Samsung reveals Exynos 5 Dual details

We have talked about the Exynos SoC by Samsung and it being one of the fastest pieces of hardware for tablets and smartphones. Now Samsung is all set to manufacture the Exynos 5250 SoC, renamed to the Exynos 5 Dual. According to AndroidAuthority, the Exynos 5 Dual will also become the world’s first Cortex A15-based chip, when it will ship later this year.

The Cortex A15 is the latest generation of ARM processors. The new processor will be replacing the Cortex A9 design for high-end devices. Samsung had to wait for its A15-based chip to support the very high WQXGA (2560×1600) resolution of their upcoming Galaxy Tab 11.6.

Another interesting thing about the Exynos 5 Dual is that it also comes with a next gen GPU, which is also designed by ARM. This could lead to benefits from better integration between the processor and the GPU. The Mali T604 is the first GPU design based on ARM’s new Midgard architecture, sporting unified shaders, OpenGL ES 3.0 and Open CL 1.1.

More from News & Analysis

What is the US HIRE Bill and why is India’s $250-billion IT sector worried? Is the internet dead? What's this theory that OpenAI's Sam Altman says might be true?

Extremely powerful chips

The OpenGL ES.30 is supposed to help developers create much better visuals for games on mobile devices that will eventually surpass the current generation of consoles. Open CL, or Open Computer Language, is supposed to give developers a way to tap into the power of the GPU and enhance what the CPU can do, while making the entire system more power efficient.

The interesting feature about the Exynos 5250 is that it uses two Cortex A15 processors clocked at 2GHz. With this kind of firepower, it can easily handle a 2560x1600 resolution display. In terms of graphics performance, it’s supposedly some four times more powerful than Cortex A9. The chip could end up in a high-definition TV and a media player device amongst others.

Here are some of the specs for the Exynos 5 Dual:

• Dual-core 1.7 Ghz Cortex A15 CPU
• Mali T604 GPU
• OpenGL ES 3.0
• OpenCL 1.1 full profile
• Support for WXQGA displays
• Wi-Fi display support
• 12.8 GB/s memory bandwidth with 2 port 800 Mhz LPDDR3 RAM support
• 1080p 60 FPS video performance and VP8 codec decoder
• USB 3.0 support

To display the insane resolution of 2560x1600, which is double the resolution in standard Android tablets, you need a high memory bandwidth alongside a powerful GPU to send all the high resolution data to the screen. The Exynos 5 Dual seems perfectly capable of delivering that power with its support for 12.8 GB/s memory bandwidth and a two port 800 MHz LPDDR3 RAM.