US govt. allows Qualcomm to sell 4G chips to Huawei despite ban

 Embed from Getty Images

Qualcomm has received permission from the US government to sell 4G mobile processors to Huawei, despite an ongoing ban from the Trump administration to conduct business with the Chinese company. The chipmaker didn't specify which products it is allowed to sell to Huawei, but it told Reuters these were related to mobile devices.

Huawei has admitted back in August that it was running out of processor chips because of the US sanctions. Richard Yu, the company's CEO of its consumer business unit, said that "this year may be the last generation of Huawei Kirin high-end chips."

Click to read more ...

Samsung will reportedly produce all Snapdragon 875 processors

Samsung Semiconductor factory in Pyeongtaek, South Korea

Reports from South Korea claim that the Samsung Semiconductor Company will produce Qualcomm's upcoming chipset in December, which is expected to carry the model name Snapdragon 875. The Samsung division reportedly offered a better deal than TSMC so it will manufacture the entire batch of processors for next year's flagship smartphones. The deal supposedly cost Qualcomm between US$850 million and US$1 billion. Aside from the earnings from this deal, it also reinforces Samsung Semiconductor's position as the biggest semiconductor manufacturer in the last couple of decades.

Source: GSMArena

'PUBG Mobile' will support 90fps, 10-bit HDR

Qualcomm's new flagship Snapdragon 865 will bring enhancements that PUBG Mobile gamers will love. Well, if they get a phone that's equipped with the new processor. Qualcomm announced during the second day of its Tech Summit that the game would get 90fps support, which will work on smartphones that support the high refresh rate. On top of this, PUBG Mobile will support true 10-bit HDR, which could drastically improve the game's visuals. We don't know when the game will get the features, but we will probably see it once the phones with the Snapdragon 865 roll out.

Source: 9to5Google

Teardown shows that the Huawei 5G modem is less efficient than Qualcomm's version

A new IHS Markit teardown pitted early 5G smartphones against each other. And one of the revelations of the report is the weaknesses of Huawei's 5G chip. It's been found to be larger, less efficient, and more expensive than its counterpart from Qualcomm and even Samsung. The Kirin 980 chip already has a 4G/3G/2G modem, but the addition of the Balong 5000 5G modem renders the former redundant. Huawei says the Balong 5000 5G is the first commercial multimode 5G/4G/3G/2G chip. This additional chip takes up more space, which made the Mate 20X larger than it should be. Aside from being less efficient, having two modem chips in one phone is also more expensive. And at this moment, it still doesn't support millimeter 5G. It seems Huawei still has a lot of work to do to make a better 5G modem for its smartphones.

Source: GSMArena