exynos

Think Apple's A6 chip packs a punch? It appears to have some stiff competition from Samsung's Exynos 5 Octa, slated for commercial production in the second quarter, the company announced today.

Featured in Samsung's Galaxy S4, Octa means it integrates a whopping eight CPU cores. Apple's A6 has two, by comparison.

While a raw core count comparison may be too simplistic, Samsung's chip, on paper, should make Apple worry -- especially since Samsung is simultaneously manufacturing the Exynos chip and Apple's A6.

The Exynos 5 Octa uses technology from chip designer ARM called big.LITTLE. … Read more

If the Samsung Galaxy S4 follows in the same path as the S3, we should see two variants of the Android phone with different internals.

Like the S3, the international version of the S4 will likely carry Samsung silicon, while an LTE version in the U.S. opts for a Qualcomm processor.

While we won't know until Thursday what's inside precisely (and we may initially only know the precise specs of the international version), there are two candidates based on reports, including one from J.P. Morgan.

Whatever the case, there's no doubt the S4's high-resolution … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--Not content with dual- or even quad-core CPUs, Samsung has upped the ante with its Exynos 5 Octa. Announced at CES 2013, the Octa is the latest iteration of the Exynos line and will likely begin powering Samsung's tablets in the next few months.

The Nexus 10 seats the current most powerful Samsung CPU, the Exynos 5 Dual. That chip houses two CPU cores and was made using the A15 fab process. The Octa powers eight CPU cores (four A7s and four A15s).

At its booth ARM had the CPU running canned benchmarks, demonstrating the relative core-by-core stress. … Read more

Samsung CEO Stephen Woo unveiled a new super 8-core micro processor during a keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas today.

The Exynos5 Octa is a processor that has two sets of four-core processors each. It's made to run intense apps while also conserving energy when handling basic tasks, Woo told the audience. He showed off a few demos of the new processor. The key function of the chip is to allow users to do several things at once while also making sure that the battery is not drained too quickly.

In one demo, he showed … Read more

Samsung has issued a software update to address a nasty vulnerability found in a handful of smartphones that allowed attackers access to user data and left the handset vulnerable to malicious apps and bricking.

The vulnerability, which was discovered last month, lies in Exynos 4, the ARM-based system-on-a-chip typically found in Samsung smartphones and tablets. An exploit bypasses the system permissions, allowing any app to extract data from the device's RAM or inject malicious code into the kernel of a Galaxy S3. But other devices using the Exynos 4 were also found to be vulnerable, including select Galaxy S2 … Read more

Samsung plans to fix a potential security risk for a number of Android smartphones that feature specific Samsung-made Exynos processors.

The security exploit, first uncovered earlier in the week, opens the door for hackers and other ne'er-do-wells to take control of the system RAM and root the device. Once rooted, the phone or tablet would be susceptible to a variety of malicious activities, such as installing additional apps.

Thus far, only the Exynos 4210 and 4412 processors were found to be vulnerable to the one-click rooting; however, there are quite a few Samsung products that fall under this umbrella. … Read more

The Samsung's Galaxy S III's vast 4.8-inch screen sits atop a quad-core processor and Sony camera, among other goodies exposed in detail via a chipworks teardown.

Before we dive into the specs, let's be clear. For a phone, it's big. Big enough to be brushing up against 5-inch mini tablets.

"I'd say it does verge on being unnecessarily large, but thankfully it isn't as ludicrously big as the Samsung Galaxy Note with its 5.3-inch screen," said CNET"s Jessica Dolcourt in her review of the phone.

And note this … Read more

Electronics heavyweight Samsung will put quad-core silicon in its next Galaxy smartphone, upping the ante for mobile performance.

The Exynos 4 Quad integrates four processor cores and is built on the company's cutting-edge 32-nanometer manufacturing process. The chip will run at speeds above 1.4GHz, the company said in a statement today.

As a yardstick, the third-generation iPad uses older 45-nanometer Samsung manufacturing tech and its central processing unit is dual-core (though the graphics processing unit is quad-core). And most multi-core smartphones and tablets on the market today are dual-core.

Samsung's new chip -- targeted at both tablets … Read more

Open up your wallet today and there are no fewer than five smartphones you can buy running on quad-core processors. Seven months ago, there was one, the HTC One X, and only if you bought the international version, which lacked the 4G LTE speeds coveted by U.S. phone-buyers.

After CES next month, expect the number of announced quad-core devices to double as the core war continues to heat up.

By summer, you may turn up your nose at perfectly fast devices running … Read more