Besides graphics performance that impress us and CPU architecture Cortex-A15, Samsung’s next generation Exynos chip comes packed with functionality. We also find functions like USB 3.0, SATA 3.0 and Wifi Display for wireless streaming of video to another screen.
Exynos 5 Dual is also known as Exynos 5250 that has now been detailed by Samsung. Exynos 5 Dual will be the world’s first system processor with a dual-core Cortex-A15 CPU and quad-core Mali-T604 GPU from ARM, but also has a lot of other functions. We also find support for USB 3.0 and SATA 3.0, but also Wifi Display that is an open standard for streaming video wirelessly – like Intel Wireless Display. Using HDMI 1.4a that is also part of the system processor, it will be possible to play stereoscopic 3D material in Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) on an external screen.
The new system processor will also be capable of powering monitors with WQXGA resolution (2560 x 1600 pixels) and therefore has higher than usual bandwidths. With a 64-bit memory bus and support for LPDDR3-800 (1600 MHz effectively) the bandwdith adds up to 12.8 GB/s, which according to Samsung is necessary to power a monitor at WQXGA resolution with 60 Hz update frequency.
Samsung’s system processor is more efficient thanks to the new 32 nanometer HKMG technology. Another power saving function is PSR (Panel Self Refresh), that will save power for both the system processor and the screen in use. The technology updates no blocks or pixels if not needed, which current products do. The result is that PSR only consumes 5 percent of the energy of other units without the technology when you just watch the home screen. Since the screen is the most power hungry component of all in modern tablets, which is also partly true for notebooks, it sounds like a real ace up Samsung’s sleeve.
We have already seen what the new graphics can do, but Samsung has also uncovered information on the performance of the new architecture Cortex-A15. Exynos 5 Dual that uses two of these cores at 1.7 gigahertz, will have twice the performance of the older Exynos 4210/4212 with two Cortex-A9 at 1.4 gigahertz. At the same clock frequency Cortex-A15 is 50 percent faster at integer and 100 percent faster at floating point calculations. Exynos 5 Dual also supports encoding and transcoding of Full HD material at 60 Hz using Google’s VP8 codec.
It sure sounds like Exynos 5 Dual will be a real monster and considering what is being promised we find it hard to believe that it will be efficient enough to be used in smartphones. On the other hand we expect to see it tablets, but the support for USB 3.0 and not the least SATA 3.0 is highly interesting. This is a strong hint that Samsung is planning to use the system processor in future computers, perhaps notebooks with Windows RT?
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