Samsung Discusses Its Exynos 5 Octa Eight-Core Mobile SoC

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Galaxy S4 all but confirmed to be first device to sport world's first eight-core processor.

Samsung has discussed its Exynos 5 Octa chip, which is the world's first eight-core mobile processor announced during CES 2013.

Four cores will handle the resource-demanding tasks, which will be be powered by ARM's Cortex-A15 architecture. The four power-efficient ones, meanwhile, will be Cortex-A7s. Samsung's Director of Marketing, System LSI, Akshay Agarwal argues that "going with the notion of quad would not really differentiate it [the Exynos 5 Octa] much, because there are so many quad-core processors out on the market."

"He then goes on to explain that the end user doesn't understand or care about the exact type of CPU used, like A9 or A15," explained PhoneArena. "It's not reasonable to think that everyone will have enough technical knowledge to make the difference between these technologies, so Samsung felt that it should simply go with the "Octa" term as a way of signaling the excessive power of the chipset."

"When we asked Agarwal about Samsung's position with regards to licensing the Exynos 5 Octa, he was quick to point out the customers of the current Exynos line-up, which include Lenovo and some smaller Asian companies like Meizu and Quanta, and ensured us that Samsung is devoted to broadening the range of customers of its chipset division. At this time, though, that range seems to be quite limited when compared to the penetration of its rivals in this space, Qualcomm and Nvidia."

The world's largest phone maker said there is no tension within its chip-making division. Agarwal stressed that the South Korean technology giant continues to rely on a "broad set of customers," which includes the growing business of Samsung Mobile. His comment comes after Stephen Woo, president of Samsung's Systems LSI division who manages the production of mobile processors, stated that it's aiming to "diversify our customer base" amid concerns regarding Apple cutting off its business ties with its chief competitor.

According to a recent benchmark, the unannounced Samsung Galaxy S4 will be the first device to sport the Exynos 5 Octa chip.

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Zak Islam
19 Comments Comment from the forums
  • greghome
    AMD Samsung : We need to beat the competition, WE NEED MOAR CORES !!!!!
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    ah... marketing. So it is confirmed to be a quad core after all
    Reply
  • aicom
    "He then goes on to explain that the end user doesn't understand or care about the exact type of CPU used, like A9 or A15," explained PhoneArena. "It's not reasonable to think that everyone will have enough technical knowledge to make the difference between these technologies, so Samsung felt that it should simply go with the "Octa" term as a way of signaling the excessive power of the chipset."
    I died a little when I read this. Just because people don't care, doesn't give you permission to lie. Octa-core implies 8 cores active at the same time. Almost sounds reminiscent of Apple's marketing department.
    Reply
  • Trueno07
    # Cores != Innovation

    Companies need to think smarter not faster.
    Reply
  • sean1357
    enable 4-cores ARM A15 and disable 4-cores ARM A7. Maybe use ICE to hack to turn other 4-cores with some register....

    Go ARM...ARM.... but I like FPGA better....

    Reply
  • kyuuketsuki
    Always great when marketing pricks justify what is essentially a lie with, "well, our customers are too dumb to know the difference anyway." Wow.
    Reply
  • "Almost sounds reminiscent of Apple's marketing department."

    So true.
    Reply
  • Onihikage
    Galaxy S4 all but confirmed to be first device to sport world's first eight-core processor.
    MOBILE.

    MOBILE processor. FFS.
    Reply
  • silverblue
    Trueno07# Cores != InnovationCompanies need to think smarter not faster.Well, Intel were the first with a hexacore CPU, so there's got to be some merit to having more cores. AMD obviously tried to look too far ahead by bringing out CPUs with eight, albeit weaker, cores, and they're still fixing the problem.
    Reply
  • dragonsqrrl
    CaedenVah... marketing. So it is confirmed to be a quad core after allIts been confirmed for a long time, yet every time there's an Exynos 5 Octa article half the comments are something to the effect of, "8 cores?! why do I need an 8 core smartphone??"
    aicomI died a little when I read this. Just because people don't care, doesn't give you permission to lie. Octa-core implies 8 cores active at the same time. Almost sounds reminiscent of Apple's marketing department.Ya, It really sounds bad. Basically, our customers probably don't know or care about what this actually means, so why not take advantage of that ignorance? To be fair most people probably don't know or care, but it's the second part that gets me. And based on the comments in the Exynos 5 Octa announcement articles, it'll probably work.
    Reply