Samsung Unleashes 28 nm Octacore Chip for Smartphones, Tablets

From DailyTech: Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (KSC:005930) has at last fully pulled the wraps off its long bragged about upcoming octacore (8-core) offering which it teased at during the 2013 Consume Electronics Show. The new chip -- destined for the company's premium smartphones and tablets -- has four high power cores and four lower power cores, coupled with a brand-new hexacore (6-core) GPU, which Samsung is licensing from ARM Holdings plc (LON:ARM).

The new processor was unveiled at the SIGGRAPH 2013 computer graphics industry conference in Anaheim, Calif. Samsung revealed it is currently sampling and will ship in August at mass production volumes.

Samsung System LSI marketing VP Taehoon Kim brags, "Demand for richer graphic experiences is growing rapidly nowadays. In order to meet that demand from both OEMs and end users, we developed this processor which enables superb graphical performance without compromising power consumption."

In lieu of its rocky relationship with Apple, Inc. (AAPL), its biggest client, Samsung's semiconductor (LSI) unit is heavily marketing its 28 nm fabs and new Exynos system-on-a-chip (SoC) products to Chinese OEMs. Samsung is currently in the process of developing 14 nm technologies, which it hopes to bring to production in 2015.

One likely first target for the Exynos 5420 is the Galaxy S IV "Advanced" variant. This unannounced, but much rumored smartphone is expected to be launched in the early fall to counter Apple's iPhone 5S.

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