Motorola Mobility and Verizon Wireless began selling the Droid Razr Android smartphone on pre-order for $300, with shipments promised by Nov. 10. Meanwhile, a 3.5-inch Motorola Fire XT Android smartphone was announced in Italy; Motorola Mobility announced strong third-quarter earnings of $3.3 billion; and more evidence piled up regarding an imminent release of two Motorola Xoom 2 tablets.

Motorola Mobility's Droid Razr smartphone was placed on pre-sale by Verizon Wireless for $300. When the Droid Razr was announced two weeks ago, billed as the world's thinnest 4G LTE smartphone, $300 was said to be the approximate price. Now -- unfortunately -- the high price is for real. And the Razr also requires a two-year contract and a smartphone data package. 

After that, the news gets better, as the Droid Razr (pictured) is not only super thin, at 5.14 x 2.71 x 0.28 inches (130.7 x 68.9 x 7.1mm), but it pushes the envelope on features. Housed in a Kevlar-reinforced case, the Razr features a dual-core 1.2GHz processor, 1GB of RAM and 16GB of flash storage, according to Motorola. It also offers a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED screen packing 960 x 540 pixels.

Other features include dual cameras, including an eight-megapixel model, plus a full range of wireless features, including 4G LTE. There's also a wide range of accessories including a new 14-inch Lapdock 500 Pro.

The device ships with Android 2.3.5, but Motorola was quick to announce that the Droid Razr will be updated to Android 4.0 by early 2012. Verizon is guaranteeing shipment no later than Nov. 10.

More thoughts on the Razr's chances against the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy S II may be found in this Oct. 27 story by Clint Boulton in our sister publication eWEEK .

Motorola Fire XT

Motorola Mobility announced a Motorola Fire XT smartphone for the Italian market, selling for 199 euros ($282) without contract by the end of November. Following that, the phone is slated for other European and Asian markets. 

Housed in titanium, the phone runs Android 2.3 on an 800MHz processor, and is equipped with 512MB of RAM and a 2GB microSD card in a slot that holds up to 32GB, says Motorola. The 3.5-inch capacitive screen offers 480 x 320 resolution, says the company.

The Fire XT (pictured) is equipped with a five-megapixel rear-facing camera and a front-facing VGA webcam, and includes HSDPA/EDGE cellular support, as well as Wi-Fi and GPS. A 3.5mm audio jack and a 1540mAh battery with up to eight hour of talk time are also said to be available.

On the software front, the phone features a "Moto Switch" user interface that enables users to switch between friend and work-centric modes, says Motorola Mobility.

Mot earnings up in third quarter

Motorola Mobility reported strong third-quarter earnings of $3.3 billion, up 11 percent from third quarter 2010. Non-GAAP net earnings were listed at $0.12 per share, compared to net earnings of $0.13 per share in the third quarter of 2010. This beat analyst estimates, according to a report in BGR , and was due primarily to strong sales of the company’s Android-powered smartphones.

Revenue from device sales in the third quarter totaled $2.4 billion, up 20 percent year-over-year, says Motorola. Some 11.6 million devices were shipped during the quarter, including 4.8 million smartphones (but just 100,000 Xoom tablets ). Motorola shipped 400,000 Xoom tablets in the second quarter and 250,000 units in the first quarter.

Meanwhile, CEO Sanjay Jha announced that the company continues to make progress toward closing its acquisition by Google .

Xoom 2 tablets coming soon

The Xoom tablet may not have been a huge success for Motorola Mobility, hampered due to a high price and a buggy Android 3.0 operating system, among other issues, but Motorola is expected to soon unveil two "Xoom 2" models to try, try again.

After Droid-Life released some images of one of the alleged Xoom 2 models back in September, the publication in early October found them again in a Verizon database , listed as the Pasteur (MZ617) and Fleming (MZ609).

Now, Droid-Life has discovered another Verizon listing of the tablets, this time listed with "4G branding and storage size." The MZ617 is the flagship 10.1-inch version, listed with up to 64GB of storage while the MZ609 is a smaller "media edition" of the Xoom 2 with up to 32GB, says the story.

PC Perspective posted a review on the Samsung Galaxy S II Android Smartphone
Our first look at the Galaxy S II out of its retail packaging was a mix of emotions. While I liked the size of the display and the layout of the volume controls, power button, and USB port, the quality of the materials used on this device felt a bit flimsy and cheap for my taste. I've been using a T-Mobile G2 smartphone for more than a year now, and it is built like an indestructable tank compared to the Galaxy S II. The thin dimensions are quite impressive at 9.4 millimeters, but the overall feel of the phone didn't give me any confidence that it could survive minor drops or other accidents during normal everyday use.

Xilinx launched an open source Linux platform and developer community for its Zynq-7000 Extensible Processing Platform (EPP), which combines a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and a 28nm FPGA. The Zynq-7000 EPP Linux Solution offers GNU toolchain, runtime libraries, and debuggers, plus options including a Virtual Platform hardware emulator based on Cadence VSP.

The Zynq-7000 EPP Linux development platform is equipped with a GNU toolchain, including C/C++ compilers, says long-time FPGA (field programmable gate array ) leader Xilinx. Also available are NEON optimized runtime libraries, debuggers, and a QEMU system model for emulation, says the company.

An Eclipse environment-based tool suite is included, as well as an optional Xilinx ISE Design Suite for embedded hardware design on the FPGA. A new developer website and community, meanwhile, offers a GIT Linux source distribution, a Wiki, and forums.

Xilinx has also expanded its Linux support for the Zynq-7000 EPP system on chip (SoC), which was previously available only in a limited early access program launched in April, a month after the SoC was announced (see farther below for more details).

New tools are said to include the optional ARM Development Studio 5 (DS-5) toolchain. The latest version of DS-5 adds "seamless" multicore debug and trace on Cortex-A9 processors, as well as system-wide performance analysis of Linux software stacks, says the company.

According to Xilinx, more than 60 percent of its Zynq-7000 EPP early access customers expressed interest in using Linux as their primary OS. Of those, 80 percent said they were planning to use an open source Linux distribution.

Cadence Xilinx EPP Emulation

A Cadence-designed Xilinx EPP Emulation platform, previously available to some selected early access developers, is now offered more widely via a newly launched Virtual Platform Early Access program, says Xilinx. This will open to a broader customer base by the end of this year, says the company.

The emulator provides a complete hardware model of the Zynq-7000 EPP, including the ARM MPCore processor system and programmable logic resources, says Xilinx. Xilinx EPP Emulation is said to be based on Cadence Virtual System Platform (VSP), part of the Cadence System Development Suite.

The virtual platform provides a functionally accurate model of the Zynq-7000 EPP processor system, its peripherals, memory and I/O, capable of booting Linux and other operating systems, says Xilinx. Developers can extend the virtual platform using transaction-level models (TLM) to support custom devices that will "ultimately be instantiated within the Zynq-7000 device's programmable logic," says Xilinx.

PetaLogix SDK Zynq Edition

In addition to the Xilinx open source toolsuite for the Zynq-7000, as well as the ARM DS-5 for Zynq-7000 and the Cadence Xilinx EPP Emulation platform, Xilinx is making available a commercially-supported Linux distribution from Xilinx Alliance Program member PetaLogix . This System Development Kit (SDK) Zynq Edition supports all phases of embedded design flow, and integrates with the Xilinx Embedded Development Kit for hardware design entry and implementation, says Xilinx.

Based on the PetaLinux distro, the SDK Zynq Edition is said to include a Linux kernel, standard libraries and applications, a system image builder, and custom application and device driver templates. Also provided is a QEMU-based dynamic virtual Zynq platform for prototyping.

Zynq-7000 EPP background

The Zynq-7000 EPP line of SoCs was announced in early March, targeting high-end markets such as video surveillance, automotive driver assistance, and factory automation, among others. Xilinx first announced its plans for EPP architecture SoCs in May 2010, following an initial partnership agreement with ARM in Oct. 2009. The processor is one of the first tight integrations of ARM Cortex and FPGA technology, a segment dominated by Xilinx.

Zynq-7000 block diagram
(Click to enlarge)

PowerPC-based processors have been used in FPGA products such as the company's Virtex-II Pro, Virtex-4 FX, and Virtex-5 FXT, along with IBM's Core Connect bus. However, the Zynq-7000 is the first FPGA/application processor hybrid that boots at power-up and can run a variety of operating systems independent of the programmable logic, says Xilinx. The processing system then configures the programmable logic on an as needed basis.

The Zynq-7000 SoCs incorporate dual-core Cortex-A9 cores with 32KB/32KB L1 and 512KB L2 caches, plus 256KB memory on-chip. A variety of memory controllers including DDR3 and NAND flash are also provided.

The Zynq-7000 family's programmable logic is based on Xilinx's latest "7 series" FPGA architecture [PDF] . The FPGA technology offers "massive parallel processing to handle large amounts of data across a wide range of signal processing applications," says Xilinx.

Devices in the Zynq-7000 family include the Zynq-7010 and Zynq-7020 -- each based on Xilinx' Artix-7 FPGA family, which is optimized for low-cost and low power, says the company. The larger Zynq-7030 and Zynq-7040 SoCs incorporate the more powerful Kintex-7 FPGAs and include between four and 12 10.3Gbps transceiver channels, plus a PCI Express Gen2 block for high-speed off-chip connectivity.

A high-bandwidth AMBA4 "Advanced Extensible Interface" (AXI4) interconnect between the processing system and the programmable logic, enables multi-gigabit data transfers at very low power, says Xilinx. (For more details, charts, and a spec list, see our previous Zynq-7000 coverage .)

Stated Lawrence Getman, vice president of Processing Platforms at Xilinx, "The Cadence/Xilinx solution takes embedded software development to a whole new level by mapping it to the Zynq-7000 family's unique extensibility without the need for any hardware other than the designers' workstation."

Stated John Williams, PetaLogix Founder and CEO, "PetaLinux SDK is the only Embedded Linux distribution specifically targeting FPGA-based system-on-chip designs. The company is focused exclusively on Xilinx FPGA-based Embedded Linux platforms."

Availability

The open source Zynq-7000 EPP Linux Solution is available now, with more information available at the new Zynq-7000 community site . The extensible Virtual Platform Early Access program has begun and will open to a broader customer base by the end of this year, and to general availability in Q1 2012. More information may be found on the Xilinx Virtual Platform page , as well as at this Cadence Zynq page .

First silicon devices based on the Xilinx Zynq-7000 family are scheduled for the second half of 2011, with general engineering samples available in the first half of 2012. ARM TechCon attendees can see a demonstration of the Zynq-7000 EPP and the extensible virtual platform through Oct. 27 at Xilinx booth #207.

Released several weeks late due to malware attacks on kernel.org in August, the Linux 3.1 kernel is out now, with a variety of enhancements to performance, virtualization, and power management. It also includes support for near field communication (NFC), the OpenRISC open source CPU, Nintendo's Wii controller, and 3D acceleration with Nvidia GEForce graphics processor units (GPUs).

The new kernel arrives more than three months after Linux 3.0 , delayed primarily by a late-August malware attack on kernel.org. Although the attacks compromised several key servers, the source code for the Linux kernel does not appear to have been affected, thanks to its "git" distributed revision control system.

According to the semi-official Linux 3.1 overview on KernelNewbies.org , the release offers a grab-bag of goodies, from new performance and virtualization enhancements to support for new devices.

For starters, Linux 3.1 provides support for near field communication (NFC) short-range wireless radios. NFC is supported by Android 2.3 and later releases, including a new "Android Beam" peer-to-peer transfer feature in Android 4.0 , and is incorporated in Google's Android-based Google Wallet mobile payment initiative. Some 552 million NFC handsets are expected to ship in 2016, according to ABI Research.

OpenRISC 1200 block diagram

Linux 3.1 also adds support for OpenCores.org's open source OpenRISC processors, specifically the 32-bit, RISC-based OpenRISC 1000 family. The OpenRISC 1200 , for example, has been used in a variety of Linux-based system on chips (SoCs), including Vivace's VSP200 . The OpenRISC processors are offered as open designs licensed under LGPL, with freely available software development tools, libraries, operating systems, and applications.

One popular improvement is likely to be the addition of Nvidia Nouveau driver code for Mesa and X.org, as well as 3D acceleration on several Nvidia GeForce graphics chips. As Thorsten Leemhuis explains it in his Linux 3.1 overview on The H , the Nouveau-DRM/KMS driver will be able to generate firmware for GPUs that use Nvidia's Fermi architecture . As a result, Linux now exploits the 3D functions of Nvidia's recent GeForce 400 and 500 GPU series.

Linux gamers should appreciate the new driver for the Nintendo Wii Remote. There are also some new Wi-Fi drivers, including a "rtl8192de" driver that supports Realtek's RTL8192DE and RTL8188DE PCI-Express Wi-Fi chips.

Performance and file-system enhancements

Under the hood, Linux 3.1 offers various performance improvements, including dynamic throttling of "writeback" -- the process of writing data from RAM to the disk. The new feature temporarily blocks processes until the current data has been written to the disk, thereby reducing bottlenecks. It also avoids "random IO patterns which are not good for performance," according to KernelNewbies.org.

In addition, the kernel's default "slub" slab allocator now implements wider lockless operations, said to speed up slab-intensive workloads. In addition, the Virtual File System (VFS), which mediates between the file-system and user space, is now said to be more scalable.

There's not a lot of file-system news in this release, but Linux 3.1 does alter the Ext3 file system to enable "barriers" by default. These barrier instructions are sent by the file system to improve robustness in case of a crash. They have previously been seen to reduce performance on many systems, but the new version appears to have greatly reduced the performance tradeoff, motivating the kernel team to make the feature a default.

The newer Ext4 filesystem has been improved to speed up batched discard, a technique said to be useful for solid state drives (SSDs) and thinly provisioned storage, according to The H's Leemhuis. Meanwhile, the experimental Btrfs filesystem offers an improved locking mechanism that can make the Btrfs "significantly faster during read-heavy workloads," according to his report.

New iSCSI support, plus power and virtualization improvements

Other storage-related enhancements include a new iSCSI implementation. In addition, the MD layer, otherwise known as software RAID, has gained bad block management support, says KernelNewbies.org. Also, a "Cpupowerutils" power consumption management userspace utility has been added, featuring a hardware monitoring tool. 

On the networking front, "ipset" support has been improved so that IP sets are provided with filter information. This is said to make it easier for firewall code to access the tables

As usual, the kernel continues to refine its virtualization support, with further enhancements to both KVM and Xen code. Linux 3.1 adds Xen PCI backend support, which enables the kernel to pass through PCI and PCI-Express devices to Xen guests, according to Leemhuis. In addition, KVM is now said to offer nested virtualization, letting developers start a guest system from within another guest system on Intel processors.

Availability

The Linux 3.1 kernel is now freely available. More information may be found at KernelNewbies.org , as well as this Linux kernel changelog .

Phoronix takes a look at Linux kernel 3.1
The Linux 3.1 kernel was released earlier this week and it further enhances the Intel Sandy Bridge graphics support while also prepping the open-source kernel driver for Intel's next-generation Ivy Bridge processors.

ARM is set to provide an in-depth look at its recently announced Cortex-A7 processor this week at a Santa Clara, Calif.-based event. Other highlights of ARM TechCon 2011, scheduled for Oct. 25 to 27, will include a keynote by ARM CTO Mike Muller, and a demonstration of a $25 ARM11-based Ubuntu Linux computer from Raspberry Pi.

UBM Electronics' ARM TechCon -- set to begin Oct. 25 at the Santa Clara Convention Center -- is billed as "the most comprehensive forum for learning about technology based on the ARM architecture." It will include more than 85 sessions, addressing "areas such as developing for open source platforms, low-power design, safety and security and the latest in human interface design," according to the organizers.

Since the first ARM processor was released in 1987, more than 25 billion ARM-based chips have shipped, via an ecosystem of more than 850 licensees, according to UBM Electronics. ARM designs have loomed as being more important than ever, however, ever since Microsoft announced at last January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that its next major version of "big Windows" would run on ARM processors as well as x86 chips .

Since then, Microsoft has kept the pot boiling by releasing a Windows 8 Developer Preview version (albeit only in x86 form) and by blogging regularly about what features its forthcoming operating system will include.

Equally important, though, is that younger users have embraced smartphones as the computing platforms they're most excited about: ARM-based processors are included in Apple's iPhone and iPad, an overwhelming majority of Android phones and tablets, and in handsets using Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 operating system.

Showing off the Cortex-A7

Last week, ARM responded to burgeoning smartphone demand by announcing its 28-nanometer Cortex-A7 , described as offering five times the energy efficiency, one fifth the size, and 50 percent better performance than the current Cortex-A8 . A single-core version set for a 2013 debut will target sub-$100 smartphones, offering performance as good as today's $500 devices, according to the company.

ARM also announced a "big.Little" system on chip (SoC) design that combines the Cortex-A7 with the more powerful Cortex-A15 processor in a design that features a 20-microsecond interconnect between the two. (For more details, see our earlier coverage .)

Cortex-A7 speed and power comparison with Cortex-A8

UBM says ARM TechCon attendees will get detailed information on the Cortex-A7 via a pair of sessions on Oct. 26. At 2:30 p.m., ARM CPU Product Manager Brian Jeff will present a session titled "ARM Cortex-A7 Processor for the Mainstream Low-power Mobile Market." This will be followed up at 3:30 by another titled "big.Little processing with the Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 Processors," delivered by Lead Designer Peter Greenhalgh.

These are just two among dozens of ARM processor-related sessions over the event's three days. Those on Oct. 25 are aimed most particularly at chip design teams working with ARM silicon IP and tools, while those on Oct. 26 and 27 are aimed at system designers and software developers, UBM says.

A 9:30 a.m. keynote on Oct 26 will be delivered by Microsoft's Dan Javnozon, group product manager for the Windows Embedded marketing group. "Creating business value with Microsoft" will feature a discussion of "key elements of Windows Embedded's use of ARM architecture, and outline how customers and partners can begin planning for ongoing technical innovations," according to the conference organizers.

Given that Javnozon is responsible for marketing today's Windows Embedded Compact 7, which runs on ARM processors and was revised just last week , we'd expect to hear more emphasis on what Microsoft has to sell today, and less on Windows 8 hype. Still, it will be worth looking around to see if the show provides any demos of Windows 8 running on ARM SoCs.

Meanwhile, there doesn't appear to be a keynote planned by anyone from Microsoft's arch-rival Google. However, there are multiple sessions devoted to the search giant's Android operating system, as follows:

Android on Low-cost ARM Systems -- Thurs. 10/27 at 4:00 pm Design and Development of the First Android Smartphone -- Wed. 10/26 at 2:30 pm OS Selection for ARM-Based Systems -- Thurs. 10/27 at 2:00 pm Professional Debug Solutions for Linux on ARM -- Wed. 10/26 at 3:30 pm OME - A Fully OpenMAX Complaint Media Framework for Android -- Thurs. 10/27 at 3:00 pm

According to UBM, additional keynotes will include, in chronological order:

A Mentor Graphics keynote by Walden C. Rhines, chairman and CEO, discussing issues related to measuring and enhancing product differentiation. (9 a.m. Oct. 25)

A TSMC keynote by Dr. Shang-Yi Chang, senior vice president of R&D, discussing the manufacturing challenges facing the industry and the value of collaboration across the development lifecycle (9:30 a.m. Oct. 25)

An Oracle keynote by Henrik Stahl, director of Java product management, who will speak about how Oracle's continued focus on Java Embedded is making computing more pervasive in the real world embedded domain. (9 a.m., Oct. 26)

An Avnet keynote by Harley Feldberg, corporate vice president and president of Avnet Electronics Marketing, who will discuss the moves companies can take to stay ahead of the technology curve in an ever-changing marketplace. (10 a.m., Oct. 26)

An ARM keynote by Mike Muller, chief technology officer, who will look at the technological advances that will bring us to 2020 in 26 steps (9 a.m. Oct. 27)

A keynote by Ole Lund Hansen, United Nations head of Global Compact LEAD, who will discuss how his organization is challenging and inspiring companies to achieve higher levels of sustainability (9:45 a.m., Oct. 27) Finally, we're told the show will feature a demonstration of a tiny ARM computer that runs Ubuntu Linux and may sell for as little as $25. Featuring a USB port on one and an HDMI port on another, the device was first announced back in May by the Raspberry Pi foundation.

The ARM11-powered Raspberry Pi prototype, with optional camera on top
(Click to enlarge)
Raspberry Pi did not disclose the processor of its eponymous computer, but the device uses a Broadcom SoC, according to an Oct. 25 EETimes article . The device will be demonstrated by Eben Upton, an SoC architect at Broadcom who is one of Raspberry Pi's founders, according to author Colin Holland.

An image published by EE Times suggests that the Raspberry Pi device no longer features its original form factor, and is now about the size of the proverbial credit card, but we'll just have to wait and see. An ARM TechCon Expo session set for 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 27th will provide more details, Holland adds.

Further information

Advance registration for UBM's ARM TechCon 2011 is no longer available, but onsite registration will begin when the show opens Oct. 25. Further information may be found on the event website .

Jonathan Angel can be reached at jonathan.angel@ziffdavisenterprise.com and followed at www.twitter.com/gadgetsense .

Googles complaints about patent-based attacks against Android dont seem to be doing the company any good. We all know Steve Jobs pledged to destroy Android, claiming it stole its ideas from Apples iOS. Yet what is likely an even bigger threat comes from Microsoft, which claims that more than half of all Android devices are now subject to patent licensing agreements. From Ars Technica: What does that mean? When you buy an Android phone, theres a good chance either the vendor whose name is on the device or one of the manufacturers who contributed hardware to it is paying Microsoft a fee for each sale. Today, Microsoft announced an agreement with Compal, an original design manufacturer that produces smartphones and tablets for third parties and takes in $28 billion in annual revenue. This was the tenth license agreement providing coverage under our patent portfolio for Android mobile phones and tablets, and the ninth in the last four months, Microsoft lawyers Brad Smith and Horacio Gutierrez write in a blog post.