14 DAY TRIAL // In case the dual-core processors that were said not too long ago to be on their way to smartphones seemed like a great option, you might want to check again. Even more performance levels are promised for smartphone and tablet users via another chip, which would include three cores, while being clocked in at 1.5GHz.
We're referring here to the Marvell ARMADA 628, the world's first 1.5 GHz tri-core application processor, which was announced officially today.
The new silicon comes as a full System-on-a-Chip design (SoC) that sports three ARM-compliant CPU cores designed by Marvellm, and which the company touts as being the first commercially available heterogeneous, multi-core, applications processor in the world.
Some of the main features of the new product include 1 MB System Level 2 Cache, as well as 1080p dual stream 3D video applications (30 FPS, multi-format), and enhanced 3D graphics performance with quad unified shaders for 200 million triangles per second (MT/s).
Moreover, the chip is touted as featuring high performance, integrated image signal processor (ISP), and as having the capability to project images on multiple simultaneous displays.
The features list also includes:
- "Heterogeneous multiprocessing" with "hardware-based Cache Coherence" - Platform leading multimedia capabilities, including support for both WMMX2 and NEON acceleration; and a highly optimized pipelined VFPv3 floating point engine - Peripherals support: USB 3.0 Superspeed Client, MIPI CSI, MIPI DSI, HDMI with integrated PHY, UniPro, Slimbus, SPMI - 2 LCDs, 1 HDMI, 1 advanced EPD controller
Weili Dai, Marvell Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor's Consumer and Computing Business Unit also praised the features list of the new application processor from the company.
“This is important because today's consumers expect robust enterprise and consumer applications delivered to the palm of their hands. Marvell is uniquely equipped to lead this mobile revolution as the semiconductor industry's one-stop shop solution provider,” Weili Dai stated.
“This is an example of Marvell's unique ability to take a diverse cutting edge technology portfolio and integrate into differentiated solutions to give our customers game-changing advantage.”
In addition to the said three cores, the silicon comes with six additional processing engines that enhance support for 3D graphics, 1080p video encode/decode, ultra high fidelity audio, and more.
Further more, the ARMADA 628 is said to be the first mobile CPU to pack high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity, with enhanced performance levels when compared to the USB 2.0 solutions.
According to Marvell, the ARMADA 628 application processor is currently available for sampling for customers.