Is My iPhone Hurting The Earth?


Of course we all know that power is the number one consideration in SoC design today but despite the fact that it is so well accepted and felt acutely by design and verification teams, we are still missing the boat as far as the bigger picture. From the perspective of a wanna-be treehugger, I think we fall short in realizing the grand impact of all this focus on power savings. The very a... » read more

The Denial Phase Is Over


For the last seven years—roughly since Apple first introduced the iPhone—the focus on power has become very real. In the past few years, that focus has shifted from power—how energy is used over time—to energy efficiency. This is more than just hair-splitting. It represents a fundamental and strategic shift for how SoCs and processors are architected, implemented and manufactured. ... » read more

Big Changes Rock Global Smartphone Market


BANGKOK — One of the many draws for Western travelers here in Thailand and throughout much of Asia, including China, is the availability of cheap consumer electronics. Unfortunately many of these electronic goods — little-known off-brands mimicking better-known counterparts, or white-label devices being passed off as name-brand products to unsuspecting consumers — typically are technologi... » read more

The Week In Review: Manufacturing & Design


Intel is getting serious about the foundry business.  “Intel CEO Brian Krzanich is making some waves. This is not because Intel is becoming more market driven, but that Intel will open its foundry to ‘any’ company able to utilize the company's leading-edge technology. It’s very refreshing to see Intel make this move and could have important implications for the industry. Based on Intel... » read more

New Foundry Gold Rush: RF SOI


By Mark LaPedus About every five years or so, a new and hot market emerges in the specialty foundry business that resembles a frenetic gold rush. The last big gold rush occurred around 2008, when more than a dozen foundries jumped into the bipolar-CMOS-DMOS (BCD) market to capitalize on the booming power-management sector. Now, the next gold rush is centering on an emerging technology—th... » read more

Does My Phone Dream?


By Cary Chin Starting with my commentary on the Tesla Model S last month (poor standby time before software update), I was thinking about how common a problem standby power is these days. Nearly all of our recently introduced smartphones have had similar problems (iPhone 5, Nexus 4, Galaxy S4, Lumia 900) running on virtually all operating systems (iOS 6.x, Android 4.2.x, Windows Phone 8). All ... » read more

Power? It’s The Apps, Stupid!


Shabtay Matalon When I bought my first iPhone, I envisioned using it mostly to make phone calls and occasionally to view e-mails and browse the Web. For navigation, I used a separate GPS. But all this changed when I realized that I can use the Waze App on my iPhone for real-time navigation or to play games while listening to music on a boring coast-to-coast domestic flight. These new “apps�... » read more

Are You A Disrupter?


I read a fascinating article recently about how to be a disrupter and how to avoid being disrupted. It goes through the characteristics of a disrupter such as: unencumbered development, unconstrained growth, new product cycles and undisciplined strategy. It also gives the example of how the standalone GPS unit market tanked in a matter of two weeks once smartphone mapping apps became availab... » read more

Apple’s Impact On Battery Power


More than one person I’ve spoken with lately has pointed out the fact that battery life is no longer the most important thing when a consumer is choosing a smartphone. Wait! I thought power was the #1, be all end all in the mobile area. It was, until the Apple iPhone showed up on the scene and stole the show, dazzling consumers with the touch screen, unique features, and very Apple-like ex... » read more

Cellular Stranglehold?


Do you ever feel like you are completely at the mercy of your cellular service provider? Yeah, me too. Not only did I have to change providers when I relocated, I had to buy a new phone of course. Since my old phone and my new phone were both iPhones, I thought for sure I could use the same car charger….but no dice. This fact has bothered me for quite some time because it made no sense to ... » read more

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