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Mozilla & Qualcomm to Launch a Native Firefox version for Windows 10 on ARM

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On Thursday, the two tech giants, Mozilla and Qualcomm, announced that the two are working together on a native version of Firefox for Windows 10. Mozilla stated that it is going to develop a new version of Mozilla Firefox, compatible with the Snapdragon-powered Windows computers on ARM. The browser will be a 64-bit version of Firefox that will provide high-performance and better connectivity.

firefox
Image Source: cnbeta.com

Usually, Microsoft uses a number of emulation techniques to run the Windows 10 application on ARM-based machines, among which, the native apps run faster than the other. Mozilla has kept that in mind and has specifically designed the Firefox run on an ARM machine. Firefox will use individual cores to run every tab, and Qualcomm will provide an adequate amount of it for those tabs.

Senior Director of Firefox Product at Mozilla, Marissa Morris, said, “Mozilla is excited to be collaborating with Qualcomm and optimizing Firefox. We can’t wait to see Firefox delivering blazing fast experiences for the always on, always connected, multi-core Snapdragon computer platform with Windows 10.”

On the other hand, Qualcomm also announced its brand-new processor, the Snapdragon 8cx. The ‘X’ in the 8cx stands for ‘extreme’. The processor is specially designed for the Windows’ always-connected laptops and 2-in-1 convertible Pcs. It is a 7nm chip, the biggest of all chips, Qualcomm has ever made for a laptop or a PC. The chip will provide better performance, better battery life as well as better cellular connectivity, i.e. up to 2Gbps. The chip is specifically developed for the Window Pcs and is the first one of its kind.

Microsoft had just made the announcement of completely shutting down the Edge browser. Now with the improved Mozilla Firefox, there will be only two competitors left in the field, Firefox and Safari. Although Microsoft is also working upon its chromium browser with Google, Mozilla’s new browser may arrive sooner.

Qualcomm Might Launch the New Snapdragon 8150 in the Upcoming Event in Hawaii

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According to the reports, Qualcomm is all set to launch its next powerful processor the Snapdragon 8150 (earlier called as Snapdragon 855) in its upcoming event on 4 December in Hawaii. The company had launched the Snapdragon 845, one of the most used processors in various flagship smartphones of 2018, at the same time last year. The company is again up to launch its latest processor with better performance.

qualcomm
Image Source: askifa.ng

As a result of a leaked video, the Chinese media has revealed the news of the launch. In the video, the Qualcomm’s senior manager from the marketing team is talking about an event that will take place on the 4th December this year and is hinting at the forthcoming launch of a ‘Snapdragon 8xx’ processor. The video is an official invite, embedded in Oculus Go headsets, that has been sent to the media by the company itself for the upcoming event.

The new processor is still an octa-core and holds the Oreo Go Edition, combining the power of AR, VR, and HDR. The processor is expected to be based on the 7nm FinFET fabrication technology, that may result in better performance of the processor at a minimal power consumption. There will be a better graphics support with the help of the Adreno 640 GPU, and the processor will also maintain better camera resolution. The processor will still be split between four power-efficient cores and four high-performance cores, among which two will be super large cores, two will be the large cores, and the other four will be the small cores.

According to a tweet from the Ice Universe, the chipset is expected to have a tri-cluster CPU design. There will be four low-power Kryo Silver cores, with 128 KB L2 cache each, running at a maximum frequency of 1.8 GHz in one cluster. The other trio of Kryo Gold will have 256KB L2 cache each, and a maximum frequency of 2.419 GHz in another cluster. And, the single Kryo Gold core is equipped with double the L2 cache, 512 KB, running at a maximum frequency of 2.842 GHz. We can see the 5G support coming with the Qualcomm 8150 processor, and one can also expect an Artificial Intelligence Processing Unit (APU) embedded with the processor.

The processor has already been featured in the Geekbench, ai-benchmark, and AnTuTu, with a single-core score of 3505 and multi-core score of 10608 in the Geekbench. The predictions, until now, have said all about its performance, and all the upcoming smartphones are inclined to adopt this new processor.

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 675 Processor Supporting Tripple Camera & Advanced AI

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Qualcomm, best known for its next-generation mobile technologies and powerful Snapdragon processors, has just launched the new Snapdragon 675, the latest high to the mid-range mobile computing platform. The production of the Snapdragon 625 is basically focussed on the better gaming experience, photography, and artificial intelligence (AI).

The Snapdragon 625 is being considered as an upgrade over the Snapdragon 670 SoC that was launched in August this year. The Snapdragon 625 chipset has the Kryo 460 architecture that is built on the ARM’s Cortex-A76 cores. The architecture is specially designed for high-end smartphones. It is the first time that the processor has been manufactured using the 11nm process. The processor has got two 2.0GHz performance cores, four 2.8GHz performance cores that are based on the Cortex-A75, and six 1.78GHz efficiency-based cores, making the processor faster.

SND
Image Source: droidsans.com

With Snapdragon 625, Qualcomm has brought the features, that were only available for high-end smartphones, to the mid-range smartphones. Snapdragon 625 has got a new Qualcomm Spectra 250L ISP for 14-bit image signal processing supporting a triple-camera setup, with 5x optical zoom, 48 megapixels, portrait mode, etc.

The processor is also focussed on improving the gaming experience and the AI features. According to the company, the AI features have been improved by 50% than the previous processors, with the help of third-generation Qualcomm AI Engine. The processor supports the Qualcomm Neural Processing Engine SDK, resulting in the addition of features like the adaption of user’s voice, working with multiple voice assistants, etc.

Also, the processor has faster performance, supporting high-end games like PUBG, Best NBA, Honor of Kings, Knives Out, etc. The processor uses the Adreno 612 GPU that supports OpenGL ES 3.2, Open CL 2.0, Vulkan, and DirectX 12. Snapdragon X12 LTE modem supports up to 600Mbps LTE connectivity that provides a support for playing the online games without any interruption.

The Qualcomm’s Snapdragon chipset is used in every other smartphone. The Snapdragon 625 can be considered Qualcomm’s attempt to provide the users of mid-range smartphones a better experience with its high-end features. By the first quarter of next year, you can find the Snapdragon 625 processors out in new Smartphones.

Qualcomm Announces new Flagship Chip featuring 5G connectivity

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Qualcomm Snapdragon
Image Source: mybroadband.co

The world’s largest semiconductor and telecommunications equipment company Qualcomm has announced its new flagship processor, built on the 7-nanometer mode process. Noticeably, the Apple’s A12 processor and Huawei’s Kirin 980 processor are also built on the same technology. And now Qualcomm is also about to produce its own high-performance processor.

The processor is considered to be the Snapdragon 855, and Qualcomm has claimed that the processor will provide better speed, improved battery backup, and performance. The flagship chip is likely to be the first mobile platform that will be 5G-capable and will be implemented in the premium flagship smartphones when used with the Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X50. Although Snapdragon X50 5G modem is not new to the technical world, it will be used in a smartphone for the very first time. And, according to Qualcomm, it has already begun coupling the processor with OEMs developing next-generation consumer devices.

The President of Qualcomm Incorporated stated, “We are very pleased to be working with OEMs, operators, infrastructure vendors, and standards bodies across the world, and are on track to help launch the first 5G mobile hotspots by the end of 2018, and smartphones using our next-generation mobile platform in the first half of 2019.”

Qualcomm is already considered as a leader in 3G and 4G mobile technologies. Now this time it is coming with the 5G technology with its faster, smaller and power efficient Snapdragon 855 to be used with high-end smartphones.

Qualcomm: How 7 MIT Graduate Came Together to Create a Company With 23.55 billion USD Revenue

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A simple idea can set a revolution in an era. The mid 1980s witnessed the planting such a seed of an idea which would eventually take over the technological world. Seven brilliant and visionary minds set up to meet and discuss about setting up Quality Communications. The seven minds Irwin Jacobs, Andrew Viterbi, Harvey White, Adelia Coffman, Andrew Cohen, Klein Gilhousen and Franklin Antonio invented wireless communication system now used in almost every electronic device.

The story began in 1985 when these MIT graduates gathered at Irwin Jacobs’ house to discuss the idea of developing a wireless and quality communication system. The company successfully signed its first contract to work on the unique digital wireless technology – CDMA. The technology is used by the US military to have secure communications. The company, in 1988, launched products like OmniTRACS satellite locating and messaging service which tracks the vehicles along their route.

The initial days of developing CDMA were challenging for the founders. With only six months on working on the technology they had to demonstrate their product before potential investors. Irwin Jacobs, however, confidently walked on the stage and demonstrated the product which would set history in the wireless industry. The first CDMA technology was then known as IS-95. Since then, Qualcomm has successfully established CDMA2000, WCDMA and LTE technologies which are widely used in mobile phones.

Qualcomm, in 1999, took a big step and sold their base station to Ericson which was then followed by selling phone manufacturing to Kyocera. The decision came with a mutual consent to completely focus on developing and selling ASICs which implemented the others. This helped the company to become the largest semiconductor company in the world. A common person can find their chipsets even in their home in devices like TV and smartphone.

The Big Leap
No other company has acquired as many companies as Qualcomm has from 1997 to 2014. Qualcomm has acquired nearly fifty technological companies that are directly or indirectly related to their sole products. In 2012, the company invented yet another path-breaking chips called Snapdragon chips. This chips are mostly used in smartphones by giants like Xiaomi and Samsung. Apple uses modems developed by Qualcomm and not the Snapdragon chips.

Game of Strategies
The founders have played a strategic game by developing something which every device must have and the companies developing those devices have to license it before using. For example, the 3G and 4G interface standards are the product of Qualcomm’s CDMA. The company aims to develop CDMA at much more advanced level. The upcoming upgrades would add to the efficiency of the already available chipsets by multiple times.

Qualcomm today has estimated revenue of 23.55 billion USD. Qualcomm’s contribution to the world of wireless technology is beyond appreciation. We might just think for a moment what if there was no wireless technology? There would be no WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. The world would be a messy place with all those wires around. Qualcomm lives on the motto ‘Enabling the wireless industry’ and it has stood to its slogan since its inception and will continue to do so in future too.