IF / News

Chipsets

Samsung is allegedly opting for a 3-cluster CPU core arrangement, featuring 4 lightweight Cortex-A55 cores, two Cortex-A75 (or A76) cores for medium tasks, and 2 4th-generation custom Mongoose CPU cores for heavyweight tasks for Exynos 9820. The setup is said to be ARM’s DynamIQ solution, with its energy-efficient cluster consisting of four A55 cores. (Android Authority, Android Headlines, Sam Mobile, Sohu)

Nvidia is pushing forward in artificial intelligence (AI) by partnering with German carmaker Daimler AG, and German engineering and electronics company Robert Bosch GmbH. The two automotive industry giants will be using Nvidia Pegasus system as the platform for self-driving vehicle designs beginning in 2020. (Digital Trends, VentureBeat, Market Watch, Caixin, Sina)

UNISOC, a leading fabless semiconductor company, has announced its latest 28nm WCDMA platform SC7731E has been adopted by one of the largest mobile phone companies in South Africa – MOBICEL. MOBICEL ASTRO, the world’s first smartphone powered by SC7731E, was officially launched into the market in June 2018.   (Asia One, Laoyaoba, PRNAsia)

Analog Devices Inc (ADI) has announced that it has signed a collaboration memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Baidu to jointly advance autonomous driving. The collaboration is expected to enhance autonomous driving solutions for Project Apollo, Baidu’s autonomous driving system platform, including sensor fusion, algorithms and ecosystem partners. (Laoyaoba, Reuters, Business Wire)

Broadcom has announced that it has reached a definitive agreement with CA Technologies, a major IT management software and solutions provider. The price of the acquisition is USD18.9B in cash. (TechCrunch, Fortune, Bloomberg, Sina, CN Beta)

Qualcomm global VP James Shen indicates that even though Huawei and Samsung have developed their own processors, they still continue to adopt Qualcomm SoCs because Qualcomm SoCs are good products. (Sina, Sohu, My Drivers)

MediaTek has announced that it has completed validation (interoperability tests) of NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) connectivity with SoftBank Corp to set the stage for future commercial NB-IoT applications within Japan. (Laoyaoba, PR Newswire)

Touch Display

LG Display (LGD) has announced that the Chinese government just approved LGD to build an OLED production facility in Guangzhou. LGD will establish a joint venture with Guangzhou Development District based on capital of KRW2.6T (USD2.3B). The new plant will produce about 60,000 displays per month, and will gradually increase that output to 90,000 displays per month. (Android Authority, Korea JoonAng Daily, Korea Herald, CN Beta)

Granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Apple’s patent for “Electronic devices with flexible displays” details how a folding mobile device could be created. While foldable, the device could feasibly have a screen taking up an entire side of the device, similar to a smartphone or tablet, but with one cohesive display rather than using two or more with a noticeable line in the middle.  (Apple Insider, USPTO, Tencent, People.com)

Japan Display Inc (JDI) group and JOLED successfully obtained 4 Japanese corps investment in total of JPY47B, which include DENSO’s JPY30B, Toyota Tsusho’s JPY10B, as well as Sumitomo Chemical and Screen Holdings. (Laoyaoba, TechNews, Money DJ)

Microchip Technology’s MGC3140 3D gesture recognition controller boasts the lowest system cost in the automotive industry, providing a single-chip solution for advanced automotive HMI designs. The MGC3140 is the company’s first 3D gesture controller qualified for automotive use. (Laoyaoba, Zacks, Sensors Mag)

Sensory

II‐VI Incorporated is expanding the capacity of its 980nm pump laser production lines, including wafer fab and chip on carrier assembly in Zurich, Switzerland and in Calamba, Philippines, and pump laser module assembly in Shenzhen, China.  The company has also completed the extension of the current facility lease in Shenzhen, China in a move to address a rise in demand. (Laoyaoba, Fibre Systems, Optics, Reuters)

Biometrics

Kairos, the face recognition know-how used for model advertising, has introduced the acquisition of Emotion Reader, which is a Limerick, Eire-based startup that makes use of algorithms to research facial expressions round video content material.  (TechCrunch, Release Soon)

Battery

A Huawei power adapter made by Astec Electronics (Luoding Co. Ltd) has passed 3C certifications. The maximum charging power of this adapter will go as high as 40W.  (GizChina, Sohu, Sina, Leikeji)

Connectivity

Shanghai Zhaoxin Semiconductor has announced that its ZX-200 IO expansion chipset USB alliance Platform Interoperability Lab (PIL) series of verification and validations, and already adopted in USB 3.1 Certified Product list. (Laoyaoba, CCIDNet, Zhaoxin)

ZTE indicates that as a rare vendor who could provide full end-to-end 5G solution, including wireless, wired, core network, cloud computing, business and terminal, etc., ZTE is going to come back to the market with its 5G technology, and bring back the glory. (My Drivers, Sohu）

Craig-Hallum analyst Anthony Stoss indicates that STMicroelectronics (STM), which supplies chips for eSIM, “may have won” business from Apple to put an eSIM in the new iPhone models expected to be released in fall 2018. STM’s eSIM chip sells for “around USD1”, so an iPhone deal might produce “at least USD80M-100M  in upside to estimates for 2H18”. (Barron’s, press, Phone Arena)

Tiger Global has reportedly invested more than USD1B into SoftBank Group. Tiger Global and SoftBank share several investments in common, including Alibaba, Flipkart and Uber.  (TechCrunch, Financial Times, Sina)

Phone

TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has revealed new details about what to expect with Apple’s new hardware lineup in 2018: 5.8” OLED, 6.5” OLED and 6.1” LCD iPhone; 12.9” and 11” iPad Pro with Face ID; Several Mac updates, including a low-price notebook; and, 1.57” and 1.78” Apple Watch with enhanced heart rate detection. (VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, Phone Arena, Tencent)

Cubot P20 is announced – 6.18” 2246×1080 FHD+, MediaTek MT6750T, rear dual 20MP-2MP + front 13MP, 4GB+64GB, Android 8.0, 4000mAh, USD129.99. (Gizmo China, CN Beta)

Huawei Nova 3 is announced in China – 6.3” 2340×1080 FHD+, Huawei Kirin 970, rear dual 16MP – 24MP + front dual 24MP – 2MP, 6GB+128GB, Android 8.1, 3750mAh. (Android Headlines, GizChina, GSM Arena, Financial Express, Vmall)

Sony Xperia XA2 Plus is announced – 6” 1080×2160 FHD+, Qualcomm Snapdragon 630, rear 23MP + front 8MP, 4GB+32GB / 6GB+64GB, Android 8.0, 3580mAh. (Android Headlines, GSM Arena, CN Beta, Sony)

Wearables

Huawei TalkBand B5 fitness tracker is unveiled, which doubles as a Bluetooth earpiece and let users attend voice calls or listen to music while on the go. The wearable offers 24-hour heart rate monitoring using Huawei TruRelax Technology. (Pocket-Lint, NDTV, GSM Arena, iFeng, Sina)

Automotive

The BMW Group and Great Wall Motor have signed a joint venture agreement to produce electric vehicles for Mini in China, under the company name Spotlight Automotive Limited. Along with the upcoming electric Mini models, the joint venture will also produce EVs for Great Wall, with the facility to be located in the Chinese province of Jiangsu, north of Shanghai. (CN Beta, Car Advice, Just Auto)

Tesla has signed an agreement to build a factory in Shanghai, China to make its electric cars. Tesla will set up and own the plant that is expected to produce 500,000 vehicles a year sometime next decade, the Shanghai authorities said. Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk was in Shanghai to sign the agreement, authorities said. (CN Beta, Reuters, CNBC, WSJ)

Pony.ai  — the startup whose autonomous driving platform powers the first fully self-driving fleet in China — has announced that it has raised USD102M in funding — a follow-on round that comes about seven months after its previous USD112M Series A. (TechCrunch, DoNews)

BYD has announced a new electric bus leasing program in partnership with Generate Capital. The new program is seeded with an initial USD200M investment that is geared towards lowering the barrier to adoption for electric vehicles for public and private-sector buses. (TechCrunch, Clean Technica, JRJ)

Artificial Intelligence

Foxconn Technologies is starting a new company in California’s Silicon Valley to concentrate on artificial intelligence for factory floor automation. The plan comes as Foxconn looks for ways to deal with the slowdown of smartphone sales globally, demands for higher wages and a changing workforce that is sidestepping manufacturing. (Laoyaoba, Cult of Mac)

Truthify, a smartphone app that leverages machine learning to interpret a person’s emotions from their facial reactions. Using a phone’s front-facing camera, it analyzes 43 facial muscles 14 times a second and evaluates the results across seven emotional states: fear, anger, disgust, happiness, contempt, sadness, and surprise. Truthify has partnered with Affectiva for the necessary computer vision models. (VentureBeat)