Some of the most advanced mobile devices on the market today are built around cores based on ARM's Cortex A8 architecture, including a couple you may be familiar with: the
Palm Pre and the
iPhone 3GS. The 3GS, for example, runs a Samsung S5PC100 system-on-chip clipping along at a healthy 600MHz, enough to make it noticeably snappier than the 3G it replaces -- but time marches relentlessly forward, as always, and that S5PC100 is suddenly starting to look a little long in the tooth with today's news. Sammy has partnered up with silicon design firm Intrinsity to develop what it's billing as the world's fastest Cortex A8 core, a 1GHz unit codenamed "Hummingbird" that's based on 45nm manufacturing techniques and can deliver peak performance at a single volt with power consumption characteristics favorable for mobile use. Translation: this thing should be nipping at the heels of
Snapdragon once Samsung finishes up work turning this core into a system-on-chip that can be sourced by manufacturers, and it should do so without causing batteries to beg for mercy. Unfortunately, there's no word just yet on exactly when we'll see phones running this setup in the market, so Pre, 3GS, you're safe for now -- but the clock's ticking.
posted Jul 27th 2009 7:53AM
Wow, exciting stuff, I can't wait to see this in pretty much any device! Even with the higher clock, I wonder if the smaller architecture might help battery life...
It's about time! This is truly the one thing i despise about modern smartphones like my Touch Pro... the software ALWAYS outranks the hardware. Even cooked ROMs can't really get around the fact that the devices are underpowered. The new HTC Hero is a perfect example - they keep upping the requirements of the operating systems without initiating a redesign of the underlying hardware.
Snapdragon > this thing.
1gHz - your email never loaded THAT fast!
Tegra FTW!!! Its not about ghz, its about ability to use it.
@Shinigami.... says the guy with the small GHz!
I'dont know about Snapdragon, but the NEWS in this is that Apple uses Samsung parts and even Samsung CPUs. So iPhone=Samsung, which is little worrisome to me.
Why would that worry you?
So how slow is the original iPhone if the faster version runs at 600Mhz ?
The Samsung Jet runs at 800Mhz even the G1 runs at 528Mhz.
Bring on the 1Ghz phones !
400Mhz i believe.
You really can't compare phone performance using clock speed, the Dell Axim X51v ran at 624 MHz for example, and that was 4 years ago
This article does a good job of explaining the difference between the two most common smartphone chips at the moment (ARM11 and Cortex A8)
http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3595
Also these things are never run at their top speed becuase they are least efficient at that point. You can run most ARMs anywhere from 0Hz to their maximum and mostly they;re running just fast enough to get the job at hand done. So the phone designers have more of a say on how snappy the interface is than the clock speed. It's an illusion.
The 3GS may well be clocked down to 600MHz, but default speed of 633MHz and its flat-out peak is 833MHz, one of which could be released by a firmware upgrade in the future, who knows?
And that's without considering the boost the graphics co-processor gives it to render games not yet coded even faster still...
The iPhone 3GS may run at 600MHz, but the CPU is capable of running at 833MHz. It's just been underclocked for performance.
at least HTC needs the speed since they load a lot of stuff and 528mhz doesn't cut it or is ram???
First of all, the OMAP36xx series has a 1000mhz Cortex-A8, so I don't know where Samsung gets off saying they have the most powerful one.
As to the different chips, The Cortex-A8 (ARMv7 instruction set) as seen in the iPhone 3GS, Palm Pre, TI OMAP3 series, etc is capable of about TWICE the performance of an ARM11 (ARMv6 instruction set) at the same clock speed. So the 500-600Mhz cores used in the G1/G2 and most HTC phones have about half the raw performance as a OMAP3/3GS/Pre. Additionally, the Cortex-A8 has a powerful SIMD engine called "NEON" that the ARM11 lacks.
Qualcomm's Snapdragon is a custom ARMv7 compatible core that is akin to a turbocharged Cortex-A8, with beefed up SIMD engine and lower power usage. This core scales up to 1.0Ghz in current Snapdragon implementations, with a 1.3Ghz 45nm unit coming soon.
What's with the excitement for this thing? Incremental bumps in processing power, WOWEE.
Well, it's exciting because it's a significant bump, and it shrank, which should improve battery life in the devices that use it (or, won't make the battery life worse, which would be the case if they made a 1ghz version of the larger size). It's also good to hear about these things ecause the more common they become, the more devices are likely to utilize them, which is a big bonus IMO. These smart phones are crap if they don't run smoothly at this point. The Hero review let me down because Topolosky (sp?) said that it falls victim to what I hate: a great phone, a great OS, a great interface, and sluggish performance.
With improvements like these, we are more likely to have a speedier, snappier, more enjoyable revision 2 of the Hero.
WOWEE...
thats not a word...you're slipping sir.
@Levi
So, in other words the processor is faster and smaller now. Exactly what has been happening to processors for decades now. And it does not even have a release window. ::parties::
Well, the key is battery life. I think the 3GS/Palm Pre are fast enough really, I don't think anyone using those ever thinks, god this is truly unbearable from a speed perspective. Faster processors that decrease energy use matter more than just faster mobile processors, which is why this is great news. I really hope that this paired with advances in Li-ion batteries leads to smartphone devices that can last a few days on a charge. 3-4 days is probably a good goal, since this would cover a weekend for most people. It's just one last thing I'd rather not worry about (plugging in the phone that is). It's odd to think that in a few years we'll likely complain only about software optimization rather than hardware at all when it comes to smartphones, because even free ones will likely be powerful enough to run pretty high end software.
Hahahaha... erm, what?
Just happy that the proper form of your/you're was used here. Bravo, evil Nick.
Hahahhahahhahahahahha
you rule
hmm i thought smaller the manufacturing process meant hotter it is...
are you sure you aren't going to get a bad burn with this guy? I can't see this small chip in an iphone without some good heat sinking on Apple's part...
always heat, power consumption, speed.
can't forget any of one..
Most of the time smaller manufacturing means less power usage which means less heat. So your thinking is quite backwards
Smaller manufacturing process = Cooler running
smaller technology nodes have higher leakage. So you could see an increase in idle power. Maybe that's what you were thinking. With smart power management, that's usually not a problem. Dynamic power is reduced, since voltages are lower.
hehe i guess just got owned so badly.
I was thinking of leakage current.
I thought leakage current and heat dissipation are in linear relationship. In that case, wouldn't overall heat dissipation per meter squared go up since die size won't change drastically even using smaller process?
(please correct me if i am wrong.)
"smaller technology nodes have higher leakage. So you could see an increase in idle power. Maybe that's what you were thinking. With smart power management, that's usually not a problem. Dynamic power is reduced, since voltages are lower."
The smart Power management is. hmmm forgot what it's called, the one that reduces clockspeed on idle?
lol this is getting too nerdy
Intel should make their processors smallerand cooler. I'm busy cooking with their Centrino Duo in laptop on my chest and forced to run it at a medium power setting so it doesn't shut the laptop off.
I agree with nick. More time should be spent on battery technology rather than anything else right now.
From seeing the hands on, it's going to be all about Tegra next year, especially if the battery life is as good as they say. From a speed POV it's going to run circles around ARM and Snapdragon.
Actually the Tegra CPU is slower than the A8. What Nvidia has the advantage in is the video section of it, which is great for video and gaming.
As for me, I'll take the faster CPU which benefits what my phone is actually for (email, web, etc.) over the faster GPU any day.
I'd rather see a dual core 600 MHz chip being used with full multitasking abilities and more efficient code / architecture.
Can't say I'm upset with the performance of my 3GS. I had the wonder of trying to set up someone else's regular 3G last week for Wifi, and holy crap is that thing stutter-happy and laggy as hell when navigating menus and typing things in.
Yeah, the speed of my 1st gen iPhone has been bugging me for a while now, so the news that the 3GS has increased the speeds drastically has made my just as happy as if they had replaced the screen with a higher resolution AMOLED like I was hoping for. After 3.0, it's so bad that I'll start typing something, and istead of it catching up after a moment, it won't even register the first few key presses. It's annoying as hell.
I still haven't upgraded though, because I'm cheap, and I'm tryin to decide what to do with my money first: 3GS or 360. It's like, I already have an iPhone, and I already have a PS3 and nice laptop... What would I get more use out of...
at last !! we could all use our phones to finally do what we always wanted to do : run youtube videos through a flash plug-in in a web browser :-p
Dude, that's what I was thinking. This whole time beforethe HTC Hero came out, it was getting hyped as the first phone with out-of-the-box Flash support, and I was thinking, I bet it will be underpowered and run like crap. Granted, Flash is a resource hog, but I was right, unfortunately. They really should have waited it out for this chip, then maybe the Flash player would have been useful and awesome.
At this point, I'm just waiting for the 3 GaSpeedSpecial to be announced in three or four months with excellent new features like "select all" and "cut and paste" that have never been seen before.
i wonder what the next ipod touch will use
How is it the fastest if Snapdragon is around...
thats why I didn't upgrade to 3GS, which was released all a ploy to steal thunder from the Pre. Waiting for the real 3rd generation iPhone... only to hear this kind of news again after 2 months, sadly.
thats computers................... this is every year.
Yeah dude.. It shouldn't take more than 6 months for a piece of tech that you bought to be trumped by something else. If you wait for the next best thing, you will be waiting forever. I'll probably upgrade to the 3GS even though I have an inclination to see the next one first, and that is why.
Processor speed and power consumption are usually tightly coupled. You don't want to bump up the CPU if the battery technology is lagging. And the current Cortex A8 and corresponding graphic chip seem like a good baseline for mobile devices. Otherwise, you might as well wait till the A9; it's multi-core. I predict this is when Apple will unleash their version of mobile multi-tasking.
ARM did demonstrate the multi-core Cortex A9 at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress early this year, so expect even better performance when that arrives.
The emphasis there is not so much on out-and-out MHz speed but, as @Red says, on multi-tasking abilities and more efficient architecture like pipelining and lower idle power consumption.
As many posters here realise, battery life is the ace in the pack, and its advancing technology holds the key to the evolution of ultra-mobile devices.
Snappy chip with a snappy name.
Hummingbird sounds much faster than for (random example) instance the DX11 ATI line-up which is named after trees and bushes, trees of all things, moving along like a.. tree
Low-end "Hemlock“ Mid-Range "Cedar“ and "Redwood“, High performance "Juniper“ and "Cypress“, that just doesn't convey speed nor excitement (nor the adrenaline you have rushing as you try to get their damn drivers working).
Oh, snap, my dragon!
This is probably not the fastest processor and is even very late compared to what ti and qualcomm have to offer. Snapdragon is based off cortex A8 and is already available :).
TI already has announced processors with A9 cores, which are better than A8 and support SMP , basically allowing multiple cores :) and that too on 45nm. Same is true for Qualcomm .
http://focus.ti.com/general/docs/wtbu/wtbuproductcontent.tsp?templateId=6123&navigationId=12843&contentId=53243
Samsung is just playing catch up for now it seems. :)
The Cortex-A8 chips are made with two different manufacturing processes. One provides a recommended speed of ~600MHz, the other provides recommended speeds of 1GHz+. The process used for the Pre, iPhone 3GS and the Pandora (remember the Pandora?) all use this process, AFAICT. This doesn't mean it's underpowered - tests on the Pandora hardware show overclocking (without changing the voltage from the default) of up to 950MHz stable on some units - all (or almost all) have reached 900MHz stable overclock. So really, hitting 1GHz is not terribly impressive - ARM's just finally putting out some chips that use the faster-clocked manufacturing process.
It is the software, stupid! :) And the App Store rules!
I can't imagine 2 years from now when they hit the 2ghz barrier. WOW.