Samsung Electronics introduced the industry’s first quad-core application processor built on the High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology. With unprecedented performance capabilities exceeding 1.4GHz based on the ARM CORTEX A9 quad-core, the powerful, yet energy-efficient Exynos 4 Quad, allows developers 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.
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 (12 × 12 × 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 was architected to drive up to 1366 × 768 (WXGA) display and 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 × 5.0 × 0.4 mm, the S5M8767 is designed to scale up or down the dynamic voltage depending on the clock speed in 6.25mV step for maximizing battery life.
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.
