ARM’s promise with Cortex A-9 chips has been tremendous. Will they really keep up with modern games, especially the pace there moving at today? Not only does it support the newest CPU’s available, similar to the ones’s Samsung is working on. It will also include a much improved (and needed) GPU improvement for video quality in games, this will be likely on tablets and high-end smartphones.
Amalogic’s newest chip will provide 3D gaming on mobile system on a chip devices, similar to the HD2, Vibrant (part 2) or Droid 2. It’s the next step up from the aging 65nm technology found in the older processors as not only has the die been shrunken using the new 45nm process making it power-efficient over it’s predecessor, allowing it to run at lower frequencies and still keep up, as seen in the G2 with its 778mhz processor. Not only does this mean power is saved, heat shouldn’t be as much a problem either.
“Sometimes it’s not just about delivering the fastest frequency or even the lowest power consumption,” said Michael Mo, senior director of business development at Amlogic, the up and coming graphics developer. “Compelling consumer products are created by delivering the right mix of performance and features at the right price.” and he backs up these claims with the impressive features listed below in the specs.
It seems that Amalogic’s rather eloquently named AML8726-M GPU will also have native support for 10/100 mbps Ethernet, two USB OTG interface, 3-in-1 Card Readers for multiple removable memory storage support and native SATA interface support. SATA interface will most likely be used in tablets with hard drives because of the nature of SATA, being not typically used in smaller devices. It has potential for Smartbooks/Linux applications. It seems Samsung and Apple stand to be competing in the mobile GPU wars finally against something other than Qualcomm’s/AMD’s Adreno 205, lackluster in any comparison. ARM’s newest chipsets offer many new and compelling features that alone are worth the upgrade.
The Cortex A9 chip adds native support for: (Similar to Samsung’s Orion)
- 1080P video for H.264, VC-1, WMV, MPEG1/2/4 and will also support full 1080P HDMI output, presumably for HDMI pass through to 5.1 recievers.
- Ability to run Android 2.2, as well as other Linux distributions and will have full support for OpenGL ES 2.0.
- Browser will support HTML5, Adobe Flash 10.1 and Adobe Air.
Source: Breitbart.com
