Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10.1” to Feature a Higher Clocked Quad Core CPU

It seems that Korean giant Samsung was not quite satisfied with the performance of Android Ice Cream Sandwich on the big screen 10.1” Galaxy Note tablet when using a dual-core Cortex A9 ARM processor. So they reportedly decided to wait until the quad-core ARM CPU becomes available.

Samsung’s Exynos 4412 quad-core processor was a bit late as the company needed more than one tapeout to achieve the desired level of performance.

Initial performance levels were close to the dual-core Cortex A15 based SnapDragon S4 from Qualcomm. The S4 has a 1.5 GHz frequency and scores 37 points in Rightwave’s Powerboard. Recent reports revealed that the new Galaxy  Note 10.1 has a score of about 60 points, although the SGS III scores just 37.

We know that generally ARM Cortex processors scale really well when it comes to multicore performance and that the Cortex A15 generation is a perfect 100% faster than the Cortex A9.

60 is a 62% increase over 37 so, if two A9 cores equal one A15 core, the Exynos 4412 processor should be working at around 2400 MHz frequency, but the testing is also GPU-dependent, so such a high CPU frequency is just a possibility.

This may not be the case here as the score compiles the GPU performance into the results, but we certainly believe the frequency of the quad core Exynos 4412 inside the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1” tablet will likely be higher than the SGS III version.

Samsung’s SGS III powered by the quad-core Exynos 4412 has a very good battery life, considering the fact that the screen is considerably bigger when compared with the SGS II and the fact that the CPU is much more complex than the one used in previous Samsung Galaxy phones.

This low power consumption and current leakage in the Samsung Galaxy S3 could as well represent a much higher running frequency in a tablet device such as the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1” tablet.

The easiest way to compare the results is by looking at the 60 score obtained by the Exynos 4412 in the Galaxy Tab 10.1” and the 37 score achieved by the SGS III with the same Exynos 4412 ARM CPU.

There is a great difference that leads us to believe that it is likely that the tablet version of the Exynos CPU will run at frequencies higher than 1.5 Ghz.

A frequency of around 2 GHz is more likely.