Samsung announced the Exynos 4 Quad today. I'm going to try to break down some of the features that make this SoC so impressive.
High-k Metal Gate technology - This is part of the reason for the die shrink to 32nm. The Exynos 4 Duo was built on a 45nm process. Using a smaller process improves power efficiency. What this technology does is allow the transistors to be smaller. The gate of a transistor is typically made of silicon dioxide. It's relatively cheap and easy to use. The problem is that as the transistors get smaller the gates leak, which increases power consumption and reduces reliability. There are a number of materials that perform better at these smaller sizes, and it's not clear which one Samsung is using specifically.
Hot-plug functionality - Allows each core to dynamically turn on and off as needed. If a core isn't being used, why should it be sucking power? This way they don't.
DVFS - Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling - A way to further improve battery life. It allows each core to independently respond to performance demands by adjusting voltage and clock speed on the fly as needed. So if you're doing something demanding the chip will run at full speed, but less demanding tasks will allow it to run slower while still maintaining good performance. You may also hear this referred to as aSMP, or asynchronous SMP, the term used by Qualcomm to describe the same functionality.
PMIC - Power Management Integrated Controller - Regulates power draw at the system level, giving even more control over power consumption. Not a whole lot of information is available about this.
It has full support for 1080p/30fps video recording as well as HDMI 1.4 output capability.
This post will be updated as more information is released.
High-k Metal Gate technology - This is part of the reason for the die shrink to 32nm. The Exynos 4 Duo was built on a 45nm process. Using a smaller process improves power efficiency. What this technology does is allow the transistors to be smaller. The gate of a transistor is typically made of silicon dioxide. It's relatively cheap and easy to use. The problem is that as the transistors get smaller the gates leak, which increases power consumption and reduces reliability. There are a number of materials that perform better at these smaller sizes, and it's not clear which one Samsung is using specifically.
Hot-plug functionality - Allows each core to dynamically turn on and off as needed. If a core isn't being used, why should it be sucking power? This way they don't.
DVFS - Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling - A way to further improve battery life. It allows each core to independently respond to performance demands by adjusting voltage and clock speed on the fly as needed. So if you're doing something demanding the chip will run at full speed, but less demanding tasks will allow it to run slower while still maintaining good performance. You may also hear this referred to as aSMP, or asynchronous SMP, the term used by Qualcomm to describe the same functionality.
PMIC - Power Management Integrated Controller - Regulates power draw at the system level, giving even more control over power consumption. Not a whole lot of information is available about this.
It has full support for 1080p/30fps video recording as well as HDMI 1.4 output capability.
This post will be updated as more information is released.
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