A giant step has been taken in the extension of mobile device utility. The game is set to change in a big way. A few months ago, Marvell Technology Group Ltd., the company that supplied the Wi-Fi chip for the original (1st generation) Apple iPhone, announced it had developed the world’s first tri-coreapplication processor. The processor is called the Armada 628 and its design delivers the greatly anticipated next step in the mobile device experience. It will give an all-around richer experience to smartphones with performance that is faster and smoother than all other ARM-based processors on the market today.
About the Armada 628
For the techies, here are all the key features listed in the company’s press release:
- Up to 1.5 GHz for the two main cores and 624 MHz for the third low power core
- “Heterogeneous multiprocessing” with “hardware-based Cache Coherence”
- 1 MB System Level 2 Cache
- Platform leading multimedia capabilities, including support for both WMMX2 and NEON acceleration; and a highly optimized pipelined VFPv3 floating point engine
- Member of the ARMADA family of processors for easy software porting
- 1080p dual stream 3D video applications (30 FPS, multi-format)
- Ultimate 3D graphics performance with quad unified shaders for 200 million triangles per second (MT/s)
- High performance, integrated image signal processor (ISP)
- Ability to project images on multiple simultaneous displays
- 2 LCDs
- 1 HDMI
- 1 advanced EPD controller
- Peripherals support: USB 3.0 Superspeed Client, MIPI CSI, MIPI DSI, HDMI with integrated PHY, UniPro, Slimbus, SPMI
The company already supplies the chips that run most of Research in Motion Ltd.’s (RIMM, RIM.T) BlackBerry smartphones. So it’s no surprise that the new chip supports Blackberry OS, but it also can run with Android, Linux, Windows Mobile, and full Adobe Flash. The ARMADA 628 is also the first mobile System-on-a-Chip (SOC) to include USB 3.0 support, which gives ten times more speed than a USB 2.0, adding more glam to its already impressive credentials.
The ARMADA 628′s graphics processing unit (GPU) can push about 200 million triangles per second. To put that into perspective, consider the fact the iPhone 4 has the graphic ability to push 90 million triangles per second and the Playstation 3 which has a GPU that pushes 250 million triangles a second. The 628′s GPU, plus the three Sheeva PJ4 cores, means that it lets the user of the device it is powering experience console/PC-caliber gaming performance in 1080p HD graphics, in the palm of their hand.
The surprising nature of this tri-core wireless processor continues in its power consumptions. Not only does the 628 not break the limited power budget of traditional smartphones, tablets, and other mobiles, but due to the simplicity associated with its 32 bit reduced instruction set ARM Architecture, it surpasses power expectations.
This type of architecture is like crossing a hybrid car with a muscle car. It can accelerate on a dime when asked, but also delivers tremendous gas mileageall along the way. The actual focus of the new process was on lower power consumption. So to translate its energy usage into real life terms, Marvell’s new tri-core can allow the user to watch 10 hours of 1080p HD video or listen to 140 hours of music on a single charge. The 628 can do this, all while providing 3GHz of computing power.
The company says the ARMADA 628 is currently available for sampling to customers and to gain more information on getting your hands on one to visit the company’s website, but so far their processor product page hasn’t been updated to include the ARMADA 628.
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By Jon Ryan of ReversePhoneLookup.com, which offers users a way to find
corresponding information on a phone number for free.
