http://liliputing.com/2015/11/huawei-kirin-950-chip-shoots-for-high-performan...

"Chinese company Huawei is starting to make a name for itself in the US thanks to its partnership with Google on the Nexus 6P smartphone. But the company doesn’t just make phones. It’s also been producing its own processors for a few years, and the latest will likely be used in the upcoming Huawei Mate 8.

It’s called the Kirin 950, and it’s an octa-core chip with four 2.3 GHz ARM Cortex-A72 cores, four 1.8 GHz ARM Cortex-A53 cores, and Mali-T880MP4 graphics.

What does that mean? It’s fast. Very fast.



But Huawei says its chip is also energy efficient. It’s built using TSMC’s 16nm FinFet process, which is the same one used for Apple’s A9 processor.

The chip also has a low-power, always-on co-processor for sensors including the barometer, gyroscope, accelerometer, and other motion sensors. Huawei says this new i5 co-processors uses just 6.5 mA, while the company’s previous i3 version used 90 mA.

All told, Huawei figures its new chip offers about a 40 percent performance boost while also reducing power consumption by 60 percent, which should lead to longer battery life in mobile devices."


This is a laptop capable chipset, BTW .......  that can do a phone or a tablet as well

So, now we got Chinese phone builders becoming chipset designers, just like Google predicted.   ARM Holdings stock price is going down slowly, BTW, as before long these guys will go their own way instead of just modifying ARM designs -- ARM Holdings is also trying to branch out into other things right now too.  

The 10nm wall is acting to make ARM's final effort at silicone based wafers a sort of stopping point for ARM as well.  

ARM is working with the Apple and IBM and the IBM chipmaker consortium on the 7nm non-silicone prototype and it will be interesting to see what 7nm non-silicone processor looks like.   Equipment to make the things is being made right now, so it isn't but a year or so away.

The Cortex A-72 core does seem to be a real hit with everybody right now, and they are all building octa cores (or more) out of them.   This Huawei beast is actually a 9 core chipset since it has an IoT core in it too for always on duty.

I have a phone that runs on four of the LEAST of these A-53 cores that are being used now-a-days, and it ain't a dog by any means.   My Moto G still seems a snappy little beast to me.

I think next year we will see laptops and Chromebooks running this generation of new A72 chipsets in our local phone stores as well as even more powerful tablets and phones.   And once I've played with one a bit, I'll want that level of speed just like most other folks will do.


Addendum:     The IoT core that is being used in the Huawei Kirin 900 is an Intel IoT core -- wow, Intel actually made something folks want to use of their own free will no less .......

Why you cannot be recommended to buy a MS based Cloudbook now at all ......   and why you have to immediately stop Win 10 from syncing to your One Drive storage RIGHT NOW before they start hitting your charge card for $1.99 or greater every month for your "excess storage".    

It is estimated that MS will stuff enough of their nightly download data on your hard drive and automatically sync it to their One Drive to exceed 5 gig limit automatically fairly quickly, then MS will start billing your charge card for the excess measured in 5 gig lump sums.   And it won't take them very long to get there.

http://www.geek.com/microsoft/microsoft-breaks-unlimited-onedrive-storage-pro...

"It’s not just the unlimited plan that’s being killed. Microsoft is also getting rid of the 15GB photo sync bonus that users have been getting for turning on automatic uploads to OneDrive on their smartphones.

And at a time when cloud storage just keeps getting cheaper, Microsoft is also ditching their 100GB and 200GB plans. Paid OneDrive plans will max out at 50GB, which will cost $1.99 a month. Sure, two bucks a month is cheap, but that’s half the storage Google gives you for that price.

The silliness doesn’t stop there, either. Microsoft is also going to roll back all free OneDrive accounts to just 5GB of storage. That’s right. If you were given bonus storage at some point — like I was for being around since the beginning — you’re going to be knocked back from whatever you have to 5GB.

If you’re over that amount, you may want to start moving some files — but don’t worry, Microsoft will be sending you nagging emails as the rollback date approaches. It’s going to happen “early in 2016.”

Are they going to piss off some people? Absolutely, and I’ll probably be one of them. Ultimately, though, Microsoft probably isn’t too worried about users like me who were happy limiting their use to their free OneDrive storage.

They’ll be happy to sit back and watch people’s OneDrive storage fill up with automatically synced content from Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Eventually, their free storage will fill up and some will convert to paid subscribers… at which point it’s mission accomplished for Microsoft."

Art, I loaded some free software on to my ancient XP laptop that I keep at work so it could be a wireless hot spot to support my wifi loving Republic phone.

Then I used an Apha style long distance WIFI antenna to snatch up a far away open wifi signal to fuel my laptop's wifi hotspot.

It is all old stuff that I had lying around, intelligently used to give me free phone service and movie streaming, etc. etc.

And I can call and text anybody anywhere in the world, for as much as I want, for free.   And stream movies and stuff too.

Gets slow sometimes though, as the open signal I am accessing isn't really very fast stuff ---  Wifi G data rate at best.   When it falls back to the B rates, my streaming gets all cobby on me.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/10/10/pc-sales-drop-in-q3-2015/

I alluded to this several times, but the third quarter figures are in -- Win 10 resulted in the same standard drop in PC sales figures that has gone on for years now -- no reversal of the decline of the PC has been seen so far.

"Windows 10 may have breathed new life into your PC, but it didn't do anything to juice PC sales this summer. Both Gartner and IDC estimate that computer sales dropped several points year-over-year (between 7.7 and 10.8 percent) in the third quarter, right when the new Windows arrived. That's one of the steeper drops in recent memory, in fact. Not that it comes as a complete surprise. As the analyst firms explain, Microsoft's fast-tracked release left many PC makers shipping existing systems with Windows 10, which weren't going to drive demand as much as brand new models. You're not going to buy a months-old laptop just because it's running new software, are you? The big question is whether or not the wave of new Windows 10 PCs launching this fall will make a difference -- if there's still a sharp decline, the industry is really in trouble."

http://www.zdnet.com/article/npd-chromebooks-outsell-windows-laptops/

Sales figures on low end Windows laptops are being actively withheld by MS and by its partners, on MS orders.   This means you have to wait a quarter to a half a year to get a belated total roll up by Gartner or one of the other tracking companies -- which isn't timely, but it is what MS wants for you to have.



Third quarter just ending saw another decline in PC overall (between 7.7 and 10.8 percent) in the third quarter alone.   Add that to what is in the graphs above and you get a pretty sad picture for MS newest OS.    Apple has taken losses too, so far with Apple being the largest contributor to Chromebook's market share growth.

"Both Gartner and IDC estimate that computer sales dropped several points year-over-year (between 7.7 and 10.8 percent) in the third quarter, right when the new Windows arrived."    see article two items up -- this drop is not specific or directly related to the Chromebook area of sales though as those numbers are a tightly held MS secret right now.   But it ain't good, whatever it is ......  during this period there were weeks when Chromebooks outsold PCs in total.

Now we will see what happens over the Christmas season.    What will sell well, and what will not.  

You may get reports of Christmas sales but only if they are good for MS, or you may get more complete stony silence out of MS and all its vendor chain if the Christmas news isn't all exuberant for MS and its boys.

    ..... and when the new windowing multi-user Android laptops hit these charts, what will happen then?   Where will the phone/PCs get counted when they roll out?

And yes, I am joining the growing group of people who do not find it amusing to have an endless ongoing conflict with their computer's OS system.    There are alternatives out there that do not consume your inner peace on a weekly basis.

Since I just wanted to game a few non-Steam titles and Win 7 does that just fine without bothering me or screwing with my wallet, then Win 7 it is ..... forever.

And, most emphatically, if I need to reload my Win 7 off my DVD using my keycode, I want that DVD to work.

I have turned my updates to "I will approve only what I want" and I only approve the updates to the anti-virus stuff now.

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/feature/2421044/windows-10-mobile-release-date-pric...

The Windows Phone platform struggles to find the same success as its Android and iOS rivals.



Mary Jo says "look to the Win 10 phones" and sure enough, there are some metaphorical cracks developing in the mobile Windows touch screen glass as we are going forward into the actual release week, which has now been pushed back to mid December now. This is a move that in essence precludes any holiday sales at all for any brand new production Win 10 phones.

Supported devices

'Microsoft announced at the 2015 Mobile World Congress in March that devices currently running Windows Phone 8.1 will be upgradeable to Windows 10 Mobile by the end of this year.

However, the company has only confirmed a limited list of Microsoft/Nokia Windows Phones due to upgrade to Windows 10 Mobile once it launches: the Lumia 430, 435, 532, 535, 540, 640, 640 XL, 735, 830 and 930.

This excludes the Lumia 520, 530, 625, 630, 635, 925, 1020, 1320 and 1520, all of which are still being sold on Microsoft's website. That isn't to say these devices will never be upgradeable to Windows 10 Mobile."   Duh, dude, when you exclude them from the beta it tends to say that, you know.

Is this a Win 10 mobile Christmas flop in the making ?????    

September release move to Oct, then to Nov and now to mid December ...... do I hear a January, a February, a March coming up next ????

Just how screwed up is Win 10 phone, anyway?