Samsung ignoring quad-core CPU technology for next generation tablets
By Jon on November 30th, 2011
While Nvidia is going quad-core with its Tegra 3 SoC, Samsung would appear to be intent on developing its dual-core technology further for its next wave of tablets. The company has just unveiled the dual-core Exynos 5250 System-on-Chip. Read on to find out how this will affect the Samsung devices of 2012.
Have we jumped the gun by declaring 2012 the year of the quad-core CPU? Quite possibly, if Samsung has anything to say about it.
The company today revealed (via Newswire) its Exynos 5250 System-on-Chip, which will power the next generation of Samsung tablets. We’re talking the successors to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, so this is pretty major news.
Interestingly, the Exynos 5250 will eschew the expected quad-core set-up in favour of an advanced dual-core one. The chip will run on ARM’s new dual-core Cortex-A15 processor, which is clocked at an impressive 2GHz. This new chip doubles up on the performance of the outgoing 1.5GHz Cortex-A9 that’s around today.
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Samsung and ARM can boost the chip’s clockspeed to the 2GHz mark thanks to the 32nm manufacturing process used to construct it. This means the components are significantly smaller and hence more efficient with battery usage.
On the graphics side of things, the new chip is said to be four times more capable than the current Cortex A9 chip. The key reason why Samsung is earmarking this new chip for tablets is its support for 2,560 x 1,600 pixel pictures. The next generation of tablet device is widely expected to double up on screen resolution, offering something akin to the heavy pixel density of modern high-end smartphones.
With devices like the Asus Transformer Prime and, rumour has it, the iPad 3 set to adopt quad-core architecture, it’ll be interesting to see the comparative performance benchmarks when they finally hit the market.
