What makes nexus 10 cpu better than a quad core?

[Phonejock]

That pretty much sums it up. I not in the know on processor comparisons but why is a dual core processor giving better results than most of the quad core processors on the market right now.

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[Caldera]

The cpu in the Nexus 10 is based on the newer Arm a15 architecture, compared to the older a9 cores used by previous generations of tablets (Tegra 2/3, Exynos 4x, Omap 4, etc). In addition to using the new a15 design, the Nexus 10 cpu is also clocked higher than many existing tablets; e.g. the Nexus 7 uses a Tegra 3 chip running at 1.3Ghz, compared to the 1.7Ghz Exynos 5 in the Nexus 10.

So the Nexus 10 has fewer but faster cores, and performs better in all but the most heavily threaded applications.

 

[Dan Strong]

The cpu in the Nexus 10 is based on the newer Arm a15 architecture, compared to the older a9 cores used by previous generations of tablets (Tegra 2/3, Exynos 4x, Omap 4, etc). In addition to using the new a15 design, the Nexus 10 cpu is also clocked higher than many existing tablets; e.g. the Nexus 7 uses a Tegra 3 chip running at 1.3Ghz, compared to the 1.7Ghz Exynos 5 in the Nexus 10.

So the Nexus 10 has fewer but faster cores, and performs better in all but the most heavily threaded applications.

This. The same thing that makes Intel quad cores faster than AMD octo-cores.

 

[AndroidS3]

I think that if the galaxy s3 quad core a9 was clocked at 1.7ghz I think it would out perform the a15, however it would kill battery life and decrease the life of the processor

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[crxssi]

That pretty much sums it up. I not in the know on processor comparisons but why is a dual core processor giving better results than most of the quad core processors on the market right now.

Why are two Ferraris better than four Honda Civics? If you can grasp that, you can understand.

 

[samagon]

Why are two Ferraris better than four Honda Civics? If you can grasp that, you can understand.

are we talking about maintenance costs? ease of getting the groceries home? maybe gas mileage?

 

[mavrrick]

In the CPU world it is call this really refers to "Instructions Per clock Cycle". This is exactly why the the AMD cpu's were faster then then the Intel Cpu's for a time (AMD athlon, and 64 compared to the Pentium 4). There were occasions when the Pentium could outperform the AMD cpus though. It largely had to do with how well the apps used multiple cpu's

On a phone or tablet we also have the new core from ARM. To some extent the new core/Instruction set also improve things. All of the analogies above can apply in some form or fasion.

Okay so with all that,what occasions would having more cores may be better. Simply put, only if the combined continuous work of all 4 is greater then that of the 2 of the newer generation, and your apps are written to take advantage of all the cores. Even that is a stretch because the newer cpu will complete the exact same work faster as long as the cpu's aren't fully utilized. It should also be noted that the advantage of a quad core is about the amount of work, and actually not about how fast things get completed.

The A-15 will always complete single tasks faster. So to further expand on what someone said earlier.

You have 4 of some car with a 4 cyclender engine with 15ft of storage (old cpu)
and You have 2 of some car with a v6 engine and with 25ft of storage (new cpu)

That is probably a better comparison though probably not perfectly accurate. This isn't a new question. I had to explain this so many times when talking about the difference between AMD and Intel, and it still occurs often.

 

[mavrrick]

I would suggest looking around at some benchmarks. I think i saw somewhere that they talked about efficiency on a per cpu basis. That will probably visually explain it better.

 

[crxssi]

are we talking about maintenance costs? ease of getting the groceries home? maybe gas mileage?

No, we were talking about PERFORMANCE. See original post.

 

[Sean Vincent]

Hope he Isn't a Ford guy, otherwise I don't think this will make any sense

 

[Small_law]

Most of the higher-end smart phones out there have been using ARM Cortex A9 cores for about two years now. As I understand it, regardless of the brand of processor (Snapdragon, OMAP,etc.), the actual cores have been A9's. This is not to be confused with Apple's intentionally misleading naming convention for the processors in its devices. Note that Apple's "A6" processor actually uses modified dual A9 cores.

The A15 cores in the Nexus 10 are the next generation of ARM Cortex cores that give a massive boost to things like memory throughput. It's a generational leap ahead.

 

[anon62607]

Most of the higher-end smart phones out there have been using ARM Cortex A9 cores for about two years now. As I understand it, regardless of the brand of processor (Snapdragon, OMAP,etc.), the actual cores have been A9's. This is not to be confused with Apple's intentionally misleading naming convention for the processors in its devices. Note that Apple's "A6" processor actually uses modified dual A9 cores.

The A15 cores in the Nexus 10 are the next generation of ARM Cortex cores that give a massive boost to things like memory throughput. It's a generational leap ahead.

Snapdragon cores are not derivatives of cortex designs and were designed in house by Qualcomm. Scorpion is comparable to A9 but doesn't use the A9 core, and Krait is comparable to A15 but isn't a derivative of it. Apple A5 used cortex A9 cores but apple A6 uses a modified A15 or their own from scratch design (which one isn't clear).

I believe OMAP, Tegra and Exynos do use cortex cores, unmodified.

 

[anon62607]

Most of the higher-end smart phones out there have been using ARM Cortex A9 cores for about two years now. As I understand it, regardless of the brand of processor (Snapdragon, OMAP,etc.), the actual cores have been A9's. This is not to be confused with Apple's intentionally misleading naming convention for the processors in its devices. Note that Apple's "A6" processor actually uses modified dual A9 cores.

The A15 cores in the Nexus 10 are the next generation of ARM Cortex cores that give a massive boost to things like memory throughput. It's a generational leap ahead.

Anandtech has some commentary on the A6. http://www.anandtech.com/show/6292/iphone-5-a6-not-a15-custom-core

 

[anon(847090)]

That pretty much sums it up. I not in the know on processor comparisons but why is a dual core processor giving better results than most of the quad core processors on the market right now.

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simple answer is Architecture.

want more details read this http://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-exynos-5-dual-specs-features-106609/

More to read
ARM Cortex-A15 explained: Intel’s Atom is down, but not out | ExtremeTech
Benchmark: CPU Samsung Exynos 5 Dual powerful than Tegra 3 chip and a few Intel Atom - Coupon Codes
AnandTech - Samsung Chromebook (XE303) Review: Testing ARM's Cortex A15
Samsung's Exynos ARM Chip: Google's Android tablet Messiah | ZDNet

 

[anon(847090)]

are we talking about maintenance costs? ease of getting the groceries home? maybe gas mileage?

None. we are talking about the speed and the design here.

maintenance costs/ ease of getting the groceries home are the same for both the processors. if not better.

about mileage in terms of processor. they consume less power.

 

[socialcarpet]

Snapdragon cores are not derivatives of cortex designs and were designed in house by Qualcomm. Scorpion is comparable to A9 but doesn't use the A9 core, and Krait is comparable to A15 but isn't a derivative of it. Apple A5 used cortex A9 cores but apple A6 uses a modified A15 or their own from scratch design (which one isn't clear).

I believe OMAP, Tegra and Exynos do use cortex cores, unmodified.

Wait.. My Lumia 920 has a dual core Krait, so if that's comparable to an A15, then that's pretty excellent I suppose (?)

So the Krait/Snapdragon on my Lumia is a generation ahead of the Cortex A9/Tegra 3 on my Nexus 7?

 

[anon62607]

Wait.. My Lumia 920 has a dual core Krait, so if that's comparable to an A15, then that's pretty excellent I suppose (?)

So the Krait/Snapdragon on my Lumia is a generation ahead of the Cortex A9/Tegra 3 on my Nexus 7?

From the point of view of the CPU, yes. I think the GPU on the Tegra 3 is still considerably superior.

Krait is a fully out of order, triple decode, symmetric reservation station system core. If I remember features correctly, it's somewhat advanced compared to A15 and far advanced to A9.

 

[crxssi]

From the point of view of the CPU, yes. I think the GPU on the Tegra 3 is still considerably superior.

Krait is a fully out of order, triple decode, symmetric reservation station system core. If I remember features correctly, it's somewhat advanced compared to A15 and far advanced to A9.

Correct you are. And the Evo LTE also uses the dual core Krait (S4). It is considerably faster than the Tegra 3 (which is what is in the Nexus 7 and many other devices) in real-world CPU use. The Tegra 3 probably has some better graphics capabilities which helps to make up for it being behind, so you overall have similar performance profiles comparing the 2 core S4 to the 4+1 core Tegra 3... and I believe the S4 uses less power also...

 

[AndroidS3]

S4 - Built on 28nm, smaller processor but gives more power, newer architecture more power.
Quad A9 (Exynos) - built on 32nm, older than A15 and S4 so not as powerful.
Dual A15/Quad A15 - Built on 28nm, but is more powerful than the Dual and Quad S4 and the A9

Dual core S4 = Newer than Cortex A9 but less powerful than the Quad A9.
Quad core S4 = in some ways more powerful than Quad A9 but sometimes its about the same. (From benchmarks)

Quad A9 - Less powerful than S4 and A15, not alot less than S4
Dual A15/Quad - Most powerful chip on the market.

Tegra 3(Quad A9) - Built on 40nm, less powerful than all of these. But is optimized well to give alot of power.

Tegra 4 - Quad A15 built on 28nm, similar to the Exynos 5.

This is how powerful they are, ranging from most powerful to least...

1. Quad A15 (Exynos 5/Tegra 4)
2. Dual A15
3. Quad Snapdragon S4 Krait 1.5-1.7ghz
4. Quad Exynos 4412 A9 1.4-1.6ghz
5. Quad Tegra 3 A9 1.2-1.7ghz
6. Dual Core Snapdragon S4 Krait 1.5-1.7ghz.

 

[crxssi]

This is how powerful they are, ranging from most powerful to least...

In highly multithreaded benchmarks, yes. In real-world use, no. In typical real-world use, rarely is more than one core worth of processing used... three or four core use is extremely rare. And in such typical use situations, the more powerful the single core is, the better, and that will change the order of what you listed (for example, the dual core S4 will easily jump to at least 4th place in your list).