Samsung confirms quad-core processor for next flagship Galaxy smartphone
Samsung on Thursday confirmed that a new Galaxy S Smartphone set to be unveiled next week will be powered by a quad-core Exynos 4 Quad processor
The South Korean consumer electronics maker has been teasing the upcoming Galaxy device ahead of a Mobile Unpacked event in London on May 3. The handset is expected to be the third-generation of its flagship Galaxy S smartphone.
The company has released information about the new processor for the device in a bid to attract interest from other handset makers, Reuters reports.
Already in mass production, the Exynos 45 Quad chip features four of ARM's Cortex A9 cores. Clocked at 1.4GHz, the processor will be about "twice as powerful while using 20 percent less power," MacNN noted the company as saying. By switching to a 32nm process, Samsung managed to build the quad-core chip without making it bigger than existing dual-core solutions.
"Samsung said it is sampling the chips to major handset makers as it seeks to expand its customer base from Apple Inc to its handset rivals such as Nokia, HTC and Motorola," said Reuters. Though the company does manufacture microprocessors for Apple, chips bound for iOS devices are of Apple's own design.
Samsung's next-generation Galaxy S smartphone will likely be a top competitor against Apple's iPhone. Hana Daetoo analyst Lee Ka-keun predicted earlier this month that Samsung and Apple will "engage in a full-fledged war" once both companies have released new smartphone models for the year.
Market research firms have placed the two companies neck-and-neck in their estimates of the world's largest smartphone vendors. Apple took the top spot during the holiday 2011 quarter with breakout sales of the iPhone 4S. The company revealed on Tuesday that it had sold 35 million iPhones in the March quarter.
For its part, Samsung has stopped providing sales figures for its smartphone division, though it has announced record profit for the first quarter of calendar 2012.
Apple is expected to counter its rivals with its own quad-core A-series processor later this year. After the company released the third-generation iPad with a dual-core A5X processor, some have suggested that a quad-core A6 will power the 2012 iPhone, which is rumored to arrive in October.
The South Korean consumer electronics maker has been teasing the upcoming Galaxy device ahead of a Mobile Unpacked event in London on May 3. The handset is expected to be the third-generation of its flagship Galaxy S smartphone.
The company has released information about the new processor for the device in a bid to attract interest from other handset makers, Reuters reports.
Already in mass production, the Exynos 45 Quad chip features four of ARM's Cortex A9 cores. Clocked at 1.4GHz, the processor will be about "twice as powerful while using 20 percent less power," MacNN noted the company as saying. By switching to a 32nm process, Samsung managed to build the quad-core chip without making it bigger than existing dual-core solutions.
"Samsung said it is sampling the chips to major handset makers as it seeks to expand its customer base from Apple Inc to its handset rivals such as Nokia, HTC and Motorola," said Reuters. Though the company does manufacture microprocessors for Apple, chips bound for iOS devices are of Apple's own design.
Samsung's next-generation Galaxy S smartphone will likely be a top competitor against Apple's iPhone. Hana Daetoo analyst Lee Ka-keun predicted earlier this month that Samsung and Apple will "engage in a full-fledged war" once both companies have released new smartphone models for the year.
Market research firms have placed the two companies neck-and-neck in their estimates of the world's largest smartphone vendors. Apple took the top spot during the holiday 2011 quarter with breakout sales of the iPhone 4S. The company revealed on Tuesday that it had sold 35 million iPhones in the March quarter.
For its part, Samsung has stopped providing sales figures for its smartphone division, though it has announced record profit for the first quarter of calendar 2012.
Apple is expected to counter its rivals with its own quad-core A-series processor later this year. After the company released the third-generation iPad with a dual-core A5X processor, some have suggested that a quad-core A6 will power the 2012 iPhone, which is rumored to arrive in October.
Comments
I really don't think that you can treat phones the way that computers used to be treated with these spec wars. It's a phone... if it works well then that's all the customer will worry about. It's going to be a very small percentage of customers who actually give a shit about how fast it runs.
jmho
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
Samsung on Thursday confirmed that a new Galaxy S Smartphone set to be unveiled next week running a half-baked, inefficient, power-sapping Android OS necessitates using a quad-core Exynos 4 Quad processor.
Fixed that for you Samesung. Thank me later.
Nothing to read here. Move along.
I love how they tried to build hype with cheap shot video. Guess anyone who falls for Samsung cheap marketing deserved it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by island hermit
I really don't think that you can treat phones the way that computers used to be treated with these spec wars. It's a phone... if it works well then that's all the customer will worry about. It's going to be a very small percentage of customers who actually give a shit about how fast it runs.
jmho
Really. The war of specs ended long ago but is still kept alive by the fandroid community. Since their horrible Android systems can't compete with Apple's polished and complete product, they feel the need to feed their pathetic egos by hyping something that the rest of the world truly doesn't care about.
But heck, it keeps the giggle-factor and face-palm gags going.
LMAO don't get your panties in a bunch fb's.
From the article "Apple is expected to counter its rivals with its own quad-core A-series processor later this year."
What will you say about quad-core when this happens LOL.
Samsung is gonna hope to put one up on Apple and it's dual core A5 chip iPhone 4s. We will have to see but I will predict that the next generation iPhone will not have a quad core chip but will have a Dual core A5X. I really don't see the benefit of a Quad core A6 chip in a smart phone as of yet. Competing on a Core based processor in a phone just doesn't make sense.
Did they really need to take a stab at the Apple-loving masses by showing a flock/herd of sheep at the end? So frickin' high school.
(I really wish I had the option of throwing a "no" or "roll eyes" emoticon at the end of my sentence. It sure has made this board vanilla and lifeless.)
"The South Korean consumer electronics maker has been teasing the upcoming Galaxy device ahead of a(n) ... Unpacked event in London on May 3."
As opposed to Apple events, which are always packed to the rafters.
And it will have a 6 inch screen and 2 minute battery life.
This is called jumping the tech shark.
But will it run Crisis Core?
Samesung's video is in BAD TASTE...as always!
Quote:
Originally Posted by sflocal
Really. The war of specs ended long ago but is still kept alive by the fandroid community. Since their horrible Android systems can't compete with Apple's polished and complete product, they feel the need to feed their pathetic egos by hyping something that the rest of the world truly doesn't care about.
But heck, it keeps the giggle-factor and face-palm gags going.
Lest you forget, Apple is one of the, if not the, biggest players in the war of specs. Their Ax processors have always been among the top of the line when released, and largest in terms of die size/transistor count. If anything, Apple is a big force in keeping the spec wars alive.
Quote:
Originally Posted by island hermit
I really don't think that you can treat phones the way that computers used to be treated with these spec wars. It's a phone... if it works well then that's all the customer will worry about. It's going to be a very small percentage of customers who actually give a shit about how fast it runs.
jmho
The same is true about computers... as long as you have enough power to do your e-mail, web browsing, and word processing, the majority of people using it will be satisfied. That said theses "spec wars" are a good thing to the industry as a whole; they drive (at least the hardware side) the technology forward. With Intel recently entering the picture (with a very compelling SoC I might add), it seems to me the spec wars are only going to intensify going forward.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
Twice the "performance" while using 20% less power is great but unfortunately they are probably going to advertise the hell out of it being quad-core. I wonder what people will think when dual-core Cortex-A15 has even higher performance and uses even less power?
I know a lot of people who are going to be disappointed in this, as they were expecting the GS3 to have an A-15 based SoC.
edit: BTW, why is this filed in the Genius Bar?
Apple will only give out stuffs (products, specs, etc) when they are absolutely ready and the benefits really requires it. By that time, when Apple is finally using quad core processors, Android OS has getting too big and sluggish it necessitate their HW to be using a full scale desktop CPU to runs it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Splash-reverse
Apple will only give out stuffs (products, specs, etc) when they are absolutely ready and the benefits really requires it. By that time, when Apple is finally using quad core processors, Android OS has getting too big and sluggish it necessitate their HW to be using a full scale desktop CPU to runs it.
Do you not believe quad cores are ready for prime time then? Are you basing that belief on anything other than the fact that Apple hasn't done it yet?
Assuming core 2 and 3 can be power gated (tegra 3 does this), and assuming that the Samsung claims of increased performance with decreased energy usage are true, what is your objection to the inclusion of a quad core on a smartphone?
edit: and with regards to utilization, here's what Anandtech had to say in regards to tegra 3 and android:
Quote:
As expected, finding applications and usage models to task all four cores is pretty difficult. That being said, it's not hard to use the tablet in such a way that you do stress more than two cores. You won't see 100% CPU utilization across all four cores, but there will be a tangible benefit to having more than two. Whether or not the benefit is worth the cost in die area is irrelevant, it only means that NVIDIA (and/or its partners) have to pay more as the price of the end product to you is already pretty much capped.
The bigger benefit I saw to having four cores vs. two is that you're pretty much never CPU limited in anything you do when multitasking. Per core performance can always go up but I found myself bound either by the broken WiFi or NAND speed. In fact, the only thing that would bring the Prime to a halt was if I happened to be doing a lot of writing to NAND over USB. Keyboard and touch interrupts were a low priority at that point, something I hope to see addressed as we are finally entering the era of performance good enough to bring on some I/O crushing multitasking workloads.
Despite having many cores at its disposal, NVIDIA appears to have erred on the side of caution when it comes to power consumption. While I often saw the third and fourth cores fire up when browsing the web or just using the tablet, NVIDIA did a good job of powering them down when their help wasn't needed. Furthermore, NVIDIA also seems to prefer running more cores at lower voltage/frequency settings than fewer cores at a higher point in the v/f curve. This makes sense given the non-linear relationship between voltage and power.
From a die area perspective I'm not entirely sure having four (technically, five) A9 cores is the best way to deliver high performance, but without a new microprocessor architecture it's surely more efficient than just ratcheting up clock speed.
Speaking to spec wars. I've been following the computer industry since 1970, phones for the last 10 years, and Apple since they started and I can tell you the spec war was alive and well then and it will still be in the year 2525. Where did people here ever get the idea that specs don't matter. Loyal Apple fans wait holding their breath to see what new power specs Apple will put into its products next. So go for it Samsung. :rolleyes:
Quote:
Originally Posted by ljocampo
Speaking to spec wars. I've been following the computer industry since 1970, phones for the last 10 years, and Apple since they started and I can tell you the spec war was alive and well then and it will still be in the year 2525. Where did people here ever get the idea that specs don't matter. Loyal Apple fans wait holding their breath to see what new power specs Apple will put into its products next. So go for it Samsung. :rolleyes:
Bullshit. The spec war is dead. It's only alive on tech blogs, message boards, and a tiny percentage of people who factor it into buying decisions. If you step back, you'll realiza that the majority of people couldnt give a shit as long as it runs well and functions smoothly. Real world performance manners. And that depends on a variety of variables, specs being just one of them. It's why most android phones, even the highest end ones, can't even scroll smoothly and have inconsistent performance. trust me, I've tried almost all of them.
It doesn't matter how long you've been following the computer industry. You're completely out of touch if you think marketing specs is really relevant anymore. It means nothing, because historically 'underpowered' Apple products perform better than anything else out there.
Quote:
Originally Posted by majjo
Lest you forget, Apple is one of the, if not the, biggest players in the war of specs. Their Ax processors have always been among the top of the line when released, and largest in terms of die size/transistor count. If anything, Apple is a big force in keeping the spec wars alive.
Nonsense. Apple is not competing against the other players. They are competing against themselves. If they can get the more performance from a quad-core chip, all the while keeping they die-size the same (if not smaller), with the same (if not better) battery life - regardless of what competitors like Samsung are using - they will do it and not even bother marketing the specs to the public at large. It's what they do. They let the all-around performance speak for itself. The only ones making a deal of specs - besides fandroids - are the manufacturers because they know they can't compete with Apple on anything else, including the usability of their handset. It's what they do and it's a pathetic and sad attempt to mislead the public.
I lost track how many times Apple got skewered for not using a quad-core CPU in the 4s or their new iPad3, even though the performance of each was as fast or faster than whatever quad-core, or higher Ghz nonsense the other players were using. Funny how most fandroids conveniently scurry to the back of the discussion forums and keep quiet when they are consistently proven wrong, only for them to come out of their holes again and spew more fabrications when the smoke clears.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ljocampo
Speaking to spec wars. I've been following the computer industry since 1970, phones for the last 10 years, and Apple since they started and I can tell you the spec war was alive and well then and it will still be in the year 2525. Where did people here ever get the idea that specs don't matter. Loyal Apple fans wait holding their breath to see what new power specs Apple will put into its products next. So go for it Samsung. :rolleyes:
The most profitable consumer segment made the specs irrelevant. Apple's commercials don't talk about specs. Apple talks about using it in the real world. Everyone I know using an iPhone couldn't care less about what specs are. They all know that they love their handset for ease-of-use, speed, and polish. They don't care that "speed" is provided by a single, dual, or quad, or oct-core CPU. If its fast, they're happy.
I've followed the computer industry since the late 70's, became a software developer in the 80's and continue to this day. Polished, efficient code that Apple has will always trump the bloated, botched code that Android is made of. It's why they need higher specs than the current iPhone to barely make it comparable in speed to a clocked-down iPhone. That's the reality.
What's important is efficient code. When Apple does make a quad-core iPhone, Samesung will then advertise a higher-clocked CPU or hexacore phone that will still run slower than what Apple has. So technically, it's everyone else that's keeping the spec wars going and Apple is simply cruising along the highway while watching everyone else causing pile-ups due to ignorance.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-1035_3-57385358-94/huawei-our-ascend-d-quad-is-worlds-fastest-smartphone/
Huawei: Our Ascend D Quad is world's fastest smartphone
Mobile World Congress kicks off with a bang as Huawei unveiled its first quad-core ICS handset, called the Ascend D Quad.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
Twice the "performance" while using 20% less power is great but unfortunately they are probably going to advertise the hell out of it being quad-core.
You mean the same way Apple advertised the A5X as being a Quad Core GPU?
This is great and all, but five bucks says AT&T gimps it, and sticks it with the dual core snapdragon Qualcomm proc like they did the HTC One X.