Samsung Reveals 2 GHz Cortex-A15 Exynos 5250 Chip

Samsung has revealed the Exynos 4212 Cortex-A9-based chip and the Exynos 5250 Cortex-A15-based chip, both capable of Full HD (1080p) video and 3D graphics.

During the eighth annual Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum held at the Westin Taipei, Taiwan, Samsung officially revealed the Exynos 4212, a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 application processor designed on its 32-nm High-K Metal Gate (HK/MG) low-power process. Samsung said this process node is specifically tuned to offer "a competitive, cutting-edge platform" with double the logic density and a 30-percent lower power-level over the previous process generation.

According to the company, the new Exynos processor features an enhanced GPU that is capable of delivering 50-percent higher 3D graphics performance over the previous processor generation from Samsung. It also incorporates a "portfolio" of advanced codec accelerators that support digital still images, video recording and play-back at 1080p full-HD resolution, an image signal processor and an on-chip HDMI 1.4 interface.

"As innovative technologies appear on the mobile landscape, the market continues to embrace further developments and performance acceleration in mobile computing," said Seh-Woong Jeong, executive vice president of System LSI sales & marketing, Device Solutions, Samsung Electronics. "Samsung is addressing this trend with its powerful low-power Exynos family of processors based on its proven design technology and cutting-edge process technology for performance and power improvements at the system level."

Samsung also previewed a 2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 application processor, the Exynos 5250, also designed on its 32-nm process. The company said that the processor is twice as fast as a 1.5 GHz A9 design without having to jump to a quad-core layout. A memory bandwidth of 12.8 GB/s also helps the SoC achieve a new maximum resolution of 2506 x 1600.

Details surrounding the new SoC are rather slim, but the company said that video recording will be capable of handling 1080p videos at 60 frames per second. 3D will be supported by an HDMI 1.4 port, and the chip itself will also support SATA, USB 3.0 and other I/O standards. That said, Samsung said the new Exynos 5250 is designed for high-end tablets and will not go into sample mode until 2Q12 - products based on the SoC are expected to ship in late 2012.

As for the current Exynos 4212, Samsung will be sampling the application processor to select customers in Q4 2011.