Samsung updates Exynos 5 Octa chipset, doubles GPU performance

Samsung has announced an improved model of their Exynos 5 Octa chipset for smartphones and tablets, introducing a six-center ARM Mali-T628 GPU, which Samsung claims will double the PowerVR performance SGX544MP3 used within the previous version. Aside from the graphics performance upgrades, Samsung phones have also extended the clock speed of both the ARM Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 quad-cores to 1.Eight GHz and 1.3 GHz, respectively, bringing 20% higher overall performance.

The new Exynos five Octa 5420 still makes use of ARM’s large.LITTLE configuration, which sees the higher-powered Cortex-A15 cores used for CPU extensive responsibilities, while the Cortex-A7s are used for decrease-intensity obligations to decrease battery drain. Despite how the chipset has eight cores in total, only 4 can be used without delay as the SoC fluidly switches between A15 and A7 cores depending on the workload.

Samsung additionally elevated the memory bandwidth within the new Exynos 5 Octa SoC, bringing 14.9 GB/s thru 933 MHz dual-channel LPDDR3, adding help for “complete HD Wifi display” and 1080p video recording at 60 frames according to second. The 5420 sees lower electricity intake as nicely, thanks to a new couple of picture compression (MIC) IP blocks that optimizes electricity performance while transferring multimedia from the reminiscence to the display.

Samples of the Exynos 5 Octa 5420 were made available to clients, even as mass-manufacturing of the chipset should arise in August. The preceding version of the Exynos 5 Octa, the 5410, changed into the handiest visible in a few fashions of the Samsung Galaxy S4, including the GT-I9500, and supplied comparable overall performance compared to the Qualcomm Snapdragon six hundred utilized in different fashions, albeit with much fewer battery lifestyles. With the Galaxy Note III predicted for release later this yr, we should see the Exynos five Octa 5420 first appear in the stylus-equipped phone/phablet.

Summary show

Samsung phones delivered a new processor to the Exynos collection, the Exynos 5 Octa 5420, earlier this 12 months. With capabilities that take full benefit of ARM Mali – T628 GPU, this processor is truly going to be a difficult competitor to the Snapdragon 800 and the Tegra 4.

Did You Know?

The Exynos 5 Octa 5420 is the primary processor to use a six-center GPU.
The Exynos five Octa was launched alongside the Galaxy Note three. The first of its kind of integration of ARM Cortex-A15 processors and Cortex-A7 processors may be seen within the Exynos five Octa 5420 processors. This processor makes use of ARM big.LITTLE processing which maximizes power savings. We, at Buzzle, positioned forth a short roundup of this chip.

Exynos five Octa 5420 Specifications

Exynos five Octa 5420 Chipset

Image Source: Samsung

Specifications

CPU ARM Cortex-A15 Quad 1.8GHz + Cortex-A7 Quad 1.3GHz
GPU Mali-T628 MP6
Memory 2 LPDDR3e (14.9GB/s memory bandwidth)
Display WQXGA (2560×1600) with MIC
Level 1 Cache eight x sixty four KB
Level 2 Cache 512 + 2048 KB
Manufacturing Technology 28 nm
Connectivity Full aid for 802.11ac as much as 250 Mbps

Central Processing Unit (CPU)

The Exynos 5 Octa 5420 processor is the primary processor to use the Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 architecture in a mixture. It is an 8-core processor that incorporates 4 cores of Cortex-A15 at 1.8 GHz and 4 cores of Cortex-A7 at 1.3 GHz. These cores are utilized in large. The LITTLE configuration is a power-saving era where maximum performance (A15 in this situation) CPUs are combined with the maximum efficient (A7 in this case) CPUs to offer better output, at approximately 70% reduced electricity consumption. Depending on the load, the SoC (system-on-a-chip) will mechanically transfer among A7 and A15. In this manner, it will transfer among the 2 but will by no means have both the cores energetic at a given time. The Cortex-A15 center may be selected for top overall performance tasks, while the Cortex-A7 middle can be chosen for usually-related, continually-on workloads. The massive cores are used for complicated obligations like pix processing, while the LITTLE cores are applied for lighter responsibilities like electronic mail, web browsing, and many others. According to Samsung, due to the 8 cores embedded in this chipset, it offers 1.7 times better overall performance than the Exynos 4 Quad. It is constructed of 28nm HKMG (High-k Metal Gate) method, a low-power technique that facilitates improved energy efficiency.

Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

The Exynos 5 Octa processor has a six-core ARM Mali-T628 GPU, which runs the ‘massive. LITTLE’ configuration for the eight CPU cores. The Mali GPU offers scalability from one to 8 cores, and supplies help to more than one Compute APIs, which incorporates OpenCL profile, Google RenderScript, and Microsoft DirectCompute. There is a local hardware help for sixty four-bit scalar and vector operations and floating-factor facts. As in step with Samsung, this chip can deliver up to 2.Three times faster than 3-d pictures processing over the previous release (Octa 5210). This processor can completely aid OpenGL ES three.0 and Open CL 1.1 Full Profile that delivers better electricity and speed, which is needed to perform complicated operations like 3D gaming.

Image Processing

The image processing in the Exynos SoC is finished by a separate block, which is called the Mobile Image Compression (MIC) feature. This block takes up processing pictures and displaying them on the show, accordingly saving total device electricity. The MIC characteristic results in growing the usage hours of the excessive-decision WQXGA (2560×1600) show of the mobile gadgets, specifically in situations that need common display screen refresh.

Additional Features

The processor gives the primary eMMC 5.Zero that is the quickest embedded storage.
It offers to assist with zero shutter lag and dual video recording that ensures you get properly excellent photos.
It performs popular-cause computing on picture processing gadgets (GPGPU), which hurries up the operations (complicated and widespread) that have been earlier processed via the CPU.
This processor has a memory bandwidth of 14.9 gigabytes/second this is combined with a dual-channel LPDDR3 at 933 MHz.

After the troubles that the 5210 had faced, the evolved chip layout of 5420 has come as a relief for mobile producers. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and the Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) are the gadgets that utilize this first-rate processor. However, because the enterprise hasn’t used all the eight cores efficiently this time around, we can wait until the next Octa release to look at this occurring.

In the first part of our collection on an ARM, we stated that ARM attempts to choose 3 licensees to get early get admission to an era with every main micro process design. Samsung phones were many of the early 3 to get ahold of Cortex A15 IP. Samsung becomes first in the cell marketplace with a Cortex A15 based SoC totally: the Exynos 5250 (aka Exynos 5 Dual). Featuring two cores running up to 1.7GHz paired with an ARM Mali-T604 GPU, we first met the Exynos 5250 in Samsung’s very own Chromebook XE303 October.

The subsequent logical step would be a quad-center model, which we got with the Exynos 5410 – or because it’s extra usually known: Exynos five Octa. This part functions four ARM Cortex A15 cores strolling up to 1.6GHz and 4 ARM Cortex A7 cores walking at up to at least one.2GHz in a configuration ARM calls massive.LITTLE. The precise implementation of large.LITTLE on Exynos 5410 is referred to as Cluster Migration; either the four Cortex A15 cores or 4 Cortex A7 cores can be lively, however no longer both and not an arbitrary combination of cores from each island. They’re either all on or all off. With the aid of some distance, this is the very best to enforce from a software attitude. However, it is glaringly the much less exciting alternative from a heterogeneous SMP angle. I’ll be talking greater approximately this in an upcoming ARM piece.

On the pics in the front, Samsung moved to Imagination Technologies for the Exynos 5410 – imposing a PowerVR SGX 544MP3 setup. The Exynos 5410 noticed confined use, performing in some worldwide versions of the Galaxy S four and not anything else. Part of the trouble with the layout becomes a damaged implementation of the CCI-four hundred coherent bus interface that joins the 2 CPU islands to relax the SoC. In the case of the 5410, the bus changed into useful, but coherency was broken and manually disabled on the Galaxy S four. The implications are extreme from an energy intake (and performance) viewpoint. With all caches being flushed out to essential memory upon a switch between CPU islands. Neither ARM nor Samsung LSI will speak approximately the malicious program publicly, and Samsung failed to fess as much as the hassle at the beginning both – leaving quit users to find it out on their own.

Last week Samsung teased a brand new, advanced Exynos five Octa – the Exynos 5420. Today we were given the first info of the new SoC. The base CPU structure remains unchanged. Samsung geared up the Exynos 5420 with 4 A15s and four A7s, probably within the identical Cluster Migration big.LITTLE configuration. Clock speeds on each cluster are a chunk higher now, 1.8GHz is the top speed for the Cortex A15 cores whilst 1.3GHz is wherein the A7s top out. Note that on the Cortex A15 facet, this exceeds in which even ARM recommends clocking Cortex A15 for smartphones as a long way as strong performance is worried, but it must be satisfactory for drugs. There’s no phrase on whether or not the CCI-four hundred trojan horse has been constant. However, I can see the handiest count on that it’s been. In any other case, it’d be mindless to do every other Exynos 5 Octa release this near the original. Update: It seems like the CCI bug has been constant.

Exynos 5 Comparison

SoC 5250 5410 5420
Max Number of Active Cores 2 four 4 (?)
CPU Configuration 2 x Cortex A15 4 x Cortex A15 + 4 x Cortex A7 four x Cortex A15 + 4 x Cortex A7
A15 Max Clock 1.7 GHz 1.6GHz 1.8GHz
A7 Max Clock – 1.2GHz 1.3GHz
GPU ARM Mali-T604 MP4 Imagination PowerVR SGX544MP3 ARM Mali-T628 MP6
Memory Interface 2 x 32-bit LPDDR3-1600 2 x 32-bit LPDDR3-1600 2 x 32-bit LPDDR3-1866
Process 32nm HK+MG 28nm HK+MG 28nm HK+MG(?)

For the GPU, Samsung switches lower back to the ARM, this time using the Mali-T628 GPU in a 6-center configuration. Mali-T628 is virtually a 2d technology implementation of ARM’s Midgard GPU architecture first validated with the T604. The 2d generation brings higher IPC and better clocks within the identical physical region as the first-gen cores, which aggregate the 2 effects in up to a 50% growth in overall performance. The T604 changed into a 4-core implementation, so we have to see every other 50% on a pinnacle of that with the move to six-cores inside the 5420. A six-core configuration is a bit bizarre in that we’ve never got a visible one earlier than, but the T628 is scalable from 4 – 8 cores, so it is a legitimate config.

On the memory interface, the front, the Exynos 5420 retains a dual-channel LPDDR3 interface (2 x 32-bit) with support for up to 1866MHz memory, ensuing in top theoretical memory bandwidth of 14.9GBps.

The largest query, approximately the brand new Exynos 5420, is whether or not the cache coherency troubles were worked out. The answer remains a piece on the massive aspect for most charge sensitive capsules, but it can make an interesting use case in a better-stop tablet. In smartphones, I’m nonetheless now not offered on the concept of having four Cortex A15s walking at up to 1.8GHz. Although massive.LITTLE is one solution to the hassle of getting great of each world (low energy and excessive overall performance); Qualcomm appears to have a quite right answer with its Krait three hundred/four hundred cores. Suppose Samsung has been to permit one of the greater thrilling large.LITTLE scheduling fashions in its merchandise; however (e.G. Big. LITTLE MP, all cores visible right away, sensible scheduling based totally on perf desires) I’d be more involved.