QuickLogic recently announced the availability of the TAG-N Wearable Sensor Hub evaluation kit that supports a direct connection to a Nordic Semiconductor nRF51 DK, which is Nordic's all-in-one, multiprotocol development kit for ultra-low power wireless development on the nRF51822 SoC.The solution can provide a comprehensive solution for a wearable reference design that is suitable for quick prototyping, as well as demonstration and testing of activity monitoring, context and gesture algorithms, the company stated, while supporting always-on sensor capability with built-in pedometer, gesture and context algorithms.The kit incorporates the QuickLogic ArcticLink 3 S2 ultra-low power programmable sensor hub, QuickLogic-developed algorithms, and a direct connection to a Nordic Semiconductor nRF51 DK, Nordic's all-in-one, multiprotocol development kit for ultra-low power wireless development on the nRF51822 SoC. Nordic's ultra-low power nRF51822 Bluetooth Smart enables a wearable-to-host device for wireless communications.QuickLogic's ArcticLink 3 S2 CSSP programmable sensor hub solution consumes only 150 microWatts and supports always-on, always-aware applications in wearable devices.The TAG-N Wearable Sensor Hub evaluation kit, part number QL-TAG-N-S2, is currently available and priced at US$249.

There will be 1.81 billion LED light bulbs shipped globally in 2015, hiking 59.9% on year and accounting for 13.9% of all lighting products, according to Digitimes Research.In 2015, 6.02 billion compact fluorescent lamps and 5.13 billion incandescent light bulbs will be shipped globally, with penetration rates of 46.5% and 39.6% respectively, Digitimes Research indicated.For 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs, the average luminous efficiency will increase from 75.8lm/W in 2014 to 79.3lm/W in 2015 and the average lumen-price ratio will rise from 46.2lm/US$ to over 60lm/US$.

The average retail price for consumer digital still cameras (DSCs) in the UK, Germany, US, Japan and China in December hit US$366, having risen for the third consecutive month.The price increase was mainly because CMOS-based DSC average retail pricing rose to US$431 during early December, helping boost DSC's overall average retail price. In addition, vendors have been reducing their new DSC projects as demand for DSCs has been gradually replaced by smartphones, according to Digitimes Research's latest findings.DSC models that have been released for over nine months are excluded from the data.The number of the available CMOS-based DSC models from seven major vendors in the five countries was only 66 in December, down from 136 in the same month a year ago.New DSCs that were launched for the fourth quarter of 2014 from first-tier vendors were Canon's PowerShot G7X, Panasonic's Lumix DMC-LX100 and Olympus' Stylus 1s. To create clear differentiation from smartphone cameras, the PowerShot G7X and Lumix DMC-LX100 both features 1-inch or above sensors.

Several mobile communication industry-related players have achieved strong tablet sales for 2014 and in addition to brand vendors such as Lenovo and Huawei, several telecom carriers are also achieving good results selling own-brand 4G tablets that bundle with their telecom services, according to Digitimes Research's new findings. Among the telecom carriers, the largest wireless/mobile telecom carrier in the US, Verizon Wireless, has performed the best.Verizon launched its first own-brand 4G tablet, the Ellipsis 7, manufactured by Quanta Computer, at the end of 2013. Because the device is only selling for below US$100 with a 2-year 4G service contract, the attractive pricing and the carrier's strong telecom channel presence is expected to boost the Ellipsis series products' shipments to 2.16 million units in 2014.Verizon has recently launched the 8-inch Ellipsis 8 tablet for the 2014 year-end holidays. The carrier offered the device for free with a 4G service contract during Black Friday promotions and the device is now priced at US$49 with a contract. With the tablet's attractive pricing, Digitimes Research expects Ellipsis series shipments to reach three million units in 2015.Digitimes Research believes the success of the Ellipsis tablets were due to three major factors: 4G services' high transmission speed, its low penetration rate and the tablets' low communication module costs.Tablets with strong hardware specifications have been unable to perform at their best in gaming and video playback on a 3G network because of transmission speed limitations. But with 4G's high speed transmission, tablets with larger displays, higher resolutions and better graphics output will be able to deliver better usage experiences.Currently, only close to 50% of the telecom service users in the US are using 4G networks and therefore further penetration can be expected in the future. Although Verizon has the largest 4G user base in the US, the 4G users are accounting for less than 60% of the carrier's overall users, giving it plenty of space to promote its 4G services by subsidizing mobile devices.As for costs, Verizon's high 4G coverage and strategy to gradually phase out its 3G CDMA2000 business also increase the competitiveness of Ellipsis tablets, which supports 4G networks only. Compared to other branded tablets, which need to adopt multi-mode baseband modules, Ellipsis tablets see lower production costs.

Global average retail prices for 23- and 27-inch LCD monitors in December have risen on month by 11.3% to US$276 and 9.2% to US$379, respectively, while those for 20- and 24-inch models have dropped 6.4% to US$132 and 1.2% to US$246, according to Digitimes Research. Pricing for 22-inch models remained unchanged.Pricing for 24-inch units dropped below that for 23-inch units for the first time since July of 2014 while the average retail pricing for 27-inch units has dropped from US$459 in June of 2014 to US$341 in October and later to US$379 in December.However, in China the average pricing for 27-inch units increased from US$387 in November to US$616 in December while pricing in Japan increased 15.2% to US$364, according to Digitimes Research.

Among the global top-10 TFT-LCD panel makers, Taiwan-based AU Optronics (AUO) and China-based BOE Technology posted the highest January-September 2014 operating profit margin of 9.1%, according to Digitimes Research.AUO has made efforts to improve its product mix through production of small- to medium-size panels in addition to Ultra HD TV panels while BOE has continued to invest in new facilities.China Star Optoelectronics Technology (CSOT) meanwhile saw the highest operating profit margin of 16% in the third quarter of 2014 as pricing for 32-inch TV panels rose and as the China government issued new subsidies to the maker for improving and expanding facilities.Samsung Display is seeing its operating profit margin on the decline as revenues from AMOLED panels are decreasing, while Tianma Optoelectronics' operating profit margin has dropped to around 2%. Japan Display meanwhile saw losses over two consecutive quarters as competition from Sharp increased.However, JDI and Sharp both expect shipments of high-performance smartphone panels to China vendors in 2015 to increase over 30% while their shipments of Ultra HD TV panels to China vendors are also expected to increase. Samsung will increase production of curved and bendable OLED handset panels to help strengthen its performance while technology improvements for high-end smartphone panels from Taiwan makers will be limited, said Digitimes Research.

In the Japan market, the sales proportion of 40-inch and below LCD TVs has decreased, and the proportion of above 40-inch models has increased, with above 40- to 50-inch models becoming mainstream sizes, according to Digitimes Research.Sony will launch Android smart LCD TVs and reduce the number of LCD TV models to be launched in 2017 to 70% of the number launched in 2014, Digitimes Research indicated.High-end audio device brand Technics under Panasonic will re-enter the Japan market, with Reference System R1 and Premium System C700 2 series to be launched in February 2015.

November average retail pricing for 7W LED light bulbs (equivalent to 40W incandescents) in the China market increased 12.7% on month to CNY39.1 (US$6.4), while 9W models (equivalent to 60W incandescents) decreased 1.9% to CNY40.80, according to Digitimes Research.Average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs in Japan in November stood at JPY1,655 (US$14) and JPY3,142 respectively, with the former slipping 0.5% on month and the latter 6.8%, Digitimes Research indicated.November average retail prices for 40W- and 60W-equivalent LED light bulbs in other markets were: KRW11,366 (US$10.2, down 0.7% on month) and KRW14,405 (up 1.0%) in South Korea; US$18.6 (up 6.3%) and US$20.5 (down 1.4%) in the US; and EUR9.40 (US$11.7, down 18.3%) and EUR14.4 (up 1.4%) in Europe.LG Electronics 40W-equivalent LED light bulbs for sale in Europe and Philips 60W-equivalent models in South Korea had the highest average lumen-price ratios of 91.0lm/US$ and 96.2lm/US$ respectively in November. In terms of luminous efficiency, Toshiba 40W- and 60-equivalent LED light bulbs available in the Japan market had the highest average levels of 79.1lm/W and 103.5lm/W respectively.

Calypto recently launched its Catapult 8 platform, a third-generation, high-level synthesis (HLS) technology, which the company claims is the first in the industry.According to Calypto, the Catapult 8 platform gives designers control over which regions are optimized, and the ability to work "top down" or "bottom up", which is required to be able to integrate RTL IP. Previous generation HLS tools implemented effective top down optimization techniques, but lacked capabilities to easily fit into complex design flows and standard verification methodologies.The claim of Calypto is that the new Catapult 8 database and smart caching techniques provide at least a 10X capacity improvement, making the synthesis of large subsystems possible.The synthesized RTL is now optimized for power and verification requirements, in addition to meeting area and performance constraints. Verification-optimized RTL is code that is ready to be deployed into industry and corporate standard verification flows, including flows based on UVM. In addition, the new architecture was expressly built to natively support both SystemC and C++ as input languages.Customers will be able to write either C++ or SystemC, depending on the design and verification needs of each project, and then use Catapult's configurable hierarchy technology, which makes it possible to synthesize much bigger designs. Catapult 8 can now efficiently synthesize our multi-million gate data processing hardware, said Emmanuel Liégeon, Head of ASIC/FPGA Design Group at Thales Alenia Space France.Calypto will also continue supporting and enhancing its prior product until customers were ready to transition to the new architecture.

The total number of TD-LTE subscribers around the world will keep increasing to 96.1 million at the end of 2014, accounting for 21.6% of the global total number of LTE (4G) users. 81.8% of the total will be users in China, 8% in Saudi Arabia and 6.9% in Japan, according to Digitimes Research.Of the number of LTE networks around the world, 87% will be FDD LTE networks and 13% TD-LTE networks in 2014, Digitimes Research indicated.Asia accounted for 43% of TD-LTE networks around the world as of the end of the third quarter of 2014, but for over 95% of the global TD-LTE subscribers due to China Mobile's active promotion of TD-LTE in the China market in 2014.Unlike FDD LTE which is operated on a wide range of frequency bands, TD-LTE networks are operated mainly on medium and high frequency band units, with 900MHz and below taking up less than 10% of all band units.Taiwan-based device makers will not benefit from the fast growing TD-LTE user base, with 2014 total production value of LTE data communication devices estimated at NT$5.53 billion (US$178 million), down 9.9% on year.