Samsung updates Exynos range with refreshed quad core and new 6-core models

Samsung at MWC
Samsung releases lots

Samsung has released a string of different mobile products at MWC 2014.

The technology leader has released two Exynos application processors, two CMOS image sensors, an NFC IC and a Wi-Fi chipset for use in advanced smartphones and tablets.

Exynos application processors

Samsung's new Exynos 5422 is an advanced Exynos 5 Octa product for premium mobile devices, is designed to support high-resolution displays and complicated computation without sacrificing battery life.

This new processor has eight cores —four ARM Cortex- A15 and four small Cortex- A7s for lighter tasks. This delivers up to 34 percent higher performance than in previous Exynos Octa models.

To support high-resolution displays requiring a higher rate of data calculation and bandwidth, such as WQHD (2560 x 1440) and WQXGA (2560 x 1600), Samsung has adopted new solutions with proprietary mobile image compression and adaptive hibernation technology. With MIC, display data is compressed into half to minimise memory bandwidth requirement and uses only four MIPI lanes.

Cutting power

To further reduce power requirements, an adaptive hibernation algorithm detects non-moving parts of dynamic images and freezes the data transfer. Both technologies are implemented in conjunction with Samsung's mobile display driver IC and save power consumption by up to 10 percent compared with conventional technologies.

Exynos 5422 is developed using Samsung's 28 nm fabrication process node. The processors are available now and scheduled for mass production in the first quarter of 2014.

Exynos 5 Hexa

Another addition to the Exynos range is the Exynos 5 Hexa which his aimed at the mid- to high-end mobile market. The new Exynos 5 Hexa processor is powered by six CPU cores; two 1.7GHz ARM Cortex -A15 cores and four 1.3GHz ARM Cortex -A7 cores. Samsung said that this results in up to 42 percent improved performance when compared with the previous Exynos 5 Dual products.

Its selling point is an embedded Display Port interface and memory bandwidth supporting up to 12.8GB/s. The Exynos 5260 also supports WQXGA (2560 x 1600) display resolution. It has a video codec that enables Full HD playback at up to 60 frames-per-second with encoding and decoding of various standards, such as H.264, MPEG4 and VP8. Exynos 5260 is currently in mass production.