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Samsung is teasing a new version of its flagship Exynos 5 Octa processor, the eight-core chip found in some versions of the Galaxy S 4, with a full reveal of the “more powerful” SoC next week. The new chip, Samsung took to Twitter to gloat about, is billed as an “evolution” of the existing Exynos 5 Octa, though aside from unspecified performance improvements the South Korean company is vague as to what changes we can expect.

The original Exynos 5 Octa went into production back in March, the first example of ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture. Although the chipset has eight processor cores in total, only four of them are ever active at the same time, depending on what the device is being asked to do.

In high load situations, such as when running games, the Exynos 5 Octa runs as a quadcore Cortex-A15 processor, for maximum performance. However, when less grunt is required – such as polling data connections while the phone or tablet is otherwise idle – a quartet of Cortex-A7 cores are switched on instead, which are less powerful but also more frugal.

There’s more on the Exynos 5 Octa chipset in our SlashGear 101.

One possibility is that the new version of the Exynos 5 Octa will simply increase the clock speed of the two sets of cores. Currently, the A15 cores run at 1.6GHz, while the A7 cores run at 1.2GHz. However, it could also be to do with LTE support, which is only found on select models of the Galaxy S 4 running the Exynos 5 Octa.

According to recent rumors, Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy Note III will use the Octa chip in at least some of its variants. We’ll know more about the chip next week, when Samsung details it fully; the Note III will have to wait until September, at least according to the rumor-mill, and its expected IFA 2013 unveil.

Samsung Exynos 5 Octa update teased (in time for the Galaxy Note III) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple is said to be using Samsung to build the A9 mobile chips for the iPhone and iPad in 2015, another sign that the firm’s attempts to extricate itself from its rival’s production expertise are struggling. Although Apple had switched to TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing) for its A-series chip production starting in 2014, according to The Korea Economic Daily it’s Samsung’s expertise in 14nm manufacturing that has won back Apple’s business.

According to the Korean site, Samsung and Apple inked an agreement on July 14, specifically for the Apple A9 chipset expected to be in 2015′s iPhone. The chip will use 14nm “FinFET” technology, it’s said; if Apple’s “S” nomenclature pattern continues, by that point we’ll likely be seeing the iPhone 6S, though the Korean report suggests it will be the iPhone 7.

Apple and Samsung have had a tumultuous relationship over the past few years, spending as much time in the courtroom attempting to extract huge damages payments and have their rival’s devices banned from sale, as they have negotiating components. Samsung has always been a significant supplier for Apple – as well as processors, it supplies flash memory and other components – but since the legal escalations Apple has attempted to broaden its supply chain and avoid giving quite so much money to its Korean foe.

Chipsets had been a bottleneck, despite the ongoing efforts of TSMC, but news of a deal over the upcoming Apple A8 had been seen as a sign that Samsung was being pushed out of its privileged position.

Instead, Samsung’s work on 14nm manufacturing has paid dividends, offering something TSMC reportedly cannot. 14nm chips are expected to offer performance improvements as well as a reduction in power consumption, with a central silicon “fin” running the length of the transistor.

The first devices to use the A9 processors aren’t expected to show up for some time yet, and their specifications haven’t been confirmed. The current iPhone 5 runs Apple’s A6 chip, though the upcoming refreshed version – expected to be the iPhone 5S – is likely to use the newer version, the A6X. That’s currently used in the fourth-gen full-sized iPad, though could be modified for the lower-power requirements of the new iPhone.

VIA MacRumors

Apple’s iPhone 6S could have a Samsung A9 heart (sorry TSMC) is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Just because Qualcomm’s gone to plaid (aka. reached ludicrous speed) with its Snapdragon 800 flagship doesn’t mean the company’s been standing still at the other end of the market. The Snapdragon 200 family just received a major boost with the introduction of six new chips geared at China and other emerging markets. Available with dual- and quad-core CPUs, the processors are manufactured using a 28nm process and incorporate HSPA+ (21Mbps) and TD-SCDMA radios. The new SoCs are optimized to provide good multimedia performance and long battery life, with support for dual cameras (up to 8MP rear and 5MP front), multiple SIMs (dual standby, dual active and tri standby), iZat location tech and Quick Charge 1.0. Qualcomm’s Adreno 302 GPU rounds up the spec list, making these chips well suited for devices running Android, Windows Phone and Firefox OS. The company’s expected to begin shipping these new processors (8×10 and 8×12) in late 2013. Full PR after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

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AMD has revealed its new “Seattle” chips, processors headed to power-dense servers, and using for the first time ARM architecture as commonly found in smartphones and tablets, rather than x86. AMD Seattle, which is expected to show up in systems from the second half of 2014, will initially offer eight ARM Cortex-A57 cores running at

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AMD has refreshed its lineup of eight-core FX chips in what sounds like some straightforward overclocking of last year’s products. The FX-9590 claims a clock speed of 5GHz in turbo mode, making it the “world’s first commercially available 5GHz CPU processor,” while the FX-9370 lags slightly behind at 4.7GHz, as compared to the 4.2GHz top speed of the current FX-8350. Both new CPUs are based on the familiar Piledriver core, which has a reputation for being relatively cheap and easily overclockable (honestly, the 5GHz barrier was obliterated long ago), but far behind an Intel Core i5 in terms of all-around computing. This is especially true since the launch of Haswell, which largely avoided clock speed increases in favor of architectural tweaks that didn’t compromise efficiency. Maingear plans to pick up the 5GHz part for use in a gaming system coming this summer, but there’s no word yet on pricing or even general availability for DIY upgraders. Now, we’re just speculating, but with AMD increasingly focused on APUs, it’s possible that today’s chips will represent the FX’s lap of glory.

Filed under: Desktops, Gaming, AMD

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