New developments in the processor technology – Quad-core processors replace dual-core

One thing to know about the mobile computing is that it is evolving week after week. Not far the days when dual-core processors were considered the next big thing in the market, and it is not that far away, just 2011. Now that NVIDIA has offered quad-core processors, the 2011 models look the thing of the past.

NVIDIA has been the first to introduce its quad-core processor in the market in HTC One X and Huawei Ascend D Quad, which is soon to arrive in the US market. Since, the HTC One X is not going to be the quad-core version in the US, Huawei might be the first company to launch such technology in North America.

However, it is eminent to understand what the dual-core and quad-core technology differ in them and what possibly advantage does the new technology brings to the market. However, the new technology is the advancement and progressive upgrade to the dual-core.

First of all, the new quad-core is the basic brainchild of ARM, a company that designs the schematics of the processors, multi- or single core. The ARM processors are then incorporated into a single chip that is called System on a Chip, or SoC. These SoCs are then complimented by RAM and Graphics Processing Units or GPUs, at the discretion of the device manufacturer. Remember, the latter part is not the work of processor manufacturer or the processor designer, in this case NVIDIA or ARM respectively, but the companies like HTC, Samsung, Motorola, Apple.

The general notion is that the more we have the cores, the more we make the smartphone or tablet efficient. In the retrospect it could have been true but as the thinking process develops we come to have epiphanies. The latest of which is that though the applications run faster, they are not so energy efficient and multi-tasking is dependent on the app’s multi-threading capabilities and processors ability to distribute the app to different cores.

Therefore, the expression; more is better does not fit the details. What smartphone manufacturers have to do is to design the circuitry in a manner to divide the work among different cores. That way the processes can be run quickly.

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Posted by Usman Khalid on Apr 11 2012. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.