Samsung’s New Quad-core Application Processor Drives Advanced Feature Sets in Smartphones and Tablets

(Auszug aus der Pressemitteilung)

Seoul, Korea, April 26, 2012 – Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a world

leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, today introduced the
industry’s first quad-core application processor built on the High-k
Metal Gate (HKMG) low-power process technology. With unprecedented
performance capabilities exceeding 1.4GHz based on the ARM® CORTEXTM
A9 quad-core, the powerful, yet energy-efficient Exynos 4 Quad,
allows system-level architects to integrate maximized power
efficiencies into smartphones and tablets which enables double the
processing power at a 20 percent lower power bill over its
predecessor, the 45nm process-based Exynos 4 Dual.

“The quad-core processor offers phenomenal multitasking abilities
surpassing any single or dual application processor. Since all the
cores must share a single battery, the power management and
efficiency in the limited battery capacity are indispensable for
mobile computing devices,” said Taehoon Kim, vice president of System
LSI marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics. “Given the
diverse functionalities consumers are demanding from their mobile
devices today, the Exynos 4 Quad meets those high-performance needs
while keeping power consumption very low.”

Multi-core processing delivers enhanced performance, enabling users
to accomplish more tasks in a shorter period of time. For example, a
task such as streaming video can run on one core while the other
cores update applications in the background, connecting to the web
and scanning virus-check simultaneously.

Benefitting from a use case where the parallel processing and
workload sharing among the four cores is necessary, the Exynos 4 Quad
is particular well suited for heavy-load applications such as 3D
games, video editing, and calculation-intensive simulation.

Due to its 32nm HKMG low-power process and power-saving design, the
Exynos 4 Quad has two-times the processing capability over the 45nm
process based Exynos 4 Dual while consuming 20-percent less power. To
improve power efficiency, Samsung adopted hot-plug functionality to
support on-off switching for each core as well as the per-core
dynamic voltage and frequency scaling (DVFS), which offers a dramatic
reduction in power consumption by adapting different levels of
voltage and frequency when changing workloads.

Having identical form factor measurements (12mm X 12mm X 1.37 mm),
the Exynos 4 Quad is pin-to-pin compatible with the 32nm process
based Exynos 4 Dual, allowing mobile device designers to immediately
adopt the new solution without additional cost, engineering or design
efforts.

In addition, the new processor incorporates a full HD 30 frame per
second video hardware codec engine for high resolution 1080p video
recording and play-back, an embedded image signal processor interface
for high-quality camera functionality and an HDMI 1.4 interface for
sharp and crisp multimedia content transmission.

Samsung developed a power management IC (PMIC), the S5M8767, as a
companion chip to power the Exynos 4 Quad processor. By integrating
various circuitry such as nine highly efficient and programmable buck
converters and 28 low-dropout regulators (LDOs) into the small
package of 5.0 mm x 5.0mm x 0.4mm, the S5M8767 is designed to scale
up or down the dynamic voltage depending on the clock speed in 6.25mV
step for managing power delivery and maximizing battery life at the
system level.

Already in production, the Exynos 4 Quad is scheduled to be adopted
first into Samsung’s next Galaxy smartphone that will officially be
announced in May. Samsung’s Exynos 4 Quad is also sampling to other
major handset makers.

“The application processor is a crucial element in providing our
customers with PC-like experience on mobile devices. Samsung’s next
Galaxy device, which will be officially announced soon, offers
uncompromised performance and ground breaking multi-tasking features,
thanks to Exynos 4 Quad’s powerful performance and efficient energy
management technology,” said Hankil Yoon, Senior Vice President of
Product Strategy Team, Samsung’s Mobile Communications Business.

Last year, Samsung introduced a new online hub dedicated to its
Exynos processor. Designed to facilitate easy communication with
industry partners and end users, the new micro-site takes you a step
closer to the ultimate experience Exynos delivers; product
information, user experience and information on promotion events.