Quad-Core Smartphones: Nvidia Tegra 3 Details

So, we have talked about ‘Single-Core’ and ‘Dual-Core’ smartphones and tablets. You might be thinking ‘These are soooo Yesterday!! Tell us something that we don’t know’. Well, I’ll oblige by telling you that 2012 will be the year of ‘Quad-Core’. Yes!! You heard it right!!! Most of the market leading SoC manufacturers will come out with their ‘Quad-Core’ creations in the next year and these SoCs will have performance that is multiple times their previous generations’.

If you would have followed this blog closely, you might have seen the mention of two devices: the ‘Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime’ and the ‘HTC Edge’. Both will be sporting an ‘Nvidia Tegra 3’ (Project Kal-El) CPU which is, as you rightly guessed, a quad-core processor. I have also highlighted about the display panels used in both of them in ‘The Display Dilemma’ blog posts below: a ‘Super IPS+’ panel in the ‘Transformer Prime’ where as an ‘SLCD-2 optically laminated display’ in the ‘HTC Edge’.  So, they both have industry-leading displays and also processors. So expect these to get sold as fast as cakes. The ‘Transformer Prime’ will be hitting stores next month and the ‘HTC Edge’ will make its presence in Q1 2012.

So, let’s get down to the actual dirt: the ‘Nvidia Tegra 3’. The ‘Nvidia Tegra 3’ is, as you rightly expected, a successor to the highly successful ‘Nvidia Tegra 2’ and ‘Tegra 3’ has received a significant performance boost over the ‘Tegra 2’. Nvidia has detailed that the Tegra 3’s processor is 5 times as fast as the Tegra 2’s and the Tegra 3’s GPU is 3 times as fast as the Tegra 2’s. So, let’s find out how this is possible!!

Tegra 3 has got 4 ARM Cortex A9s (a step up from the 2 ARM Cortex A9s in Tegra 2) and therefore has got its name as the ‘Quad-Core’ SoC.  Nvidia actually had a surprise for the general audience when it announced the ‘Tegra 3’ SoC. It not only had the above mentioned 4 ARM Cortex A9s (which can run at a maximum clock-speed of 1.3 Ghz when running simultaneously and at a maximum clock-speed of 1.4 Ghz when only one of them is active), but also had another ARM Cortex A9 clocked at a lower frequency of 500 Mhz. So actually, ‘Tegra 3’ has got not 4 but 5 cores. The reason for including an additional ‘Companion Core’ (ARM Cortex A9 at 500 Mhz) was simple. Normally, when you increase the cores on the SoC, it tends to draw in more power which leads to loss of battery life. Most basic tasks like ‘Playing Music’, ‘Editing a document’, ‘Checking e-mails’ etc. do not require the power delivered by 4 cores. So utilization of 4 cores in such scenarios would be pointless. Nvidia thought that they could take care of these tasks with the ‘Companion Core’ and let the other ‘Quad Cores’ come into picture only when the applications demanded it. For example, if you are trying to watch a HD video or trying to play a game on your TV by connecting your smartphone or tablet to it, the performance of ‘Quad Cores’ is required. So in such scenarios, the ‘Companion Core’ would quietly hand over the control to the other 4 cores. So, as you would have got by now, at any point of time only one of them would be active: either the ‘Companion Core’ or ‘The other Quad Cores’. This type of functioning has been branded ‘Variable Symmetric Multi Processing (vSMP)’ by Nvidia. I remember using such terms to impress my professors while taking exams in MBA. ;-)

Right. The other major difference between the Quad-Core processor cores in Tegra 3 and the Dual-Core processor cores in Tegra 2 is that each of the cores (in the Quad-Core architecture and not the Companion Core) is equipped with a ‘Media Processing Engine’ (MPE) part. This MPE part is absent in the dual-core CPUs of Tegra 2. This MPE not only will allow users to watch any video in any format but also will support voice recognition.

Nvidia claims that it has been able to significantly improve the battery life of the smartphone or the tablet using such architecture. The other important thing to be noted is that even the GPU has 12 cores. But the actual meaning of ‘Core’ in a GPU is different from that of a ‘Core’ in a CPU. The only thing to be remembered is that the GPU in ‘Tegra 3’ is clocked at a higher frequency and delivers more performance than the GPU in ‘Tegra 2’, which will allow you to play games, that necessitated a graphic card in your laptop or desktop, with consummate ease.

So that is it about the CPU and the GPU of Tegra 3 SoC. At the time of writing this post, I have also got to know that 'Lenovo' and 'Acer' also planning to come out with their Tegra 3 offerings very soon. Looks like 'The Transformer Prime' won't be alone after all. Stay tuned..!!!

Exynos from Samsung and Snapdragon from Qualcomm: The Details

Yesterday, I talked about Multi Core Processor System on Chips (MPSoC) and I also listed two market leaders in chip manufacturing and names of some devices within which these chips were being used. Now we will have a look at two more chip manufacturers who also are market leaders in the chip manufacturing space. You need to have an idea of all 4 manufacturers, as in future posts you will be able to understand easily when I mention the name of a particular chip.

Samsung

• As you already know from my previous posts, Samsung manufacturers chips and markets them under the brand name of 'Hummingbird' and 'Exynos'. While 'Hummingbird' is a single-core System on Chip and is actually a codename for 'Exynos 3110', the 'Exynos 4210' is a dual-core System on Chip and competes with the likes of Tegra 2 and OMAP SoCs. Do not get confused, when somebody says 'Hummingbird' is another name for 'Exynos'. Similar to the SoC offerings from the rest of the manufacturers, the 'Exynos 4210' also contains dual cores sourced from ARM (2 ARM Cortex A9s) sprinting at 1.2 Ghz. There is another variant of Exynos called the 'Exynos 4212' which also contains 2 ARM Cortex A9s but they are clocked at a frequency of 1.5 Ghz.
• Some of the famous smartphone devices which sport the 'Hummingbird (Exynos 3110)' and 'Exynos 4210' SoCs are 'Samsung Galaxy S' which uses the former SoC and 'Samsung Galaxy S2' which uses the latter SoC.
• There is another major difference between the 'Samsung Galaxy S' and the 'Samsung Galaxy S2'. As I already said, each SoC contains some other components like the CPU Instruction Set, the Memory Controller and the GPU and some other components in addition to the CPU. Well, the 'Galaxy S' uses a GPU sourced from 'Imagination Technologies' where as the 'Galaxy S2' uses a GPU sourced from 'ARM'. By now, you would have already figured out that knowledge only about the CPU alone will not be sufficient in deciding your purchase and that's absolutely RIGHT!!! (I will tell you why in my next post..!! ;-))

Qualcomm

• There are so many variants of SoCs manufactured by Qualcomm that Qualcomm itself had recently announced that it will classify its Snapdragon SoCs into only 4 categories. The 'Snapdragon S1', the 'Snapdragon S2', the 'Snapdragon S3' and yeah obviously!!! the 'Snapdragon S4'. Due to the combination of, CPUs clocked at various frequencies and the myriad varieties of GPUs used, there are so many variants of Qualcomm SoCs. But, only the S3 and the S4 relate to the dual-core varieties. What really differentiates Qualcomm SoCs from the rest of the bunch is that in its SoCs, the CPU and the GPU are not sourced from any company but manufactured by Qualcomm themselves!!! The CPUs are marketed under the brand name of 'Scorpion' and the GPUs are marketed under the brand name of 'Adreno'. Actually the 'Adreno' GPU business had been acquired from ATI Imageon. The S3 is clocked at various frequencies ranging from 1.2 Ghz to 1.7 Ghz and use 'Scorpion' CPU and 'Adreno' GPUs manufactured by Qualcomm themselves.
• Some of the famous smartphone devices which sport the 'Snapdragon S3' SoCs are 'HTC Sensation', 'HTC Sensation XE' and 'HP Touchpad'.
• While it has been mentioned that the 'Galaxy S2' uses Samsung's own Exynos SoC which contains dual-cores sourced from ARM, Samsung has some other versions of the same phone using the 'Snapdragon S3' chip sourced from Qualcomm. These phones are marketed under other names. The 'T-Mobile Galaxy S2' is one such phone that uses the 'Snapdragon S3' chip and the 'Galaxy Skyrocket' which is basically the 'Galaxy S2' with LTE is another one. I hope you guys got the subtle differences that I have been trying to highlight!!!!

Hmmm.. That completes, I think, what you need to know about dual-core processors. We'll move on tomorrow with GPUs i.e. Graphical Processing Units and why their consideration, in your purchase decision, is important. Stay tuned!!!

Tegra from Nvidia and OMAP from Texas Instruments: The Details

Yesterday, I talked about 'Single Core' processors. So, as I said, people started integrating dual core processors on a single chip. These chips are also called Multi-Processor System on Chips (MPSoC). Here are a few examples of manufacturers and their respective dual-core processor chips.

Nvidia

• Nvidia currently manufactures the 'Tegra 2' chip. As you all might be knowing, Tegra 2 is a dual core processor System on Chip (SoC). This chip contains various components like the CPU or microprocessor (core), the CPU Instruction Set, the Memory Controller and the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The CPU or the microprocessor is not manufactured by Nvidia itself but sourced from another company called ARM. Inside the Tegra 2 chip, there are 2 ARM Cortex - A9 processors (dual-core) and thereby the Tegra 2 derives it's name.
• Some of the famous smartphone devices which sport the 'Tegra 2' chip are 'LG Optimus 2X', 'Motorola Atrix', 'Samsung Galaxy R' and tablets such as 'Motorola XOOM', 'LG Optimus Pad' and 'Acer Iconia Tab A100 and A500' also sport the same chip. Note that the Tegra 2 chip in the above listed devices runs at a frequency of 1 Ghz. 
• There is another variant of the 'Tegra 2' processor which is clocked at a speed of 1.2 Ghz and runs inside the following device: 'Fusion Garage Grid 10' 

Texas Instruments

• Texas Instruments manufactures the 'OMAP' (Open Multimedia Application Platform) chip. The 4th generation of OMAP chips i.e. OMAP 4430, OMAP 4460 and OMAP 4470 are dual core processor System on Chips (SoC). This chip also contains various components that are necessary for the 'System on Chip' to function like the CPU or microprocessor (core), the CPU Instruction Set, the Memory Controller and the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). As in the case of Nvidia, the CPU or the microprocessor is sourced from ARM. Inside the OMAP 4th generation chips, there are 2 ARM Cortex - A9 processors (dual-core).
• There are a few differences that separate the 3 OMAP dual-core processing System on Chips. As I have already conveyed, each System on Chip also contains a GPU in addition to the CPU, the GPU in OMAP 4430 is clocked at  304 Mhz, whereas the GPU in OMAP 4460 is clocked at 384 Mhz. Additionally, the OMAP 4430 processors are clocked between 1 and 1.2 Ghz, whereas the OMAP 4460 processors are clocked between 1.2 and 1.5 Ghz. By this it is apparent that the OMAP 4460 is more powerful than the OMAP 4430. The OMAP 4470  will be explored later along with the latest Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core chip in another post.
• Some of the famous smartphone devices which sport the 'OMAP 4th generation' chips are 'Motorola Droid Razr' and 'Samsung Galaxy Nexus'. Inside the Droid Razr, OMAP 4430 is residing with a clocked speed of 1.2 Ghz whereas in the Galaxy Nexus, OMAP 4460 is residing with a clocked speed of 1.2 Ghz.

So, that's it for today. Samsung's own 'EXYNOS' chip and Qualcomm's 'SNAPDRAGON' chip will be explained in the next post. Stay tuned..!!

Single-Core, Dual-Core & Quad-Core: Decoding 'Core' or SoC

Nowadays you get to hear a lot of 'Single Core', 'Dual Core', 'Quad Core' going on in your friends circles. Most of you already have an idea of such kind of processing power in Laptops. But lo! you are now hearing such terms in the context of smartphones and tablets.

You might actually think it's a no-brainer that 'Quad Core' is better than 'Dual Core' which is in turn better than 'Single Core' and yes, you are right too. But are you right on all occasions??? Should you just make your purchase on the basis of terms like these?? To answer these questions, you need to read the information given below a little intently :P

A few years ago, people realized that, integrating components resting inside a general purpose personal computer which are sitting in an isolated fashion will be beneficial for various purposes like Space saving, Throughput increment, and Efficiency increment. So, they started manufacturing something called as a 'System on Chip'. A 'System on Chip' is an integrated circuit that integrates all the components of a computer or other electronic system on a single chip. This means that on a single chip, you'll have the following components

1. Microprocessor or CPU (also called popularly as 'Core')
2. Memory Blocks (ROM | Read Only Memory, RAM | Random Access Memory)
3. External interfaces such as USB, Ethernet
4. Voltage Regulators
5. GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

What you also need to understand is that while the 'Chip' that contains the above listed components is manufactured by one company, this company might source the above listed components from other manufacturers. Currently in the market, the following are the companies that manufacture the 'Chip'.

1. Nvidia is the company that manufactures the 'TEGRA' Chip
2. Samsung is the company that manufactures the 'EXYNOS' and 'HUMMINGBIRD' chips
3. Texas Instruments is the company that manufactures the 'OMAP' chip
4. Qualcomm is the company that manufactures the 'SNAPDRAGON' chip

If you could jog your memory a little, you can recollect that the famous 'Samsung Galaxy S' used Samsung's 'Hummingbird' chip. The 'Hummingbird' (Codename for Exynos 3110) chip contained a single core 1 Ghz processor. The first phone with the 'Android' operating system, the 'Google Nexus One' used Qualcomm's 'Snapdragon' chip that contained a single core 1 Ghz processor.

As stated above, in the initial days of manufacturing, there was only a single microprocessor (single core) coupled with other components (give in the first list above) resting on a chip. Each and every microprocessor runs at a particular clock-speed or frequency. Most of the manufacturers (given in the second list above) were looking for a company which could supply them with the 'Microprocessor' or 'Core' component of the chip. 'ARM' had stepped up to the task and has since become famous as most of the companies which manufacture 'System on Chips' source the microprocessor component from ARM. ARM manufactures microprocessors and markets them under the brand name of 'Cortex'. 

Manufacturers soon began to realize that having a Single Core limited the power of the device in which the 'System on Chip' was being used. They soon came to a conclusion that having multiple cores on a single chip will enable them to increase the power of the smartphone multiple times. The rationale was pretty simple. Suppose, you are asked to make two calculations and then add the result of the calculation, you make the first calculation and then make the second calculation and then add the result of the two calculations. At any point of time, you are doing just one task. But, if the task is divided among two people, while the first person is making the first calculation, the second person will simultaneously make the second calculation and then result can be arrived at by any of the individuals. So, they started thinking of 'Dual Core' and 'Quad Core' processors on a single chip.

I guess this is enough for today. More information on 'Dual Core' and 'Quad Core' incoming. Stay tuned!!!