05-27: Huawei has over 16,000 5G standard patents ranking first in the world and accounting for 20%; 360 has indicated that the company’s new strategy is a “big security” strategy; etc.
Chipsets
China has independently built the Beidou navigation system. Currently, the Beidou No. 3 system will be globally networked by 2020. HD8040 is the world’s first multi-system multi-frequency high-precision SoC chip that supports the next-generation Beidou-3 signal system. Qi Chengqi, director of the China Satellite Navigation System Management Office, has said that the latest 22nm dual-frequency positioning chip has market application conditions. The cumulative sales volume of domestic Beidou navigation chip modules has exceeded 80M pieces, and the sales of high-precision boards and antennas have occupied 30% and 90% of the domestic market share respectively, and exported to more than 100 countries and regions. (My Drivers, China News)
AMD is introducing the company’s 3rd-generation Ryzen CPUs, which are also the world’s first 7nm desktop chips. All of AMD’s 3rd-gen Ryzen chips will feature its new Zen 2 architecture, a chiplet-based design that will offer a 15% performance improvement across every application. They will also have double the floating point performance and double the cache over its last CPUs. The 3900X features a base/boost speed of 3.68GHz/4.6GHz and 70MB of total cache. (CN Beta, AnandTech, Engadget, My Drivers)
ARM is introducing Cortex-A77 CPU and the Mali-G77 GPU. Cortex-A77 is said to offer at least a 20% boost in IPC (instructions per cycle) performance compared to the previous-gen Cortex-A76 design, while offering similar power efficiency. Mali-G77 GPU is said to offer 1.4 times better overall performance than the previous-gen G76. ARM is also introducing a new ML processor, which is included in ARM’s Project Trillium machine learning compute platform alongside the NN software framework. (Neowin, Liliputing, AnandTech, CN Beta)
Battery
Nissan claims the batteries in its Leaf electric cars will last 22 years, an estimated 10-12 years longer than the average life of the car itself, according to Francisco Carranza, managing director of Renault-Nissan Energy Services. Nissan monitors everything from charging patterns to battery degradation on the more than 400,000 Leafs it has sold in Europe since launching the first generation in 2011. (Electrek, CN Beta, Digital Trends, Auto News)
Connectivity
Lu Yong, vice president of Huawei Technologies has indicated that the company’s 2018 revenue exceeds CNY720B and its R&D investment is more than CNY100B. He has also revealed that Huawei has over 16,000 5G standard patents ranking first in the world and accounting for 20%. All companies in the United States account for less than 15% of 5G core patents. (IT Home, GizChina)
Phone
360 has indicated that the company’s new strategy is a “big security” strategy that will focus on the construction of 3 focuses. In the era of 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), everything is connected. 360 is essentially a security company that will focus more on security. (My Drivers, CN Beta)
Xiaomi has officially announced that as of 23 May 2019, the global shipments of Redmi Note 7 series exceeded 10M units. (My Drivers, Mi.com)
Snap Inc is reportedly in discussions with major record labels to add more music to Snapchat, as the company looks to better compete against rivals such as massively popular TikTok. (Digital Trends, WSJ, Baijing, Sohu)
OPPO Reno Z is official – 6.4” 1080×2340 FHD+ AMOLED, Qualcomm Snapdragon 710, rear dual 48MP-5MP + front 32MP, 6+128GB, Android 9.0, under display fingerprint, 3950mAh 20W VOOC 3.0, EUR190 (USD215). (Gizmo China, Phone Radar)
PC / Tablet
Microsoft has allegedly followed Google and stopped accepting new orders from Huawei Technologies. The two major areas of business between Huawei and Microsoft – Windows operating systems for laptops and other content-related services – have both been suspended by the US company as it moves to comply with US government restrictions. (My Drivers, SCMP, Asia One)
The notebook industry has been making adjustments as ODMs brace for the impacts of increased US tariffs on Chinese goods by increasing production in Taiwan. Quanta Computer’s new production lines in northern Taiwan have recently completed a pilot run and can begin to process orders. Compal Electronics, Wistron and Inventec already have existing production sites in northern Taiwan and are planning to expand their capacity if notebooks are included in the list of Chinese imports subject to the 25% tariff hikes. (Digitimes, press, Epoch Times, UDN)
Automotive
Tesla is starting to sell Standard Range cars with the features locked down. Tesla is still focused on delivering as many Model 3s as it can, and its software team has plenty on its plate with Autopilot upgrades — limiting car features is not high on the to-do list. (Engadget, Electrek)
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has proposed merging its business with Renault that, if accepted, would create the third largest global automaker with 8.7M in annual vehicle sales. The combined business would be 50% owned by Fiat shareholders and 50% by Renault stockholders. (TechCrunch, BBC, CN Beta)