Date: 09/01/2012
CES 2012 is more of convergence tech than a consumer
The world's most popular Consumer Electronics event CES at Las Vegas in U.S. is turning more into convergence electronics show rather than consumer electronics show. The convergence of communication, computing and entertainment is happening now at full speed. Year 2012 can be a big year for convergence products such as all in one PCs, tablet computers, and networked TVs. These devices allow you to watch your favorite show/video or even a ppt presentation in your TV, computer, mobile, car or wherever you are.
The Microsoft office or any such productivity software tools going to be not just PCware. More convergence focused products are expected from Microsoft and Intel in 2012 and 2013. The world is yet to see popular Windows based tablet. Microsoft can't delay any further than end-of-2012. Android has a lead over Windows. There is already an Android TV and Mobile. We got to see whether Windows and Android going to work complementing each other or competing each other. If this is the case with software, similar logic can be applied to hardware between Intel processor and ARM processor. Year 2012 is expected to give answer for this question.
There is a bit of confusion in understanding the preferences of electronics gadget user at this period of time. The choice going to imfluence the design of electronics devices, more so for the risky semiconductor chip industry. Sudden market shifts in usage hints why leading consumer electronics chip vendor Trident facing huge revenue loss.
The present range of products to be displayed at CES is of high-performance computer-integrated digital gadgets with ability to stream digital High Definition (HD) audio/video across different networks (wireless and wired) and devices with very humane type interface. Literally this is the trend. Simple to use and easy to access any information, but extremely complex at the back; this can be a better way to define the present digital gadget. The future expected to feature even simpler front-end with interface going much like human natural senses and the backend is like server on a chip.
Here is the some of the demos at CES 2012 (to be held on Jan 10 to 13th at Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S.) useful for electronics design engineers:
The SiI9489A chip from Silicon Image is a dual-mode port processor used in BenQ's devices to allow its user to view and share HD content from MHL-enabled mobile devices as well as the latest HDMI 1.4 devices on their MHL-enabled BenQ TV. Silicon Image's ViaPort technology is to be demonstrated at the 2012 International CES.
Qualcomm to launch its Snapdragon GameCommand application to the Android Market at Consumer Electronics Show . Snapdragon GameCommand will give mobile users a way to quickly discover, organize and access the latest Snapdragon optimized, featured and exclusive games. It will also provide feeds from top gaming news sites to help consumers stay up to date with the latest gaming news.
Snapdragon GameCommand will enable users to easily access and play many of the over 100 Snapdragon GamePack featured games on a wide range of mobile phones and tablets.
Marvell said its new Foresight Platform, powered by the Marvell ARMADA 1500 HD Media System-on-a-Chip (SoC), has been designed into the Google TVs debuting at CES 2012. ARMADA-based Foresight Platform is designed to deliver 3D video, rich audio, striking 3D graphics and TV-friendly Web content.
FPGA maker Lattice Semiconductor in collaboration with Aptina is going to demonstrate a low cost, dual image sensor design at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
Broadcom is going to showcase at CES its newly introduced family of 802.11ac (5G WiFi) chips designed for a broad range of product segments. The new IEEE 802.11ac chips are three times faster and up to six times more power efficient than equivalent 802.11n solutions. Broadcom also to showcase the industry's first MoCA 2.0-Integrated Portfolio including six new set-top box (STB) and Hybrid IP Gateway system on a chip (SoC) platforms.
ZiiLABS to display it new 100-core ZMS-40 StemCell Media processor optimized for Android. Android 4.0 (ICS) tablets and associated design-kits based on the ZMS-40 are going to be showcased at the ZiiLABS suite (Venetian) at the CES 2012.
IDT will be showcasing the world's first touch-over-AUX DisplayPort timing controller (TCON) with integrated touch controller as an inexpensive, simple touch screen solution for notebook and tablet PCs, and also the world's first low-power DisplayPort TCON with panel-self-refresh (PSR) technology for extended
CEVA, Inc. has announced the availability of the first. CEVA-MM3101 is a fully programmable, low power platform developed to meet the advanced image and vision processing use-cases in camera-enabled devices, including smartphones, tablets and smart TVs. CEVA and eyeSight to demonstrate a range of real-world applications based on CEVA's new imaging and vision platform based on CEVA-MM3000 architecture framework at CES 2012.