Toshiba began sampling two ICs for wearables that support Bluetooth Low Energy 4.1. The TC35676FTG/FSG integrates flash ROM, and the TC35675XBG supports flash ROM and NFC Type 3 Tag for peer-to-peer communication, said Toshiba Tuesday. The TC35676FTG/FSG claims minimal power consumption through a low-power circuit design and integration of an efficient DC-DC converter. Flash ROM adds storage for user programs and data, said Toshiba. A 64 KB user program area enables the internal ARM processor to execute various app functions, said the company.

Julius Knapp, chief of the FCC Office of Engineering and Technology, reassured industry Thursday the FCC won't impose rules to prohibit third-party firmware installation on devices, including Wi-Fi routers, as part of changes to its device certification rules (see 1511100043). “There is concern that our proposed rules could have the unintended consequence of causing manufacturers to ‘lock down’ their devices and prevent all software modifications, including those impacting security vulnerabilities and other changes on which users rely,” Knapp said in a blog post. “Eliciting this kind of feedback is the very reason that we sought comment in an NPRM and we are pleased to have received the feedback that will inform our decision-making on this matter.”

For the mobile device initiatives of chipmaker Pixelworks, Q3 “was an outstanding quarter of progress,” CEO Bruce Walicek said on an earnings call. Pixelworks introduced and sampled the second chip in its Iris family of mobile display processors, “and we gained volume production,” he said Friday. The processor is targeted at 5.5-inch smartphones, 10-inch tablets and other mobile devices at sizes in between that feature display resolutions up to full HD, he said. The chip “is receiving a great response and faster adoption as the concept of bringing TV quality processing to mobile gains momentum,” he said. As Pixelworks moves into “the next phase of market development” with the Iris initiative, “we are seeing opportunities and higher volume platforms as many mid-range mobile SoCs can leverage the performance and benefits and features of Iris, allowing them to compete against more expensive, higher end SoC platforms,” he said. “Regarding SoC partners, we are seeing significant pull as the benefits of Iris can help differentiate their platforms as well as enhanced capability and performance. As a key part of our strategy to drive Iris design wins, we are engaged in joint selling and reference designs with major mobile SoC providers. And our activity increased significantly during the quarter.” The strategy recently paid big dividends when Pixelworks “captured a significant milestone design win for a major U.S. mobile wireless carrier, and we expect to see Iris-enabled tablets in their channel in mid-2016,” Walicek said. Pixelworks sees over-the-top video streaming services as “a key driver of mobile video and the increasing importance of the display experience,” he said. Early in 2016, Pixelworks plans to roll out “a key piece of our strategy to leverage” the company’s core video processing technology, he said. Code-named True Cut, the initiative brings the company’s video processing algorithms “upstream to the server level to drive pull for Iris-based mobile devices and ultimately drive design wins for Iris,” he said. True Cut is “an end-to-end solution that enables products based on Iris to display a higher-quality streaming video experience,” he said. True Cut “not only provides a value proposition to products based on Iris, but to carriers and content distributors as well,” he said. Pixelworks has begun “initial trials” of True Cut with “a major China-based carrier,” and expects to mount “live demos of this capability” in Q1, he said.

The FCC should launch a rulemaking based on the efforts of the Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee, TiVo said in a meeting Tuesday with Media Bureau Chief Bill Lake, FCC Chief Technology Officer Scott Jordan, aides to Chairman Tom Wheeler, and Media Bureau staff, said an ex parte filing posted Thursday in docket 15-64. The FCC should also issue a clarification that Charter Communications must continue to provide and support CableCARDs until “post-CableCARD successor solutions that enable retail competition are widely deployed and consumers no longer need or desire to use CableCARDs,” TiVo said. “The very predicate for a functioning retail market is that consumers and manufacturers have certainty that navigation devices purchased at retail will continue to be able to receive the cable signals that consumers have bought.”

Comcast will start rolling out DOCSIS 3.1 capabilities in its network starting next year, Jorge Salinger, Comcast Cable's vice president-access technology, said in a company blog Friday. The super-fast broadband standard promising gigabit speeds over hybrid fiber-coax networks was a centerpiece at the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers Expo in New Orleans this month, Salinger said: "At nearly every booth on the exhibit floor, the companies that make modems and network equipment ... were showing off their latest DOCSIS 3.1 devices. This past week's Expo brings to life how close we are." Development of the 3.1 specification "has moved faster than any previous version ... and is now being implemented by every major equipment maker in the Internet space," Salinger said.

A decision by China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) clears the way for Seagate to integrate Samsung’s hard disk drive business into Seagate without any restrictions, the company said Thursday. The agency’s decision is the result of an ongoing discussion on the “hold separate” conditions it required of Seagate after the acquisition of Samsung's HDD business in 2011. The decision requires that Seagate allow customers to buy products from other vendors and that Seagate can't force TDK China to sell hard disk drive heads exclusively to Seagate, said the company. The process with MOFCOM reflects Seagate’s "long-term presence, significant ongoing investment, and deep relationships in China,” said Seagate CEO Steve Luczo.

The virtual headend and competitive user interface recommendations in a Downloadable Security Technology Advisory Committee report could be used to allow “competitive navigation devices to operate on MVPD systems on a uniform basis,” officials from Amazon, Hauppauge and Public Knowledge said on a call with FCC staff Friday, according to an ex parte filing posted Wednesday in docket 15-64. All three entities are part of the Consumer Video Choice Coalition, which backed the virtual headend and competitive user interface recommendations during the DSTAC process. They spoke with FCC staff about ways to implement their DSTAC proposals, they said. The approaches described “would provide MVPDs with flexibility in implementation (e.g., through a cloud interface, or locally) while providing the necessary predicates for a competitive market, such as differentiated user interfaces,” they said.

Despite Microsoft’s recent enthusiasm over the progress of its Windows 10 launch (see 1510060029), overall consumer PC demand “continues to be somewhat muted as there remains a high volume of Windows 8-based systems still on shelves,” Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su said on an earnings call Thursday. “As a result, OEMs have been slower to ramp their Windows 10 platforms than we anticipated.” Though AMD isn't expecting that Windows 10 “will drive a dramatic near-term PC refresh cycle, the continued adoption of Windows 10, which has already been installed on more than 110 million PCs to date, provides a great opportunity for AMD over the coming year based on a semi-consumer and commercial refresh cycle environment,” she said. AMD expects the PC market will be “down in 2016 modestly over 2015,” she said. “We will also expect that we’ll continue to have some choppiness in certain regions, particularly in the emerging markets relative to the mature markets, and we’ll have to see how the next few quarters play out from a market standpoint.”

Despite “ongoing macroeconomic headwinds,” the PC market is showing signs that it’s “beginning to stabilize,” Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said on an earnings call. “We continue to benefit from a strategy designed to capitalize on the growing need for the infrastructure that powers the smart and connected world.” Q3 saw the release both of Windows 10 and of Intel’s sixth-generation core processor platform formerly known as Skylake, Krzanich said Tuesday. “Our partners in the industry are using this combination to drive an unprecedented innovation, creating a new generation of high performance enthusiast desktops and thinner, lighter and more versatile 2-in-1s.” Intel now has more than 50 models of devices on its sixth-generation platform “available and shipping now, and we expect to more than triple that number by the end of 2015,” he said. The combined introduction of Windows 10 and Skylake gives the PC industry “a good point for optimism,” Krzanich said during Q&A. “That said, some of these transitions are going to take some time, and so I am very cautious of people to say how fast and when,” he said. “So I do see that this is a great opportunity, and that we should see some tailwinds pushing us into the PC market. But it's going to be over time.”

MEMS motion sensor company mCube is sampling the MC3635 three-axis accelerometer, a low-power device that fits in a 1.6 x 1.6-millimeter Land Grid Array package, said the company. Using the MC3635, developers can design a three-axis inertial solution using a single resistor in under one-tenth of a square centimeter on a printed circuit board, enabling a new generation of wearables requiring extended battery life and small form factors, said mCube. The MC3635 is built on the mCube’s 3D monolithic single-chip MEMS technology platform, which has shipped in more than 100 million mobile handsets, said the company. Samples are available to selected customers now, with general sampling slated for December, followed by volume production in Q1, it said.