Samsung’s Quad-Core Cortex-A15 Does Exist; Confirmed by Employee

| December 3, 2012 | 2 Replies

    When it comes down to Open Source, there are a lot of benefits involved but, for those making hardware to run with it, it can be a bit of a nightmare. Thanks to the fact that Android is running on top of the Linux kernel, getting Linux to run well on any CPU/GPU combo is pretty important and when you’re working with the Linux kernel – info is out in the open, for all to see. Which is pretty awesome for us, right?

    As engineers were working on the new chip from Samsung, Kukjin Kim – a Senior Engineer on the Software Solution Development Team at Samsung Electronics, left a comment on the Linux Kernel Git page, with the following: “This patch adds support for EXYNOS5440 SoC which is including ARM Cortex-A15 Quad cores.”

    That sentence alone is enough for us to know that there is a quad-core Cortex-A15 chip coming from Samsung and that it’s named the Exynos 5440. Of course, we know nothing about the chip – aside from its name and that it’s packing four cores – but, the Exynos 5250 has just hit the scene and we know a bit about it by now. The 5250 is a dual-core SoC packing Cortex A15 cores and a quad-core GPU – the powerful Mali T604. This latest Exynos, is only dubbed the 5440 and not 5450 which makes me think that it won’t have quite as high a clock speed as the 5250 which is clocked at 1.7 Ghz a core.

    The 5250 is also built using 32nm technology and the 5440 could well be built on 48nm in order to save costs. However, it’d be strange to see Samsung use a less power-efficient process in their quad-core chips. Only time will tell for sure, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw something of this at CES come January. Samsung’s Exynos line is full of fast chips and even the Cortex A9 based quad-cores in the Galaxy S III and the Note II are quick indeed. With the Exynos 5250 powerful enough to power the Nexus 10 and a resolution of 2560 x 1600, as well as the $249 Chromebook.

      Category: Android News

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      For years now I've had a heavy interest in technology, I grew up with 8-bit computers and gaming consoles and have been using Linux for years now. Android saved me from the boredom of iOS years ago and I've loved every minute of it. As a big reader and writer nothing pleases me more than to write about the exciting world of Android and technology as a whole.
      • Markus

        Why would working with Open Source be a nightmare, it’s a silly statement to make.

        Samsung is likely to have been working with patching the kernel for some time and that the changes have been ready for some time. They would simply been merging changes to keep up to date with the development.

        The patching of mainline kernel is most probably as much PR as a media release would have been. I wouldn’t be surprised if the timing has been chosen to coincide with the fact that it’s the quiet period in Samsung’s release cycle and they are keeping punters on their toes.

        • http://androidheadlines.com/ Tom Dawson

          It really isn’t a silly statement – keeping CPUs and hardware under wraps is pretty important these day and having it outed by commits and other such giveaways isn’t a desirable.

          I doubt it’s much of a PR stunt if it is at all, think about it, to get Android working on the chip properly they need to get the Linux kernel working and considering that it’s now pretty much the same kernel, having the patches in there is pretty important.

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