IF / News

Chipsets

Imagination is announcing the first products in the 2NX NNA family: the higher-performance AX2185 and lower-cost AX2145. Given the traditional spectrum of embedded and mobile markets, Imagination is positioning the AX2185 for higher-end smartphones, smart surveillance systems, and automotive, while pushing the low-bandwidth-tuned AX2145 for lower-end applications, including DTV and set-top boxes (STB). (CN Beta, Globe Newswire, AnandTech)

Intel now has the capability to produce up to five silicon wafers every week containing up to 26-qubit quantum chips. This achievement means that Intel has greatly increased the number of quantum devices in existence and could be looking to increase the number of qubits steadily in the coming years.  Intel’s director of quantum hardware Jim Clarke reveals that the current technology being used in small scale production could eventually scale to beyond 1000 qubits.  (CN Beta, IEEE, Techspot)

Huawei Kirin 710 SoC reported will be launched in Apr 2018, built using Samsung 10nm LPP process, competing with Qualcomm new platform Snapdragon 710. The first product to adopt Kirin 710 is Nova 3. (CN Beta, CNMO, GizChina)

Affected by the abrupt fading of crypto mining craze starting in Apr 2018, suppliers of mining graphic cards are plagued by increasingly high inventories, and players in the supply chain of mining ASICs are also suffering significant decreases in orders, with crypto mining no longer a source of their revenue and profit growth momentum, according to Digitimes. (Digitimes, press, Laoyaoba)

Touch Display

Hon Hai Group (Foxcoonn) is working on Micro LED, with Innolux, Sunac, Marketech International Corp (MIC). Innolux is leveraging panel technology. Sunac is a vital role handling the Micro LED technology development. Newly added MIC will focus on transitioning technologies. (UDN, Laoyaoba)

Huawei has placed an order for the supply of a 6.9″ flat AMOLED panel from Samsung Display. The 6.9” flat AMOLED panels is for a device tipped to arrive later in 4Q18 / 1Q19, and  the said supply might end up being used for Huawei Mate 20 Pro. (GizChina, GSM Arena, The Bell, Sina)

The successor to the LG G7 ThinQ Android flagship will allegedly feature an LCD panel with a 4K resolution. (Pocket-Lint, Android Headlines)

LG Display (LGD) has recently started supplying OLED TV panels to Chinese TV maker Hisense that is widely rumored to launch its first OLED TV in 3Q18. (Laoyaoba, The Investor)

Camera

OPPO Find X will allegedly take advantage of 5x Dual-Camera Zoom technology, 3D Structured Light technology, as well as the OEM’s fast charging technology known as Super VOOC. (Android Headlines, Sohu, iFeng)

OmniVision Technologies has announced from MD&M East in NYC the OH01A, HD medical image sensor family. The OH01A employs the PureCel-S stacked-die architecture. The OH01A is the world’s first medical image sensor to provide 1280×800 resolution at a rate of 60 frames per second (FPS) in a tiny 2.5×1.5mm package. (Laoyaoba, MEMS.me, PR Newswire)

OmniVision Technologies has announced from MD&M East in NYC the OV2741, a new PureCel-S stacked-die sensor that extends OmniVision’s high definition (HD) medical image sensor family. The OV2741 provides 1080p full HD resolution and high image quality in a compact chip-scale package. It offers 1920×1080 resolution at a rate of 60 frames per second (FPS), for jitter-free, full-HD video. (Laoyaoba, PR Newswire)

OmniVision Technologies has announced from MD&M East in NYC the OVMed, a new mixed-signal image signal processor (ISP) designed for medical, veterinarian and industrial endoscopy applications. The OVMed ISP offers industry-leading image processing features and high image quality. It also integrates easily with commercial hardware and software. (Laoyaoba, PR Newswire, EE News Europe)

Storage

Winbond Electronics has announced the introduction of the W25N01JW, a high-performance, 1.8V serial NAND flash memory IC delivering a new high in data-transfer rates: 83MB/s via a quad serial peripheral interface (QSPI). The new high-performance serial NAND technology also supports a two-chip dual quad interface which gives a maximum data transfer rate of 166MB/s. (Digitimes, press, EET China)

Winbond chairman Arthur Chiao indicates that the storage market in 2H18 remains positive. DRAM and NAND / NOR Flash orders are high, production is hard to meet the demand, thanks to the emerging applications such as IoT and AI. Samsung has increased the DRAM cost, Cypress has increased NOR Flash cost, and Arthur Chiao has indicated that Winbond might follow trait. (China Times, Laoyaoba)

Sensory

According to Yole Développement, the MEMS pressure sensor market will grow by 3.8% per year, reaching a value of USD2B in 2023. Market leaders are different for each market segment, except for some MEMS sensor manufacturers, Robert Bosch, who is leading both automotive and consumer and Honeywell, and NXP who are present in 3 of the following market: automotive, industrial, medical and avionics & high end.  (Yole Development, press, Laoyaoba)

Biometrics

A patent for a combined home button and in-display fingerprint sensor filed by Samsung with WIPO has been published. The patent describes a combined mechanical and slightly larger virtual button which includes a GUI, and could be used with a capacitive, optical, or ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. The virtual button could also be resized or its form changed by the user to enable different functions, and different actions such as a swipe could also be supported. (Laoyaoba, Sina, Sohu, Deccan Chronicle, Biometric Update, Lets Go Digital)

Phone

According Xiaomi’s IPO application, in Jan-Mar 2018, Xiaomi’s revenue from smartphone business has reached CNY23.239B, which is 67.53% of the total revenue. Smartphone sales have reached 28.413M units, with ASP is about CNY817.92. (CN Beta, My Drivers, Sohu, Reuters, The Standard, CRS, report)

Huawei consumer group CEO Richard Yu has announced that the company sets a target of 200M units of smartphone shipment in 2018. (GizChina, Elecfans, Caijing)

Apple’s new iOS guidelines, specifically listed under section 3.15 called cryptocurrencies, ban apps from mining for Bitcoins and other virtual currencies unless it is done off-device (via the cloud). (Phone Arena, Apple, Ubergizmo, Leiphone)

China-based smartphone manufacturer iVoomi has announced entry-level smartphone i5 in India – 5” FWVGA, 1.2GHz quad-core, rear 5MP + front 5MP, 1GB+8GB, Android 7.0, 2800mAh, INR3,499. (Gizmo China, Telcom Talk)

Wearables

Phicomm W3 wearable tracker is announced – 0.85” 144×720 touchscreen, IP68 rated, optical heart-rate sensor, GPS+GLONASS, 142mAh, CNY999. (My Drivers, Phicomm)

Automotive

Byton, a Chinese electric car startup, has secured a USD500M Series B funding round to fuel the development of smart, connected cars. Investors include FAW Group, Tus-Holdings and CATL. Byton also announced the opening of a new HQ in Nanjing, China. This is on top of Byton’s research and development center in Santa Clara, California. (TechCrunch, Tencent, Sohu)

He Gang, president of Huawei’s Mobile Phone Product Line,  has revealed that Huawei technologies and German carmaker Audi will jointly develop 5G network vehicles. The said vehicle is expected to be released in 2020. This technology will enable the vehicles to realize safer semi-automatic driving via V2X communication technology. (Laoyaoba, Alphr, Auto Express, Yi Cai Global)