MediaTek announces Helio P10 octa-core SoC offering premium performance and faster LTE

MediaTek had introduced the Helio X20 Soc in May this year and it was the first processor for mobiles to have 10 cores.  No mobile featuring the Helio X20 has been released yet but it is expected that the Xiaomi may use this MediaTek chip in its Mi Note successor. It doesn’t seem likely that the new Helio X20 will be used in mobile devices in 2015.  Devices using the chip will probably start releasing in early 2016 but before that, MediaTek has already unveiled another new chip Helio P10 at the Computex.

Although Helio P10 is less powerful compared to Helio X20, it is more robust, efficient and offers a ”premium performance”. It is a 28nm chip having eight 64-bit Cortex-A53 cores which could be clocked at 2GHz. It falls somewhere between the X10 and the X20 chips in terms of CPU. Although Cortex-A57 cores are more powerful than Cortex-A53 cores, the A53s will help to prolong your battery life.

Helio P10 features a 700MHz dual-core 64-bit Mali-T860 graphics processor and Cat 6 LTE world mode support with up to 300 Mbps down speed and 50 Mbps up speed with career aggregation which is not available in X10.

The P10 also has the integrated TrueBright ISP engine which supports the “ultra-sensitive” RWWB optical sensors. MediaTek claims that these RWWB sensors capture two times the light captured by conventional RGB sensors and also provide a better color resolution.

The Helio P10 offers HiFi audio performance that has a rating of 110dB SNR and -95dB THD due to which device manufacturers won’t have to add a separate audio chip. Other useful feature of MediaTek’s P10 is that its MiraVision 2.0 will offer a smoother 60 fps FHD display, an efficient BluLight defender mode for reducing eye fatigue and an Ultradimming mode for night reading.

MediaTek has disclosed that it will start the shipping of Helio P10 chip in the third quarter of 2015 and we can expect the first device to surface by late 2015 which will be before the X20 device makes an appearance.

MediaTek announces Helio P10 octa-core SoC offering premium performance and faster LTE

The Snapdragon 810 Processor Runs Cooler Than Snapdragon 801

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 801 has been getting some bad news. A Bloomberg report claimed that Samsung is switching chips for its next phone due to the Snapdragon 801’s overheating problem. Random overheating issues seem to be forcing them to switch to their own homebrew Exynos chips according to Bloomberg. The new Snapdragon 810 might be Qualcomm’s answer.

Tests conducted on the Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 not only show that it is faster and more energy efficient, but that its 64-bit processor emits less heat than the Snapdragon 801. Most smartphones change the processor’s speed to keep the device cool. A temperature of under 45 degrees Celsius or 113 degrees fahrenheit is maintained to keep the smartphone comfortable in the user’s hands.

The Snapdragon 801 was used in flagships like the Samsung Galaxy S5 and the HTC One (M8) which were released in 2014. When tested with the popular racing game Asphalt, the Snapdragon 801 ran hot after twenty minutes of gameplay. When tested with the new 64-bit Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 chip however, the temperature was about 5 degrees lower.

This difference can also be observed when capturing video on both phones while capturing video. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 runs cooler which means that this will improve battery life and performance for any smartphone that has it. This chip is planned to be used with the new HTC One (M9) and LG G4 flagship phones.

Even LG have tested the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 810 processor and says that it is one of the coolest processors they have tested. Samsung may have just tried to switch to local chips to decrease manufacturing costs. LG’s Woo said that “I don’t understand why there is a issue over heat,” when talking about the recent rumor about the Snapdragon 801 overheating.

The Snapdragon 810 Processor Runs Cooler Than Snapdragon 801

MediaTek Next Processor: 10-core or 12-core Processors

According to insider news, it is reported that MediaTek, a Taiwan-based chip manufacturer might be working on a 10-core or 12-core processors.  There are no further details on when the processors will starts the mass production or released to the public.  However, if everything is working according to plan, these processors will be used in the smartphone technology.

On the other side, currently there are not many apps which can support the advantages of 4-cores let alone 10-core or 12-core processors. therefore, there is not really a big different on the usage experience. However,it is indeed a big jump.

MediaTek’s competitor Qualcomm has released a mid-range Snapdragon 615 and high-range Snapdragon 810 which features 8-cores last year. Below is the video on Qualcomm’s opinion on MediaTek’s octa-core chips.

MediaTek Next Processor: 10-core or 12-core Processors

Samsung To Meet Apple’s Demands of Processors, Report Claims

A report released by the Korea Times revealed that Apple has selected Samsung to meet its application processor demand. It is agreed that Samsung will manufacture processors for Apple’s iPhone and iPad. Starting from 2016, Samsung will cover the 80% demand of processors for Apple, making it the leading supplier for the company. The remaining 20% will be supplied by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC).

Apple will design its A-series processor while TSMC and Samsung will work on the manufacturing process. Samsung had been able to secure such a large deal from Apple because of its partnership with GlobalFoundries. The relationship between the two parties will enable Samsung to meet the processor demand of Apple within time.

Samsung will manufacture the 14 nm application processors while TSMC will manufacture the 16 nm application processors. While Samsung here has the upper hand with better manufacturing capability because of its efficiency and technical capability, the end product however should not be different in quality.

Aside from the deal with Apple, it is expected that Samsung will get more deals from other big names like Sony, Qualcomm and NVIDIA. Being partners with GlobalFoundries had played a major role in favor of Samsung. An official from the industry stated that Samsung was not the choice of many corporate clients to provide chips but with the partnership, it would allow the company to secure more such orders. Samsung’s logic chip manufacturing sector is expected to bring a large profit to the company as the deal is worth billions.

Samsung To Meet Apple’s Demands of Processors, Report Claims

"Sustained performance” and 84x faster processor in upcoming Apple A8

A new iPhone means that another new processor from Apple. This year brings the A8 processor, that is that the second generation 64-bit SoC, and as per usual, the chip carries enactment boosts that ought to possess iOS consumers happy. Apple privileges that the new A8 processor is “up to 84x faster” (which may be a little bit of a cheat, as a result of it’s compared to the first iPhone of 2007), and adds new “sustained performance”.

The A8 chip uses a 20-nanometer producing method that makes it 17% smaller than the A7; however it has nearly doubled the quantity of transistors. The A7 had “over 1 billion” transistors, where the A8 choices 2 billion. As stated before, the “up to 84x faster” claim does not imply all that abundant given the comparison, however what’s easier to grasp is that the A8 encompasses a 25% quicker processor and 50% quicker GPU compared to the A7, as per Apple.

Beyond the producing changes, Apple has side one thing referred to as “sustained performance”, as a result of Apple says that conventionally, processors can lose performance over time. Phil Schiller demonstrated this with a chart showing performance dipping over 20 minutes of use, however Apple forgot to label the Y axis, therefore the chart does not actually mean something. However, with “sustained performance”, the A8 can allegedly be able to run at full power while not burning your hand, which might be terribly nice.

The game demoes that followed displayed games that had up to one hundred animated characters on screen at a time, with exciting frame rates, nevertheless textures and shading that won’t quite up to console level so far, still somewhat imposing for a mobile device. Testing can show whether or not the new “sustained performance” can place successful on battery life, except for currently Apple is saying battery life that’s a minimum of on par with the iPhone 5s.

"Sustained performance” and 84x faster processor in upcoming Apple A8