Pallab’s Place

At the recent Linley Mobile Processor Conference, they reviewed both detailed and high level trends in systems designs for the mobile marketplace.  The mobile markets are now filled with standard phones, smart phones, tablets, netbooks and laptops.  In the overview, the mobile market did not include cameras, video capture, e-readers and music players.

The major trends are towards video processing and content capture/streaming.  In order to address these characteristics and maintain the mobile use cycle, the main processing cores have to both increase in performance and reduce total power.  The direction is for dual and quad core processors are going to be replacing single core processors in most devices.

The tablet and smartphone opportunities will be high in the coming year, but smartphones will outpace tablets.  The single core phones will move to dual core and the dual cores will move to quad cores.  The quad cores will be limited to tablets in the near future.  Tablets will also see higher performance GPUs and reduction in power for the GPU performance.  The goal is to process 1080p video in a wireless connectivity environment and have this move to both 2D and 3D images.  For these applications, bigger screen sizes will be in play.

The RF side is also getting multi-format.  In addition to 4G and 3G, WiFi is becoming a ubiquitous connection for all of these devices.  The battlefield for the wireless video protocol (WiDi, Wireless HDMI, etc) is still open and will most likely be decided by minimum adherence to data format complaince and mostly driven by the lowest power envelope possible.

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The Smart Power Grid Technology Conference (www.spgtc.org), organized and presented by ISQED, has connected embedded systems as the underlying theme.  The conference has a diverse array of speakers covering topics from the business of converting utility ratepayers into data services customers through smart grid distribution and to at home/office smart monitoring and control.

There are two major underlying themes behind the smart grid – one is that devices which were single tasked devices with simple embedded controls are now needing connectivity and processing power to work to sensors and an UI to be able to deliver formatted data to the smart grid data aggregators.   The second is that the data once collected, has multiple tiers of value – to the homeowner, the equip manufacturers, the utility company and the country.

The one day, being held May 12th at the Biltmore Hotel in Santa Clara, features 10 speakers and a panel.  The panel discussion is on the business of the Smart Power Grid, and which sides of it have the best opportunities and jobs.  Speakers from the event include Marvell which will be discussing the use of connected embedded controller devices in a proactive role for monitoring of energy consuming products in the home.

In addition to industry speakers, several industry renown consultants and academia personnel will be presenting trends and innovation talks and challenges for the industry.

For information and registration please refer to the conference web site www.spgtc.org

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