The WSJreports that Google will be launching a new model of Glass next year, with a new low-energy Intel chip designed to increase battery-life. The processor in the current model model is a Texas Instruments one, the headset battery lasting around one day of typical use.
Intel currently makes its own wearable device, the fashion-oriented MICA bracelet aimed at women, its low-energy chip offering a claimed two days of battery-life … Expand Expanding Close
There was nothing too shocking in the teardown, but iFixit was able to identify the origin of many components. As noted in the report, “it’s nearly impossible to have a truly American-made electronic device.” Here is what it found:
In January, Texas Instruments’ Vice President said his company’s upcoming dual-core OMAP 5 application processor for smartphones, tablets and e-readers would be “way ahead of Apple.” Today, we saw a glimpse that proved a dual-core OMAP 5 is capable of outclassing a typical quad-core processor.
For the sake of better understanding, the current-generation OMAP 4 chip inside Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus smartphone is based on a dual-core 1.2 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 CPU with 1GB RAM and a PowerVR SGX540 GPU. The closest kin to the upcoming OMAP 5 chip, however, is Nvidia’s much-hyped Tegra 3 processor. You could argue that the OMAP 5 vs. Tegra 3 comparison is not entirely fair. As much as the OMAP 5 platform is “only” dual-core, it sports ARM’s newer and much improved Cortex-A15 CPU design. Moreover, while Tegra 3 features four processing cores and an additional specialized core, Nvidia’s chip is based on the older-generation Cortex-A9 CPU design.
In addition, even though the OMAP 4 clocks at just 800MHz versus Tegra 3’s 1.4GHz, the former packs in specialized cores and accelerators that help improve performance a great deal. The crux: A dual-core OMAP 5 (left) handily beats a quad-core device (right) in page rendering—all the while downloading videos and playing music. It is just another example of how silicon blueprints from United Kingdom-based fables semiconductor maker ARM Holdings dominate the mobile industry.
Chipmaker Texas Instruments placed its OMAP 4 application processors in many smartphone, tablet and e-reader devices last year, but the company debuted the first reference design demo running its latest OMAP 5 chip and Android 4.0 at CES 2012, and Texas Instruments’ Vice President said it is “way ahead of Apple.”
The device is a chunky reference design, but its responsiveness while swiping through the Ice Cream Sandwich operating system is impressive (as seen in the video below). The demo’s video playback is fluid, and Texas Instruments said the OMAP 5 could push 1080P content at 60 frames per second or more.
