5G CPE wireless products, like fixed wireless access routers (FWA) and mobile hotspots, to bring fast 5G connectivity into homes, businesses and anyone on the go. The highly integrated, 7 nm compact chip design comes with an integrated 5G radio and quad-core Arm CPU. It's full-featured with all the essential functions and peripherals for device makers to build high performance consumer premise equipment products in the smallest form factors possible. The T750 is sampling now with potential customers.

"Pervasive high-speed broadband connectivity is becoming more important with the increase in connected devices and the surge of people working from home, taking online classes and using services like tele-health and video calling," said JC Hsu, Corporate Vice President and General Manager of MediaTek's wireless communications business unit. "We are extending our 5G leadership beyond the smartphone segment with the T750 chipset, opening up new markets for broadband operators and device makers, and helping consumers - no matter where they live - to experience all the advantages of 5G connectivity."

MediaTek today announced its newest 5G SoC, the Dimensity 800U, as the latest addition in MediaTek's Dimensity series family. The 7 nm Dimensity 800U chipset is designed for multi-core high performance and leading 5G+5G Dual Sim Dual Standby (DSDS) technology. With Dimensity 800U MediaTek continues to accelerate the rollout of 5G technology and deliver premium experiences on mid-tier 5G smartphones.

"MediaTek has always focused on enhancing the user experience with our leading semiconductor technology, whether consumers are streaming, gaming or taking photos," said Dr. Yenchi Lee, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek's Wireless Communications Business Unit. "MediaTek's Dimensity 800U brings cutting-edge, next-gen technology to the Dimensity SoC series, bringing MediaTek's advanced 5G, imaging and multimedia technologies to high-performance 5G smartphones that deliver incredible 5G experiences."

Xiaomi today unveiled what it considers to be the third defining piece of technology for its 10th anniversary - the 55" Mi TV LUX Transparent Edition. As the name implies, and as Xiaomi will pridefully tell you, this is the world's first fully edge-to-edge transparent OLED display - the images are displayed on its transparent screen and thus appear to be "floating in the air" - taking a cue from most science fiction settings. Xiaomi has also taken this opportunity to announce that they've become the first China-based company in the world to produce transparent OLED TVs, as well as China's number one OLED Basic Module (OBM) manufacturer.

MediaTek and Intel have reached a milestone in the development and certification of 5G T700 modem solutions for next-generation PC experiences. As announced by MediaTek today, the project is on schedule and the team has conducted 5G calls with the chipset. Intel is also well under way developing platform optimizations for best-in-class 5G PC user experiences that include validation and system integration, and readying co-engineering support for further enablement of its OEM partners.

"A successful partnership is measured by execution, and we're excited to see the rapid progress we are making with MediaTek on our 5G modem solution with customer sampling starting later this quarter. Building on Intel's 4G/LTE leadership in PCs, 5G is poised to further transform the way we connect, compute and communicate. Intel is committed to enhancing those capabilities on the world's best PCs," said Chris Walker, corporate vice president and general manager of Mobile Client Platforms at Intel.

MediaTek today announced the Dimensity 720, its latest 5G SoC that will give consumers access to premium 5G experiences on mid-tier smartphones. The Dimensity 720, is part of MediaTek's 5G chipset family that includes range of chipsets from Dimensity 1000 for flagship 5G smartphones to the Dimensity 800 and 700 series for more accessible 5G mid-tier devices.

"The Dimensity 720 sets a new standard, delivering feature-packed 5G experiences and technology to devices that are more accessible to mass market consumers," said Dr. Yenchi Lee, Deputy General Manager, Wireless Communications Business Unit, MediaTek. "This chip is highly power-efficient, has impressive performance and advanced display and imaging technologies. All of that combined will help brands usher in differentiated 5G devices for consumers around the globe."

MediaTek, the world's 4th largest global fabless semiconductor company, today launched its newest chips in the smartphone gaming-focused G series - the MediaTek Helio G25 and G35. The latest chips feature MediaTek HyperEngine game technology for faster, smoother performance, enhanced power efficiency, and brilliant graphics.

The new chipsets always keep you connected and deliver the lowest latency gaming experience. They also offer enhanced imaging features, making these G-series chipsets a perfect fit for photography enthusiasts and gamers alike.

MediaTek today announced the Dimensity 820 system-on-chip (SoC) which is optimized for premium user experiences. The Dimensity 820 delivers ultra-fast 5G speeds, and is feature-packed with MediaTek's latest multimedia, AI and imaging innovations.

"Our Dimensity 1000 is already powering impressive flagship 5G devices in a number of markets. With the new Dimensity 820, we're now making 5G much more accessible," said Dr. Yenchi Lee, Assistant General Manager of MediaTek's Wireless Communications Business Unit. "The Dimensity 820 stands out beyond competitors by offering four high-performance Arm Cortex-A76 cores at 2.60 GHz within its octa-core CPU, delivering superb performance and responsiveness, among its incredible AI, gaming and photography experiences."

MediaTek today announced enhancements to its Dimensity 5G chipset family with the Dimensity 1000+, an enhanced 5G-integrated chip with a number of leading technologies and upgrades for gaming, video and power-efficiency.

Dimensity 1000+ is based on the flagship performance of the Dimensity 1000 series and delivers a high-end, premium user experience. With years of accumulated experience in integrated chip technologies, MediaTek has made breakthroughs and innovations in all aspects and has become a pioneer in the 5G era.

MediaTek has announced it will enable YouTube video streams using the cutting-edge AV1 video codec on the MediaTek Dimensity 1000 5G SoC. The MediaTek Dimensity 1000 is the world's first smartphone SoC to integrate an AV1 hardware video decoder, enabling it to play back AV1 video streams up to 4K resolution at 60 fps. With its improved compression efficiency, AV1 gives users incredible visual quality and smoother video experiences, while using less data.

Video streaming is the number one activity in smartphone use, so by using the Dimensity 1000's more power efficient hardware-based AV1 video decoder, users can enjoy longer battery life while still streaming at the best quality settings. Combined with its ultra-fast 5G connectivity in a single chip, the Dimensity 1000 leads the industry in design and capability.

AMD in the second half of 2020 could outpace Apple as the biggest foundry customer of TSMC for its 7 nm silicon fabrication nodes (DUV and EUV combined). There are two key factors contributing to this: AMD significantly increasing its orders for the year; and Apple transitioning to TSMC's 5 nm node for its A14 SoC, freeing up some 7 nm allocation, which AMD grabbed. AMD is currently tapping into 7 nm DUV for its "Zen 2" chiplet, "Navi 10," and "Navi 14" GPU dies. The company could continue to order 7 nm DUV until these products reach EOL; while also introducing the new "Renoir" APU die on the process. The foundry's new 7 nm+ (EUV) node will be utilized for "Zen 3" chiplets and "Navi 2#" GPU dies in 2020.

Currently, the top-5 customers for TSMC 7 nm are Apple, HiSilicon, Qualcomm, AMD, and MediaTek. Barring AMD, the others in the top-5 build mobile SoCs or 4G/5G modem chips on the node. AMD is expected to top the list as it scales up orders with TSMC. In the first half of 2020, TSMC's monthly output for 7 nm is expected to grow to 110,000 wafers per month (wpm). Apple's migration to 5 nm in 2H-2020, coupled with capacity-addition could take TSMC's 7 nm output to 140,000 wpm. AMD has reportedly booked the entire capacity-addition for 30,000 wpm, taking its allocation up to 21% in 2H-2020. Qualcomm is switching to Samsung for its next-generation SoCs and modems designed for 7 nm EUV. NVIDIA, too, is expected to built its next-gen 7 nm EUV GPUs on Samsung instead of TSMC. These moves by big players could free up significant foundry allocation at TSMC for AMD's volumes to grow in 2020.

MediaTek today unveiled Dimensity, MediaTek's family of powerful 5G system-on-chips (SoCs) offering an unrivaled combination of connectivity, multimedia, AI and imaging innovations for premium and flagship smartphones.

The MediaTek Dimensity 5G chipset family brings smart and fast together to power the world's most capable 5G devices. Dimensity represents a step toward a new era of mobility - the fifth dimension - to spur industry innovation and let consumers unlock the possibilities of 5G connectivity.

Intel is partnering with MediaTek on the development, certification and support of 5G modem solutions for the next generation of PC experiences. As part of the partnership, Intel will define a 5G solution specification, including a 5G modem to be developed and delivered by MediaTek. Intel will also provide optimization and validation across the platform and lend system integration and co-engineering support to further enable its OEM partners.

"5G is poised to unleash a new level of computing and connectivity that will transform the way we interact with the world. This partnership with MediaTek brings together industry leaders with deep engineering, system integration and connectivity expertise to deliver 5G experiences on the next generation of the world's best PCs." -Gregory Bryant, Intel executive vice president and general manager of the Client Computing Group.

Diversity is the name of the game when it comes to the edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) chipset industry. In 2019, the AI industry is witnessing the continual migration of AI workloads, particularly AI inference, to edge devices, including on-premise servers, gateways, and end-devices and sensors. Based on the AI development in 17 vertical markets, ABI Research, a global tech market advisory firm, estimates that the edge AI chipset market will grow from US $2.6 billion in 2019 to US $7.6 billion by 2024, with no vendor commanding more than 40% of the market.

The frontrunner of this market is NVIDIA, with a 39% revenue share in the first half of 2019. The GPU vendor has a strong presence in key AI verticals that are currently leading in AI deployments, such as automotive, camera systems, robotics, and smart manufacturing. "In the face of different use cases, NVIDIA chooses to release GPU chipsets with different computational and power budgets. In combination with its large developer ecosystem and partnerships with academic and research institutions, the chipset vendor has developed a strong foothold in the edge AI industry," said Lian Jye Su, Principal Analyst at ABI Research.

NVIDIA is facing stiff competition from Intel with its comprehensive chipset portfolio, from Xeon CPU to Mobileye and Movidius Myriad. At the same time, FPGA vendors, such as Xilinx, QuickLogic, and Lattice Semiconductor, are creating compelling solutions for industrial AI applications. One missing vertical from NVIDIA's wide footprint is consumer electronics, specifically smartphones. In recent years, AI processing in smartphones has been driven by smartphone chipset manufacturers and smartphone vendors, such as Qualcomm, Huawei, and Apple. In smart home applications, MediaTek and Amlogic are making their presence known through the widespread adoption of voice control front ends and smart appliances.

As the trade war between the US and China continues to unfold, we are seeing major US companies ban or stop providing service to China's technology giant Huawei. Now, it looks like the trade war has crossed the ocean and reached the UK. This time, UK based ARM Holdings, the provider of mobile chip IP for nearly all smartphones and tablets, has revoked the license it has given Huawei.

According to the BBC, ARM Holdings employees were instructed to suspend all interactions with Huawei, and to send a note informing Huawei that "due to an unfortunate situation, they were not allowed to provide support, deliver technology (whether software, code, or other updates), engage in technical discussions, or otherwise discuss technical matters with Huawei, HiSilicon or any of the other named entities." The news came from an internal ARM document the BBC has obtained.

Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Agile Multiband is a new certification program from Wi-Fi Alliance that enables devices to utilize Wi-Fi network resources better, and networks to adapt and balance load as network conditions change. Wi-Fi Agile Multiband devices dynamically exchange information about a network environment, enabling devices to make smarter decisions and quicker connections in home, enterprise, and managed network environments. Wi-Fi Agile Multiband delivers new capabilities that provide a better experience with both static use cases, such as streaming a high-definition movie, and mobile use cases such as Wi-Fi calling.

On January 24, 2017, AMD filed a complaint against several prominent tech companies, requesting that the ITC commence an investigation pursuant to Section 337. The basis for the complaint: some of these companies (namely, LG, MediaTek, VIZIO, and Sigma) unlawfully import into or sell inside the U.S. products which infringe on AMD's graphics intelectual property - namely, on U.S. Patent Nos. 7,633,506 (the '506 patent), 7,796,133 (the '133 patent) and 8,760,454 (the '454 patent) (collectively, the "asserted patents".

According to the complaint, these patents generally relate to architectures for graphics processing unit (GPU) circuitry. The '506 patent relates to "a graphics processing architecture that enables a large amount of graphics data to be rendered to a frame buffer". The '133 patent relates to specialized "texture" processing circuitry that is employed by GPUs. Lastly, the '454 patent relates to a "unified shader" hardware architecture for GPUs. The complaint specifically refers to various televisions and smartphones, specifically, towards the graphics processing systems within those televisions and smartphones - as infringing products.

The Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Foundation today announced publication of Heterogeneous System Architecture: A New Compute Platform Infrastructure (1st Edition), edited by Dr. Wen-Mei Hwu. The book, published by Elsevier Publishing (found here: here), offers a practical guide to understanding HSA, a standardized platform design that unlocks the performance and power efficiency of parallel computing engines found in most modern electronic devices.

"Heterogeneous computing is a key enabler of the next generation of compute environments, wherein entire systems will interconnect autonomously and in real time," said HSA Foundation President Dr. John Glossner. "Developers who are skilled in the use of this platform will have the upper hand in terms of design time, IP portability, power efficiency and performance."

To support these developers, the HSA Foundation working groups are rapidly standardizing tools and APIs for debug and profiling, creating guidelines for incorporating IP from multiple vendors into the same SoC, and much more. The Foundation released the v1.0 specification in March, and soon thereafter, companies including AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies and MediaTek previewed their plans for rolling out the world's first products based on HSA.

The HSA Foundation has released Version 0.95 of its Programmer's Reference Manual. The HSA (Heterogeneous System Architecture) Foundation is a not-for-profit consortium dedicated to developing architecture specifications that unlock the performance and power efficiency of the parallel computing engines found in most modern devices. This is the first output from the HSA Foundation, who have been collaborating on this project since its founding in June 2012. It represents an important step in the development of the HSA Foundation's ecosystem because it enables software partners to develop libraries, tools and middleware and to code high performance kernels.

The Programmer's Reference Manual provides a standardized method of accessing all available computing resources in HSA-compliant systems. This enables a wide range of system resources to cooperate on parallelizable tasks. It has been specifically designed to perform in the most energy efficient way without compromising on performance. The goal is to enable a heterogeneous architecture that is easy to program, opens up new and rich user experiences and improves performance and quality of service, whilst reducing energy consumption.

MediaTek Inc., a leading fabless semiconductor company for wireless communications and digital multimedia, today announced that its MT7620 Wi-Fi System-on-a-Chip (SoC) has been selected for the new ASUS RT-N14U N300 wireless router, debuting globally this quarter.

The MT7620 is the latest addition to MediaTek's family of highly integrated, single-chip Wi-Fi SoC products, currently being deployed by many wireless router and repeater makers worldwide. It incorporates advanced signaling technologies, giving device manufacturers robust tools to develop best-in-class energy-saving wireless routers, with particular benefit when connected to battery-powered devices such as smartphones, notebooks, and tablets.

Jon Peddie Research (JPR), the industry's research and consulting firm for graphics and multimedia, announced estimated mobile devices graphics chip shipments and suppliers' market share for first half of 2012.

We found that shipments of GPUs in mobile devices (tablets and smart phones) during the first half of 2012 had a growth year to year (1h'11 to 1h'12) of 69.4%. Samsung's sales surged in the first half giving them the highest CAGR for the year (179%), followed by Qualcomm (39%), which was already enjoying high shipment rates. MediaTek (included under "Others" for this report but we will break them out by name in our next report on mobile devices) had a phenomenal 966% growth year to year (starting from a very low base).

Following last week's 15% workforce cut that came with the company's Q3 2012 results, AMD plans to consolidate its workforce and eliminate "bureaucracy." According to a VR-Zone report, the company plans to announce its future strategy next week, on October 29. This strategy could ride heavily on recent moves the company made in the area of "heterogeneous computing," and a working alliance it built with the likes of ARM, MediaTek, Qualcomm, Samsung and TI, under the heterogeneous system alliance (HSA).

According to the report, AMD's future looks to be heading towards building highly versatile SoCs for devices in the post-PC era. It's not far-fetched to imagine, for example, that AMD could integrate ARM IP onto APUs with x86 cores, with the ARM cores based on recent micro-architectures such as Cortex-M5, performing specific kinds of tasks (such as data-encryption). Down the line, AMD could also integrate baseband components into the APU, beating Intel to the punch on similar efforts.

The Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Foundation today announced that Qualcomm Incorporated has joined as a Founder Member. Qualcomm's commitment reinforces HSA as the next technological underpinning in computing for a broad range of platforms and devices. Since its formation in June, the HSA Foundation has more than doubled its membership with new Founder, Supporter, Contributor and Associate members that have joined the consortium.

Qualcomm joins AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek Inc., Samsung Electronics Ltd. and Texas Instruments as founder members of the HSA Foundation. The companies are working together to drive a single architecture specification, which simplifies the programming model for software developers on modern platforms and devices. The HSA Foundation will unlock the performance and power efficiency of the parallel computing engines found in heterogeneous processors.

Today the Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) Foundation announced six new members. The HSA Foundation is pleased to welcome Apical, Arteris Inc., MulticoreWare Inc., Sonics, Symbio and Vivante Corporation to the membership roster. Each company adds expertise to the HSA ecosystem by assisting with research, development, production, manufacture, use, and the sale of HSA IP and heterogeneous computing software and solutions.

These new members have joined at different levels including: supporter, contributor and associate. Working closely with the founder members of AMD, ARM, Imagination Technologies, MediaTek Inc., Samsung Electronics and Texas Instruments (TI), the new members will contribute to the growing adoption of HSA in heterogeneous computing.