http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/22/samsung-building-chips-for-amd/



AMD's incoming CPUs should be more competitive with Intel thanks to the smaller 14-nanometer process, and could be as much as 40 percent faster and more efficient than its current generation. If AMD continues to work with Samsung (assuming the rumors are true), it might actually get a leg up on Intel in the PC market, because Samsung expects to ship even more efficient 10-nanometer chips by next year, while Intel recently confirmed that its own 10-nanometer chips won't arrive until 2017.

Why is this important?   AMD has killer graphics capability and as Samsung builds these chips they will learn all about AMD's tricks.  

Better graphics for Samsung kicks around a lot of possible progress in years to come, especially if the current deal includes any IP sharing.

Also be aware that Samsung lifts stuff whether you have an IP agreement or not, and is not afraid to let the courts settle it later on (year and years and years later on).

Next, AMD already has strong ties with FOSS, having given over its gaming standard Vulcan (which included all the previous standards) to FOSS to forestall a hostile take over by Microsoft a few months back.

Vulcan and the hardware behind it is valuable IP, and is mostly what AMD has that is worthwhile to share to insure its continuing existence.

Second, this action unhooks Intel from AMD's neck since Intel has been sucking AMD dry for decades now.   AMD is now free to leave CISC (and Intel IP sharing) behind them.

Third, it makes AMD a core player in ARM space, designing and building ARM based chipsets that compete against Intel.

Fourth, this is a trouble sign for Nvidia, as a 40% faster AMD chipset makes it potentially as good or better than Nvidia's best units.   Nvidia has no production deal with Samsung and is stuck with TSMC's not quite as good production processes.   Nvidia may wind up being #2 if they don't watch out.


Lastly, does this move mark the start of the increasing slippery slope part of Intel's slide into irrelevance?   Has Intel finally lost the "arm up behind the back" coercion power that they once wielded?
           

       

 
http://www.androidauthority.com/best-soc-intel-vs-qualcomm-vs-samsung-658684/

Forget about what is coming out next year (when and if it makes it) how about what is shipping in products right now?

Can a comparison of what we have available RIGHT NOW explain why there are no Intel chipset equipped phone products anywhere anymore?

For these tests, Android Authority got hold of different phones using these three SoCs. The phones are:

Snapdragon 810 – Sony Xperia Z5 Compact
Exynos 7420 – Samsung Galaxy Note 5
Atom Z3580 – Asus Zenfone 2

Here are the test results:






and






and







Wrap-up

"Intel’s biggest problem is that it is trying to use the same microarchitecture that it uses on the desktop and squeeze it into a mobile SoC. Creating high performance, power efficient processors is a complex business and ARM has specialized in this field. Every ARM processor is designed specifically for power efficiency while delivering the maximum performance. Intel’s focus is the desktop and servers, places where big ventilation fans are the norm and power usage isn’t as critical as on mobile. Until Intel starts to take mobile seriously it will always come in second, just as demonstrated by the Atom Z3580.

Yeah, performance-wise it ain't even close any more --- the "new improved" 14nm Intel mobile chipset lost in every test against its competition, even those run at older larger nanometer lithography levels.  

No wonder Microsoft dumped Intel.    

No wonder no one puts Intel chipsets in phones any more --- they were sorry back when Intel was giving out 10's of billions in bribe money and now that the bribe money has stopped NOBODY WANTS INTEL MOBILE CHIPSETS FOR ANYTHING FOR MUCH ANY MORE.

Now here is the icing on the poo pie --- Intel mobile chipsets have issues running some elements of standard Android due to their CISC construction that requires the use of a software abstraction layer to do some native Android calls.   And that abstraction layer goes buggy/strange every time Android changes and Intel is getting slower and slower fixing it.

Intel is 95+% good for all native Android functions, and that last ~5% says it simply isn't good enough for you to buy one.

So, in short Intel is slow and buggy/crappy in Android mobile uses.

And that is why you don't see many Intel mobile chipset phones any more.    

Last reason is Microsoft kicked them out of the Wintel marriage bed for Qualcomm, who makes a better, faster more flexible chipset that is a full system on a chip (something Intel still hasn't done right yet).

My apologies to those who own gen 1 Asus Zenphones and who like them just fine for  the less than $300 you paid for them.

(Intel paid out the other hundred dollars that the phone actually cost to build, BTW)

But since Intel has stopped shelling out the big bribes, Asus Zenphone went with a faster, more energy efficient ARM chipset and the new Zenphone is now a lighter, cheaper, simply better phone for it.






The cries of the Intel fanboys have split the net-waves.   "Unfair comparison, you should be comparing the Z3580 to mid-range ARM processors from last year."


OK, let's run with that logic a bit.   We should take the current state of the art very best Intel mobile chipset that exists (or is planned to exist since Intel has given up on mobile) and only compare it to the MID-RANGE ARM CHIPSETS from last year in order to have a fair comparison (i.e. to allow Intel to win a few of the tests).

So, by their own fanboy protests Intel fans are saying Intel is a full year and a bit out of date and about half the pack behind the OLD last year's primo phone chipsets from the ARM world.

So what is Intel's very best mobile chipset compared to what's being announced next week at the big CES computer show?

Answer:   dog poo

lenovo tiny desktop w/win7pro

http://www.woot.com/offers/lenovo-quad-core-win-7-pro-tiny-desktop-7?ref=w_cn...

Steam is changing and getting better too as the steam boxes roll into play.

(and also having some right ugly growing pains with their net based service along the way).

Steam now has a BUNCH of Steam box titles showing now (and what is neat is all these steam box titles will run on the Steam installation you can get from your Linux distro).

The Christmas sale is neat too, with 75% off and 80% off on some relatively current items.   $8.49 for Unwritten Tales 2, a 20 hour point and click that was new this year is a pretty good Christmas sale.

The old stuff is really cheap, with the older classic series like Serious Sam and Half Life going for less than $3, and with them selling the entire series and all the add on packs for like $13 for the lot (which is really really cheap per individual title).

http://liliputing.com/2016/01/blu-launches-vivo-5-and-vivo-xl-octa-core-phone...

http://www.androidauthority.com/blu-vivo-5-vivo-xl-hands-on-666223/

Blu defines low end phones and the low end really isn't so low any more ......






Why worth noting?    Blu at $200 list retail outspecs some of last year's premium phones and we also note that the new Vivo 5 comes with a Mediatek octacore processor, a complete "world modem/radio", Mali 720 graphics, 3 gigs of system memory and a type C port capable of running input/output to a separate screen through a multiport jack for keyboard / mouse.  

Yep, smells kinda like Android PC/phone turf .....

ANDROID IS NOT THERE YET, but will be by year's end most likely.   By then this one will be a $125 phone, not a $200 phone.  Android 7.0 series will likely support PC style device docking, keyboards and mice and other PC/phone stuff.    


Blu defines low end phones and the low end really isn't so low any more ......


..... and jest look at the wonderful cheap shot Mediatek just took at Qualcomm in response to Qualcomm's cheap shot they just took at Mediatek during their main CES presentations ......



This image insinuates that Qualcomm's recent renaming of the 820 chipset to the 852 chipset was indeed because early 820 testing at Mediatek showed the 820 had thermal throttling and overheating issues just like the last Qualcomm 810 chipset, a situation which allowed Mediatek 10 and 12 core chipsets to roundly trounce the Qualcomm 820 in Mediatek testing.....  

Qualcomm's quick renaming of the 820 doesn't really fix any of the thermal issues but gives the illusion that "something was done about the issues".    

You know, Intel style brown smoke and mirrors stuff while Qualcomm works on the issues.
Samsung will just have to be careful to spec their chipsets at the full warmed up state, just like they did l
If independent reviews show the 852 chipset still has these overheating thermal issues when it is shipped in volume then Qualcomm is in for a very bad 2016 year and Qualcomm will likely be #3 at the end of it, with Samsung #1 and Mediatek at #2.



Samsung will just have to be careful to spec their chipsets at the full warmed up state, just like they did last year.  

Why Qualcomm cannot simply do this, nobody knows (unless it is really that the Qualcomm warmed up state is NOT COMPETITIVE AT ALL, which is what Mediatek is taking the cheap shots at them about at the moment).

So you bought the $99 special?   Good deal, that.

Keep us all posted on the Freedom Pop "free service" and tell us if it has any warts & uglies.    First reviews say if you stay inside your wifi zone at home it works great, issues on the road take place when you need cell service and don't have it.

If it pans out good for home bodies, that might be my next phone and service too.