Samsung began mass production of its Exynos 7 Quad 7570 mobile application processor (AP), it said in a news release. The AP, built on 14-nanometer process technology, is designed for for the budget smartphone market and IoT devices, said Samsung Monday night. The 7570 is the first Exynos processor to integrate a Cat.4 LTE 2CA modem along with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, FM and global navigation satellite system in one chip, said the company. The Exynos 7570’s four Cortex-A53 cores deliver 70 percent more processing performance and 30 percent better power efficiency than the predecessor chip built on 28 nm technology, Samsung said. Design optimization and feature consolidation reduced the total chipset size by up to 20 percent, it said.

Dialog Semiconductor will begin sampling in Q4 its first gallium nitride (GaN) power IC using Taiwan Semiconductor’s 650-volt GaN-on-Silicon process technology, it said in a Thursday news release. The DA8801, with RapidCharge power conversion controllers, will enable more efficient, smaller and higher power density adapters than traditional silicon field-effect transistor-based designs, said the company. Target applications are fast-charging smartphone and computer adapters. The technology allows a reduction in the size of power electronics by up to 50 percent, enabling a typical 45-watt adapter design today to fit into a 25-watt or smaller form factor, clearing the way for “true universal chargers for mobile devices,” it said.

FCC rules requiring accessible user interfaces and menus in navigation devices and requirements for companies to inform consumers about the accessibility features (see 1608030058) took effect for three years Thursday, the agency in a notice in the Federal Register.

Western Digital has begun pilot production of its next-generation 3D NAND technology, BiCS3, at the Yokkaichi, Japan, joint venture facilities it opened with Toshiba earlier this month (see 1607150023). Initial output of the technology, which offers 64 layers of vertical storage capability, is expected later this year, with meaningful commercial volumes of BiCS3 due first half 2017, said Western Digital in a news release. BiCS3, developed with Toshiba, is based on 3-bits-per-cell technology with high aspect ratio semiconductor processing, said to deliver high capacity and performance cost effectively. BiCS3 initially will be deployed in 256-gigabit capacity and will scale up to half a terabit storage on a single chip, said Western Digital. Volume shipments of BiCS3 for the retail market are due in Q4, with OEM sampling to begin this quarter. Shipments of the company’s previous-generation 3D NAND technology, BiCS2, continue to be available to customers in retail and OEM, it said.

The FCC asked some follow-up questions of proponents of the pay-TV backed set-top-box proposal, pay-TV officials and an agency official told us. The questions are part of a recent spate of meetings and calls with stakeholders about the proposal, the officials said. Proponents of the pay-TV plan are expected to provide answers to the questions before the end of this week, officials said. The list of questions included queries about whether the licensing agreement for pay-TV apps would allow programmer apps to be included in the universal search function on an equal basis, and whether the pay-TV apps involved would be able to be used on different devices and operating systems. Microsoft visited the FCC and met with Chief Technologist Scott Jordan and Media Bureau staff July 18 on set-top matters connected with licensing agreements, said an ex parte filing. Some of the language in the FCC Unlock the Box set-top plan would interfere with Microsoft's Play Ready content licensing system, said the filing posted Thursday in docket 16-42. Earlier questions from the FCC on the pay-TV plan had led officials on both sides of the issue to say the alternative, the Ditch the Box plan, had momentum (see 1607110042).

Verizon will assess a maintenance fee monthly to Fios customers with “outdated” broadband routers, the company said in a post on its support forum Wednesday. The telco ISP started notifying customers by email and direct mail July 18 and will continue to send notices until Aug. 29, it said. Most Fios customers have newer routers with higher wired and wireless speeds, and won’t be affected, the company said. “We’re asking customers using older generation routers to upgrade to one of our current models … If they choose not to upgrade, notified customers will be assessed a $2.80 monthly fee to cover the rising costs of supporting the outdated devices.” Customers can avoid the charge by buying a refurbished third-generation Verizon router for $59 or the company’s new Quantum Gateway for $199.99 or $10 a month, Verizon said. The affected older routers are the Aciontec MI424WR Rev A, C, D, E and F, and the Westell 9100EM Rev A and C, Verizon said. “The routers in question are outdated and some have been in service for as long as ten years which is far older than many of the modern devices that now connect to them,” it said. “Our tech support centers have a much higher call-in rate for customers with the older routers resulting in higher costs to Verizon to keep these customers in service. The $2.80 fee will help recoup these higher support costs.”

Toshiba and Western Digital commemorated Friday the completion of a 297,000-square-foot semiconductor plant in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture, Japan, to mark the transition from 2D NAND to 3D flash memory production. Flash memory in smartphones, solid-state drives and other applications is driving growth of the global flash memory market due to higher densities and better device performance, said the companies. First-phase production at New Fab 2 began in March for 3D flash memory and the companies plan an additional $8 billion investment to expand operations depending on market conditions, they said. Yokkaichi operations will use big data processing to analyze over 1.6 billion data points each day to improve manufacturing efficiency, they said.

Toshiba introduced three ICs that support Bluetooth Low Energy 4.1, using half the power of previous products, it said. The ICs are targeted to wearable healthcare devices and to products using coin batteries such as sensors and toys, said the company. Additional applications are smartphone accessories and remote controls, it said.

The FCC gave NCTA and other supporters of the pay-TV backed set-top proposal (see 1607010066) a list of questions seeking more detail on the plan’s specifics, a cable industry official told us. The document seeks more information about the future of HTML5 and how the pay-TV plan would work, and said “we agree that a licensing model is a viable option to ensure a variety of protections.” The FCC also indicated support for the HTML5 standard, which is what that alternative set-top plan is based on: “We agree that HTML5 may be an appropriate platform for app developers to provide access to content.” Both the licensing concept and the HTML5 standard were targeted in comments from proponents of the original FCC set-top plan, such as Public Knowledge. The questions also show the agency is trying to get specific answers to questions raised by critics of the pay-TV plan, such as whether third-party boxes running pay-TV apps will be able to use DVR functionality. There are also signs of contention, such as FCC comments that “innovation and competition in user interfaces has the potential to lead to consumer friendly features.” The pay-TV proposal’s apps would each use the multichannel video programming distributor interface. The FCC had no comment. In an ex parte filing posted Monday in docket 16-42, Roku expressed concern about the pay-TV compromise plan’s use of HTML5. The MVPD proposal “would, as a practical matter, establish HTML5 as the de facto standard in the video distribution marketplace,” Roku said. “Such an approach would be ill advised given that consumers have clearly demonstrated their preference for an array of devices with diverse user experiences at various price points, which has spurred competition and innovation in the marketplace.” HTML5 is a “bulky and expensive architecture” that would require third-party device manufacturers to “include additional processing power and memory to support it, even in their lowest-priced devices,” the company said.

Proponents of the FCC set-top proposal failed “to allay concerns” with their plan, said NCTA in an ex parte filing in docket 16-42 it characterized as a “rebuttal.” Supporters of the FCC plan “still seek an FCC-issued zero-cost compulsory copyright license -- entirely unauthorized by law -- to allow unlicensed tech companies to commercially exploit copyrighted works without permission from or compensation to the copyright owners,” NCTA said. The fixes offered for privacy and security in the agency plan are insufficient, NCTA said. “Sloganeering with false claims does nothing to make their proposal workable or lawful, or possible to implement as quickly as they predict.” The HTML5 compromise proposal would avoid those concerns, and the FCC should move forward with it, NCTA said.