Samsung showcased its new Exynos 5250 Dual-core Cortex A15 processor at Mobile World Congress as well as the corresponding Samsung Exynos 5 GAIA SMDK Development board.
Announced in November 2011, the new Samsung Exynos 5250 processor features 2 Cortex A15 clocked at 1.7 GHz or 2 GHz, with a Mali-T604 GPU and support for dual-channel 800 MHz LPDDR3 RAM that allows for a data bandwidth of up to 12.8 GB/s. The processor is manufactured using 32-nm HKMG (High-K Metal Gate) technology that reduces leakage by 30% proving lower power consumption.
Samsung claims the new Exynos 5 processors are twice as fast and consume twice as less power than its previous Exynos 4 application processor based on Cortex A9. This seems to confirm TI OMAP 5 vs. Nvidia Tegra 3 benchmark results.
The Exynos 5250 supports embedded DisplayPort (eDP) interface up to WQXGA resolution (2560×1600), which is handy for Samsung since they are also working on a WQXGA 10.1″ LCD Panel for tablets. This interface is also compatible with PSR (Panel Self Refresh) technology which instructs the application processor not to send image data to the LCD panel when the set is displaying still image in order to reduce power consumption.
Samsung Application Processor also support different booting method via SATA, UART, USB 3.0 and eMMC 4.5 which implies that the Exynos 5 processors will be used beyond smartphones and tablets.
The Exynos 5 processors also have pretty decent multimedia hardware support with a 8 MP image signal processor and support for 1080p60 video playback with the most common video codecs (h.264, h.263, VC1, MPEG2 and MPEG4).
Samsung will also start to manufacture the Exynos 5450 quad-core Cortex A15 allegedly with an ARM Mali-T658 GPU later this year. That’s the first quad-core Cortex A15 processor I’ve ever heard of.
ARM’s Katie Morgan interviewed Samsung during MWC 2012 and you can have a peak at the Exynos 5 development board in the video below.
I could not find block diagrams for Exynos 5250 nor the Exynos 5 SMDK, although there appears to be a system diagram for the development board in the video above.
You may find more information on Samsung Exynos 5 Dual page, especially after they remove the DRM on the Exynos 5 Dual PDF. The brochure is now available for download.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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