eInfochips, Toshiba to jointly build chips for Google's modular phones

Ahmedabad-based tech firm eInfochips has tied up with Toshiba to jointly build and design chips for 'Spiral' range of Google's first modular smartphones. Modular phones are customisable smartphones wherein users can add or remove hardware-cum-software modules based on their requirement.

The firms have jointly developed chips for the base plate of the smartphone as well as chips for potential modules. Among the Spiral range of phone, Google is likely to launch Spiral-3, the third edition of the modular smartphones by mid-2015, it has been learnt. The third edition Spiral-3 is a modular mobile phone prototype under Google's 'Project Ara'.

They could add a sensor to test if water is clean. They could have a battery that lasts for days. They could have a louder speaker, gaming console, or use the smartphone as their car key. The possibilities are endless. To enable modular smartphones, eInfochips and TAEC offer the ARTOS12 Google Ara Development Kit for the 1x2 Module that uses Toshiba bridge chip technology and eInfochips engineering services.

The kit features MicroSD and USB slots enabling developers to store data and interface to external devices.  The Toshiba T6WR6XBG general-purpose bridge used in the development kit supports optional interfaces such as UART, I2C, I2S, SPI, and GPIO on the 1x2 module. The Ara 1x2 module development kit also includes high-speed interfaces for connection to the application processor bridge, USB drivers and quick-start documentation. Engineering services, distribution, support, release management and product delivery of ARTOS12 Google Ara development kits is provided by eInfochips.

eInfochips, in addition to being the development and support collaborator for the ARTOS12 Development Kit, will also offer its expertise on Google Ara modules with custom design and engineering services. These include platform porting, multimedia integration, application development, and performance optimization, among others. Companies seeking first-mover advantage on Google Ara modules can leverage eInfochips experience in this domain to accelerate development cycles. Having contributed to over 500+ hardware and software product designs, eInfochips can address gaps in the development of Project Ara smartphone module hardware and software.

According to Parag Mehta, Chief Marketing and Business Development Officer at eInfochips, “eInfochips is one of a handful of global engineering services companies with the experience in hardware, software and system design needed to deliver world-class Project Ara smartphone modules.”

"This will enable companies and individuals to design and innovative modules. This will be much similar to what emergence of mobile applications did for millions of software developers," said Kazi.

The smartphone will have Android platform and will come in three different sizes. The modules, categorized in three dimensions with 1x1 inch, 1x2 inch and 2x2 inches, will be certified by Google. The patent and IPR rights of the phone will remain with Google.

Already 20-30 large global corporations are working for different modules including camera, memory, display, speakers among others.

Motorola Moto E: Price, specifications, features and comparison

After leaving the Indian market in 2011, Motorola made a comeback last year with the Moto G, and how. Its first Smartphone post the comeback shook the Rs 10,000-Rs 15,000 segment in the country. Motorola’s retail model, where it only sells phone via Flipkart, may seem restricting to many, but that didn’t stop the Moto G to become the best selling Smartphone in the company’s history. The Moto G was followed by the flagship Moto X, which was in fact launched much before in August last year. The device priced in the Rs 20,000-Rs 25,000 range took a different path to its competitors — putting user experience ahead of the specification race. While its success may not have touched the dizzying heights of the Moto G, it nonetheless managed to impress many. Now, Motorola is back with another device, which too seems like a contender to shakeup the entry-level segment. Let’s have a detailed look at the Motorola Moto E.

MOTOROLA MOTO E PRICE IN INDIA
The Moto E is priced at Rs 6,999, which is quite aggressive. Motorola is focusing on changing the perception of entry-level devices and wants to offer first time Smartphone users a premium and well built device.

MOTOROLA MOTO E DESIGN
At first glance the Moto E looks quite similar to the Moto G, but look closer and you will see that the back panels have a different pattern, and there is no front-facing camera. In terms of dimensions, the Moto E (64.8×124.8×12.3mm) is shorter, less wide and slimmer than the Moto G (65.9×129.9×11.6mm)

The customization options include removable back panels, with up to nine different colored panels to choose from.

MOTOROLA MOTO E HARDWARE
DISPLAY – A 4.3-inch qHD display may not sound much, but you have to remember that no other tier-one company offers this kind of resolution in this price segment. The display is quite sharp and does a decent job in reproducing colors. Motorola has also added Corning Gorilla Glass 3 protection, which means the display won’t be easily scratched.

PROCESSOR – The device is powered by a Snapdragon 200 dual-core processor clocked at 1.2GHz and paired with Adreno 302 GPU. Motorola again gets one over its competitors by including a 1GB of RAM, where other companies only provide 512MB of RAM.

STORAGE – You get 4GB of internal storage of which only about 2.22GB is available for users. But on the plus side, there is a microSD card slot to expand the memory up to 32GB.

CAMERAS – There is a 5-megapixel rear camera, which is the same as the Moto G, but unfortunately it isn’t accompanied by a flash. The camera does an okay job at capturing images, but more often than now you would wish you had a flash. Selfie lovers won’t be happy to hear that there is no front camera.

BATTERY – There is a 1,980mAh battery, which the company claims is good enough to last for a day.

EXTRAS – Like the Moto G and the Moto X, the Moto E has a nano coating on the inside as well as the outside. The coating will ensure your device is protected from an occasional splash of water. The coating also ensures there aren’t any ugly flaps covering the ports.

CONNECTIVITY OPTIONS – Besides the usual connectivity options like 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the Moto E also has dual-SIM card slots. The dual-SIM functionality is quite smart in the sense that it keeps monitoring your usage and then automatically selects the SIM based on the contact you are calling.

MOTOROLA MOTO E SOFTWARE
The Motorola Moto E runs on the latest Android 4.4.2 KitKat and Motorola has also promised that the device will get at least one more OS update. Additionally, Motorola has also introduced a host of new features like Moto Alert, Instant SMS and Emergency Mode. Moto Alert will automatically alert preset contacts when you leave a particular location, Instant SMS will send a text with your location to preset contacts in emergency situations, and in Emergency mode, the device will call a preset contact or sound an alarm.

MOTOROLA MOTO E FIRST IMPRESSIONS
We got to spend some time with the device and you can read our first impressions of the device here.

MOTOROLA MOTO E COMPARISONS
At the price point, the Moto E will be up against the likes of the Sony Xperia E1 Dual, Nokia X and the Samsung Galaxy S Duos 2 among others. All the devices feature dual-core processors, 4GB expandable memory and are priced under Rs 9,000. The Moto E has the best display in terms of resolution, most RAM (1GB) and the biggest battery. It also runs on the latest Android KitKat and will get a guaranteed update. In the photography department, only Samsung offers a VGA front facing camera, while the rest don’t have one.

FEATURES	MOTOROLA MOTO E	SONY XPERIA E1 DUAL	NOKIA X	SAMSUNG GALAXY S DUOS 2
DISPLAY	4.3-inch qHD	4-inch WVGA	4-inch WVGA	4-inch WVGA
PROCESSOR	1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 dual-core	1.2GHz Snapdragon 200 dual-core	1.2GHz Snapdragon S4 dual-core	1.2GHz dual-core
RAM	1GB	512MB	512MB	768MB
STORAGE	4GB expandable	4GB expandable	4GB expandable	4GB expandable
CAMERAS (REAR/FRONT)	5-megapixel/ -	3-megapixel/ -	3-megapixel/ -	5-megapixel/VGA
BATTERY	1,980mAh	1,700mAh	1,500mAh	1,500mAh
Operating System	Android 4.4.2 KitKat	Android 4.3 Jelly Bean	Nokia Software Platform	Android 4.2 Jelly Bean
PRICE	Rs 6,999	Rs 8,363	Rs 6,955	Rs 8,305

Do U Know? Mobile devices said to consume more energy on storage tasks

Do u know that “Flash storage takes power to write - a 20 volt jolt to each cell - but needs almost none to maintain. The real power hog is the inefficient storage software stack that eats 200 times the power required for the hardware.”

Given the always-on mobile infrastructure - background updates, instant messages, email, updates, file sync, logging and more - lots of background storage I/O is happening all the time. And it's eating your device's power budget.

Researchers from Microsoft and the University of California at San Diego benchmarked how Android and Windows RT mobile devices used energy for storing data. They focused on activities that occur with the screen off, since displays are a major power consumer when lit. "Measurements across a set of storage-intensive micro benchmarks show that storage software may consume as much as 200x more energy than storage hardware on an Android phone and a Windows RT tablet," the research team wrote in a paper. "The two biggest energy consumers are encryption and managed language environments."

Results
On Windows RT they found that the OS/CPU/DRAM overhead was between 5 and 200 times the power used by the flash storage itself, depending on how DRAM power use was allocated. File system APIs, the language environment and encryption drove the CPU power consumption during I/O. Full disk encryption - protecting user data - incurred 42 percent of CPU utilization.

On an Android phone, the encryption penalty is even worse: 2.6–5.9x more energy per KB over non-encrypted I/O.

For applications, the team found that on Windows RT, the energy overhead in a managed environment is 12.6–18.3 percent while overhead on Android is between 24.3–102.1 percent. It appears that Android's algorithms are not optimized for application I/O power efficiency.

Motorola Moto G Now In India

Motorola's much awaited Android smartphone Moto G has been launched in India at a price point of Rs 12,499 for the 8GB variant and Rs 13,999 for the 16GB storage variant.
The company took to twitter to confirm the news. "Moto G is now available in India, exclusively on Flipkart. Order it today to take advantage of launch offers," it said. 
Available exclusively on Flipkart initially, As a promotional gesture, the online retailer is offering Rs.500 discounts on e-Books, Rs.1000-off on the clothing, flat 70-percent off on cover-cases and some lucky  consumers will also stand a chance to win 100-percent cash back (in terms of store credit) with the purchase of Moto G. [offer is for limited period only]

At the moment the 16GB model has been listed on Flipkart ( with 1 year manufacturer warranty for Phone and 6 months warranty for in the box accessories Motorola India Warranty and Free Transit Insurance.)

Apart from Flipkart, Snapdeal is also retailing Moto G. As of now, the pre-order booking has been closed due non-availability of stocks. It recorded 1000 orders within 2 hours of listing the Moto G on 4 February, reported BGR.
Feature-rich Moto G flaunts a 4.5-inch HD (1270x720p) LCD screen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3 shield and houses dual-SIM slots. It run on the Android v4.3 Jelly Bean (guaranteed to get KitKat update) powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 series quad-core processor backed by 1GB RAM and comes in 8GG and 16GB variants.
With the launch, Motorola Moto G is expected to give a stiff challenge to low-cost Indian smartphones like Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini A200, Lava Iris Pro 30, Karbonn Titanium S5 plus and others.

Motorola G Specifications:

Model	Motorola Moto G (Dual-SIM model confirmed for India)
Display	4.5-inch HD (1270x720p) LCD screen with 329 ppi (pixels per inch), comes protected with Corning Gorilla Glass 3 shield.
OS	Android v4.3, Guaranteed update of Android v4.4 KitKat
Processor	Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 series quad-core processor with 1.2GHz CPU speed
RAM	1GB
Storage capacity	8GB/16 GB variants ( no microSD card slot)
Camera	Main: 5.0-megapixel camera with LED flash Front: 1.3-megapixel camera
Network	3G
Battery	2,070 mAh
Add-ons	Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n),Bluetooth v4.0, USB, NFC, GPS
Dimensions	129.9 x 65.9 x 11.6 mm
Weight	143 g
Price	8GB: Rs.12,999 & 16GB: Rs.14,499

A Realistic Assessment of the PC's Future

All around us, the evidence is overwhelming that the PC world is changing rapidly and in numerous ways -- use, sales, share of the electronics/IT equipment market, application development, and, very importantly, the surrounding supply chain.

Certainly, the PC has a future in our homes and businesses, but don't let anyone convince you they know exactly how that future will look or where things will remain the same over the next five years. Within a few years, the PC market will lose its title as the dominant consumer of semiconductors -- if it hasn't already. In the near future, the leading destination for many components used in traditional PCs will be tablet and smartphone plants.

The supply chain, especially the procurement and production elements, must be focused on accelerating that transition. I don't believe that's the case today, though the trends have been apparent for quite a few quarters. As consumers have migrated toward mobile devices, especially smartphones, the consequences for PC vendors and their component suppliers have become obvious. But apparently, they aren't obvious enough.

Intel Corp., the company with the most to lose as this shift has accelerated, has worked to establish a beachhead in the smartphone market. Nevertheless, many well-meaning analysts and industry observers have continued to spout the misleading view that the PC sector is unshakeable. The general opinion for a while was that tablets and smartphones would serve as complementary products to the traditional PCs, rather than cannibalizing the market. Think again.

Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, had this to say about the changes in his company's market during a fourth-quarter earnings conference call.

From a product perspective, 2012 was a year of significant transitions in our markets and a year of important milestones for Intel...
At CES last week, I was struck by our industry's renewed inventiveness. PC manufacturers are embracing innovation as we are in the midst of a radical transformation of the computing experience with the blurring of from factors and the adoption of new user interfaces.
It's no longer necessary to choose between a PC and a tablet.

Let's turn to an IDC report released Monday for further explanation. The research firm said it sees PC innovation accelerating over the next few years as OEMs struggle to stem their losses and blunt the impact of smart phones on the market. PC OEMs and chip vendors can no longer afford to be complacent, IDC said; they must compete on all levels with tablets and Smartphone manufacturers to demonstrate the continued relevance of their products.

This view implies that PC vendors and their suppliers have been satisfied with the status quo until now. That would be putting it mildly. Until Apple Inc. rolled out the iPhone and positioned it as an alternative platform for accessing the Internet, many OEMs didn't see smartphones as competing devices. IDC said in its report:

Complacency and a lack of innovation among OEM vendors and other parts of the PC ecosystem has occurred over the past five years. As a result, PC market growth flattened in 2012 and may stagnate in 2013 as users continue gravitating to ever more powerful smartphones and tablets.

Ouch. Some in the industry still believe tablets and smartphones aren't an arrow aimed at the PC market. I don't see tablets and smartphones replacing PCs in all situations, but they will encroach enough on that territory to leave a visible mark. That's why PC vendors, semiconductor suppliers, and manufacturers of other components need to develop a strategy that embraces the smaller form factors of tablets and smartphones and leverage their advantages over traditional computing platforms to create market-winning products.

Mario Morales, program vice president for semiconductors and EMS at IDC, said in a press release, "The key challenge will not be what form factor to support or what app to enable, but how will the computing industry come together to truly define the market's transformation around a transparent computing experience."

That conversation is a couple of years late, but it's welcome nonetheless.