Micron Technology, Inc., announced today that it is now shipping production samples of its low-power double data rate 5X (LPDDR5X) memory - the industry's only 1β (1-beta) mobile-optimized memory - for use with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.'s latest flagship mobile platform, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Running at the world's fastest speed grade of 9.6 gigabits per second (Gbps), Micron LPDDR5X provides the mobile ecosystem with the fast performance needed to unlock generative artificial intelligence (AI) at the edge. Enabled by its innovative, industry-leading 1β process node technology, Micron LPDDR5X also delivers advanced power-saving capabilities for mobile users.

"Generative AI is poised to unleash unprecedented productivity, ease of use, and personalization for smartphone users by delivering the power of large language models to flagship mobile phones," said Mark Montierth, corporate vice president and general manager of Micron's Mobile Business Unit. "Micron's 1β LPDDR5X combined with Qualcomm Technologies' AI-optimized Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform empowers smartphone manufacturers with the next-generation performance and power efficiency essential to enabling revolutionary AI technology at the edge."

SK hynix Inc. announced today that it has started commercialization of the LPDDR5T (Low Power Double Data Rate 5 Turbo), the world's fastest DRAM for mobile with 9.6 Gbps speed. The company said that it has obtained the validation that the LPDDR5T is compatible with Qualcomm Technologies' new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Platform, marking the industry's first case for such product to be verified by the U.S. company.

SK hynix has proceeded with the compatibility validation of the LPDDR5T, following the completion of the development in January, with support from Qualcomm Technologies. The completion of the process means that it is compatible with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. With the validation process with Qualcomm Technologies, a leader in wireless telecommunication products and services, and other major mobile AP (Application Processor) providers successfully completed, SK hynix expects the range of the LPDDR5T adoption to grow rapidly.

At Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced its latest premium mobile platform, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3—a true titan of on-device intelligence, premium-tier performance, and power efficiency. As the premium Android smartphone SoC leader, Qualcomm Technologies' latest processor will be adopted for flagship devices by global OEMs and smartphone brands including ASUS, Honor, iQOO, MEIZU, NIO, Nubia, OnePlus, OPPO, realme, Redmi, RedMagic, Sony, vivo, Xiaomi, and ZTE.

"Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 infuses high-performance AI across the entire system to deliver premium-level performance and extraordinary experiences to consumers. This platform unlocks a new era of generative AI enabling users to generate unique content, help with productivity, and other breakthrough use cases." said Chris Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of mobile handsets, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Each year, we set out to design leading features and technologies that will power our latest Snapdragon 8-series mobile platform and the next generation of flagship Android devices. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 delivers."

At Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced the most powerful computing processor it has ever created for the PC: Snapdragon X Elite. This groundbreaking platform ushers in a new era of premium computing by delivering a massive leap forward with best-in-class CPU performance, leading on-device AI inferencing, and one of the most efficient processors in a PC with up to multiple days of battery life. As AI transforms how we interact with our PCs, Snapdragon X Elite is designed to support the intelligent and power-intensive tasks of the future that will enable powerful productivity, rich creativity, and immersive entertainment experiences from anywhere.

"Snapdragon X Elite represents a dramatic leap in innovation for computing as we deliver our new, custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU for super-charged performance that will delight consumers with incredible power efficiency and take their creativity and productivity to the next level," said Kedar Kondap, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Compute & Gaming, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "Powerful on-device AI experiences will enable seamless multitasking and new intuitive user experiences, empowering consumers and businesses alike to create and accomplish more." PCs powered by Snapdragon X Elite are expected mid-2024.

Thanks to the information from Windows Report, we have received numerous details regarding Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon Elite X chip for laptops. The Snapdragon Elite X SoC is built on top of Nuvia-derived Oryon cores, which Qualcomm put 12 off in the SoC. While we don't know their base frequencies, the all-core boost reaches 3.8 GHz. The SoC can reach up to 4.3 GHz on single and dual-core boosting. However, the slide notes that this is all pure "big" core configuration of the SoC, so no big.LITTLE design is done. The GPU part of Snapdragon Elite X is still based on Qualcomm's Adreno IP; however, the performance figures are up significantly to reach 4.6 TeraFLOPS of supposedly FP32 single-precision power. Accompanying the CPU and GPU, there are dedicated AI and image processing accelerators, like Hexagon Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which can process 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS). For the camera, the Spectra Image Sensor Processor (ISP) is there to support up to 4K HDR video capture on a dual 36 MP or a single 64 MP camera setup.

The SoC supports LPDDR5X memory running at 8533 MT/s and a maximum capacity of 64 GB. Apparently, the memory controller is an 8-channel one with a 16-bit width and a maximum bandwidth of 136 GB/s. Snapdragon Elite X has PCIe 4.0 and supports UFS 4.0 for outside connection. All of this is packed on a die manufactured by TSMC on a 4 nm node. In addition to marketing excellent performance compared to x86 solutions, Qualcomm also advertises the SoC as power efficient. The slide notes that it uses 1/3 of the power at the same peak PC performance of x86 offerings. It is also interesting to note that the package will support WiFi7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Officially coming in 2024, the Snapdragon Elite X will have to compete with Intel's Meteor Lake and/or Arrow Lake, in addition to AMD Strix Point.

Micron Technology, Inc., announced today that its low-power double data rate 5X (LPDDR5X) DRAM and Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.1 embedded solutions are now qualified on Qualcomm Technologies' latest extended reality (XR) platform, Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 Platform. Micron's LPDDR5X and UFS 3.1 deliver next-level speed, performance and low-power consumption in the smallest form factors needed to support untethered mixed reality (MR) and virtual reality (VR) devices. Micron's LPDDR5X is the company's most advanced low-power memory, delivering power efficiency enabled by its innovative 1-alpha process node technology and JEDEC power advancements.

The global augmented reality (AR) and VR market is expected to reach $200 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 24% from 2021.1 Micron's embedded products provide robust XR-ready solutions to accelerate customer adoption and realize the potential of this expanding market. Enabling concurrent processing across multiple applications and sensors, Micron's LPDDR5X and UFS 3.1 seamlessly integrate constantly changing presence, position and sensory perception in the metaverse to create realistic, immersive experiences for VR users.

Realizing the full potential of next-generation deep learning requires highly efficient AI infrastructure. For a computing platform to be scalable and cost efficient, optimizing every layer of the AI stack, from algorithms to hardware, is essential. Advances in narrow-precision AI data formats and associated optimized algorithms have been pivotal to this journey, allowing the industry to transition from traditional 32-bit floating point precision to presently only 8 bits of precision (i.e. OCP FP8).

Narrower formats allow silicon to execute more efficient AI calculations per clock cycle, which accelerates model training and inference times. AI models take up less space, which means they require fewer data fetches from memory, and can run with better performance and efficiency. Additionally, fewer bit transfers reduces data movement over the interconnect, which can enhance application performance or cut network costs.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced today that they are building on their long-standing collaboration with Google by bringing a RISC-V based wearables solution for use with Wear OS by Google. This expanded framework will help pave the way for more products within the ecosystem to take advantage of custom CPUs that are low power and high performance. Leading up to this, the companies will continue to invest in Snapdragon Wear platforms as the leading smartwatch silicon provider for the Wear OS ecosystem.

"Qualcomm Technologies have been a pillar of the Wear OS ecosystem, providing high performance, low power systems for many of our OEM partners," said Bjorn Kilburn, GM of Wear OS by Google. "We are excited to extend our work with Qualcomm Technologies and bring a RISC-V wearable solution to market."
"We are excited to leverage RISC-V and expand our Snapdragon Wear platform as a leading silicon provider for Wear OS. Our Snapdragon Wear platform innovations will help the Wear OS ecosystem rapidly evolve and streamline new device launches globally," said Dino Bekis, vice president and general manager, Wearables and Mixed Signal Solutions, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.

Qualcomm is poised to significantly rebrand its PC chip lineup as it transitions from the existing 8cx series to the Snapdragon X Series, designed to differentiate its PC chips from Snapdragon processors in mobile devices. The new Snapdragon X Series will incorporate Qualcomm's Oryon CPU SKU, based on Nuvia's IP and praised for its advanced performance and power efficiency. In addition to the new CPU core, Qualcomm also plans to use a dedicated NPU for accelerating on-device AI applications. However, questions remain regarding the reactions of hardware partners, particularly in response to Qualcomm's request for proprietary power management integrated circuits (PMICs) to be used alongside Oryon SoCs.

This strategic rebranding also entails new logos and badges for the system, symbolizing the shift in the product lineup, and the company plans to introduce a simplified tiering structure for its PC ecosystem. Qualcomm currently holds a dominant position as an Arm-based SoC manufacturer for Windows-on-Arm devices. With this rebranding, Qualcomm hopes to position itself competitively in performance and in marketing as well, with established PC chip providers like AMD and Intel, potentially expanding Arm's market share in the PC industry. Further insights and details regarding the Snapdragon X Series will be revealed during the forthcoming Snapdragon Summit, scheduled from October 24 to 26.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. today announced two new spatial computing platforms - Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 and Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 - that will enable the next generation of mixed reality (MR), virtual reality (VR) devices and smart glasses. Snapdragon XR2 Gen 2 Platform: The platform brings premium MR and VR technology into a single chip architecture to unlock next level immersive experiences in thinner and more comfortable headsets, that don't require an external battery pack.

Engineered to deliver a lag free experience with breathtaking visuals and fully immersive sound, the platform allows users to blend virtual content with their physical surroundings and transition seamlessly between MR and VR experiences.

Big news from the Connect stage: Meta Quest 3 hits shelves October 10, and pre-orders are open now! The world's first mass-market mixed reality headset starts at $499.99 USD for the 128 GB version and $649.99 USD for those who want a larger storage capacity at 512 GB. But wait, there's more! For a limited time, your Meta Quest 3 purchase comes bundled with Asgard's Wrath 2 - a $59.99 USD value. And for the 512 GB SKU, we'll also kick in a six-month trial of Meta Quest+ for a combined value of over $100 USD.

Mixed Reality: Explore Like Never Before
Immersive experiences can transport you to fantastical worlds that defy the laws of physics, but the physical world—and the connections you've made there—are pretty important, too. That's why Meta Quest 3 features breakthrough mixed reality that enables a spectrum of experiences. You can watch immersive NBA games courtside or open a portal to another dimension right from the comfort of your living room - all while high-fidelity, full-color Passthrough keeps your physical surroundings in sight with over 10 times more pixels compared to Meta Quest 2.

According to SemiAccurate, Qualcomm is currently navigating through many challenges with its Oryon SoC for laptops. The current problem is that Qualcomm is insisting on integrating its own PMICs (Power Management Integrated Circuits), which are inherently designed for cell phones, causing significant compatibility and efficiency issues. This approach is reported to have led to escalated costs and disagreements with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers), seemingly hindering Qualcomm's foothold in the laptop sector. These PMICs are highlighted as unsuitable and highly priced, requiring the adoption of high-density interconnect (HDI) PCBs engineered explicitly for cell phones, thus not designed to meet the current requirements of laptops optimally. The subsequent spike in production costs has ignited conflicts with OEMs, with several contemplating withdrawing from the project.

In response to the rising tensions, Qualcomm is allegedly providing financial compensation to the OEMs, potentially leading to selling SoCs at cost. The only good thing is the reported success of Nuvia-based Oryon SoC. The silicon is perfect at A0 stepping, and performance is reportedly good. However, power usage and efficiency are still in question. Forcing OEMs to use proprietary PMICs will likely have far-reaching impacts on Qualcomm's market strategies and relationships with OEMs. With disputes like this, we expect that Qualcomm-powered laptops are nearing availability, and we could see them in the coming months.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is ushering in a new era of home connectivity, and new opportunities for service providers, with the introduction of the Qualcomm 10G Fiber Gateway Platform and its signature feature, Qualcomm Service Defined Wi-Fi technology.

The overwhelming majority of subscribers experience their broadband service through Wi-Fi. In today's broadband systems, the access network from the service provider to the home and Wi-Fi within the home are managed separately - with a quality of service which is nearly impossible to maintain across the entire network, given the diversity of devices, applications, connectivity technologies, and the near-constant change across all these elements.

Fueled by an AI-driven inventory stocking frenzy across the supply chain, TrendForce reveals that Q2 revenue for the top 10 global IC design powerhouses soared to US $38.1 billion, marking a 12.5% quarterly increase. In this rising tide, NVIDIA seized the crown, officially dethroning Qualcomm as the world's premier IC design house, while the remainder of the leaderboard remained stable.

AI charges ahead, buoying IC design performance amid a seasonal stocking slump
NVIDIA is reaping the rewards of a global transformation. Bolstered by the global demand from CSPs, internet behemoths, and enterprises diving into generative AI and large language models, NVIDIA's data center revenue skyrocketed by a whopping 105%. A deluge of shipments, including the likes of their advanced Hopper and Ampere architecture HGX systems and the high-performing InfinBand, played a pivotal role. Beyond that, both gaming and professional visualization sectors thrived under the allure of fresh product launches. Clocking a Q2 revenue of US$11.33 billion (a 68.3% surge), NVIDIA has vaulted over both Qualcomm and Broadcom to seize the IC design throne.

NETGEAR, Inc., the leading provider of award-winning connected products designed to simplify and improve people's lives, today took its award-winning Orbi line to new heights with a powerful new antenna design and exclusive, patented technology that enhance the benefits of WiFi 7. Born of over 25 years of NETGEAR pioneering WiFi expertise, the Orbi 970 Series delivers unparalleled performance, speeds of up to 27 Gbps, a slim, elegant design and high-performance antennas for 360-degree coverage across just about any home, no matter the layout.

With the rise of faster multi-gig internet speeds now available to more households, the growing number of connected devices per family and the ever-increasing growth of bandwidth-intensive applications such as 4K/8K video streaming, HD Zoom calls, graphics-focused work, highly interactive real-time gaming and immersive AR/VR entertainment, the need for faster WiFi speeds, lower latency and more capacity becomes imperative. Enter WiFi 7. While WiFi 6E opened the 6 GHz band as a superhighway for the latest, fastest devices, WiFi 7 builds on that promise by expanding the channels to 320 MHz and unleashing unprecedented speeds and performance. The Orbi 970 Series maximizes the potential of the new standard with innovative, new technology that ensures the benefits are delivered throughout the home, from the front door to the backyard, across all devices simultaneously.

Today, Bose announces the next generation of its iconic QuietComfort line: the QuietComfort Ultra Headphones, QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds, and the QuietComfort Headphones, all featuring the world-renowned hallmarks that the QuietComfort name has become synonymous with—world-class noise cancellation, high-quality audio, and legendary comfort and stability. And now, the QC Ultra Headphones and Earbuds both feature an all-new premium design and debut Bose Immersive Audio, taking audio performance to an entirely new level.

The QuietComfort Ultra Headphones and QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds will be available beginning early October for $429 and $299 respectively. Both are available in Black and White Smoke. The QuietComfort Headphones will be available on September 21st for $349 also available in Black and White Smoke, plus a limited-edition Cypress Green. Pre-orders for all products begin today in the U.S. on Bose.com.

Industry experts were expecting Apple to rely on their own in-house 5G modem tech once a previous deal with a development partner expired, but the big A has returned to pastures of old—Qualcomm Technologies yesterday announced: "that it has entered into an agreement with Apple Inc. to supply Snapdragon 5G Modem‑RF Systems for smartphone launches in 2024, 2025 and 2026. This agreement reinforces Qualcomm's track record of sustained leadership across 5G technologies and products."

Reports suggest that multiple issues have plagued development of Apple's proprietary 5G modem, with 2024's iPhone 16 lineup already rumored to rely on Qualcomm's RF system. Apple has invested heavily in its custom modem operation—the "majority" of Intel's smartphone modem business was acquired back in 2019, while 2021 insider talk had TSMC lined up as a manufacturing partner for 5G chips. According to their latest investment relations material, Qualcomm anticipates that it will supply around 20% of modem chips in Apple iPhones.

DEEPX, a leading AI semiconductor technology company makes significant advancements towards creating an expansive Edge AI ecosystem by introducing innovative Edge AI Development Kits that transcend the limitations of GPUs. The company, known for its pioneering work in artificial intelligence semiconductors for Edge devices, is gearing up to participate in the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit in Silicon Valley, set to run from September 12th to 14th.

At this prestigious event, DEEPX's CEO Lokwon Kim will share the stage with luminaries like Professor Andrew Ng of Landing AI and Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller. More than 100 major tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, will converge to discuss the latest trends and insights in AI hardware and edge AI.

Today, Shure introduced its highly anticipated AONIC 50 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones Gen 2. Drawing on decades of stage and studio expertise, the AONIC 50 Gen 2 Headphones break new ground with a revolutionary spatialized audio experience, designed to captivate music enthusiasts and discerning audiophiles alike. Building on the success of the AONIC 50 Headphones, this second generation sets a new standard for premium, high-fidelity audio, enhanced active noise cancellation, and more than double the battery life of the first generation, with up to 45 hours of runtime.

Meticulously crafted with premium materials and studio-quality sound through custom-engineered 50 mm dynamic drivers, AONIC 50 Gen 2 Headphones are an embodiment of comfort and style that take listening to the next level. They have been designed by leveraging Shure's experience designing headphones for studio professionals with long hours in mind. With customizable EQ features and new hybrid active noise cancellation technology, users can tailor their unique preferences using the free ShurePlus Play App for a personalized audio experience.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced the all-new Snapdragon G Series handheld gaming portfolio, built to meet the unique performance and feature demands of dedicated gaming devices. The new Snapdragon G Series unlocks a range of options for playing the most sought-after games, offering boundless ways to play virtually any game, anywhere.

"Dedicated handheld gaming devices are the best way to experience mobile games. But gamers want to be able to play all their favorite games across devices and ecosystems, be it their console, PC, or on a cloud service" said Mithun Chandrasekhar, senior director of product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. "The new generation of Snapdragon G Series powered devices will be the best place for gamers to play their favorite titles, offering them the ability to choose from the cloud, console, Android, or PC while on-the-go."

Semiconductor industry players Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP Semiconductors, and Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., have come together to jointly invest in a company aimed at advancing the adoption of RISC-V globally by enabling next-generation hardware development.

Formed in Germany, this company will aim to accelerate the commercialization of future products based on the open-source RISC-V architecture. The company will be a single source to enable compatible RISC-V based products, provide reference architectures, and help establish solutions widely used in the industry. Initial application focus will be automotive, but with an eventual expansion to include mobile and IoT.

The escalating challenges in acquiring high-performance x86 servers have prompted Chinese data center companies to accelerate the shift to Arm-based system-on-chips (SoCs). Investment banking firm Bernstein reports that approximately 40% of all Arm-powered servers globally are currently being used in China. While most servers operate on x86 processors from AMD and Intel, there's a growing preference for Arm-based SoCs, especially in the Chinese market. Several global tech giants, including AWS, Ampere, Google, Fujitsu, Microsoft, and Nvidia, have already adopted or developed Arm-powered SoCs. However, Arm-based SoCs are increasingly favorable for Chinese firms, given the difficulty in consistently sourcing Intel's Xeon or AMD's EPYC. Chinese companies like Alibaba, Huawei, and Phytium are pioneering the development of these Arm-based SoCs for client and data center processors.

However, the US government's restrictions present some challenges. Both Huawei and Phytium, blacklisted by the US, cannot access TSMC's cutting-edge process technologies, limiting their ability to produce competitive processors. Although Alibaba's T-Head can leverage TSMC's latest innovations, it can't license Arm's high-performance computing Neoverse V-series CPU cores due to various export control rules. Despite these challenges, many chip designers are considering alternatives such as RISC-V, an unrestricted, rapidly evolving open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) suitable for designing highly customized general-purpose cores for specific workloads. Still, with the backing of influential firms like AWS, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Samsung, the Armv8 and Armv9 instruction set architectures continue to hold an edge over RISC-V. These companies' support ensures that the software ecosystem remains compatible with their CPUs, which will likely continue to drive the adoption of Arm in the data center space.

REDMAGIC, the gaming brand known for its iconic flagship professional gaming smartphones, continues to expand its gaming line with the new REDMAGIC Cyberbuds DAO TWS for international markets. The wireless earphones offer seamless connectivity with a futuristic design and RGB effects to offer comfort, and durability for gamers. Powered by Qualcomm's latest Bluetooth 5.3, Qualcomm S5, it offers a minimum delay of 28 ms when connected with the matching dongle. Capable of running as long as seven hours at a single charge, the new Cyberbuds DAO TWS are compatible with PC, PS4, PS5, Switch and android smartphones.

For a better gaming experience in various scenarios, users can modify the RGB light effects and sound modes. The earphones and charging base have a modern transparent design, showcasing cyber technology with cool RGB light effects and sci-fi vibes. An application called "Goper" is also available in PlayStore and soon in App Store, that allows users to manage functions such as codec format (SBC, AAC, LE Audio, aptX, and LHDC 5.0), audio EQ modes, game modes, lighting effects, and even pop-up window pairing when connected to a smartphone.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced its fifth generation of Galaxy foldables: Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5. The industry-leading form factors offer unique experiences for every user with sleek and compact designs, countless customization options, and powerful performance. The new Flex Hinge makes the foldable experience possible, while offering an aesthetically balanced and solid design. These unrivalled foldable devices unlock extraordinary camera capabilities such as FlexCam to take photos from creative angles. With strong performance and an optimized battery powered by the latest processor, the Samsung Galaxy Z series transforms what is possible with a smartphone - open or closed.

"Samsung is revolutionizing the mobile industry with foldables by setting the standard and continually refining the experience," said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "Every day, more people choose our foldables because they offer an experience people want that they can't get on any other device. Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5 are the latest devices that prove our commitment to meeting the needs of our customers through innovative technology."

According to various news sources, CEOs from Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm have been holding meetings with representatives of the US government—with the topic of discussion reportedly being the escalation of semiconductor import restrictions placed on China. AMD was notably absent from Monday's proceedings, due to Dr. Lisa Su attending to business matters in Taiwan. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, National Economic Council director Lael Brainard and National Security Council director Jake Sullivan were alleged to have met with industry leaders.

Chipmakers have expressed worry about new restrictions coming into effect within the next couple of week—the latest negotiations could have touched on some sort of provision for leading silicon manufacturers. The US government believes that by limiting China's access to cutting-edge technology, it will bolster national security interests—with the Chinese military not being able to develop competitive defense systems. The Semiconductor Industry Association stated on Monday that: "overly broad, ambiguous and at times unilateral restrictions risk diminishing the US semiconductor industry's competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China." Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm did not provide any comments to press outlets following the conclusion of their meetings with senior government officials. It is speculated that Qualcomm is set to lose the most trade following the implementation of stricter rules—Bloomberg proposes that 60% of the firm's business revenue comes from Chinese territories.