Tell me about processors

[toiletducky]

I keep reading reviews and overall realize I'm confused when it comes to processors. Several companies out there, Qualcomm, apple, Texas inst, nvidia, and Samsung with their own processors but then you hear it is an ARMxxx proc. Can someone clarify it a littlebit? Who makes what and what makes them different?


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[Tina39]

I too would like to know a little bit more too. I hope someone is able to provide the info for us.

 

[outlooker]

When it comes to processing speed, there are mainly two things which matter, the processing speed and the number of cores. Speed is measured in GHz. These days most Androids have a 1.2GHz-1.7GHz as their speed, which is pretty good for a phone. However the number or cores is extremely important. The number or cores is literally the number of processors, so if your Android has a dual core processor than it means there are two cores; and that means your phone's processor can do two things at the same time, at the given speed in GHz.
Also note that a dual core 1GHz processor does not mean that your processor is 1 multiplied by 2 = 2GHz. It just means that your 1GHz processor can process two things at the same time.
General meaning apart, the higher the better; though a faster processor does consume more battery.
A high end Android would have a 1.4 - 1.7 GHz quad core processor. Though dual core would also be just as acceptable. These phones can run almost ANYTHING that an Android is capable of without lag. And can also handle a considerable amount of multi tasking. But even these processors have their limits, if you have too much stuff running at the same time even that will lag.
A mid range smartphone would have a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, which is still fast. It can run pretty much everything a high end Android can, only with less multi tasking capabilities.
The brand doesn't really matter that much, qualcomm, samsung, whatever. When looking at the processor, just look at the speed (the GHz) and the number of cores, don't worry about the brand that much.

 

[return_0]

When it comes to processing speed, there are mainly two things which matter, the processing speed and the number of cores. Speed is measured in GHz. These days most Androids have a 1.2GHz-1.7GHz as their speed, which is pretty good for a phone. However the number or cores is extremely important. The number or cores is literally the number of processors, so if your Android has a dual core processor than it means there are two cores; and that means your phone's processor can do two things at the same time, at the given speed in GHz.
Also note that a dual core 1GHz processor does not mean that your processor is 1 multiplied by 2 = 2GHz. It just means that your 1GHz processor can process two things at the same time.
General meaning apart, the higher the better; though a faster processor does consume more battery.
A high end Android would have a 1.4 - 1.7 GHz quad core processor. Though dual core would also be just as acceptable. These phones can run almost ANYTHING that an Android is capable of without lag. And can also handle a considerable amount of multi tasking. But even these processors have their limits, if you have too much stuff running at the same time even that will lag.
A mid range smartphone would have a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, which is still fast. It can run pretty much everything a high end Android can, only with less multi tasking capabilities.
The brand doesn't really matter that much, qualcomm, samsung, whatever. When looking at the processor, just look at the speed (the GHz) and the number of cores, don't worry about the brand that much.

I don't think it's really that simple. It depends also depends on the architecture of the processor, and other things that I have no knowledge of because? I don't make processors.

 

[manaflux]

The benchmark stats are derived from the finished product. The above poster is correct.

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[outlooker]

I don't think it's really that simple. It depends also depends on the architecture of the processor, and other things that I have no knowledge of because? I don't make processors.

What exactly do you mean by the "architecture" of the processor? Besides number of cores, the basic speed, and battery consumption what else would there be to a processor when it comes to phones?

 

[zkSharks]

What exactly do you mean by the "architecture" of the processor? Besides number of cores, the basic speed, and battery consumption what else would there be to a processor when it comes to phones?

What are we talking about here? The barebones processor, or the primary processing unit, such as the Tegra 3 SoC (System-on-a-Chip)? The latter is usually what people are concerned with when comparing and evaluating smartphones and tablets. In that case, return_0 is correct. There are other features such as dynamic scaling, DRM decoding, native hardware audio/video decoding, and dynamic scaling that can be built into the primary processing chip. Here's an except from the Tegra 3 launch press release:

The Tegra 3 processor implements a new, patent-pending technology known as Variable
Symmetric Multiprocessing (vSMP). vSMP includes a fifth CPU ?companion?, specifically
designed for work requiring little power. The four main cores are specifically designed for
work requiring high performance, and generally consume less power than dual-core
processors.

During tasks that require less power consumption ? like listening to music, playing back
video or updating background data ? the Tegra 3 processor completely shuts down its four
performance-tuned cores and, instead, uses its companion core. For high-performance tasks
? like web browsing, multitasking and gaming ? the Tegra 3 processor disables the
companion.

The distinction here is that it's the processor (rather, the SoC) which intelligently scales and distributes the workload as appropriate to ensure a relatively seamless user experience while maintaining optimal power draw. The Tegra 3's actual CPU is a quad-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore CPU. The fifth 'companion core' is also a Cortex-A9, but a different manufacturing process is used to allow for highly-efficient performance with minimal power usage.

 

[anon5664829]

What exactly do you mean by the "architecture" of the processor? Besides number of cores, the basic speed, and battery consumption what else would there be to a processor when it comes to phones?

There is also new tech like ARM's big.LITTLE technology, I would like to point out processor speed and amount of cores means absolutely nothing if e software is not optimized for the hard ware, it's not as simple as looking at clock speed and number of cores because the iPhone 5 is just as fast as my Nexus 4 but it has a dual core 1.3GHz processor.

 

[johnbowick]

How does the lowest processor speed G5 compare w/ the fastest (2.5 i think) G5? And how does the Fastest G4 compare with the slowest G5?

What is a G5? I think it means 5 gigaflops, 5 billion operations per second? or am I way off? And what does it mean when you have a processor running at 1.6ghz or 2.5ghz, yet still 5gigaflops?

And how do Apple chips differ from Intel or AMD chips, I always hear the apple chips do graphics very well because they can process large amounts of data at one time, do intel or AMD chips process small amounts of data very quickly or what?

I obviously don't know very much about this, and I think it would be helpful to know more about when I get around to buying a new computer one day. Seems that processor clock speed doesn't mean that much anymore, so there are these mysterious other factors that come into play that I don't know about. Maybe there are some hardware know-it-all's here or you have a link or two? thanks!

 

[sting7k]

How does the lowest processor speed G5 compare w/ the fastest (2.5 i think) G5? And how does the Fastest G4 compare with the slowest G5?

What is a G5? I think it means 5 gigaflops, 5 billion operations per second? or am I way off? And what does it mean when you have a processor running at 1.6ghz or 2.5ghz, yet still 5gigaflops?

And how do Apple chips differ from Intel or AMD chips, I always hear the apple chips do graphics very well because they can process large amounts of data at one time, do intel or AMD chips process small amounts of data very quickly or what?

I obviously don't know very much about this, and I think it would be helpful to know more about when I get around to buying a new computer one day. Seems that processor clock speed doesn't mean that much anymore, so there are these mysterious other factors that come into play that I don't know about. Maybe there are some hardware know-it-all's here or you have a link or two? thanks!

Not sure what you mean by "G5" or "G4" processors. Those don't mean anything. If you saw 5Ghz that means the processor can do 5 billion calculations a second.

Apple chips are not in anyway way related to Intel/AMD chips; x86/x64 architecture is not efficient enough for mobile devices. Apple's Macs use Intel chips. Apple's iOS devices use Apple designed ARM based system-on-chip design; Android chips are also ARM based.

When you buy your future PC don't get anything less than an Intel Core i5 if you want it to last.

 

[return_0]

I think a good example would be how the Nexus 10's dual-core processor outperforms the Nexus 7 's quad-core processor in many tasks.

 

[anon5664829]

I think a good example would be how the Nexus 10's dual-core processor outperforms the Nexus 7 's quad-core processor in many tasks.

Exactly cores aren't everything and it annoys me when false info is spread about clock speed and cores

 

[toiletducky]

When it comes to processing speed, there are mainly two things which matter, the processing speed and the number of cores. Speed is measured in GHz. These days most Androids have a 1.2GHz-1.7GHz as their speed, which is pretty good for a phone. However the number or cores is extremely important. The number or cores is literally the number of processors, so if your Android has a dual core processor than it means there are two cores; and that means your phone's processor can do two things at the same time, at the given speed in GHz.
Also note that a dual core 1GHz processor does not mean that your processor is 1 multiplied by 2 = 2GHz. It just means that your 1GHz processor can process two things at the same time.
General meaning apart, the higher the better; though a faster processor does consume more battery.
A high end Android would have a 1.4 - 1.7 GHz quad core processor. Though dual core would also be just as acceptable. These phones can run almost ANYTHING that an Android is capable of without lag. And can also handle a considerable amount of multi tasking. But even these processors have their limits, if you have too much stuff running at the same time even that will lag.
A mid range smartphone would have a 1.2 GHz dual core processor, which is still fast. It can run pretty much everything a high end Android can, only with less multi tasking capabilities.
The brand doesn't really matter that much, qualcomm, samsung, whatever. When looking at the processor, just look at the speed (the GHz) and the number of cores, don't worry about the brand that much.

Thank you for the well written response I know many will benefit from it but this wasn't really what I was getting at. Also just because something is faster does not mean it uses more power. My notebook today is much fater and uses much less power than one from ten years ago thanks to small dies.

I meant more in the structure of things. Qualcomm for instance is based on an arm chip? Same as nvidia or apple? So what happens these companies buy a pre-fabbed chip and add their own extras onto it or what?

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[toiletducky]

So again Samsung, for instance, buys arm chips then modifies them?

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