Samsung announced new 1 GHz Dual Core Cortex A9 processor, will Windows Phone 7 benefit?

September 7, 2010 | By Surur

Press Release: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, today introduced its new 1GHz ARM® CORTEXTM A9-based dual-core application processor, codenamed Orion, for advanced mobile applications. Device OEM developers now have a powerful dual processor chip platform designed specifically to meet the needs of high-performance, low-power mobile applications including tablets, netbooks and smartphones. Samsung’s new processor will be demonstrated at the seventh annual Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum held here in Taiwan at the Westin Taipei Hotel.

"Consumers are demanding the full web experience without compromise while on the go," said Dojun Rhee, vice president of Marketing, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics. "Given this trend, mobile device designers need an application processor platform that delivers superb multimedia performance, fast CPU processing speed, and abundant memory bandwidth. Samsung’s newest dual core application processor chip is designed specifically to fulfill such stringent performance requirements while maintaining long battery life."

Designed using Samsung’s 45 nanometer low-power process technology, Orion features a pair of 1GHz ARM Cortex A9 cores, each comes with a 32KB data cache and a 32KB instruction cache. Samsung also included a 1MB L2 cache to optimize CPU processing performance and provide fast context switching in a multi-tasking environment. In addition, the memory interface and bus architecture of Orion supports data intensive multimedia applications including full HD video playback and high speed 3D action games.
Samsung’s new application processor incorporates a rich portfolio of advanced multimedia features implemented by hardware accelerators, such as video encoder/decoder that supports 30fps video playback and recording at 1080P full HD resolution. Using an enhanced graphics processing unit (GPU), the new processors are capable of delivering 5 times the 3D graphics performance over the previous processor generation from Samsung.

For design flexibility and system BOM cost reduction, Orion integrates a set of interfaces commonly used in mobile devices to configure various peripheral functionalities. For example, with this processor, customers have the choice to use different types of storage including NAND flash, moviNANDTM, SSD or HDD providing both SATA, and eMMC interfaces. Customers can also choose their appropriate memory options including low power LPDDR2 or DDR3, which is commonly used for high performance. In addition, a global positioning system (GPS) receiver baseband processor is embedded in the processor to seamlessly support location based services (LBS), which is critical in many emerging mobile applications.
Orion features an onboard native triple display controller architecture that compliments multi-tasking operations in a multiple display environment. A mobile device using the Orion processor can simultaneously support two on-device display screens, while driving a third external display such as a TV or a monitor, via an on-chip HDMI 1.3a interface.

Orion is designed to support package-on-package (POP) with memory stacking to reduce the footprint. A derivative of Orion, which is housed in a standalone package with a 0.8mm ball pitch, is also available.
Samsung’s new dual-core application processor, Orion, will be available to select customers in the fourth quarter of 2010 and is scheduled for mass production in the first half of 2011.

Comment:

While it is always nice to hear about new processor enhancements, the question does remain if Windows phone 7 will be able to take advantage of higher clock speeds and performance, or even if it needs it. As the OS does not multi-task 3rd party software, the odds of it getting bogged down by a high processor load is much lower.

A question also remains regarding kernel support. If Windows phone 7 is based on CE 6.0 this would not be the case, as it does not support multiple processors. Windows CE 7, set to be released soon, does however support multiple processors, and interestingly many features we are seeing pop up in Windows phone 7, such as Wi-Fi positioning, DLNA and of course a Silverlight based UI. As it is we may have to wait for the next generation of Windows Phone to take full advantage of new chip sets.

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged cortex A9, samsung, windows ce 7, windows phone 7

efjay

Pretty pointless question to be asking. We haven't fully tapped the potential of the current cpu's and already you are calling for "better and faster"? This is not the PC world where only numbers matters, just because you can have faster processors in a phone doesnt necessarily mean you HAVE to.
Adel Al Zubeir

Multo Core CPU = Multi Threaded Apps to take full advantage of the CPU, As far as i know there is still no need to multi thread a mobile application! (maybe a game)

l3v5y

It's entirely possible to multithread, and WP7 guidelines encourage it, so that the UI remains responsive.

Adel Al Zubeir

I agree, Multi Threading an application is a great thing to do, it has lots of benifits. But does multi threaded application utilize both cores to the max? i doubt that in a silverlight application. maybe in games with AI but not silverlight, atleast not the majority.

http://twitter.com/sirleamont @sirleamont

Maybe, as Silverlight is designed to show "data" to the end user. But the "core" engine can use it without the developer needing to know it (that's because you write animation using the engine, and not by your self)

http://twitter.com/anaadoul @anaadoul

But animations are processed using the GPU not CPU so cpu is focused on things that are not related to graphics. Plus if you don't MultiThread your application you will never be able to utilize the multiple cores.

l3v5y

I doubt that SL can really use the amount of power available to it on a QSD8250. Or at least, I doubt you could show all the information it could process fast enough.

l3v5y

I seriously doubt we'll see these for a few years. The QSD8250s were announced 2 or so years before the first smartphones with them came out.

Also, whilst mobile OSs can deal with multiple cores (they have to, the radio OS resides on a different core), I doubt they can handle successfully two application processing cores.

Also, the actual UI of WP7 is written in C++, on top of MSs UX framework Iris. Very little of default WM is silverlight.

charles

The radio baseband processor is indeed on a different core but that is not managed by the main OS. It communicates via a peripheral connection that essentially looks like a serial port or such.

The main point is this: WinCE 6 cannot support multiple cores which is problematic as multi-core application processors emerge.

http://www.facebook.com/Bugblatter Bug Blatter

From what I remember the WP7 chassis specification specifies a SnapDragon CPU. If so then it'll be a while before WP7 gets this.

I reckon Samsung will start using this in their own products pretty quickly; possibly a tablet first to replace their Galaxy S tablet.

Personally if it doesn't hurt battery life too much then faster = better. Most people don't need anywhere near the power they have on their PCs; doesn't stop them wanting it. And of course games will be the driver for more performance just as they've been on every computing platform.