quad-core

At its silicon core, the fourth-generation iPad is hardly an incremental upgrade, according to chip analysts.

The new iPad's A6X chip packs a brand-new graphics engine that boasts a serious step up in horsepower from the third-generation iPad's A5X.

"Nothing's incremental about this. The A6X is one massive processing machine," Jim Morrison, a product manager at Chipworks, which does reverse engineering and patent-infringement analysis of semiconductors and electronic systems, told CNET.

Chipworks posted an analysis of the A6X's circuit layout today.

Apple's newest chip is a full 30 percent larger than the A6 … Read more

Qualcomm announced today that a yet-to-be-unveiled LG quad-core phone will be powered by its own Snapdragon S4 Pro.

Though the company told CNET that it can't comment on the device until LG makes its an official announcement, it did say that the handset is "currently in production" and will be sold in Korea in September. It will launch globally sometime afterward.

Despite how little there is to know about the handset, we're excited nonetheless. And if it's going to be anything like LG's first quad-core phone, the LG 4X HD, it'll be sure … Read more

On the heels of last week's global launch, Samsung has officially announced U.S. pricing for its 10-inch Galaxy Note tablet.

The tablet, whose standout feature is its pressure-sensitive S Pen stylus and compatible apps, comes in two colors, deep gray and white. It also comes in two storage capacities. A 16GB model costs $499, but $549 gets you 32GB for your movies, music, photos, and apps. An additional $50 for double the internal memory is a nice, juicy carrot to upsell customers to the pricier model. (The Apple's iPad pricing runs along similar lines: the $499 entry-level … Read more

Qualcomm's first quad-core Snapdragon chip has arrived in a tablet -- but only for those with $1,300 burning a hole in their pockets and developers.

The tablet packs an APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 quad-core chip -- one of the most highly-anticipated quad-core ARM processors. Why? Because Qualcomm S4 silicon -- currently dual-core -- can be found in popular mobile devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S III and the HTC One S.

The S4 is also slated to appear in the 4G version of the Asus Transformer Pad Infinity tablet.

And that means, of course, we can expect the quad-core … Read more

Sources in the industry speaking with DigiTimes (via AppleInsider) have reportedly been expecting the competition in the smartphone world to heat up around the adoption of quad-core processors as early as this year's holiday quarter.

HTC, Samsung, LG, and China's Meizu already have quad-core processors in their phones, leading industry sources to believe that indeed, Apple will have to include a new chip to stay competitive.

That new iPhone is largely expected to be released this fall.

While its competition is mostly using Qualcomm's dual-core technology (quad-core is forthcoming later this year), Apple is expected to use … Read more

Seems like customers in Korea will have their LTE and eat it, too.

The Samsung Galaxy S3, globally offered as a quad-core device without LTE, will now be available with LTE capabilities on Monday for three Korean carriers: KT, LG U+, and SK Telecom.

In the United States, major carriers (save for T-Mobile) do offer the S3 on LTE, but these models are powered by a dual-core CPU instead.

According to Samsung, it will also bump up the new S3's RAM from 1GB to 2GB, but it will retain the same 2,100mAh battery.

Recently, I haven't been so impressed with a string of LG phones. Though a lot of them are good, solid handsets, none of them have wowed me.

That is, until now.

I mentioned the LG Optimus 4X HD back in February, when it was going by the name LG X3. It was rumored to have a quad-core CPU and I'm glad the rumors were true.

Its 1.5GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor from Nvidia makes it impressively snappy. Not only does it launch and quit graphics-heavy gaming apps like nobody's business, but the 8-megapixel camera is stupid … 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

Though we've see a decent selection of quad-core smartphones so far in 2012, Nvidia says there are a lot more to come.

Speaking at the company's annual investor meeting, Nvidia General Manager Mike Rayfield indicated that his company hopes to deliver 30 Tegra 3 handsets this year. Beyond just being faster and performing better, the new crop of smartphones also will be less expensive than earlier models.

Indeed, any new superphones can't come soon enough for Android early adopters in the United States. Even with high benchmarks and accolades, there's still a small contingent of users … Read more