Samsung Exynos 5 Dual ARM A15 32nm Chipset: Will It Power The Rumored 11.8-Inch Tablet? [Full Specs & Features]

By Kukil Bora | August 13 2012 3:46 AM

Block Diagram. Source: Samsung

Last week, Samsung announced its upcoming Exynos 5 Dual chipset, which is expected to be shipped towards the end of this year or early next year. Built on 32nm high-k metal gate (HKMG) process, the Exynos 5 Dual clocks at 1.7GHz and combines two ARM Cortex A15s with an ARM Mali-T604 GPU.

According to Samsung, with all these key upgrades, the SoC (System on a Chip) is expected to provide significant improvements in terms of graphics and battery performance.

The new Exynos 5 Dual chipset includes two ARM Cortex A15 cores running at a speed of up to 1.7GHz with a shared 1MB L2 cache. The newly launched Mali-T604 Quad-core GPU is also claimed to have included in the Exynos 5 Dual and is expected to provide it with a significant edge over the existing 1.4GHz Exynos SoC, which is found in the international version of the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 10.1.

Samsung said that the new SoC would support display resolutions up to 2560×1600 and would integrate support for other features like USB 3.0, SATA 3, HDMI 1.4, eDP interfaces, stereoscopic 3D, OpenGL ES 3.0, OpenCL 1.1, and DirectX 11 that also points towards Windows RT support.

As noted by BGR, Qualcomm may have the upper hand when it comes to the manufacturing process, but the South Korean tech giant clearly has outdone its competitor by adding the graphical chops in the Exynos 5 dual. The company claimed that the new Mali-T604 GPU would provide a 5X graphical bump from the preceding generation of Mali GPU.

Samsung, however, didn't mention about an integrated LTE radio. Given that only Qualcomm currently has an integrated LTE radio that is considered as a huge advantage in the US, the inclusion of the same in the Exynos 5 Dual could have been a significant edge over the rivals, BGR reported.

With the Snapdragon S4 supporting 500MHz LPDDR2, Qualcomm had overshadowed Samsung as the Exynos 4 supported 800MHz LPDDR3. But now, with Exynos 5 Dual supporting low power RAM, Samsung has turned the game around. The company has improved the RAM support further by adding support for 400MHz LPDDR2 RAM.

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Block Diagram. Source: Samsung

Will Exynos 5 Dual Power The Rumored 11.8-Inch Tablet?

With Samsung's official announcement of the Exynos 5 Dual chipset, rumors surrounding an upcoming 11.8-inch tablet have got another boost. According to the company, the new 32nm SoC supports 2560 x 1600 WQXGA resolution, and interestingly, Samsung is rumored as getting the device done at just the same resolution.

The Verge recently reported, citing court documents of the Apple vs. Samsung trial, that the South Korean Galaxy-maker was apparently "working on a tablet codenamed 'P10' that would include LTE connectivity and an 11.8-inch display at 2560 x 1600 (WQXGA) resolution."

Check out the key features of Exynos 5 Dual after the video.

ARM Cortex-A15 Dual Core processor with the clock speed up to 1.7 GHz (14,000 DMIPS)
High Memory Bandwidth with WQXGA resolution required for graphic-intensive applications (12.8 GB/s)
Supports LPDDR3/LPDDR2/DDR3 Dual channel memory
Claimed to be the world's top mobile 3D graphic processor: Supports WQXGA 60 fps 3D graphics
32 nm HKMG process that decreases the power consumption drastically and advanced architecture
Manages power with Multiple Power Domain and Dynamic Voltage Frequency Scalling
Low-power display scheme that includes embedded DisplayPort and panel self-refresh technology
System-level power optimization with companion PMIC (S5M8767)
Full-profile support of 1080P 60 fps Multi Format Codec
High-quality camera with 8Mpixel 30 fps Embedded Image Signal Processor
Memory sub-set can be pump around 12.8Gbps of data