Samsung's upcoming Galaxy S4 handset could be powered by the company's new Exynos 5 Octa system-on-chip processor, if new leaked details are correct.
The processor, which is also believed to power the soon-to-be-released Galaxy Note 3 phablet device, isn't an eight-core chip in the traditional sense: as well as four high-performance processing cores based on ARM's Cortex-A15 design, it apparently includes a further four Cortex-A7 cores processing cores that offer less power but require less energy to operate. When the smartphone is running a processor-intensive application, such as a 3D game, the high-performance cores activate; when the phone is being used for less intensive work, such as making a call or listening to music, the high-performance cores are deactivated and the low-power cores used instead. However, only one set of four cores can be active at once.
The design is part of a system ARM calls big.LITTLE, similar to the 'companion core' concept found in Nvidia's Tegra 3 and 4 processors, but Samsung is the first company to attempt to launch an eight-core device into smartphones and tablets.
According to details posted to the AnTuTu Benchmark site, the Samsung Galaxy S4 will feature the model number GT-I9500. No other details were made public by the benchmark results, but previous rumours claim that the handset may feature a new 4.99in display with a Full HD 1080p resolution, 2GB of RAM and a high-resolution 13-megapixel rear-facing camera. The handset is expected to launch with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean as its operating system, becoming one of the first non-Nexus devices to feature the latest build of Google's popular mobile platform.
Thus far, Samsung has not commented on the rumours surrounding its Galaxy S4 handset plans. - source
