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collin,why would you care as regards ZTE the initial customer, unless your in ...
collin
MediaTek reportedly has eight-core apps processor
Peter Clarke
11/27/2012 6:34 AM EST
LONDON – MediaTek is developing an ARM-based eight-cored processor for use in a smartphone by Chinese telecommunications equipment and network provider ZTE, according to reports in Taiwan.
The MT6599 is based on the ARM architecture and will be manufactured using 28-nm processing by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. according to a China Times report.
The ZTE Apache phone will support both 3G – WCDMA and TD-SCDMA – and 4G LTE communications.
MediaTek has beaten of competition from Qualcomm and Nvidia to get the design win with ZTE and is expected to send samples to customers in May 2013, the report said.
Related links and articles:
China Times story
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Yoshida in China: How Nokia failed, MediaTek won
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eewiz
11/27/2012 8:23 AM EST
Wow! I like competition :). Though I don't know what to do with 8 cores!
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
11/28/2012 5:58 AM EST
"Though I don't know what to do with 8 cores!"
its seems simple enough :)
given this is eetimes, get your soldering iron out and make a new 8 core http://trimslice.com/web/ type device PCB for 2013 and sell it as a real and viable low power desktop unit as http://blogs.arm.com/smart-connected-devices/858-galaxy-note-ii-great-innovation-and-the-marmite-of-smartphones/ makes reference to "this Gigaom article and video on using the Galaxy Note II as a desktop computer" there as one use for this/other 8core cortex SOC in 2013
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GREAT-Terry
11/27/2012 10:37 AM EST
Is there any diminishing return on performance vs. power when we continuously add more core to the processor? Frankly, I don't know if a quad-core is really twice better work than a dual-core so I just this may be a bit crazy to consume even more and more power to get a little gain on (computation) performance. I wonder if this is just a gimmick than a real performance improvement. However, with the poor battery life of the new smart phone, I prefer to have some more breakthrough on burning less power!
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TanjB
11/27/2012 5:23 PM EST
The theory actually works the other way. Power scales as square of freq, so if you double the cores you can in theory half the frequency and end up with half the (total) power.
Now, all you need to do is to figure out how to write the software. But with each core just a few sq mm of Si, why not just make them and see if anyone can solve how to use them? And when nothing is running that needs them, just shut down the idle cores.
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StefanHennig
11/28/2012 3:20 PM EST
This is quite sensible. I have seen quadcores underperform drastically as thermal throtteling sets in.
I simply assume that an octocore with 800 MHz will not sell as well as a quadcore with 1.5 GHz.
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
11/28/2012 6:34 AM EST
arm cortex will get something like 80% performance per core added just like x86.
but OC they also have the CoreLink Cache Coherent Interconnect to help them out too so more spare cycles use use http://infocenter.arm.com/help/index.jsp?topic=/com.arm.doc.ddi0470b/index.html
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jantangring
11/27/2012 11:42 AM EST
The best guess on what this is, is a 4 x A7 + 4 x A15 Big Little processor, right?
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Kresearch
11/27/2012 4:46 PM EST
I bet it would be 4 ARM A15 and 4 Mali graphic cores. All from ARM. Ha! Ha!
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Oscar Law
11/27/2012 12:30 PM EST
Quad processor can handle most of computation already, the next challenge should be targeted for GPU capability as well as the memory bandwidth.
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
11/28/2012 8:23 AM EST
if your talking "appliance" then sure there may be enough computation/throughput there...
but this inaccurate MEME is usually put forward by mom & pop's mobile phone kids that don't read and understand how advancing spec's make their mobile and low power general purpose PC devices better, without multi core theres nowhere to go.
"the next challenge should be targeted for GPU capability as well as the memory bandwidth"
thats already covered Today as ARM inc have a real "AMBA4" Open Specifications http://www.arm.com/products/system-ip/interconnect/corelink-ccn-504-cache-coherent-network.php 1 Terabit/s bus and matching CoreLink DMC-520 Dynamic Memory Controller block's already being tested in the worlds foundries http://www.arm.com/images/CoreLink_CCN-504_system_large.png
and the memory bandwidth covered with wide I/O 2 although delayed 2 years on mass uptake while Jedec insert a slower DDR3e in its place for 2013, so everything's fine on the ARM Cortes front for some time yet if the OEM's don't slow their new products scheduled down.
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sprite0022
11/27/2012 7:39 PM EST
just like americans are wasting automobile engine power, the chinese love to waste some cpu power as well.
quad core is selling fairly well nowadays, 8-core is a good direction for follow up.
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sranje
11/28/2012 1:59 AM EST
Or is it four compute cores and four graphics cores?
Peter has likely fell for Taiwanese trade media core counting...
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
11/28/2012 7:22 AM EST
sranje, i wouldn't be so sure Peter fell for anything, and its not the "Taiwanese trade media core counting..." as such, thats apples PR core initiative when implied reference to their products.
its hard to guess at this point given no real information here, but based on MediaTek's past performance and sticking to the norm (I.e a quad means 4x cores and 4 gfx) then ill start at the assumed "Big Little processor" 8x cortex A15 + 8 A7+ 8x PowerVR of some kind, (not the Mali T604 and newer) at their usual lower 1GHz freq.
OC if it as Big Little based as per mobile and not desktop/server (although they could also be looking at that new market for the longer term) then they could loose 2 or even 4 A7 there and just not count the lower cores at all in this Hex core, time will tell although hoping for the real 8core/Hex A15+ Hex NEON SIMD versions.
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
11/28/2012 5:39 PM EST
at all in this Hex core =at all in this octo core
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panzerboy
11/28/2012 5:52 PM EST
ARM calls it big.LITTLE, the marketing droids get their hands on it and turn it into 8 Cores!
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help.fulguy
11/28/2012 7:19 PM EST
It will come with a fan.
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
11/29/2012 5:14 AM EST
based on Samsung's 1.6GHz freq Exynos Quad Odroid-x development board test's when it was pure ffmpeg software decoding 1080P video at full rate didn't need a fan only a passive sink.
then this MediaTek Octo core at their usual lower 1GHz freq would be even better at cooling, remember ARM cortex have more power states as standard to cycle through as standard.
although adding a low profile passive heat-sink cant hurt if your doing to do a lot of 2K software decode type processing there.
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collin
11/29/2012 9:02 AM EST
I do not care if the processor with eight-core or sigle-core.
I want to know which embedded operating system ZTE will use. Android?
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kjdsfkjdshfkdshfvc
11/29/2012 1:02 PM EST
collin,why would you care as regards ZTE the initial customer, unless your in the assumed home markets where the devices using this MediaTek providers multi core SOC.
although it probably will be the Linux derived Android as usual,the internal Asia markets do like their Android, and you can load up any OS thats ported to it in the case of most current MediaTek SOC, so assume the same there when this 8core arrives on mass
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