MediaTek Unveils Quad-Core Cortex-A7 MT6589 SoC

This December is a busy month for silicon manufacturers and Cortex A7 processor, after AllWinner A20 and A31,  Rockchip RK3188 (4x Cortex A9), Qualcomm MSM8226 & MSM8626, Broadcom BCM21664T (2x Cortex A9), MediaTek announced MT6589, a quad-core Cortex A7 System on a Chip (SoC) with Imagination Technologies PowerVR Series5XT GPU that targets mid to high-end Android smartphones and tablets.

Mediatek MT6589 also integrates a multi-mode UMTS Rel. 8/HSPA+/TD-SCDMA modem developed in-house, Mediatek’s 4-in-1 connectivity combo (802.11n Wi-Fi, BT4.0, GPS and FM), and a multimedia subsystem that supports 1080p 30fps/30fps low-power video playback and recording, a 13MP Camera with Integrated ISP, up to FHD (1920×1080) LCD displays, and enhanced picture processing for DTV-grade image quality. This SoC also features MediaTek’s “Cool 3D” suite for support for stereo 3D cameras and displays & real-time 2D-to-3D, as well as  support for Miracast technology.

The first devices based on MediaTek MT6589 should be available in Q1 2013.

Engadget had a sample smartphone, and compared the performance to existing dual and quad core Cortex A9 processor with several benchmarks (Antutu, Vellamo and Quadrant). The results show that, as expected, a quad core Cortex A7 can’t quite match the performance of quad core Cortex A9 processor in any of the benchmark, but is still significantly faster than a dual core Cortex A9 according to Antutu 2 & 3, but still slower with Quadrant and Vellamo. This probably depends on how well different benchmark handle multi-cores, and the weight given to the GPU and other metrics.

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