The description ‘octa-core’ has been thrown around and used by many mobile processor makers, starting with Samsung with their Exynos 5 Octa processor, released earlier this year and continues most recently with Motorola showing their X8 Computing System, both of which are not really a ‘true’ octa-core’ when you get down to the nitty gritty.
So, when MediaTek – a company which isn’t really known for the high-end processors in the mobile market – recently announced that they had made the first ever true octa-core processor for mobile devices, it was taken with a grain of salt. From the outset it appears that while CPUs such as the Exynos 5 operate on the Big/Little concept of having four Cortex-A15 cores and four Cortex-A7 cores operating, which are limited to one or the other operating at any one time; the MediaTek True Octa-Core CPU allows for all eight of its cores to run simultaneously.
MediaTek promises that the new CPU will give ‘improved current-application experiences’. They’ve also promised improvements in Advanced web browsing, Smoother user interfaces, Superior Gaming experiences as well as efficient video playback where they advise that battery usage for ‘decoding HEVC (H.265) FHD video can be reduced by up to 18 percent’.
However, MediTek’s thunder could be stolen just as quick, as Samsung have just announced the second generation of Exynos 5 Octa, Exynos 5420, which is claimed to be faster, has a much better GPU and can reportedly from Samsungs announcement, fire up both processor clusters. Samsung have stated that they do plan to start production for the Exynos 5420 from August which could potentially put a spanner in the works for MediaTek who has stated they will be set to start shipping its octal-core processors in the fourth quarter.
This CPU from MediaTek, while interesting is still in the announcement phase, they have released a position paper on the SOC but have yet to provide any solid details on the architecture or details on product releases. But it is, something to watch out for.
What do you think about MediaTek’s announcement. Could we see MediaTek make the jump to higher end devices with this technology?
Just what we need – 8 cores on a phone. As if quad core isn’t enough of a waste…
I don’t have high hopes for Mediatek, they only seem to be produced in no name brands. Just my opinion but I personally trust the quality of Samsung over Mediatek.
We’ve all got to start somewhere. Just look at Samsung and LG – when they first started selling stuff to Aust in the 80’s it was el-cheapo, crappy monitors, TVs and VCRs.
True that I guess.