If you have been following my blog closely, I said that I would discuss the 'OMAP 4470' in another post in conjunction with the 'Nvidia Tegra 3' (in 'The 'Core' Enigma (Contd.) - 1' post). As we are done with the 'Tegra 3' let's now get down to the 'OMAP 4470' processor.
As you already know by now, I had mentioned that 'Texas Instruments' manufactures 3 SoCs: OMAP 4430, OMAP 4460, and OMAP 4470. Well, it actually manufactures another SoC: OMAP 4440, but it is only a minor upgrade from the OMAP 4430. So, why is 'OMAP 4470' special??
The 'OMAP 4470' uses an architecture which is very similar to the one found on the 'Tegra 3'. The 'OMAP 4470' is actually a dual-core processor (2 ARM Cortex A9s) but in addition to these 2 cores, it contains 2 other cores (2 ARM Cortex M3s). While the Cortex A9s are clocked at a maximum frequency of 1.8 Ghz, the Cortex M3s are clocked at a maximum frequency of 266 Mhz. The 'Cortex M3s' kick-in when less CPU intensive tasks are running like 'Playing Music', 'Editing a document' or 'Checking E-Mail'. But once you start playing 'HD games' on the smartphone device (inside which the SoC is present) the 'Cortex A9s' make their presence felt. Very Impressive architecture indeed..!!! :D
As far as the GPU is concerned, Texas Instruments went with the leader in the GPU space: 'Imagination Technologies'. I have already mentioned that currently 'Imagination Technologies' produces one of the best GPUs in the market. The GPU inside the 'OMAP 4470' is 'Power VR SGX 544' (Surprisingly this is a single-core GPU). Supposedly, it offers tremendous improvement in the GPU performance as compared to the other OMAP SoCs. Now as in the CPU, there is an additional 2D graphics core that kicks-in when less graphic intensive tasks are performed, it is only when applications which demand better graphics performance are run does the 'Power VR SGX 544' actually kick-in. So, there is a by-pass for the GPU too. Wonder what all crazy steps are being taken by SoC makers for saving battery life. :-|
Anyways, the 'OMAP 4470' is actually being touted as a competitor to the 'Tegra 3' and given it's architecture it's hard to conclude why it won't offer performance similar to the 'Tegra 3'. And don't worry Samsung is out to compete with both of them with the 'Exynos 4212' and Qualcomm won't be far behind in its development of 'Snapdragon S4'.
With this post, I will be shutting up on CPU and GPU :). In the next post, I will tell you whether you absolutely need to have a 'Dual-Core' smartphone to enjoy it's features completely.
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