Samsung Introduces 667 Mhz CPU

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.anandtech.com/news/shownews.aspx?i=23027' target='_blank'>http://www.anandtech.com/news/shown...ws.aspx?i=23027</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., the leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced mobile CPU with speeds of 667MHz. This mobile CPU is expected to enable diverse multimedia content in 3G mobile handheld devices such as smart phones and PDAs. By introducing a structured custom design methodology at the integrated circuit design and evaluation process levels, Samsung was able to increase the speed of its mobile CPU. To further support seamless real time video images and high-density multimedia services, the mobile CPU carries up to 64Kilo Bytes of cache memory."</i><br /><br />Excellent news! The Samsung processor is quite snappy, even at 200 mhz. I don't have the metrics on hand but I seem to remember it being faster than the Intel Xscale processor on a per-Mhz basis. This new CPU is 43 Mhz faster than the best Intel has to offer, and if the peformance metrics remain the same, it should be much faster in real-world tests. Way to go Samsung! Now all we need is a Pocket PC OEM to use it. :wink:

[Darius Wey]

This is one of those "wake-me-up" news calls I've been waiting for.

I love the Samsung processors used in the Pocket PCs at the moment. My iPAQ h1940 runs a S3C2410 266MHz and I'm very happy at its blazing performance. I wonder how 667MHz will please me. ;)

It's little wonder that the h1940 still gets touted as one of the better performing Pocket PCs out there. Samsung do a good job. :)

[jonathanchoo]

Hei, what about the palmOne 5-row with number row universal keyboard IrDA at US$70 news?

The Samsung processor sounds mildly interesting.

[badbob001]

Are xscale-optimized programs compatible with the samsung chips? Probably zero chance of seeing this non-intel chip in a dell axim. I wonder what 3d video chipset can the samsung be paired with. Most likely not intel's 2700G.

[whydidnt]

Great news, the more competition in this space the better, as far as I'm concerned. Intel has really been slow to improve these chips over the last several years, IMO.

Has anyone seen benchmarks of the 400 Mhz Samsung chip in the new iPaqs? I'd be curious to see how it performs compared to the X-Scale, which was only moderately faster than the original 206Mhz StrongArm Intel processor. If the 400 Mhz Samsung is indeed faster, then we really should be celebrating this announcement. :mrgreen:

[jngold_me]

I don't have the metrics on hand but I seem to remember it being faster than the Intel Xscale processor on a per-Mhz basis

That's not what some are saying about a device like the 3700 series. These were posted by someone on another board:

Spb CPU benchmark results:

2215 (pxa255 400mhz) : 1803.5
rx3715 (Samsung 2440 400mhz) : 1529.5

[Darius Wey]

That's not what some are saying about a device like the 3700 series. These were posted by someone on another board:

Spb CPU benchmark results:

2215 (pxa255 400mhz) : 1803.5
rx3715 (Samsung 2440 400mhz) : 1529.5

Bear in mind that the h2215 runs Windows Mobile 2003 First Edition, while the rx3715 runs Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. There are conflicting reports present, but off the top of my head, I do recall that the First Edition of WM2003 operates far more efficiently than the Second Edition of WM2003 at the moment. Hence, the higher benchmark of the h2215.

[Jason Dunn]

Hei, what about the palmOne 5-row with number row universal keyboard IrDA at US$70 news?

What are you talking about? :?

[picard]

I'd be curious to see how it performs compared to the X-Scale, which was only moderately faster than the original 206Mhz StrongArm Intel processor.
I think this was only the case for PXA250 which had a cache bug. Later X-Scales are faster.

[Jason Dunn]

Are xscale-optimized programs compatible with the samsung chips?

Yes, they're both ARM-based, and as such there should be no issues there.

Probably zero chance of seeing this non-intel chip in a dell axim. I wonder what 3d video chipset can the samsung be paired with. Most likely not intel's 2700G.

Indeed, I doubt we'll ever see a Samsung chip paired with a 2700G. Since it seems Samsung wants to go for the high-end of the PDA spectrum, they need to find someone to partner with for video acceleration.

[Darius Wey]

Hei, what about the palmOne 5-row with number row universal keyboard IrDA at US$70 news?

What are you talking about? :?

I was thinking the exact same thing. Maybe he thinks the PalmOne 5-row universal keyboard news is better than this Samsung news? :D Surely not. :p

[jonathanchoo]

It did not make me excited because it is just another processor. CPUs released for PDA markets never interest me because there are no retail versions of them. I love to build my own PC and get to choose my memory, CPU, chipset. But on PDAs, the choices are few. The Samsung might be a fast CPU (clock speed wise) but if it goes into a rubbish PDA then what is the point?

Also I rarely get excited about CPU paper release. PDA benchmarks are also flawed. To truely test a CPU performance one must meaure it using the same memory, same ROM, same OS and same motherboard. I consider the 'CPU' results publish by spB more of a platform benchmark rather than a true CPU bench.

[Fishie]

I think what he is talking about is the new universal PalmOne infrared keyboard which works on PPCs in addition to PalmOS machines.

An excellent keyboard thats only 70$ and is cross platform compatible and made by the biggest PalmOS hardware vendor in existence.

Maybe a sign of things to come.

Breaking news, Tungsten 5 ditches slider design, has a VGA screen and runs WM2k3 SE.

:mrgreen: :devilboy: :mrgreen:

PS I agree that SPB benchmark is more of a system benchmark then it can actually check pure processor capabilities.

[ricksfiona]

That's great news... I WANT SPEED!!!

I will PROBABLY go with the high-end Dell X50 since it has everything I can possibly want. It would be NICE if it had a camera, but it's not a deal breaker.

Do you think we'll see 800MHz+ sometime in 2005?

[kmchong]

higher speed is always possible. i remembered years ago, intel already mentioned it can product 1GHz mobile processor but it will kill the battery life immediately.
while we demand the faster speed, the battery technology cannot cope up. so what is the point of this niche speed increment

[Adrian Knack]

I like the idea of white box PDAs that would be nice. Choose your Processor, RAM, graphics, screen etc...

Now we just need to talk some companies into making the components and selling them direct. Just think of all the fun we would have soldering all those surface mount CPU pins to the motherboard (a socket would be too big I think) :?

Cheers
Adrian

[ricksfiona]

higher speed is always possible. i remembered years ago, intel already mentioned it can product 1GHz mobile processor but it will kill the battery life immediately.
while we demand the faster speed, the battery technology cannot cope up. so what is the point of this niche speed increment

Well, that's what STEP technology is all about... During low CPU processing... The CPU slows down, when there's more demand, it speeds up. That totally seems reasonable to me for a PDA.

Seems silly to me to throw 1GHz in a PDA and have it run at that speed all the time. However, when I start and run database applications, I can use all the speed I can, but it would only be for a few seconds. That, would only suck up a small bit of juice in the long run.

Though, I hope someone comes out with some battery technology that is superior to anything else right now on the market sometime soon.