Samsung Exynos 5 Octa (eight core)
You may be familiar with the Exynos 4 Quad (or maybe not). It’s the processor driving many of Samsung’s high-end phones and tablets outside the U.S., including the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 8.0. We were expecting its eight-core sister chip, the Exynos 5 Octa, to make more of a splash this year, but sadly it hasn’t happened.
The eight-core Exynos 5 Octa powers the i9500 version of the Galaxy S4 and the N9500 Galaxy Note 3, versions which are sold only in a few markets around the world. Initially believed to be an issue related to 4G LTE connectivity, it’s now thought production volumes are to blame for its lack of international availability.
While it’s called an eight-core chip, the Exynos 5 Octa is effectively two quad-core chips nailed together using ARM’s Big Little concept. Without getting too technical, here’s how this works: When demand on the processor is low, everything is handled by the “Little” 1.2GHz quad-core chip, but when things get more stressful, a “Big” 1.8GHz quad-core chip (based on the same ARM Cortex A15 architecture as the Tegra 4) takes over. The benefits are similar to the Tegra 3′s little companion core, as it results in lower energy consumption when the phone is performing basic tasks.
At first, the Exynos 5 Octa could only use four cores at a time, but an updated version uses a new technique to enable all eight to work together.
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