mali-450
Latest
Here's another 'PlayStation Phone' that Sony could have made
Sony may have given up on its Xperia Play, but Chinese gaming companies 78point and Much think there's still a demand for Android phones with built-in gaming buttons and joysticks. Funnily enough, both brands ended up sourcing their hardware from the same OEM, which is why 78point's P01 and Much's W1 are technically identical, with the exception of their Android 4.2 skins. This dual-SIM (WCDMA/GSM) device is essentially a typical Chinese mid-ranger, for it features a 5-inch 720p IPS display plus MediaTek's 1.7GHz octa-core MT6592 SoC (with 2GB of RAM and Mali-450 MP4 graphics). You also get 16GB of internal storage, microSD expansion of up to 64GB, 8MP/2MP cameras and a generous 3,000mAh battery.
MediaTek launches world's first true octa-core mobile chip, first devices due end of year
Qualcomm's nightmare has finally come true. Earlier today, MediaTek officially introduced the world's first true octa-core mobile processor, MT6592, and the first devices to feature it are expected to arrive as soon as end of year. This 28nm chip packs eight low-power Cortex-A7 cores, and courtesy of the Heterogeneous Multi-Processing use model on top of ARM's big.LITTLE architecture (though it's actually "LITTLE.LITTLE" in this case), all eight cores can operate simultaneously -- at up to between 1.7GHz and 2GHz, depending on the bin. MediaTek pointed that Chrome can already make use of all eight cores, and likewise with some map apps, video players plus multi-window function. According to the company's figures, the MT6592 manages to beat what appears to be the quad-core Snapdragon 800 in benchmarks, power consumption (as low as 40 percent) and temperature. You can see the full detail in this article's gallery.
ARM vows Mali-450 graphics will liven up mid-range smartphones
ARM is still cooking its next-generation Mali-T604 mobile graphics, but it has what could be a massive lift to performance coming considerably sooner through the Mali-450 family. The architecture is almost almost literally two Mali-400 chips (the same that powers the Galaxy S II) grafted together, and the maximum eight cores accordingly run up to twice as quickly as what we saw just a year ago. The real achievement might be just be targeting the Mali-450 at a more down-to-Earth audience: where the 400 was all about conquering the high-end, ARM wants the 450 to focus on mid-range and even entry-level phones. Design work for the new Mali video should be done before the end of 2012, although it'll be up to chip manufacturers to carry the torch and finish work that likely won't show in phones and tablets until 2013.
