Samsung debuts 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 based processors

Posted on Tuesday, September 22 2009 @ 19:00 CEST by Thomas De Maesschalck
Samsung introduced two new 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 based processors, the S5PC110 and S5PV210. The S5PC110 is intended for multimedia intensive smartphones, while the S5PV210 is targeted at netbooks and other portable computing devices.
“More and more, user generated content currently accessed via the PC will be spread to mobile devices,” said Dr. Kwang Hyun Kim, senior vice president, strategic marketing team, System LSI Division, Samsung Electronics. “PC-level performance with lower power consumption will become mainstream requirements for advanced mobile devices. Samsung developed S5PC110 and S5PV210 application processors to satisfy these conflicting requirements to enable a new level of user experience not previously possible.”

Both the S5PC110 and S5PV210 ensure longer battery life for mobile devices running on standard size batteries through a variety of low power technologies, including the use of a 45-nanometer (nm) Low Power fabrication process and intricate low power architectures. Each of these application processors comes with 32KB data and 32KB instruction caches, and is equipped with a 512KB L2 cache. With the 1GHz clock speed and large size L2 cache, these processors enable real-time applications such as web browsing and user interface (UI) to run smoothly with a fast response time.

High speed 3D graphics rendering and high resolution video support are two key differentiating features for advanced mobile devices. Both the S5PC110 and S5PV210 are equipped with a powerful built-in 3D graphics engine to support sophisticated 3D UI and high-caliber games. In addition, the two processors integrate a 1080p full HD codec engine that supports 30fps full HD video playback and recording. A built-in HDMI1.3 interface allows output of captured or downloaded mobile multimedia contents to an external high definition digital display.

These two new application processors also feature a wide variety of interfaces and peripherals to maximize design flexibility and reduce system BOM cost of targeted mobile devices. In particular, a high speed USB 2.0 host interface is integrated for hosting various USB peripheral devices.

Targeted for small form factor mobile devices, the S5PC110 is housed in a 0.5mm pitch, 14X14mm2 FBGA package that allows package-on-package vertical stacking of low power, multiple chip package (MCP) memory such as OneDRAM™, mobile DDR and LP DDR2, greatly reducing the overall foot print of the memory and processor combo.

Designed for portable computing applications, the S5PV210 is packaged in a 0.65mm pitch, 17X17mm2 FBGA package with a high performance 2-channel 32-bit DDR2 memory interface that is essential for computing devices.

Customer samples of both products will be available in December, 2009.


About the Author

Thomas De Maesschalck

Thomas has been messing with computer since early childhood and firmly believes the Internet is the best thing since sliced bread. Enjoys playing with new tech, is fascinated by science, and passionate about financial markets. When not behind a computer, he can be found with running shoes on or lifting heavy weights in the weight room.



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