Mediatek MT8173 is a big.LITTLE Cortex A72 / A53 Quad Core Processor for Tablets

Mediatek MT8173 first showed up in the Linux kernel as a quad core Cortex A57 / A53 processor, but now that Mediatek has officially announced the processor, it turns out the Cortex A57 cores are actually the new Cortex A72 cores, with a similar architecture, but more powerful, about 1.8 times faster. Key features listed by the company: Processor – Heterogeneous 64-bit Multi-Core big.LITTLE architecture up to 2.4GHz featuring ARM Cortex-A72 and ARM Cortex-A53 64-bit CPU. Big cores and LITTLE cores can run at full speed at the same time for peak performance requirement GPU – Imagination PowerVR GX6250 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL. Performance:  350Mtri/s and 2.8 Gpix/s. Display Support WQXGA display (2560×1600) up to 60 Hz with TV-grade picture quality enhancement. Up to 120 Hz mobile display for other resolutions. HDMI and Miracast support for multi-screen applications Video – Ultra HD 30fps H.264/HEVC(10-bit)/VP9 hardware video […]

Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon 650 and 652 ARM Cortex A72 / A53 Processors

[Update: Title updated to reflect the new names of the processors. Snapdragon 618 is now Snapdragon 650, and 620 is now 652 to reflect the better Cortex A72 cores used in those processors] Qualcomm has announced four new processors including Snapdragon 415 and 425 octa-core Cortex A53 processor, as well a Snapdragon 618 and 620 big.LITTLE processor with the latest Cortex A72 cores coupled with four Cortex A53 little cores. Snapdragon 618 is the hexa-core version with 2 Cortex A72 cores, while Snapdragon 620 comes with eight cores including 4 Cortex A72, but apart from the difference in number of cores, both share the same technical specifications: CPU Snapdragon 618 – 64-bit dual-core ARM Cortex A72 @ 1.8GHz  and quad-core Cortex A53 @ 1.2GHz Snapdragon 620 – 64-bit quad-core ARM Cortex A72 @ 1.8GHz  and quad-core Cortex A53 @ 1.2GHz GPU – Next generation Qualcomm Adreno GPU with support for […]

Nvidia Tegra X1 Gets About 75,000 Points in Antutu

Nvidia Tegra X1 was expected to outperform the competition, but based on Antutu results provided by Mydrivers, the performance leap might be greater than expected, as Nvidia Tegra X1 reference tablet gets 74,997 points in Antutu 5.6.1. As usual caution is warranted with Antutu results, as the benchmark is easily cheated, which explains why Allwinner A80T devices can get over 140,000 points. But let’s assume Tegra X1 result is representative and compare it to its predecessor the Tegra K1. Surprisingly I struggled to find a detailed Antutu 5.x score for the Nexus 9, and I had to get the scores from that video with Antutu 5.2.0. Nexus 9 (Tegra K1 64-bit) Tegra X1 Reference Platform Ratio Antutu 57040 74977 1.31x Multitask 11817 9217 0.78x Runtime 4146 4758 1.15x CPU integer 3038 11295 3.72x CPU float-point 1939 7274 3.75x Single-thread integer 2920 3206 1.10x Single-thread float-point 2831 2878 1.02x RAM operations […]

Winbook TW700 Windows 8.1 Tablet with micro HDMI, Full Size USB Port Sells for $60

MeegoPad T01, Pipo X7, MeLE PCG03, MINIX NEO Z64, etc.. you could name a pretty long list of Intel Bay Trail-T Z3735 mini PCs running Windows 8.1… They all cost above $100, but the ones that include a valid Windows 8.1 license usually cost closer to $150. That’s because contrary to the Windows 8.1 with Bing on small tablets that comes free and with a one-year subscription to office 365, Windows 8.1 with Bing on mini PCs adds about $30 to the price, and it does not even include a one-year subscription. So using a tablet as a mini PC should be cheaper, even with the extra touchscreen display and battery. And as I checked out Liliputing’s list of cheap Windows tablets, Winbook TW700 stood out as it sells for just $60 on Micro-center (US only) or $70 on Amazon US, and features a mini HDMI port, a full-sized USB […]

ARM Unveils Cortex A72 Processor and Mali-T880 GPU

ARM has just announced their new Cortex A72 ARMv8 core with 3.5 times the performance of Cortex A15 ARMv7 cores, together with Mali-T880 GPU delivering 1.8 times the performance of  Mali-T760, and CoreLink CCI-500 Cache Coherent Interconnect to link the new CPU, GPU and I/Os together. ARM Cortex A72 Some of the key features of the new core include: Architecture – ARMv8-A Multicore – 1-4x SMP within a single processor cluster, and multiple coherent SMP processor clusters through AMBA 5 CHI or AMBA 4 ACE technology ISA Support AArch32 for full backward compatibility with ARMv7 AArch64 for 64-bit support and new architectural features TrustZone security technology NEON Advanced SIMD DSP & SIMD extensions VFPv4 Floating point Hardware virtualization support Cache – 48KB I-cache, 32KB D-cache, and 512 KB to 2MB L2 cache with ECC Debug & Trace – CoreSight DK-A57 Process – 16nm FinFET A cluster can support up to […]

Actions Semi Introduces Quad Core 64-bit ATM9009 Processor for Tablets and TV Boxes

2015 will clearly be the year of 64-bit ARM processors, and one more company has now announced yet another ARMv8 SoC. Action Semi ATM9009 features four Cortex A53 cores coupled with an Imagination Technologies PowerVR GPU and targets entry-level and mid-range tablets and TV boxes, and certainly not high-end products as per the press release. The key features of ATM9009 include: Processor – Quad core Cortex A53 processor to 1.8 GHz GPU – PowerVR G6230 up to 600 MHz with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0/3.0, OpenCL 1.1, and DirectX 10 Memory I/F – eMMC 4.5, NAND flash controller, 4x SD/SDIO controller, DDR3/DDR3L and  LPDDR2/LPDDR1 (Up to 8GB RAM) Video – HEVC/H.265 video decoding up to 30 fps, H.265 encoder up to 1080p60 Display / Video Ouptut – LCD controller up to 4K, HDMI 1.4, MHL 2.1, dual channel LVDS , MIPI DSI, eDP up to 2560×1600 Camera I/F – MIPI […]

Meet the First Nvidia Tegra X1 “Tablet”: Nabi Big Tab XL

Nvidia announced their latest Tegra X1 processor at CES 2015 earlier this week, and after showcasing it’s computing and power-saving capabilities, the company focus on its applications: automotive dashboard and driverless cars. Nothing about tablets, or gaming consoles, probably because these two are more cost sensitive than the automotive market. But finally, we’ll see at least one tablet powered by TX1: Nabi Big Tabs. I say “tablet”, but at 55″ to 65″, it’s more like a TV with a touchscreen… Fuhu actually announced four TV sized Big Tab XL tablets. The “small” ones with 32″ and 42″ FullHD displays come with a Tegra K1, while the larger ones (55″ and 65″ / 4K UHD) are powered by a Tegra X1 processor. Here are some of the specs for the tablets: SoC Nvidia Tegra K1 quad-core Cortex A15 processor @ 2.3GHz with 192-core Kepler GPU or Nvidia Tegra X1 octa-core Cortex […]

AllWinner A64 is a $5 Quad Core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 SoC for Tablets

Allwinner already announced H64 octa-core Cortex A53 processor for OTT boxes together with Nobel64 development board in the last quarter of last year, and the Chinese silicon manufacturer has now introduced Allwinner A64 quad core Cortex A53 processor for entry-level tablets, as the processor will only cost $5 per unit in large quantities. As usual, Allwinner only provided a subset of information for their first announcement, and some technical details like the GPU are unknown. Key features listed for Allwinner A64: 64-bit Cortex-A53 architecture Supports H.265/H.264 video decoding in hardware, and supports HDMI 4K display Supports various DDR memory types, making the BOM cost more competitive Supports eMMC 5.0 for better IO performance and enhanced data throughput capacity Allwinner SmartColor display technology for more vivid and eye-pleasing visual experience Supports Trusted Firmware security architecture from ARM The company is finally moving to a device tree enabled kernel with Linux 3.10, and Allwinner 64-bit ARM tablets will also run Android 5.0 Lollipop. Hopefully, this processor implements proper H.265 hardware decoding, not GPU accelerated decoding as in Allwinner A80 processor. Interestingly neither Allwinner A64, nor Rockchip RK3368 announced recently, support VP9, despite it being the codec of […]

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