The final day of the Chevy Volt tear down has definitely been the most interesting. After dropping the battery pack last night, we completed the removal of all electronic modules in the vehicle, and got a chance to see the entire assembly of Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) on a viewing table. Congratulations to General Motors are due for the design of such a forward looking and complex vehicle. The battery control and utilization easily doubles the number of PCBs required in the car compared to a conventional gas system.

The battery pack is arranged in a T-shape fitting under the central axis of the car and the rear seats. A dedicated liquid coolant loop is used to maintain the temperature of the Li-ion cells at a precise temperature. This is required both during discharge and battery charging. The cells are arranged in a series of plastic “blades”. Interestingly, there are a total of 135 blades in the pack. The Volt specs claim 96 Li-ion cell groups are placed in series and one would expect the blade count to be close to this number. The battery pack will have to be analyzed further to understand this discrepancy. Numerous temperature sensors and voltage sensors feed four separate battery controllers placed on top of the pack. The battery controllers use ASICs branded with the LG Chem label and each controller has a separate PCB layout and design.

At the PCB and Integrated Circuit level, the major socket holder for the control processors is Freescale. The PCB design is quite advanced for an automotive application where feature minimization is not critical, with tight design rules and compact Surface Mount Devices. The PCB layout has open space that is clearly anticipating future design modifications, and there are many test points on the boards. The Volt has a surprising number of actively cooled modules. There are four liquid cooled components (the Inverter/Converter, Gas Engine, Battery Pack, and external Battery charger). As well, the step-down DC converter under the trunk is air cooled with a fan.

All in all, a very impressive design. Next to come; digging into the battery pack, and a deeper view of the control electronics.

JST

Intel introduced it's Smartphone platform reference design and it was Lenovo that will be the first to use this design in their K800 handset. The most interesting thing about the announcement was that the phone was for only Chinese markets. It then made me realize that China had now become the ideal target market for manufacturers as their rising middle class combined with their huge population makes market penetration there a must.

With that in mind I spent my day visiting the booths and hob knobbing with representatives from the largest handset manufacturers in China. First was Korean manufacturer K-Touch, who are using CES to introduce a line of handsets using a Chinese developed OS based on cloud-computing called Aliyun. Most of their designs used dual-core processors and boasted performance that rivaled larger manufacturers like HTC and Samsung.

K-Touch taking me through a demonstration of the Aliyun OS

Next on my agenda was ZTE. ZTE’s booth was actually split in the middle with one side representing their feature phones and handsets available to the Chinese market and the other side showing their aggressive product roadmap for North America. On the North American side, Smartphoness using the Windows 7 and Android OS figured prominently. Their modestly-priced tablets look to take advantage of a rising market segment of customers who want a tablet with some basic features, but not all the bells and whistles that drive up the price.

ZTE’s line of handsets for 2012

The last stop on my Chinese manufacturer tour was the largest manufacturer based in the Eastern Nation – Huawei. Huawei decided to go big for CES, with one of the largest, booths in the South Hall. Huawei introduced their entire product catalogue for China and North America. The Huawei Ascend P1 (introduced during their press event two days ago) took center stage as numerous Huawei representatives took their time with visitors to show off their newest smartphone. Huawei is looking to make a big splash in North America in 2012 and establish themselves as a player in the portable connectivity market space. This booth was a good start.

However, I would suggest that they rethink their marketing slogan…

Wait…What?

My general observation from visiting these booths were that Chinese manufacturers were ready to evolve from the feature phone business to the Smartphone set, matching the evolution in buying tastes by their largest market, Chinese customers. That sentiment was shared by a manager of the China region at Nokia. He stated how Nokia (the overall leader of sales in China) has to continue supporting customers with low-cost feature phones but that the growth of that market and the growth of the Smartphone market in that region are going in opposite directions. What manufacturers like Huawei, ZTE and others are also recognizing is that their Smartphones must offer comparable specifications in terms of processor power and feature set with their North American and European brethren. The Smartphone battle will be very interesting in 2012.

I had a chance to visit other booths throughout the day but the most interesting booth I wanted to share with you was Motorola’s.

Motorola used CES to introduce a line of products that would appeal to both consumers and business enterprise. The XYBoard series of tablets, the Motorola Droid 4, the Atrix 2, and the Photon were unveiled at CES. Building off the popularity of previous generations of the Droid and Atrix, these new models, along with the Photon, were all compatible with Motorola’s new docking keyboard. They also offered new security features that would appeal to IT departments such as certificate-based matching, applications management and full ADS security with FIPS 140 compliancy. Motorola believes these features put their security level on par with that of RIM’s Blackberry line of handsets. Speaking to one of their product managers, Motorola is well aware of customer dissatisfaction with Blackberry, and they want to offer an alternative that appeal to IT managers and the employees that have to use them.

The Atrix 2 docked in the keyboard accessory

The Motorola Photon dual-core Smartphone

I closed off my day by visiting the Gaming Zone. I wanted to see the latest in videogame technology and some of the new titles coming out in 2012. I’m just like any other engineer in that I still hold Mario and Luigi as two of the greatest influences in my life.

The legend himself

My Day 4 experience wasn’t as hectic as the previous day but I still managed to visit some key manufacturers and get a better understanding of what lies ahead product-wise in 2012. Tomorrow is my last day at CES before I get mercifully replaced by another representative from UBM TechInsights. Hopefully, I make as large a dent in my list of vendors to see as possible. Don’t forget to follow me at EE Times at CES, the video footage of the show really highlights some of the cool products that are being showcased.

EE Times' Sylvie Barak and I managed to arrive in time for Intel's special CES pre-screening of their booth. Intel's booth was very much a reflection of their press event yesterday - a gamut of Ultrabooks. Few of their booths showcased their second generation i5 and i7 Core processors. Noticeablely absent, was anything referring to the Intel 22nm Ivy Bridge processor. Intel staff was uneasy discussing yesterday's Ivy Bridge Ultrabook demos. It's odd and rather telling that Intel does not want to promote their upcoming processor, considering the technical innovation that its use of 3D tri-gate technology represents. The reluctancy to reveal anything on their 22nm process makes me wonder if the rumored April release date is achievable.

The media was allowed early into the Intel booth. It was still crowded…

Due to proximity, the Microsoft booth was next on my CES voyage. Nothing too earth-shattering was revealed, except for some hands-on with every handset using the Windows 7 and 7.5 mobile OS and some demos of the upcoming Windows 8 platform. Emphasis was put on the Kinect and I was able to try “Star Wars: Pod Racer” before its March release date. The game was very intuitive on the Kinect platform and frankly, better than the movie it was based on (Episode 1 that is).

I then made my way to the upper level of the South Hall. I had mapped out the booths that would best serve my interests the night before. First on that list was Nokia. Oddly enough, Nokia's booth focused on their Lumia 710 and 800 series handsets. The working demos of the 900 that were available at their press event and the Pepcom show were nowhere to be found.

One of the many booths at Nokia showcasing the Lumia 710

Kodak was next, and I wouldn't be surprised if their booth presence didn't believe a shift in philosophy for the struggling photography icon. Kodak's booth featured printers and printing solutions, rarely a digital camera to be found. With no cameras to be seen from a camera company, Kodak may be shifting their business focus to the growing home printing market.

From there I was off to the Qualcomm booth. Qualcomm, unlike the manufacturers I visited earlier, came to impress. Qualcomm used CES to showcase demo units running their fourth generation Snapdragon processors. These processors, manufactured at TSMC at the 28nm process node, are Qualcomm's entry into the quad-core mobile processor space. Qualcomm had many hands-on demos in place to showcase the Gen 4 Snapdragon's abilities, from image signal processing and audio management down at the core level, to hardcore intensive gaming. Speaking to one of their engineers, their confidence in their product to compete with Nvidia's Tegra 3 is quite clear, in spite of the head start that Nvidia has.

Qualcomm pulling out all the stops for their booth

Speaking of Nvidia, their booth was a shrine to their Tegra 3 processor. Featuring numerous displays utilizing the Asus Transformer Prime, Nvidia is using CES to maximize exposure of the processing power of their quad-core IC. The most interesting exhibit at their booth, however, was a ZTE 7 inch tablet utilizing the Tegra 3. It will be interesting to see if ZTE is showcasing this same tablet at their booth.

A look at the mysterious ZTE tablet

Though I had a chance to peruse practically all the booths in the South Hall, one booth in particular really captured my interest. It's no secret I’ve been a fan of PrimeSense since we tore down the Microsoft Kinect and found the Israeli-developed chipset powering the innovative gesture-based unit. At their booth, I was given a guided tour by VP of Sales and Marketing, Ohad Shvueli, as he took me through PrimeSense's three-pronged strategy to expand the acceptance of PrimeSense 3D sensor technology. First was their e-commerce strategy, demonstrated by a clothing application that let the user select what garments she wanted to wear and preview it on their figure. From there, the user could decide to continue with their purchase or continue browsing. Next was their strategy to build upon their OpenNI software development in the open community. I had a chance to preview their software arena where developers could create applications using PrimeSense motion capture technology and upload it to share with others. Lastly, was a demonstration of the capabilities available in the television domain with PrimeSense. The demo showcased how PrimeSense technology could develop profiles for multiple users of the TV that created unique selections of content based on user patterns. As Mr. Shvueli put it, it makes TV viewing a "personal experience" where opportunities abound for content management and targeted advertising.

Blackberry made an understated appearance at CES, trying to build any momentum after a rough year by introducing the Blackberry 7.1 OS for handsets and 2.0 for tablets

A look at the OLPC XO-3 tablet powered by Marvell’s Armada processor, total cost - $30

Garmin showcased their 2012 catalogue of devices

A look at ViewSonic’s low-cost tablet family

So ends my Day 3 experience and the first day of the CES conference. Tomorrow I take on the Central Hall. Hopefully, I get to see some real advancement in technology. It's all about the leading-edge with me. Don’t forget to follow me at EE Times at CES, as I’m video-blogging from the show floor as well.

My second day at CES began innocently enough. Day 1 wasn't very stressful; my most difficult moment was being pinned between other media at the Lenovo booth during “CES Unveiled”. If today's events were just a 'microcosm' of tomorrows, I am in for a long day....

I began Day 2 by attending Huawei's press event. Huawei used this event to showcase their latest handset, the Huawei Ascend P1. Touting itself as the slimmest handset on the market IN THE WORLD, the Ascend measured a thickness of 6.68mm. Huawei stated they were able to achieve this by utilizing new molding and injection techniques, selecting Corning Gorilla Glass to provide the screen, and "customized" components. I was able to ask Huawei President Richard Yu if, by “customizable”, he meant specially manufactured ICs that were lower in package thickness than what their competitors were using and that Huawei had a special relationship with its chip vendors. Mr. Yu clarified that they had selected state of the art components to lower the overall thickness. The most interesting portion of the event came from the admission by Mr. Yu that Huawei was developing their own ICs for LTE and 4G baseband. Effectively competing with Qualcomm and Samsung in the chip space. Wow! More information on the Huawei Ascend can be found here at EE Times.

backside of the Huawei Ascend 

Next up was the Intel press event, which I was attending in the hopes of any news regarding the much-maligned Intel 22nm Ivy Bridge processor. The presentation started with some disappointment as presenter Mooly Eden quickly skirted over the processor roadmap. We were shown a detailed floor plan of the Ivy Bridge and then moved to the theme of his presentation - Ultrabooks. Though I found the Ultrabooks to be generally interesting, based on their lightweight and thin design, what really piqued my interest was a demo of the HP Ultrabook using the Intel 22nm processor! Finally, a product that was showcasing the first processor to use Intel’s innovative, but seemingly difficult to manufacture, tri-gate 3D process technology. With all the rumors surrounding the Ivy Bridge’s difficulties, I was afraid it wouldn’t see the light of day any time soon. The demo did not disappoint as an HP rep was able to showcase the processing power with a computer animation demo of a highly-detailed ogre designed on the HP Ultrabook. The Intel presentation ended with 50 lucky press members looking under their chairs and winning a new Toshiba Ultrabook. I was not one of them. (I never win anything).

Shortly after the Intel event, I made the trek to Netgear’s press conference. Netgear followed the theme of full out wireless connectivity, introducing products to follow their research that the number of “broadband households” (homes with 6 or more wireless devices) increased by 70% from 2010 to 2011. Netgear revealed a handful of devices that included a media storage router (a 2 TB DLNA-enabled router that also acts as a media back-up), the NeoTV streaming player, a universal range extender, a home theatre and gaming 4 port WiFi adapter and a software service called “Netgear Genie” that serves to manage all the wireless devices on your network. What made this entire presentation interesting was Netgear’s emphasis on ease of implementation. It seemed as though every product was essentially plug-and-play, making it easy for even the computer illiterate to set up a wireless home to stream media freely.

Next was the press event with the most star power thus far at CES. Panasonic pulled out all the stops to discuss their latest products and innovations. Ed Begley Jr. was brought on stage to discuss Panasonic’s involvement in clean technology. This included their solar panels and power management systems and Panasonic’s newest division – Eco Solutions. To emphasize the growth of the 3D HDTV market (a market which Panasonic estimates will move 7 million TV units by the end of 2012), US soccer star Brandi Chastaine along with a pre-taped message from sportscaster Bob Costas announced that the 2012 Olympic Summer Games would be broadcasted in 3D on NBC in partnership with Panasonic.

The big reveal, was Justin Timberlake coming on stage to announce his partnership with Panasonic and his latest acquisition, MySpace. A new version of MySpace was introduced that emphasized the use of the social network to share, discuss, and stream media. Time will tell if Mr. Timberlake has the golden touch in reviving MySpace to its former glory.

Justin Timberlake introduces the new MySpace, partnered with Panasonic 

Nokia used their press event to reveal their latest Windows-based tablet, the Lumia 900. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed as I was hoping the Lumia 900 would be the first of the Windows 8-based handsets with dual-core processors. The Lumia 900, though very responsive in hands-on testing, still uses Windows 7.5 and a single-core processor.

The Lumia 900 side-by-side with the Galaxy S2 

Finally, the last press event of the day featured Sony’s attempts to top Panasonic’s celebrity-filled announcement. Sony began their press event by announcing the European and US release dates for the Playstation Vita. The Vita, available in Japan since December, will be available in both markets on February 22nd. This announcement was underwhelming to me considering that TechInsights took it apart back when it was first released. Sony also announced that Sony Ericsson will now be Sony Mobile Communications and with that announcement came the first handsets to fall under that new banner, the Xperia Ion (coming soon to AT&T) and the Xperia S (to be released in March). To punctuate their involvement in 3D viewing technology, Sony revealed a 3D trailer of Men in Black 3, which was then followed by the introduction of the movie’s director, Barry Levinson, and the film’s star, Will Smith, to discuss Sony’s involvement in the film with their 3D cameras. Sony introduced new home theatre products such as the 4K Projector and their latest in the line of Bravia televisions. Sony closed their event with a performance by Kelly Clarkson and let the press go hands-on with their newest devices. I took the time to play with their newest tablet, the Tablet P, a dual-screen tablet that uses one screen as a control system for the other.

Sony’s latest wares on display 

In between these events, I attended press events from Samsung, Pioneer and Nvidia. My general observation is that there are a lot of journalists here in Las Vegas. Every press event was a battle to find a seat and some events required lining up over two hours to get into. Numerous media were turned away from the Samsung, Nokia, Panasonic and Nvidia events. CES should look into a larger venue for next year so that attendees aren’t rushing from press event to press event in the hopes of garnering a spot in each media room. All in all, it was a long day. I can only imagine what tomorrow will bring as the show floor opens and the general public joins in on the madness. I’m sure it’s going to be an experience!

You can view some related videos from CES by EE Times, a sister company of UBM TechInsights.

• EE Times Youtube Page 
• EE Times Video Library 

After making the long trek from Ottawa, Canada to Las Vegas, Nevada, my CES experience began with attending Shawn DuBravac’s afternoon discussion entitled “2012 Trends to Watch”. It seemed apropos to kick-off with predictions of what manufacturers would be showcasing at the premier event for consumer electronics.

Mr. DuBravac began by taking a look back at the CEA’s “Trends to Watch for in 2010”. This included the introduction of tablet technology, improvements in televisions (3D and the incorporation of internet), and the use of sensors in consumer products. This acted as the foundation for the organization’s predictions for 2012.

Very few of the predictions seemed earth-shattering. In fact, from the tone of the discussion, that was the point of Mr. DuBravac’s talk. In his opinion, technology follows a path of design and the example of the remote control served as his example. Showing an image of the first remote control from Zenith with it’s simple design and four buttons, DuBravac spoke of technological innovation as it goes from conception to complexity (using a modern day cable remote with 50+ buttons) to simplicity brought on by user demand. The final stage was deemed “natural use” where technology reaches its peak in design.

The rest of the talk discussed other trends to keep our eyes on. This included the continued growth of wireless connectivity and wireless devices, the transition of the computer from the common unit implementation to other common-use platforms such as handsets and televisions as well as, the rising use of sensors in consumer electronics due to the falling prices of sensors.

Unfortunately, my attempts to sit through the next presentation were thwarted by the eagerness of other attendees to get within the doors of “CES Unveiled”. This was a press exclusive event where some manufacturers showcased their booths prior to the event opening to the general public on Tuesday. With one hour left before the doors were to open, the line had already reached over 500 people. Within minutes of me selecting my spot to squat, another 500 people had taken their place behind me.

When the doors finally opened, the mass of people moved from booth to booth as manufacturers showcased their wares. I found this event to be a bit of a let down. Very few “marquee” manufacturers chose to take part in the event. The two manufacturers that I found to be the most interesting were ST Ericsson, who used the event to showcase their family of Nova Thor application processors. And, Lenovo, who used a very large booth to showcase their latest handsets for the Chinese market, laptops and their IdeaPad family of tablets. In fact, Lenovo offered a hands-on with their yet to be released IdeaPad K2, which I wasted no time in handling.

The IdeaPad K2 placed against an iPad 2 

The IdeaPad K2 test drove amazingly, which isn’t surprising as we were told that it was using Nvidea’s Tegra 3 quad-core processor. Featuring a very responsive UI, the IdeaPad K2 looks to make an impact on the tablet market.

Other than the reveal of the K2, very little was of interest to me from a ‘gadget geek’ level. Many of the booths featured accessories for handsets (which is considered a trend to watch by the CEA – the rising market of handset accessories), personal audio equipment and other companies showcasing products already released in 2011.

Despite the "CES Unveiled" not quite living up to my expectations, I highly doubt the full 2012 International CES will disappoint. With over 2700 exhibitors, my only concern is seeing them all within the next 5 days.