ITE 221 - Spring 2012 - Chapter 6

My Chapter 6 blog is related to the subject of multicore processing. Published on PCWorld.com in December 2011, my article describes trending more multicore processors in smartphones for 2012. While in 2011 "dual-core" processors became the "standard for high-and smartphones, in 2012 it's all about quad-core.  At the time this article was published, there was only one actual quad-core product on the market, Nvidia's Asus EEE Pad Transformer Prime TF201 tablet.  This Nvidia tablet is the first device to hit the market with Nvidia's 1.3 GHz Tegra 3 quad-core processor; the product was praised for its "stunning graphics" and superfast processing speed. Nvidia was tight lipped about when their quad core phones would be released, but noted they were on track for Q1 2012.  QUALCOMM was also slated to release its quad core snapdragon chip, the APQ064 (part of their S4 line), in 2012.  The S4 chips run specs indicate that they run at clock speeds between 1.5 GHz and 2.5 GHz.  The article author questioned whether more cores are indeed better. According to Nvidia, a quad-core processor will "bring your phone level of performance comparable to that of desktop computer." One argument against quad-core mobile devices is that not enough content is optimized to fully take advantage of the CPUs power. When looking for examples of applications that could fully take advantage of quad-core processors, gaming is often a popular example. Quad-core processors are able support apps that run multiple processes at once, allowing the user a more fluid experience with more high-quality graphics.  Another challenge is battery life. Processors are evolving at an exponential rate and batteries are having difficulty keeping up. Both Nvidia and QUALCOMM they that they are adapting their system cores to handle different processes at different power levels (i.e. when you open an e-mail versus accessing a flash-based website with video).

My article link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/246011/quadcore_phones_what_to_expect_in_2012.html