The Icon Bar: News and features: CES 2010: ARM hardware roundup
Posted by Jeffrey Lee on 02:40, 17/1/2010
| Google, Hardware, Microsoft, Linux, Previews, RISC OS, Shows, Technology
Last week saw this year's annual Consumer Electronics Show go down in Las Vegas. The world's largest consumer technology tradeshow, it's traditionally a source for many product announcements from the major manufacturers. This year there was a lot of focus on 3D TVs, e-readers, and, most importantly for us, next-generation ARM-powered goodies. NVIDIAStarting this article with the most prolific first, we have NVIDIA and their Tegra platform. Although the Tegra 1 platform was announced less than a year ago, there was only one device on display using the chipset. Why's that? Because NVIDIA have just announced the Tegra 2! Utilising a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU running at "up to" 1GHz, the new Tegra is able to decode 1080p HD video, and has powerful enough graphics hardware to be able to display said video at its native resolution. And although the Tegra 1 was initially a Windows CE-only affair, this new generation of the chip has been seen running Google's Android, so there's hope that the hardware documentation will be open enough to allow a suitably crazy set of individuals to begin a RISC OS port, should they feel so inclined. MarvellComing in second place this year was Marvell, with the highlight being the announcement of their new ARMADA range of SoC's. Like the Tegra 2, Marvell's ARMADA is a powerful beast, utilising up to four ARMv7 cores running at GHz speeds and capable of decoding and displaying full HD video. Slightly more detailed specs are available on Marvell's website. ![](/news/images/ces2010/armadabook.jpg) Stylish ARMADA smartbook Via Engadget. | ![](/news/images/ces2010/plug.jpg) 2GHz ARMADA-powered Plug Computer 3.0 Via Engadget. | ![](/news/images/ces2010/ebox.jpg) ARMADA-powered EBOX nettop Via Engadget. | ![](/news/images/ces2010/paradigm.jpg) Non-ARMADA Paradigm Shift tablet Via Engadget. |
QualcommAlthough they didn't have much exciting new stuff to show at CES, there is news that Qualcomm are following the trend and working on a dual-core, 1.5GHz, 1080p-able version of their Snapdragon chipset. FreescaleFreescale appears to have had a rather poor showing at CES, with the only notable item on display being a 7" tablet with keyboard-dock, powered by a 1GHz i.MX515 processor. Other items of interestWhat? No OMAP?Yes, it looks like TI's OMAP platform was notably absent from this year's CES. However, all is not lost - the Pandora is (still) inching closer to release (Just a few case tweaks left, hopefully), the Touch Book has been on sale for a few months now (to mixed reviews), and TI's next-gen, multi-core, 1080p-capable OMAP4 was actually announced way back in February last year - they just don't have any prototypes to show off yet. Hopefully this year's Computex Taipei will be TI's time to shine.
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CES 2010: ARM hardware roundup |
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highlandcattle (12:31 17/1/2010) nunfetishist (12:54 17/1/2010) Phlamethrower (13:00 17/1/2010) filecore (13:16 17/1/2010) nunfetishist (15:25 17/1/2010) filecore (17:09 17/1/2010) nunfetishist (17:10 17/1/2010) bhtooefr (17:18 17/1/2010) nunfetishist (17:42 17/1/2010) Phlamethrower (12:56 17/1/2010) monkeyson2 (14:35 17/1/2010) trevj (12:58 8/4/2010) arawnsley (15:07 15/4/2010) bhtooefr (01:27 16/4/2010) nunfetishist (11:38 16/4/2010) trevj (13:20 14/5/2010) nunfetishist (13:46 14/5/2010) trevj (14:26 14/5/2010) nunfetishist (14:51 14/5/2010) trevj (15:33 14/5/2010) bhtooefr (16:44 14/5/2010) trevj (09:46 20/5/2010) helpful (17:46 17/1/2010) PeterD (16:54 20/1/2010) Phlamethrower (19:56 21/1/2010) helpful (21:51 21/1/2010) Phlamethrower (22:49 21/1/2010) PeterD (09:29 17/2/2010) trevj (09:55 17/2/2010) trevj (12:32 7/7/2010)
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van Engelen Thomas |
Message #112860, posted by highlandcattle at 12:31, 17/1/2010 |
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What are the mixed reviews for the Touch Book about? |
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Rob Kendrick |
Message #112863, posted by nunfetishist at 12:54, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112860 |
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It's "NVIDIA", not "nVidia". |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #112864, posted by Phlamethrower at 12:56, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112860 |
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What are the mixed reviews for the Touch Book about? From what people are saying, the build quality doesn't seem to be that great - the headphone socket is recessed too far and so doesn't accept the majority of plugs, the slide locks that connect the tablet to the keyboard and hold the back of the tablet on aren't spring-loaded (although I haven't seen many people complain about it so it might not be a major issue), post-release they had to add extra "feet" to the back of the keyboard to stop the whole thing falling over backwards when the screen is open beyond 90 degrees, there are reports of things shifting round and unplugging/unsticking themselves during shipping, and there are reports that batteries aren't charging properly (although it's hard to tell whether that's a software or hardware problem).
Of course, without knowing how many units they're shipping it's a bit hard to tell how widespread these faults are. Apart from the obvious design flaws (headphone socket, slide locks, no RTC battery!) it might just be a few isolated incidents that are causing the majority of the forum chatter.
Hopefully ROOL will be able to provide a better perspective when they receive their unit. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #112865, posted by Phlamethrower at 13:00, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112863 |
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It's "NVIDIA", not "nVidia". Hmm, so it is! Cheers! |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #112866, posted by filecore at 13:16, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112865 |
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It's "NVIDIA", not "nVidia". Hmm, so it is! Cheers! TIB: the site of choice for trolls, anal-retentives, and other RISC OS enthusiasts. |
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Phil Mellor |
Message #112867, posted by monkeyson2 at 14:35, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112864 |
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From what people are saying, the build quality doesn't seem to be that great - the headphone socket is recessed too far and so doesn't accept the majority of plugs, the slide locks that connect the tablet to the keyboard and hold the back of the tablet on aren't spring-loaded (although I haven't seen many people complain about it so it might not be a major issue), post-release they had to add extra "feet" to the back of the keyboard to stop the whole thing falling over backwards when the screen is open beyond 90 degrees, there are reports of things shifting round and unplugging/unsticking themselves during shipping, and there are reports that batteries aren't charging properly (although it's hard to tell whether that's a software or hardware problem). ...otherwise OK? ![tongue](/images/smileys/tongue.gif) |
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Rob Kendrick |
Message #112868, posted by nunfetishist at 15:25, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112865 |
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It's "NVIDIA", not "nVidia". Hmm, so it is! Cheers! What's interesting is that it's /always/ been NVIDIA, but their old logo's typeface selection made it confusing. Everywhere else it was always all-caps. They made the problem worse with their nForce chipset. Kinda reminds me of the mess of RISC OS, Risc<halfspace>PC, and RISCOS Ltd. |
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Jason Togneri |
Message #112872, posted by filecore at 17:09, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112868 |
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What's interesting is that it's /always/ been NVIDIA, but their old logo's typeface selection made it confusing. Everywhere else it was always all-caps. This quite clearly looks like "nVIDIA" to me. The modern one is less obscure. |
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Rob Kendrick |
Message #112873, posted by nunfetishist at 17:10, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112872 |
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What's interesting is that it's /always/ been NVIDIA, but their old logo's typeface selection made it confusing. Everywhere else it was always all-caps. This quite clearly looks like "nVIDIA" to me. The modern one is less obscure. Yes, quite. |
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Eric Rucker |
Message #112874, posted by bhtooefr at 17:18, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112873 |
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And, I do believe some of their own config files and strings in drivers use nVidia. |
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Rob Kendrick |
Message #112876, posted by nunfetishist at 17:42, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112874 |
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And, I do believe some of their own config files and strings in drivers use nVidia. In the same way some of RISC OS's sources refer to RiscOS If you look at any official material though, it's all quite consistent. |
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Bryan Hogan |
Message #112877, posted by helpful at 17:46, 17/1/2010, in reply to message #112860 |
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What are the mixed reviews for the Touch Book about? There seem to have been a quite a few people who have bought one, ignoring all the warnings on the website about it being a beta product, and have then complained when they get it and find that it is, well, a bit beta!
Got mine at the end of last week and it seems quite good so far, but it is definitely still a work in progress. With all the new products listed here, it may turn out that progress has taken too long, but we'll see.
If you are in the south east of England, come along to tomorrow's (Monday 18th) ROUGOL meeting and see it for yourself. |
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Peter Darnell |
Message #112965, posted by PeterD at 16:54, 20/1/2010, in reply to message #112877 |
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Hopefully get mine next month have had it on order since August. Should have had it already but I randomly entered my card number into a cash machine a few times at a Christmas night out and it ate my card, two days later the Touch Book people tried to get some money from it![unhappy](/images/smileys/unhappy.gif)
All sorted now. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #112981, posted by Phlamethrower at 19:56, 21/1/2010, in reply to message #112877 |
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What are the mixed reviews for the Touch Book about? There seem to have been a quite a few people who have bought one, ignoring all the warnings on the website about it being a beta product, and have then complained when they get it and find that it is, well, a bit beta!
Got mine at the end of last week and it seems quite good so far, but it is definitely still a work in progress. With all the new products listed here, it may turn out that progress has taken too long, but we'll see. The problem I have is that the website always used to describe it as the hardware being final, and only the software being in beta. And yet there are/were definite hardware problems on release, with the hardware being updated post-release in order to fix them.
Anyway, my bitterness aside - it looks like they've recently bumped the spec up to 512MB RAM. No official announcement yet, but hopefully this upgrade also signifies that they've taken the time to fix some of the hardware issues that have been reported. |
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Bryan Hogan |
Message #112982, posted by helpful at 21:51, 21/1/2010, in reply to message #112981 |
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yet there are/were definite hardware problems on release, with the hardware being updated post-release in order to fix them. Were there any hardware changes? Other than sticking two feet on the back to stop it falling over backwards!
my bitterness aside - it looks like they've recently bumped the spec up to 512MB RAM. Your bitterness - I waited 6 months for mine and one week after it arrives the spec goes up!
But if it is only a memory upgrade that I'm not really bothered by that. |
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Jeffrey Lee |
Message #112984, posted by Phlamethrower at 22:49, 21/1/2010, in reply to message #112982 |
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yet there are/were definite hardware problems on release, with the hardware being updated post-release in order to fix them. Were there any hardware changes? Other than sticking two feet on the back to stop it falling over backwards! The only change I know of (before this RAM upgrade) has been the feet. From today's IRC log there's also a mention of a new bottom part PCB revision, but for all I know that could be the part that's in the new model with more RAM. |
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Peter Darnell |
Message #113411, posted by PeterD at 09:29, 17/2/2010, in reply to message #112984 |
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Have received mine TB now, the one thing I that grabs you when you turn it on is that you have the choice of 3 operating systems at start up. I would love to help somehow to have that increased to 4 and have RISC OS added to the list. Now I have NO programming skills at all but If anyone can think of a way I could help please let me know. ps Is there any version of RISC OS at all that could run on the TB now?
Peter. |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #113412, posted by trevj at 09:55, 17/2/2010, in reply to message #113411 |
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Peter, have you seen the following ROOL info?As I don't have a Touch Book myself (and am still awaiting my Beagle Board - perhaps I should cancel and get an IGEPv2 board instead) all I can say is:read what info you can find; try what you're confident of without risking anything; and discuss things on the ROOL forum. Good luck ![smile](/images/smileys/smile.gif) |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #113921, posted by trevj at 12:58, 8/4/2010, in reply to message #112864 |
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Another Qualcomm device for the list is Wistron's PurseBook (hopefully this is just a working name!). Edit: But this is old news so perhaps it's been dropped.
[Edited by trevj at 14:54, 8/4/2010] |
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Andrew Rawnsley |
Message #113977, posted by arawnsley at 15:07, 15/4/2010, in reply to message #113921 |
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Just reading an overview of Tegra2 at hexus.net
That chip appears to have an ARM7 core in there as well as 2x Cortex A9 and so on...
Made me think (maybe stupidly) could this be harnessed by RISC OS for compatibility purposes? Could existing code be run on the Arm7 and new code be developed for the A9 cores? Probably not, so probably a stupid idea, but I did wonder if it offered an option for backwards compatibility. |
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Eric Rucker |
Message #113987, posted by bhtooefr at 01:27, 16/4/2010, in reply to message #113977 |
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The ARM7 handles things like power management.
Even if it WERE accessible from user code, it's likely an ARM7TDMI. The T means, might as well just run code directly on the Cortex-A9, as ARM7TDMI is a 32-bit only processor - the only real additional issue that the Cortex-A9 presents is unaligned load/store behavior changes, IIRC. |
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Rob Kendrick |
Message #113991, posted by nunfetishist at 11:38, 16/4/2010, in reply to message #113987 |
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Not to mention the ARM7's clock speed is probably so puny that you might as well emulate on the Cortex. |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #114443, posted by trevj at 13:20, 14/5/2010, in reply to message #113991 |
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Has anyone heard anything of SBCs using the Cortex-A8 based Renesas SH-Mobile APE4?
Renesas exhibited at the recent embedded world 2010 and their chips have been used previously by emtrion (who also exhibited there) - e.g. SH7780-based "Boxed PC". |
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Rob Kendrick |
Message #114444, posted by nunfetishist at 13:46, 14/5/2010, in reply to message #114443 |
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Has anyone heard anything of SBCs using the Cortex-A8 based Renesas SH-Mobile APE4? Boggle. Surely given it's Renesas, and it's called a SH-Mobile APE4, it would a be SuperH core, not ARM? |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #114445, posted by trevj at 14:26, 14/5/2010, in reply to message #114444 |
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Boggle. Surely given it's Renesas, and it's called a SH-Mobile APE4, it would a be SuperH core, not ARM? Well, that's what I thought initially. But the press release seems to indicate they've got a licensed ARM design in there. |
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Rob Kendrick |
Message #114446, posted by nunfetishist at 14:51, 14/5/2010, in reply to message #114445 |
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Boggle. Surely given it's Renesas, and it's called a SH-Mobile APE4, it would a be SuperH core, not ARM? Well, that's what I thought initially. But the press release seems to indicate they've got a licensed ARM design in there. Well, it can only be an improvement. My experiences of SuperH have accelerated my hair loss. |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #114448, posted by trevj at 15:33, 14/5/2010, in reply to message #114446 |
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...My experiences of SuperH have accelerated my hair loss. So perhaps the H doesn't stand for Hitachi, as I thought it did. |
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Eric Rucker |
Message #114450, posted by bhtooefr at 16:44, 14/5/2010, in reply to message #114445 |
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Good job, Renesas, at confusing everyone...
(SH-Mobile has historically been a line of SuperH stuff, not ARM.) |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #114495, posted by trevj at 09:46, 20/5/2010, in reply to message #114450 |
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Good job, Renesas, at confusing everyone...
(SH-Mobile has historically been a line of SuperH stuff, not ARM.) They avoided my specific question asking "to what extent is the SH-Mobile APE4 (product number: R8A73720) based on the Cortex-A8 and are there any known compatibility issues?" Instead I'm told that it's "an Application Processor specifically designed to support high-end Smartphones" - blindingly obvious from the press release! They'd now like to "evaluate [the] best potential match for [my] application"... Blah, blah, blah...
However, they are listed under 'affiliations' as an ARM Processor licensee.
Edit: I've now learned that they've recently undergone a restructuring as a result of the merger with NEC. Therefore, it's anyone's guess how effectively such queries are handled!
[Edited by trevj at 12:21, 20/5/2010] |
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Trevor Johnson |
Message #114789, posted by trevj at 12:32, 7/7/2010, in reply to message #112860 |
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Watch out for Intel smartphones at the 2011 show! |
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The Icon Bar: News and features: CES 2010: ARM hardware roundup |