Thread: Anandtech News

Home automation is emerging as one of the primary drivers in the rising popularity of the IoT (Internet of Things) concept. Popular home automation / smart home technologies include programmable thermostats (such as Nest and Honeywell Lyric) and remote controlled lights (such as the Philips Hue). IP cameras have been around as a security solution for quite some time, but they have not traditionally been included in the IoT discussions. As the smart home concept gains popularity, these three product categories are set to experience rapid growth.
Netgear is building upon their VueZone purchase by introducing the next generation wire-free cameras under the Arlo brand name. Simplicity and ease of use are primary drivers for the adoption of the VueZone family of cameras. Important updates (compared to the previous generation VueZone cameras) include high definition (720p) video clips and better configurability (such as schedules for turning off the camera completely).
Unlike the traditional IP cameras which stream video continuously, we are now seeing a sub-category where video is recorded and sent out only when there is movement. The Arlo IP cameras belong to this category. Since the units are battery powered, it does make sense to ensure that they don't run out of juice in a short time. The new design is also weather-proof, making it suitable for outdoor use. There are two models being introduced, one with IR LEDs for night vision, and the other suitable for day use or in illuminated locations.
As part of the smart home push, Netgear is introducing a hub to which up to four Arlo IP cameras can connect. Rules can be created for management of smart devices. Currently, the VueZone cameras (like Dropcam) allow for remote viewing, but recording to the cloud requires monthly plans. The new Arlo IP cameras will follow the same route. Fortunately, Netgear does realize that users would like to record to a local NAS. Since they also have the ReadyNAS product line, the Arlo team is definitely thinking about ensuring some sort of interoperability. However, cloud-free operation is not going to be a feature when the units ship to retail in January. Pricing for an Arlo-based security system (two IP cameras and a hub) is expected to be around $350. A standalone Arlo camera will retail for $170. However, it will not function without the hub.
In order to target the overall smart home ecosystem, Netgear is also announcing that they have joined the AllSeen Alliance and established a partnership with LIFX (a vendor of connected light bulbs).

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While voice calls have decreased in importance in the past few years, we've seen an increased need for voice processors that can properly isolate voice to enable features such as touchless controls of a phone or tablet, along with dictation and similar features. In order to better enable these features, Audience has introduced a new eS800 line of voice and audio processors. At a high level, there are a few key features that are enabled by this new audio processor, namely improved voice recognition at large distances, during media playback, and automatic focusing on the speaker.

There are also a few other features that this new line of ICs enables, namely improved always-on hotword detection as it can now train its detection to only activate to a specific person when using a user-trained keyword. On the previous eS700 series, this was only possible with an OEM-set keyword. There are also significant improvements to noise suppression overall, as the voice processor is better-equipped to deal with varying hand position and other challenging conditions. Audience noted that this level of noise suppression meant that their solution is one of the few to pass carrier testing for voice quality, as opposed to other popular solutions on the market. These features are enabled by the use of artificial neural network technology, which is definitely something I haven't seen before.
While both announced ICs of the eS800 have these voice capabilities, the eS804 is designed to be a voice processor, while the eS854 has an additional audio codec that supports universal headset detection and can enable more button signalling over the 3.5mm jack. There's also an integrated stereo amp, which can drive speakers although it's unclear how this compares with the popular NXP solutions on the market. The eS800 line of voice and audio processors should appear in smartphones and tablets in the coming months.

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Samsung has announced the availability of their Gear Circle Bluetooth headphones in the United States. The Gear Circle is a pair of Bluetooth earbuds that are worn around the neck and can gently vibrate when a notification arrives. When not in use, they can be attached together and worn as a necklace of sorts. It also supports voice notifications and voice commands through Samsung's S Voice software. Samsung promises up to nine hours of music playback and up to eleven hours of talk time.
There are currently no details on pricing, but Samsung has stated that they are now available in black and blue at T-Mobile stores, and will be available at AT&T stores, Samsung.com, and Amazon.com later this month. A special white color will also be available through Best Buy.



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While smartphones have always had a strong need for quality voice processing, on the PC side such concerns have generally fallen to the wayside as voice was generally ignored, with only a few niche applications. However, as tablets and other formfactors have become more common on Windows x86, there is increasing demand for voice control and other features for a similar experience to Android and iOS tablets. To enable this, in conjunction with the eS800 Audience is announcing their S1.0 voice software, which delivers eS700-series voice and audio algorithms over Windows' audio interface.

There are a few key features that this enables, namely wideband noise suppression for VOIP, omnidirectional noise cancellation, key-click removal, and improved speech recognition. In the case of wideband noise suppression, this means that rather than artificially compressing the range of frequencies received to be able to cancel out noise, the software suite makes it possible to process incoming audio over almost the entire range of hearing for higher quality VOIP.

While omnidirectional noise cancellation seems to be a bit uninteresting, the real story here is that it's possible to enable a good voice experience without beamforming, which relies on two microphones that are aligned with each other. While this allows for effective noise cancellation of anything not collinear with the microphones, this makes it hard to avoid losing voice in multiple directions. As these algorithms enable noise cancellation without beamforming, this means that there's no need to drill holes in glass for microphone holes, which can be quite expensive as the holes cause yields on the cover lens to drop dramatically. This means that microphone placement in general can be more flexible, and only a pair of microphones is needed.

Although the eS800 line has more advanced voice processing features, the S1.0 suite still utilizes some level of artificial neural network technology to enable features like key-click removal. While details are a bit sparse on how speech recognition assist works, Audience emphasized that their solution had greatly improved recognition accuracy when compared to competitors. The S1.0 software will work on Windows 7 and 8.1 with Intel's Haswell and newer CPUs.

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Dell World is on right now in Austin, and today Dell announced a refresh of the Venue 11 Pro 7000 Series tablet. The 7000 Series is a more expensive, more powerful version of their tablet, and until now has been sold with the Haswell Y series processors. The major change with the newest version of the tablet is that it will be equipped with a Broadwell Core-M processor, which enables it to become fanless.
The 7000 Series is aimed more at the business crowd, with additional features such as optional docking stations, keyboards, stylus, and two-factor authentication with integrated smartcard and fingerprint readers. With the tablet running Core processors instead of Atom, the price is also aimed higher than many other tablets, with a price closer to the Microsoft Surface Pro 3. It does undercut the Microsoft tablet on price though, with a starting price of $699.99.

Dell Venue Pro 7000 Series
	Specifications
CPU	Intel Core-M 5Y10a/5Y70 (Dual-Core 0.8-2.0 GHz/1.1-2.6 GHz)
GPU	Intel HD 5300
RAM	4-8 GB DDR3L 1600 MHz
SSD	64 to 128 GB
Display	10.8" 1920x1080 HD IPS LCD
Battery	38 Whr
Connectivity	Intel Wireless-AC 7265 (802.11ac/BT4.0/NFC) Optional Intel XMM 7160 LTE Modem
Height	176.4 mm
Width	279.8 mm
Depth	10.75 mm
Weight	733.4g (Wi-Fi) 757.3g (LTE)
Price	$699 Starting

One of the most important parts of a tablet is likely the display, and the Venue Pro 11 7000 Series seems to keep the same 10.8” IPS (the press release says IPS while the tech specs say TN – most likely it is IPS) display from the previous version. Though not the highest resolution tablet display, it still has Full HD resolution which gives it right around 200 pixels per inch. The touch screen has 10-point capacitive touch, and likely has support for the same active stylus option as the previous version.
Powering the new fanless design is the Intel Core-M 5Y10a, with the 5Y70 possibly being offered at a later date. These are both dual-core designs, which also have hyper-threading enabled. Graphics are handled by the integrated Intel HD 5300 GPU. Also included in the package is vPro with the 5Y70, which should help sell the new tablet in the enterprise. Memory options are 4 or 8 GB of LPDDR3-1600, and connectivity is provided by the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265 chip. This is newer, smaller version of the Wireless-AC 7260 card which is available in the M.2 form factor only. Also available is the Intel XMM 7160 modem which supports 2G/3G/LTE. Storage is either a 64 or 128 GB SSD, and the battery is a 38 Whr model which Dell says should get through the work day – whatever that means.
Other miscellaneous features include a full size USB 3.0 port, Bluetooth 4.0, micro HDMI, NFC, a Sensor Hub (Gyro, G-sensor, Proximity), and a microSD slot which can accept up to 128 GB of extra storage.

The new model is 15 percent thinner than the outgoing version, which is expected with the move to Core-M. Intel did a lot of work to allow these thinner models, and not just the 4.5 watt TDP. If you have missed our previous coverage on this, I will refer you to Ryan’s Broadwell preview.
As this is marketed as a business machine, a lot of the design and focus was on accessories. Dell once again offers a multitude of accessories to allow this design to bridge the gap between a tablet and a PC in the office, with an optional docking station, as well as a snap on keyboard which transforms the tablet into a clamshell laptop. If you need extra battery life, they also have a Mobility Keyboard option which includes a supplemental battery. To specifically target the Healthcare industry, they even have a Healthcare Case which can be fully sanitized. Dell is even offering a Mobile Payment Solution with a 2D barcode scanner and magnetic stripe reader for retail and hospitality customers.
Core-M is just now starting to roll out, and it is great to see the number of new fanless devices which are hitting the market. At just 1.62 lbs, it is a bit heavier than an iPad Air 2, but with the power of a Core CPU. The Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 Series will be available for purchase on www.dell.com beginning November 11^th.
Source: Dell

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AMD is updating their Never Settle bundles in a different fashion today, effectively doubling down on the bundles. In addition to the existing Never Settle: Space Edition, AMD will be providing complimentary copies of Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth to qualifying purchases of their Radeon R9 295X2, R9 290X, and R9 290 GPUs starting today, November 6.
As we found in our Benchmarked article, AMD and Firaxis have worked together to make Mantle a big part of Civilization: Beyond Earth, improving frame rates and with CrossFire setups the Split Frame Rendering can noticeably improve minimum frame rates and reduce input latency. If you haven't already purchased Civilization: Beyond Earth and are already in the market for a new GPU – which may be the case considering the recent price cuts on the R9 290X and R9 290 – this further sweetens the deal.

AMD Never Settle Forever Tiers
Video Card	Tier	Number of Free Games	Cur. Number of Games on Tier
R9 295X2 R9 290 Series R9 280 Series	Gold	3	20 + 6
R9 270 Series R7 260 Series	Silver	2	19 + 6
R7 250 Series R7 240 Series	Bronze	1	11 + 6

As we discussed previously, the Never Settle promotion now has three teirs of GPUs, Bronze, Silver, and Gold tiers. Qualifying purchases of Bronze tier cards net you one gaming choice – which you can redeem now or hold on to for later – while Silver gives you two choices and Gold gives you three choices. Again, keep in mind that the Civilization: Beyond Earth offer only applies to the top three AMD GPUs (R9 295X2, 290X, and 290).
The current promotion runs from September 2014 until January 31, 2015 – or until all codes are exhausted – and you need to select the game(s) you want during the campaign period. The current list of games is quite long, with the latest additions being Alien: Isolation and the Star Citizen Mustang Omega Variant Racer (along with access to the games first two modules). There are 32 games in total on the Gold list, including six "Indie Packs" that give you two games instead of one. You can view the full list at the AMD4U site; make sure you also purchase a GPU from a qualifying vendor.

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As part of our Haswell-EP coverage, the next two processors on our test beds are both 12 core variants. The E5-2650L V3 is a surprising monster, giving 12 Haswell cores at 1.8 GHz with 2.5 GHz turbo for only 65W, while the E5-2690 V3 extends the power budget to 135W for all 12 cores at a 2.6 GHz base frequency.

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This month is not starting very well for technology enthusiasts. Most of us have fond memories of Zalman, a company that has been producing advanced cooling solutions since 1999. Some are old enough to remember the fan-like CNPS6000 Socket 370 coolers and the first Reserator liquid cooling kits. Zalman was one of the pioneers of low-noise cooling solutions, in an era when stock coolers were noisy enough to drive people insane. Unfortunately for us all, on November 3, 2014 the company filed a bankruptcy protection request in the Seoul Central District Court.
Zalman did not fall victim to recession, competition or even bad corporate management. The whole story is long, complicated, obscure and yet unconfirmed, so unfortunately we may never learn all the details of it. To summarize, Zalman apparently was part of an allegedly very well designed and planned multi-billion dollar corporate fraud.

Zalman is a child company of the robotics manufacturer Moneual. According to The Korea Times, Moneual failed to repay their (massive) export bonds that matured on October 20, 2014, and ultimately filed for bankruptcy. Ever since that incident, Zalman's stock price also began a quick downfall. However, the numbers just do not add up - Moneual has been repeatedly reporting major profits, with their 2013 annual report being nearly 1.2 billion dollars in sales and over 100 million dollars in profit. The local authorities naturally became very suspicious and initiated investigations, the preliminary reports of which indicate that there is evidence of a well-designed corporate fraud.
Long story short, Moneual allegedly acquired Zalman in 2011 as part of their master plan. They forged Zalman's export and accounting documents, greatly overstating their export and income reports, in order to become eligible for huge bank loans. What is even more interesting is an article posted by the Korea JoongAng Daily, where an employee claims that most of the employees knew that the company was a sham but, despite the unearthly profit reports of the past few years, no government officials raised an eyebrow.

During that time, Moneual received about 620 million dollars in loans from several Korean banks and another 275 million dollars as export credit from the Korea Trade Insurance Corp, making the owners of Moneual richer by nearly 900 million dollars, money that will likely never be repaid. They have been arrested and, alongside many top- and mid-level executives of the company, are now facing prison time. Unfortunately, the architects of this fraud may not receive what punishment they deserve; the CEO of Moneual has U.S. citizenship and his brother has Canadian, and there's some concerns that Korean law could face trouble prosecuting them.
Unfortunately, we have little confirmed information on the matter but, from the looks of it, no one from Zalman was involved in this fraud. Depending on the court's decision, there is the possibility that Zalman will be granted bankruptcy protection and severed from Moneual's control. However, even if that happens, Zalman will certainly not have the capabilities they used to and will most certainly struggle to compete on a global scale.

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This afternoon NVIDIA announced record revenue for their fiscal year 2015 quarter three, which ended October 26^th of this year. For those that do not follow financial data, fiscal years and calendar years are only the same in that they have twelve months. NVIDIA has the fiscal year that is the most out of sync with the calendar year of the tech companies we cover. With that housekeeping out of the way, we can get to the meat of the data. NVIDIA has had a very strong Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 so far, with a Q3 revenue of $1.23 billion, which is up 16% year-over-year. Revenue for the FY so far is also a record at $3.43 billion, up 15% over the end of Q3 last year.
Gross margin for Q3 was 55.2%, down 0.2% from last year and 0.9% since last quarter. Operating expenses were up 5% at $463 million, and net income was up significantly at $173 million. The net income gains are 35% sequentially, and 45% year-over-year. Earnings per share came in at $0.31, up 41% from last quarter and 55% from last year. The beat analyst’s expectations of $0.29 per share.

NVIDIA Q3 2015 Financial Results (GAAP)
In millions except EPS	Q3'2015	Q2'2015	Q3'2014	Q/Q	Y/Y
Revenue	$1225	$1103	$1054	+11%	+16%
Gross Margin	55.5%	56.4%	55.7%	-0.9%	-0.2%
Operating Expenses	$463	$456	$443	+2%	+5%
Net Income	$173	$128	$119	+35%	+45%
EPS	$0.31	$0.22	$0.20	+41%	+55%

During Q3, NVIDIA paid $46 million in cash dividends, and purchased back 16.8 million shares under a $310 million repurchasing agreement. NVIDA has paid $140 million in dividends so far this fiscal year, and repurchased 44.2 million shares, which results in $950 million returned to shareholders through the first three quarters of FY 2015. They stated their intention is to return an additional $600 million in FY 2106.
For shareholders on record as of November 21^st, NVIDIA will pay a quarterly dividend of $0.085 per share on December 15^th.

NVIDIA Quarterly Revenue Comparison (GAAP)
In millions	Q3'2015	Q2'2015	Q3'2014	Q/Q	Y/Y
GPU	$991	$878	$877	+13%	+13%
Tegra Processor	$168	$159	$111	+6%	+51%
Other	$66	$66	$66	flat	flat

NVIDIA launched the new Maxwell based GeForce GTX GPUs during the last quarter, which have proven to be a solid performer in our testing. GPUs continue to be the largest revenue generator for NVIDIA, and with the latest product launches revenue for the GPU unit is up 13% year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter. GeForce branded GPU revenue was up 36% based on the continued strength of PC gaming. Within the gaming segment, gaming notebook sales with NVIDIA inside more than doubled as compared to a year ago. Also in the GPU segment is the Tesla GPUs and GRID for high performance computing and datacenter GPU functions, and while exact numbers were not released, NVIDIA stated they had strong grown in this sector, with another record quarter for revenue for Tesla driven by “large project wins with cloud service providers and government customers.” The final piece of the GPU pie is Quadro. Once again, they do not break down the individual GPU segment numbers, but NVIDIA stated Quadro revenue remained strong for the quarter.
Tegra processors sales grew 51% year-over-year, which design wins in automotive infotainment being a strong part of this. NVIDIA said that over six million vehicles on the road have infotainment systems that are powered by NVIDIA processors. Automotive infotainment system revenue nearly doubled year-over-year. On the mobile side, they have also launched the K1 for tablets including the NVIDIA SHIELD and the just released Google Nexus 9. Chromebooks are also finding use for the K1.
The final piece of revenue for NVIDIA is a $66 million licensing agreement with Intel.
For Q4 2015, the outlook is revenue of $1.20 billion, plus or minus 2%. Margins are expected to come in between 55.2% and 55.5%, plus or minus 50 basis points. Operating expenses will be approximately $470 million (GAAP), and a tax rate for Q4 at about 18% plus or minus 1%.
This has been a great year for NVIDIA, with their diversification into mobile starting to get them some product wins, but more importantly for their bottom line they have seen an explosion of growth in the automotive sector. The GPU business also has a great lineup at the moment, especially with the Maxwell GTX lines. The doubling of gaming laptop sales is also great for the PC industry, and helps us understand why we have seen a plethora of new devices announced. Assuming NVIDIA keeps up its record pace for Q4, FY 2015 will be a benchmark for them in the future.
Source: NVIDIA

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Earlier this week, in something of an unexpected move, UL (Underwriters Laboratories) and Futuremark announced that UL had acquired the benchmarking company, signaling their expansion into the software development industry and benchmarking services. This might seem a bit of an odd fit at first, as UL is a large corporation that's more than a century old and they have a history of providing "safety science" – they certify, validate, test, inspect, audit, and advise consumers and businesses in matters of safety. Reading further into the announcement however clarifies things:
"Embedded software is now an important part of product design. With an increased focus on mobility, we see more and more products being connected, making the Internet of Things a reality. Consequently, software quality is a significant driver of product safety and performance; and we believe that benchmarking is an important way to help our customers to improve the performance of their products. This acquisition provides [UL] with an opportunity to build a new business line in testing a wide variety of technological devices so they offer the performance, safety and privacy that consumers expect."
In other words, Futuremark's expertise in building benchmarking and testing software, including perhaps most notably the recent release of 3DMark and PCMark for Android, will help UL in testing and certifying a variety of modern devices. The announcement goes on to note that UL plans for additional investments into Futuremark's product development, increasing the range and types of benchmarks that are offered.
For their part, Futuremark obviously gets much deeper corporate funding, and UL is a global company with many resources and contacts. Futuremark's current staff of 39 employees will all remain, including the CEO Jukka Mäkinen. UL by comparison already has over 10,000 employees located around the world. Details of the amount of the acquisition are not known, but UL notes that both Futuremark and UL have a history of neutrality and independence that they intend to continue, and at present UL will continue to support Futuremark's distribution of benchmarking software for PCs and mobile devices.

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