Only downside is Samsung will not implement ARM's Cache Coherent Interconnect that is available on the Mali-T604. It should still be blazing fast though.
How does the performance of the Mali-T604 compare to other GPUs? The Mali-400 MP was a very pleasant surprise, not as fast as the SGX543MP2, but still far faster than I think anybody expected out of ARM's first mainstream SoC GPU (I don't think the Mali-100 or Mali-200 ever saw widespread adoption?), and a respectable performer.
It looks like the T-604 is still limited to four cores like the 400 was (and the Exynos 4200 series used all four), so I wonder if it will end up in a similar position to the series 6 PowerVR chips as the 400 did in relation to the series 5 chips.
Very interesting news! Do you think we may bet on T658 GPU for the Quad Core version (28nm?) of this SOC? If the Galaxy SIII will be Quad A9, I think the next iterartion, AKA Galaxy SIV too will be quad core.. What do You think? Thanks :)
Yes I think you will see T658 from Samsung in 2013. They are very closely aligned with ARM and will keep using their latest designs. Samsung also says they will produce a big.Little SoC by end of 2012, so maybe that design could have T658.
Really - they told you the GPU core ? That means you're the one person outside Samsungand the GPU core vendor that knows this news right ? That's incredible. What gives you the sort of access to information no-one else in the tech world knows (or at least is not under strict NDA not to talk about it) ?
What products are we likely to see this in? I'm guessing their next high end Android tablet with a high DPI screen is a given, but Windows tablets? Android smartphones?
At first, we will see tablets based on this SoC. Once Samsung gets more familiar with the new architecture (and possibly process node?), bringing the heat and power consumption down a bit, we will see smaller devices such as smartphones using this SoC. Windows tablets are definitely a possibility but it's hard to say until we have anything concrete.
It definitely would! But the problem is it's not x86, and only the Metro UI and apps work on ARM Win 8 tablets. Atleast Intel now have that new Atom SoC that finally competes with current ARM designs on battery life, but all ARM A15 designs (like the Exynos 5250) i'm sure will be considerably faster, as the new Atom is only only a little faster than current ARM designs.
I wouldn't bet on TI having A15 this year,maybe Q1 next year. As for Samsung they announced that they are sampling the 5250 in november 2011,they also got the Exynos 4212 A9 dual core 1.5Ghz on 32nm sampling in Q4 and they seem undecided on a Galaxy 3 launch so one has to wonder how soon they'll actually have devices with A15.
PS: you imply ,most likely unintentionally, that Krait will arrive only in Q3-Q4,it should arrive sooner.
I understand their press release in November '11 says the Exynos 5250 would enter mass production in Q2 2012, but this was confirmed on the their Q1 2012 earnings call this morning; so we have it straight from the horse's mouth. :)
As for Krait, I meant actual devices. I'm very doubtful that we will see any shipping devices based on Krait or Cortex-A15 in Q2.
As far as i know Qualcomm said early this year and never mentioned any delays as of yet . There is also the fact that HTC has to be rather desperate to get some good models out ASAP given their current sales and expectations for Q1 and since they are rather close to Qualcomm it would be surprising to see them wait so long.I also doubt that Qualcomm is all that eager to compete with A15 so they should be doing all they can to get devices in stores fast. The initial press rls for the Exynos 5250 is here (you guys reported on it too) and i guess today's news is just a confirmation that all is on track. http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconduct...
The fact that HTC already has some rumored Tegra 3 designs tells me that they don't want a repeat of last year where because they waited on Qualcomm for their S3 chips, they lost out on a good chunk of sales in Q1 and parts of Q2.
I think there's at least a small chance that Apple could ship a device based on Cortex-A15 in Q2. But Apple is probably the only one who could do it, at least when it comes to high-volume retail availability (i.e. not just in one store in one city in one country...).
Sound good! 2GHz dual-core Cortex-A15 makes more sense to me this year than quad-core Cortex-A9 (next year: quad-core big.LITTLE). Wouldn't surprise me if Apple's A6 (3rd gen iPad in late March/April) uses the same CPU, memory bandwidth and 32nm process.
Yep, I guess we'll see a higher adoption of quad-core A15 designs at 28nm. The power-draw with quad-core chips at 32nm could make them unfeasible for smartphones. Tablets should be okay though. ;)
Any more info get leaked about the 4212 or will we need to wait for MWC? That's the chip that really interests me since it will likely be the first 32nm SoC in production devices and the LTE battery life might actually be decent instead of resorting to 2000mAh+ monsters. I'm hopeful those are ready for the first half of this year since they should be pin compatible with the 4210.
Perhaps English is not Saumitra Bhagwat's first language? I don't remember reading any other articles by him. And AnandTech doesn't profile their writers! They should.
Anyway, it seems like it has been a while since a microprocessor architecture article has come out and I enjoyed this one, so keep them coming Saumitra!
My god, I apologize for this blunder, maybe my colloquilism has failed me. Having said that, let us not detract ourselves from the focal point of this article. :)
Dude,this website is for techies ..no need for analyzing each and every word.I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this website is not www.shakespeare.com ... so if you're so anal about English, you'd be better off wasting your time somewhere else.
We are working on our "About Us" page, which will include a small bio of every writer. It was supposed to go live at CES but we've been experiencing some server issues so Anand has been busy solving them :-)
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twimberly - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
The GPU in the Exynos 5250 is the Mali-T604. Samsung System LSI told me this when I met with them at CES earlier this month.Saumitra - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Ah, it makes sense continuing using the Mali GPUs I guess. ;)twimberly - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Only downside is Samsung will not implement ARM's Cache Coherent Interconnect that is available on the Mali-T604. It should still be blazing fast though.Guspaz - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
How does the performance of the Mali-T604 compare to other GPUs? The Mali-400 MP was a very pleasant surprise, not as fast as the SGX543MP2, but still far faster than I think anybody expected out of ARM's first mainstream SoC GPU (I don't think the Mali-100 or Mali-200 ever saw widespread adoption?), and a respectable performer.It looks like the T-604 is still limited to four cores like the 400 was (and the Exynos 4200 series used all four), so I wonder if it will end up in a similar position to the series 6 PowerVR chips as the 400 did in relation to the series 5 chips.
Lucian Armasu - Thursday, February 2, 2012 - link
Series 6 PowerVR is not supposed to be out until early 2013, right? Then we'll see the T-658 or even better compete with it by then.SydneyBlue120d - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Very interesting news! Do you think we may bet on T658 GPU for the Quad Core version (28nm?) of this SOC? If the Galaxy SIII will be Quad A9, I think the next iterartion, AKA Galaxy SIV too will be quad core.. What do You think? Thanks :)twimberly - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Yes I think you will see T658 from Samsung in 2013. They are very closely aligned with ARM and will keep using their latest designs. Samsung also says they will produce a big.Little SoC by end of 2012, so maybe that design could have T658.hammerd2 - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Really - they told you the GPU core ? That means you're the one person outside Samsungand the GPU core vendor that knows this news right ? That's incredible. What gives you the sort of access to information no-one else in the tech world knows (or at least is not under strict NDA not to talk about it) ?dagamer34 - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
What products are we likely to see this in? I'm guessing their next high end Android tablet with a high DPI screen is a given, but Windows tablets? Android smartphones?Kristian Vättö - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
At first, we will see tablets based on this SoC. Once Samsung gets more familiar with the new architecture (and possibly process node?), bringing the heat and power consumption down a bit, we will see smaller devices such as smartphones using this SoC. Windows tablets are definitely a possibility but it's hard to say until we have anything concrete.Just my speculation, of course :-)
ImSpartacus - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
A Samsung ARM Win8 tablet would be pretty sweet!B3an - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
It definitely would! But the problem is it's not x86, and only the Metro UI and apps work on ARM Win 8 tablets. Atleast Intel now have that new Atom SoC that finally competes with current ARM designs on battery life, but all ARM A15 designs (like the Exynos 5250) i'm sure will be considerably faster, as the new Atom is only only a little faster than current ARM designs.jjj - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
I wouldn't bet on TI having A15 this year,maybe Q1 next year.As for Samsung they announced that they are sampling the 5250 in november 2011,they also got the Exynos 4212 A9 dual core 1.5Ghz on 32nm sampling in Q4 and they seem undecided on a Galaxy 3 launch so one has to wonder how soon they'll actually have devices with A15.
PS: you imply ,most likely unintentionally, that Krait will arrive only in Q3-Q4,it should arrive sooner.
Saumitra - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
I understand their press release in November '11 says the Exynos 5250 would enter mass production in Q2 2012, but this was confirmed on the their Q1 2012 earnings call this morning; so we have it straight from the horse's mouth. :)As for Krait, I meant actual devices. I'm very doubtful that we will see any shipping devices based on Krait or Cortex-A15 in Q2.
jjj - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
As far as i know Qualcomm said early this year and never mentioned any delays as of yet . There is also the fact that HTC has to be rather desperate to get some good models out ASAP given their current sales and expectations for Q1 and since they are rather close to Qualcomm it would be surprising to see them wait so long.I also doubt that Qualcomm is all that eager to compete with A15 so they should be doing all they can to get devices in stores fast.The initial press rls for the Exynos 5250 is here (you guys reported on it too) and i guess today's news is just a confirmation that all is on track. http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconduct...
dagamer34 - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
The fact that HTC already has some rumored Tegra 3 designs tells me that they don't want a repeat of last year where because they waited on Qualcomm for their S3 chips, they lost out on a good chunk of sales in Q1 and parts of Q2.Mike1111 - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
I think there's at least a small chance that Apple could ship a device based on Cortex-A15 in Q2. But Apple is probably the only one who could do it, at least when it comes to high-volume retail availability (i.e. not just in one store in one city in one country...).Tomkim - Saturday, January 28, 2012 - link
Is there any problem with A15 processor in TI? In fact, TI is the 1st licenser of A15 from ARM and someone probable already had the samples of OMAP5.Kristian Vättö - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Great comeback Saumitra, haven't seen any posts from you for awhile! Keep 'em coming ;-)Saumitra - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Heya Kristian! Yeh, I've been MIA for a while now; gotta get back into the game! :)Mike1111 - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Sound good! 2GHz dual-core Cortex-A15 makes more sense to me this year than quad-core Cortex-A9 (next year: quad-core big.LITTLE). Wouldn't surprise me if Apple's A6 (3rd gen iPad in late March/April) uses the same CPU, memory bandwidth and 32nm process.Saumitra - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Yep, I guess we'll see a higher adoption of quad-core A15 designs at 28nm. The power-draw with quad-core chips at 32nm could make them unfeasible for smartphones. Tablets should be okay though. ;)SilentSin - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Any more info get leaked about the 4212 or will we need to wait for MWC? That's the chip that really interests me since it will likely be the first 32nm SoC in production devices and the LTE battery life might actually be decent instead of resorting to 2000mAh+ monsters. I'm hopeful those are ready for the first half of this year since they should be pin compatible with the 4210.twimberly - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
I saw 4212 at CES. Samsung was showing off a 40% power reduction for the CPU and GPU. You can read my report over at androidandme.mckirkus - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
You dropped the ball on your colloquialism.Ryard - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Yeah, I was just about to post on that.Dropped the ball = didn't fulfill your responsibility
douglaswilliams - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
I too was going to comment on that.Perhaps English is not Saumitra Bhagwat's first language? I don't remember reading any other articles by him. And AnandTech doesn't profile their writers! They should.
Anyway, it seems like it has been a while since a microprocessor architecture article has come out and I enjoyed this one, so keep them coming Saumitra!
Saumitra - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
My god, I apologize for this blunder, maybe my colloquilism has failed me. Having said that, let us not detract ourselves from the focal point of this article. :)zoominyogi - Friday, January 27, 2012 - link
Dude,this website is for techies ..no need for analyzing each and every word.I would like to draw your attention to the fact that this website is not www.shakespeare.com ... so if you're so anal about English, you'd be better off wasting your time somewhere else.Kristian Vättö - Sunday, January 29, 2012 - link
We are working on our "About Us" page, which will include a small bio of every writer. It was supposed to go live at CES but we've been experiencing some server issues so Anand has been busy solving them :-)stusmygsgbrd - Sunday, January 29, 2012 - link
Looking foward to A15 java on chip, ics hard accel.