Technology
Qualcomm-Iridium end partnership for two-way satellite connectivity
Qualcomm ended its partnership with Iridium for two-way satellite connectivity on phones. The Snapdragon maker disclosed that smartphone makers have “indicated a preference towards standards-based solutions” for satellite-to-phone connectivity.
While Qualcomm and Iridium successfully developed and demonstrated two-way satellite connectivity, smartphone makers have not included it in their devices, leading Qualcomm to end the agreement. Meanwhile, Apple is spending heavily to provide its “Emergency SOS with Satellite” service.
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Well, Qualcomm said that it expects to continue to collaborate with Iridium on standards-based solutions while discontinuing efforts on the proprietary solution that was introduced earlier this year. Iridium noted that the end of this agreement allows it to re-engage with others.
Samsung is reportedly planning to unveil its next-generation Galaxy Book 4 series of premium laptops on December 15, ahead of its usual launch schedule. This new laptop series is expected to consist of four models including Book 4, Book 4 Pro, Book 4 Ultra, Book 4 360, and Book 4 Pro 360.
The Galaxy Book 3 series was launched in February this year, and the Galaxy Book 4 series was expected to follow suit next year. However, according to a report by Yonhap News, Samsung may have decided to launch the new laptops earlier to showcase its advanced capabilities.
In the past few weeks, some details about these laptops have leaked online, which suggest that these devices will feature powerful processors, up to 32GB of RAM, up to 1TB of SSD storage, and various display sizes and resolutions.
Samsung has not confirmed the launch date or the specifications of the Galaxy Book 4 series, so we will have to wait and see if the rumors are true.
Qualcomm may stick with TSMC for the 3nm Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor’s production next year. Earlier, the company was rumored to shift to a multi-foundry strategy, but it won’t happen next year. Samsung also has some 3nm clients, but no flagship product has been ordered.
According to China Times, Qualcomm and MediaTek plan to use the second-gen TSMC 3nm process to fabricate Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and Dimensity 9400. The new N3E tech offers performance and efficiency improvements over the N3B, which is used in Apple’s A17 Pro.
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Reports suggest that the Taiwanese chip manufacturer is producing 60,000 to 70,000 wafers per month using its 3nm process. This number is expected to rise to 100,000 wafers by the end of next year. As of now, 5% of its revenue comes from its 3nm process, which will rise to 10% next year.
South Korea-based AI fabless startup, Rebellions, is gearing up for mass production of data center-specific artificial intelligence (AI) chips using Samsung Foundry’s EUV (extreme ultraviolet ) process at the 5nm level.
BusinessKorea reports that Rebellions completed a mass production contract last week with SEMIFIVE for the Samsung 5-nm AI semiconductor ATOM, with mass production set to commence early next year.
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ATOM
ATOM is known for its industry-leading graphics processing unit (GPU) performance and up to 3.4 times greater energy efficiency compared to equivalent neural network processors (NPU).
Particularly notable is ATOM’s performance in the Global Benchmark, where it outperformed competitors like Nvidia and Qualcomm by 1.4 to 3 times, sparking significant interest.
Earlier this year, Rebellions produced prototypes of ATOM through Samsung Foundry’s “Multi-Project Wafer Service,” which prints various types of semiconductors on a single wafer.
Rebel
Rebellions is also strengthening its collaboration with Samsung, co-developing the next-gen semiconductor Rebel, specialized for Large Language Models (LLM), which is being developed using Samsung Foundry’s 4-nm process.