The Technology that May Drive Next-Gen of Phones and Mobile Devices

CES is never really a smartphone show—the upcoming Mobile World Congress (MWC), which takes place in a few weeks, usually features more mobile products. However, this year's CES did come across the introduction of a number of interesting mid-tier devices, and more importantly, some new technology that may well find its way into phones later on on this year. The most interesting new telephone was probably the ASUS Zenfone AR, one of the first phones able to run both Google'south Fantasize virtual reality (VR) and Tango augmented reality (AR) systems.

It'south an interesting concept, and I'm curious to see the quantity and quality of AR apps that will be ready when the telephone ships in the 2d quarter. ASUS too appear the ASUS Zenfone 3 Zoom, a mobile device that adds a dual-camera setup to the already interesting ASUS ZenFone 3, an ASUS device that I managed to try at the end of final year.

I had also been very interested in the U.s.a. version of high-end Huawei Mate nine, a device notable for including Amazon'southward Alexa service pre-installed. This flagship offer has a 5.9in display, runs the HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor, and Google Android 7.0 Nougat. Another large smartphone that appeared is the LG Stylus 3, a mid-range device that stands out for having a stylus.

When it comes to smartphones at this year'southward CES, much of the story had been about value. The show saw the launch of LG's K series (above) and Samsung'south Galaxy A serial—both reasonable lines of mid-range phones that aren't special only look to exist good values. I would say the same well-nigh the Huawei Honor 6X, which shows that you can take a dual-camera phone for just United states$249.

Still, I am more than interested in what some of the technologies I saw could mean for future phones.

The Movement to 10nm Chips

I of the big trends for this year will exist the likelihood that higher-end smartphones volition use chips produced on 10nm processes and, thus, should permit for more functioning and/or better battery life.

Keith Kressin, Senior Vice President of Production Management at Qualcomm Technologies, demonstrated what may be the showtime such flake to ship, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835, a concept that is manufactured using Samsung'southward 10nm procedure.

Kressin said this chip will exist 35% smaller than the existing 14nm Qualcomm Snapdragon 820/821, all the same will offer 35% lower power or 2.5 hours more battery ability. Qualcomm Quick Charge 4.0 will as well allow a v-minute charge to give a smartphone five hours of talk time, Kressin added.

The accompanying Adreno 520 graphics should enable 25% faster graphics, a fact that Qualcomm believe should let for ameliorate VR/AR applications. The fleck will likewise have improved security and car learning features, as well as an X16 'gigabit grade' modem along with support for such new standards as 802.11ac and -ad wireless. This should exist in smartphones in the starting time one-half of this year. I look nosotros'll hear more than at the coming MWC.

Samsung is also likely to have a version of its own Samsung Exynos processor on the 10nm processor, widely rumored to be the Exynos 8895, at about the aforementioned time.

Meanwhile, the other leading-edge foundry, TSMC, has too promised 10nm processors for afterwards this year. It seems likely that we will run across Apple and MediaTek processors using this process, though neither company has confirmed this.

Meanwhile, the other leading-border foundry, TSMC, has also promised 10nm processors for afterward this year. It seems likely that we volition come across Apple and MediaTek processors using this procedure, though neither company has confirmed this.

The third major foundry, GlobalFoundries, is taking a different tact. It is at present ramping upwardly its 14nm process, also as an culling known equally fully depleted silicon-on-insulator, a platform that it calls FDX.

Alain Mutricy, Senior Vice President for Product Management, said its 22nm FDX procedure delivers similar performance to 14nm FinFETs at the cost of 28nm planar. GlobalFoundries believed its 12nm FDX procedure, which is due in 2022, will friction match the 10nm processes in performance but at a much lower price, as it volition require fewer masks.

High-end processors will withal require FinFETs for maximum functioning, only Mutricy said chips for mid-range and low-terminate phones, as well as other Net of Things (IoT) devices, are skilful candidates for FDX. GlobalFoundries plans to skip 10nm, which won't exist cost-effective with existing lithography tools, and skip straight to 7nm FinFETs with a process that will be compatible with new next-gen extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography tools when they are ready for volume production.

TSMC is besides rushing to become 7nm ready and recently revealed it will use a like strategy, offering a second version of 7nm with EUV lithography. Samsung has opted to look for EUV before shifting to 7nm.

Intel showed off a running 2-in-1 design with its 10nm Intel Cannon Lake chips, though these are designed for notebooks and 2-in-1s, non smartphones. Most observers call up that Intel's 10nm procedure volition accept finer details than the 10nm process from Samsung or TSMC, though it's clear than 10nm is now more of a proper noun than a measurement of any particular dimension. Intel continued its mantra that Moore'due south Constabulary is alive and well, with Intel CEO, Brian Krzanich, sharing he is sure it would be going long after he retires.

Thinking about processors that are yet to come up, one thing that has get increasingly clear is that security will be a large concern. ARM, which makes the IP behind the processor cores in virtually all mobile devices, talked about further work on its TrustZone technology, and piece of work on a 'crypto cell' key-shop and cryptography engine. Additionally, ARM is working on a suite of Cloud Services that its processors offer as part of its design. This includes providing provisioning, identity management, and authentication, particularly for IoT devices.

ARM also talked nearly just how far processors have come in the past few years, pointing out that they now support improve cameras and more sensor input, and not just fast CPU and GPU performance. ARM executives said they await like levels of improvement over the next couple of years.

5G on the horizon

Of course, processors aren't the only mobile technology that is changing. 5G is also at the show, with Qualcomm CEO, Steve Mollenkopf, promoting the concept of "the 5G future," at one of the keynotes.

"5G isn't an incremental improvement in connectivity or even just a new generation of mobile," Mollenkopf shared. "5G will be a new kind of network, supporting a vast diversity of devices with unprecedented calibration, speed, and complexity." Qualcomm, Ericsson, and AT&T announced plans to conduct testing and over-the-air field trials based on the expected 5G New Radio specifications and also pushed Millimeter Wave (mmWave) tests.

Meanwhile, at the testify, Intel announced what information technology called the globe's first global 5G modem supporting both sub-6Hz bands and mmWave spectrum. The company hopes this modem, which is due to be sampling in the second one-half of the twelvemonth, will exist used in many of the 5G trials that are now ongoing. I'm certain we'll learn more about other trial processors at the upcoming MWC.

Batteries, Scanners, and Displays

At that place are other technologies I found interesting at the bear witness.

Panasonic showed off its flexible lithium-ion (Li-Ion), a concept that is supposed be ready for production in 2022.

This is still a Li-Ion battery, just it has a very different pattern compared to conventional batteries, with more of a apartment rectangular shape for the battery cells versus the more common cylindrical shape. The bombardment, which is 0.45mm thick, is bendable enough to fit around a soda can. At the evidence, the visitor showed three different versions, ranging from 17.5 to 60mAh—not enough for a smartphone, but certainly enough for some kinds of IoT devices.

I is also very interested in seeing Synaptics'southward demonstration of how it could now place an optical fingerprint sensor underneath a standard encompass glass on a smartphone, thus enabling a fingerprint sensor on the front without the need for a physical push. At first, this feature would likely be deployed in a stock-still location on the screen, only over time it could be applied anywhere on the screen. 1 can imagine how this could alter the design of smartphones, nigh of which now either have a fingerprint scanner in a button beneath the screen or on the back of the phone.

I didn't really see many new display technologies for phones at the show—the mobilephones mostly used existing LCD or AMOLED screens—simply I did meet a lot of people who are trying to come up with better displays for VR headsets.

Resolution is a big deal hither considering every VR arrangement I've tried to engagement suffers from the 'screen-door upshot' at the brusque distance you lot wear VR or AR spectacles. A 'retina' display would offer a much higher resolution than annihilation you'd need on your smartphone. While in that location are a couple of dissimilar solutions in prototype headsets, the nigh advanced display I saw came from Kopin, featuring a 1in OLED console with a 2048 x 2048px resolution and a 120Hz frame-rate. That'southward probably overkill for mobile device resolution, simply I can imagine information technology could exist used in some very nice companion VR glasses.

Of form, I saw many wireless charging solutions and am peculiarly intrigued with the concept of truly wireless solutions.

It's unlikely that nosotros'll see all of these advances in any 1 device this year, but taken together, we should run into a multifariousness of different mobile devices with some quite new features later in the year. It should be interesting.

Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/mobile-phones/13606/the-technology-that-may-drive-next-gen-of-phones-and-mobile-devices

Posted by: mooreforgerd.blogspot.com

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