Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd, a globally recognized leader in the electronics industry has just introduced the new 1GHz ARM CORTEXTM A9-based dual core application processor bearing the codename Orion.
This processor has been specifically designed to meet the growing demands of high-performance and low-power mobile applications such as smartphones, netbook and tablets. Samsung was also behind the Hummingbird application processor, which is believed to be one of the best processors for mobile devices at present. And now that they have introduced the Orion, we can expect that it would be as good as or even better than its predecessor.
Basically, the new Samsung Orion processor promises a superb application performance that will deliver excellent multimedia experience, faster CPU processing speed and an abundant memory bandwidth. It was developed using a 45-nm process technology so it is expected to have a more significant performance boost than that of the ARM Cortex-A8 without sacrificing a good battery life (a very important factor in mobile computing).
Moreover, this new Samsung Orion processor comes with the following features to boast of:
- Comes with a video encoder/decoder that supports 30fps video playback and recording at 1080p full HD resolution
- Uses an enhanced graphics processing unit, which is capable of delivering up to five times the 3D graphics performance of the Hummingbird
- Supports two on-device display screens while still supporting an external display such as a TV or monitor via an HDMI output port
In addition to these, the Orion has been also integrated with a set of the most commonly used interfaces among mobile devices, which makes it more flexible and able to configure various peripheral functionalities as well.
With this processor, users will be given the option to use different storage types including NAND Flash, movi NANDTM, SSD or HDD and as well as choose among the most appropriate memory options available. A global positioning system receiver baseband processor was also embedded in its circuitry in order to support location-based services – another significant feature in most mobile applications.
The Orion will be available to selected customers within the fourth quarter and mass production is expected to occur in 2011. With this, we may expect that the next generation of Galaxy smartphones may also be powered by their very own Orion processor. Sony Ericsson’s Playstation phone is also rumored to include this new Orion processor under the hood.
The Orion processor looks very promising based on the aforementioned features. However, it is still too early to tell how the new Samsung Orion processor will change the way we use our mobile devices. For now, we’ll just have to wait for a mobile device with the Orion processor and see for ourselves if it will be able to deliver the kind of performance it has promised.
