ZIILABS UNVEILS THE MOST POWERFUL, 3RD GENERATION JAGUAR3 ANDROID TABLET REFERENCE DESIGNS
Ultra-slim and Ultra-lightweight Android 3.2 10″ Reference Tablets
Powered by ZiiLABS StemCell ZMS Processors and Designed by Creative
SINGAPORE – 13 September 2011 – ZiiLABS, a pioneering media processor
and platforms company (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Creative Technology
Ltd), today introduced its JAGUAR3, the most powerful 3rd Generation
Android 3.2 tablet series.
JAGUAR3 is a series of ultra-slim, ultra-lightweight and stylish
10.1″ tablet reference designs targeted at the OEM markets. With over a
decade of designing experience in portable mobile devices, Creative
provided the ergonomic and sexy design of this series of JAGUAR3
tablets.
JAGUAR3′s superior performance, low power consumption and rich
feature set comes from the dual-core 1.5GHz ARM Cortex-A9 based ZMS-20
StemCell Processors. ZMS-20 has another 48 StemCell Processing cores
within, which effectively make it into a 50-core processor. These
advanced GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) features easily make ZMS-20 the
most powerful SoC (system-on-chip) available for tablets today.
When OEM customers are ready to ship their JAGUAR3 tablets, they have
the option to easily upgrade it to the next generation ZMS-40 SoC chip
which sports a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 and 96 StemCell Processors. This
100-core 4th Generation tablet solution will be available to OEMs in the
next quarter.
The JAGUAR3 tablets can be made so slim and lightweight due to the
massive integration of I/O devices and processors within the ZMS-20 and
ZMS-40 chips and also the patent-pending power management technologies
invented by ZiiLABS. This allows all the components to be compacted into
a «granddaughter-board» – a micro-size motherboard measuring only 2.44″
x 4.64″, with performances that can rival most laptops and yet
consuming only about 1 watt of power.
ZiiLABS has amassed over 25 years of experience in 3D graphics, GPU
and SoC designs. Under its previous name of 3DLABS, ZiiLABS was the
first to introduce the highly advanced and highly prized 3D graphics
chip technologies to the PC market in the early ’90s. Leveraging on
these extensive chip design skills, methodologies, patents and
technologies, ZiiLABS is now able to bring these phenomenal technologies
with outstanding performance to the tablet market at a miniscule
fraction of what they used to cost.
The JAGUAR3 tablet reference designs are far more than the «Reference
Design Kits» used in the chip industry. They are a set of comprehensive
and complete ready-to-go, quick-to-market Reference Design Kits – from
chip, hardware, OS, firmware, software, to IDs (industrial designs) and
mechanical designs. They come in different «flavors» to allow OEM
customers a variety of choices – from ID, price, performance, weight,
thickness and all the way to outright sexiness. All these choices are
offered without the OEM having to bear huge R&D costs, exorbitant
NRE charges and agonizing design cycle delays.
«The explosive tablet market is pure ruthless in every sense. Even a
slight delay in a fast-track 6-month design cycle can be lethal. This is
a whole new ballgame where only the fastest can survive,» said Sim Wong
Hoo, Chairman and CEO of Creative Technology Ltd. «JAGUAR3 allows OEMs
to enter this huge explosive market instantly and economically while
reducing the risk significantly. It breaks new ground as the most
powerful, the lightest, the slimmest, the most complete and lowest cost
Android 3.2 tablet reference designs on the market, enabling OEMs to
easily ride the wave of the next generation of Android computing.»
«If you look into the future of computing through our JAGUAR3
‘granddaughter-board’, you will realize that the PCs today will look
more and more like mainframe computers of yesteryear. With the
performance provided by JAGUAR3, tablets will be the mainstream
computing devices of tomorrow.
«With the great low cost of our JAGUAR3 reference designs, our
partners can manufacture tablets for as low as $100, opening up a world
of possibilities in areas such as China’s educational market, where
resources can be limited and demand for sophisticated learning tools is
high. The low cost tablet for China’s education market is almost captive
as it was the Chinese government’s goal since 2007 to provide free
textbooks to all school kids in China. Over the past two decades, we
have made a huge investment in technology and content in China, where an
example can be set for the rest of the world on how a low-cost,
high-performance tablet can represent an awe-inspiring learning platform
that saves money, saves the environment and enriches the lives of
future generations,» added Sim.
Dr. Li Hui Qin, President of Creative Knowledge China, who was one of
the handful of early pioneers in Chinese computing research said,
«Leveraging on our 20 years of experience in Chinese platforms for PCs,
we are developing a Chinese platform for Android 3.x and above. This
platform will include application suites like eSchoolBag (电子书包) and
Digital Briefcase (数字公文包), designed uniquely for China’s education and
business markets respectively.»
«Over the years, Creative Knowledge has developed many highly
acclaimed Chinese software and content. Currently, we are actively
working with the Chinese educational authorities, textbook publishers
and schools in developing their Digital Textbooks and Digital
Interactive Classrooms. We are targeting over 200 million kids that will
rush to embrace this exciting new medium. As all textbooks are becoming
free under China’s compulsory education system, the authorities will be
very motivated to replace them with lower cost tablets. If Creative and
ZiiLABS can help to deliver great tablets at low cost, it will
profoundly change the fundamentals of the Chinese education system for
generations to come,» added Dr Li.
«The JAGUAR3 continues our strategy to deliver groundbreaking
platforms that enable our partners to differentiate and win market share
in the exciting tablet space,» said Hock Leow, President of ZiiLABS.
«We are experiencing phenomenal take-up of the platform across a wide
range of markets from traditional consumer segments to high-volume
verticals in business and education. The educational market in China is
just one vertical market that has significant volume potential, and we
are excited to unveil the JAGUAR3 as a feature-rich, ready-to-market
solution that can be quickly and easily implemented in other markets as
well.»
With a stylish magnesium case, weighing less than 480g and an
ultra-thin 8.1 mm design, the higher end JAGUAR3 solution delivers a
vibrant 10.1 inch tablet of 1280 by 800 pixel resolution at 176 pixels
per inch, 16.7 million colors, a full viewing angle and a capacitive
multi-touch screen experience. At a slightly higher mechanical cost,
JAGUAR3 can easily support a super sexy «razor-slim» design of only 7.4
mm. Depending on the battery used, over 10 hours of video playback and
web browsing is still possible with such slim designs.
The higher end JAGUAR3 also supports:
A dual camera system of up to 12 Megapixel for rear facing image capture and HD for front facing
Complementing the standard Android offering, a rich suite of software is
added to exploit the massive computing power of the ZMS processor,
including:
Support for High Dynamic Range images
Easy-to-use 40 Megapixel panoramic photography
ZiiPhoto with intelligent photo browsing and real-time 3D photo effects
Advanced video playback with trick modes (such as rewind play, frame-by-frame advance and reverse)
Dual microphone array for noise-free recording and video conferencing, and
Creative Sound Blaster’s famed X-Fi audio effects
The ZMS-20 array of 48 StemCell Processors delivers an unprecedented
1080p High-Profile H.264 and VP8 video playback, immersive OpenGL ES 2.0
3D graphics, HDMI 1.4 output with mirroring and a fully independent
dual-screen display (one for the tablet LCD and a different one for the
large external HDMI display), Adobe Flash 10.x acceleration and OpenCL
programmability. The ZMS-40 with its 96 StemCell Processors can easily
double all these benchmarks and provide flexibility to power and
accelerate future Android iterations.
Availability and Specifications
The ZiiLABS JAGUAR3 Reference Design Kits are expected to sample to
select customers in October 2011. Full specifications are available at
www.ziilabs.com