Samsung shrinks Exynos dual-core processor

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has announced an addition to its Exynos family of application processors for smartphones at mobile-oriented Samsung exhibition held at the Westin hotel in Taipei, Taiwan.

The Exynos 4212 is a dual core Cortex-A9 application processor, designed on Samsung's 32-nm high-k metal gate (HKMG) manufacturing process technology.

The previous top of the Exynos range was the Exynos 4210, a dual-core Cortex-A9 CPU with Mali-400 graphics capable of running at up to 1.2-GHz clock frequency and implemented in a 45-nm low power process technology. This is the processor used in the Galaxy S2 smartphones.

Samsung did not make clear how the 4212 differs from the 4210 functionally But the 4212 has been implemented in a 32-nm low-power HKMG logic process technology. The 32-nm HKMG process node offers double the logic density and a 30 percent lower power-level over the previous process generation, Samsung said. This should equate to 30 percent less power consumption at half the price.

The chip is also claimed to have a 25 percent increase in processing power and an enhanced graphics processing unit (GPU) that is capable of delivering 50 percent higher 3-D graphics performance over the previous processor generation from Samsung.

Samsung did not indicate whether this is achieved by improving data flow, increasing the clock or swapping out the Mali-400 graphics unit for another GPU from ARM or another graphics IP licensor.

A reasonable first assumption is that the 4212 is based on Mali-400 graphics. Samsung's new Exynos 4212 application processor will sample to favored customers in 4Q11. Others will have to wait.

Samsung made a number of other announcements at its mobile exhibition including a 16-Mpixel CMOS image sensor, a 64-Gbyte memory module, a 30-nm 4-Gbit low-power DRAM.


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