Marvell launches tri-core ARM chip

Fudzilla ^ | Thursday, 23 September 2010 11:17 | Peter Scott

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Armada overkill

Marvell has announced the world’s first ARM tri-core processor, the Armada 628.

The 1.5GHz part should deliver excellent performance for high end smartphones and tablets, but there is a twist. Only two of its cores are clocked at 1.5GHz, while the third one runs at 624MHz. Marvell claims the third, low power core handles routine tasks and takes some of the load off the 1.5GHz cores. So basically it’s something like an intern or an office temp.

The Armada 628 supports 1080p playback, which isn’t surprising considering the specs. Marvell also claims the new chip will allow vendors to integrate HDMI and USB 3.0 ports into their designs.  It’s even got a rudimentary 3D engine with four unified shaders, but don’t expect you’ll do much gaming on it.

The Armada 628 should start shipping sometime next year and there’s no word on design wins yet.

[GraceG]

could be used to make better receiver boxes.

[antiRepublicrat]

Current chips like the Hummingbird will already do 1080P with one 1 GHz core, a dedicated SIMD unit and a very powerful GPU. If just playing video is the most important, use a low-power ARM core with a PowerVR VXD380, or a VXE380 if you want encoding too. Both do 1080P.

[Raymann]

Well this will be much better suited to multitasking, especially for all the upcoming productivity tablets. Running HD video is cool, running it with a browser and Office apps in the background is better.

[Zeppo]

Marvell claims the third, low power core handles routine tasks and takes some of the load off the 1.5GHz cores. So basically it’s something like an intern or an office temp.

Can it type? Does it take dictation? Wait until Clinton gets his hands on one of them...

[antiRepublicrat]

Well this will be much better suited to multitasking, especially for all the upcoming productivity tablets

I was thinking of the set top box aspect since the PowerVR bits completely offload the video encoding and decoding, leaving the CPU free for other things. This tri-core arrangement would be good to extend battery life in a high-power tablet, although I think a dual-core ARM with clock stepping tech would be a more elegant solution. It would also be a faster (and easier on the batteries) solution if it contained proper SIMD, video and 3D components.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Marvell press Release:

Marvell® ARMADA™ 628.

*******************************EXCERPT***********************************

Marvell's ARMADA 628 tri-core CPU comprises a complete SoC design – a first for the industry.  In addition to the tri-core CPU, there are six additional processing engines to support stunning 3D graphics, 1080p video encode/decode, ultra high fidelity audio, advanced cryptography, and digital photo data processing – for a total of nine dedicated core functions.  

The ARMADA 628 is also designed to be the first mobile CPU to provide high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity, which offers 10x faster performance than USB 2.0.  

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Just think how much more they can cram into the same real estate when the Taiwan foundries get smaller than what they are currently doing...most at 40 nm...I think.

[OldMissileer]

OK. Don’t flame me too much but I want to know why people want to watch HD on small screens? I understand the travel aspect but when I upgraded my home to HD I bought LARGE screen TVs to use the HD technology.

I don’t travel any more but when I did I worked my butt off during the daytime and then ran a few miles, read books and rested after all the meetings. A nice way to decompress.

YMMV.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

From slashgear:

Marvell unleashes tri-core Armada 628 processor for smartphones and tablets

**********************************EXCERPT************************************

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well the marketers think they have figured out a market....from the link at 310:

************************************EXCERPT************************************

The processor is able to play more than ten hours of full 1080p HD video or 140 hours of music on a single charge and still provide 3GHz of raw computational power. The processor also has six processing engines to support 3D graphics, 1080p video encode/decide, hi-fi audio, advanced cryptography, and digital photo data processing. There are nine dedicated core functions. The processor will also provide USB 3.0 connectivity. The processor is available for sampling right now.