TI Posts OMAP 5 Dual Core A15 vs Quad Core A9 Video
by Brian Klug on February 23, 2012 12:28 AM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Arm
- TI
- Cortex A9
- Cortex A15
- Mobile
- Tegra 3
- OMAP 5
It seems as though everyone is trying to preempt build excitement before MWC 2012 with their next-generation SoC related news. We've previewed Qualcomm's Krait performance on an MDP MSM8960, and now compared it to Nvidia's Tegra 3. Not to be left out of the fray, TI has just posted a video comparing a tablet running one of its OMAP 5 SoCs at 800 MHz (probably an OMAP5430) versus an unnamed quad core Cortex A9 based device. As a reminder, OMAP 5 is designed for a 28nm process and consists of two ARM Cortex A15s and two Cortex M4s alongside SGX544 MP2 graphics.
The video shows the two tablets downloading videos, playing an MP3, and running through 20 pages of EEMBC's BrowsingBench, a test we've had in our hands for a while now and will be adding to our own 2012 smartphone/tablet benchmarking suite. The unnamed quad core Cortex A9 tablet is indubitably a Transformer Prime, and the 1.3 GHz SoC itself is almost indubitably Nvidia's Tegra 3.
Both tablets appear to be using the Android 4.0 ICS stock browser to load pages, as evidenced by the action bar and buttons. The OMAP 5 tablet finishes the 20 pages in 95 seconds compared to the quad core A9's 201 seconds. We saw OMAP 5 on a development platform at CES, and clearly TI's feeling good enough about its OMAP 5 ICS port to demonstrate performance. The timing for devices with OMAP 5 inside hasn't changed, with devices expected early 2013 and possibly late 2012.
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aryonoco - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
The thing is, this is comparing apples and oranges. Tegra 3 was itself delayed but it was finally launched at the very end of 2011 and is in products on the shelves now. OMAP 5 probably wont be on shelves at the very end of this year or early next. There is a year's difference here. If TI wants to be sincere it should compare the 4460 to Tegra 3, not something coming out next year. Im sure Nvidia wont be sitting on its laurels for a whole year while TI launches OMAP 5eddman - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
That's the thing actually. Tegra 3 was never meant to compete with Krait or A15 based chips, but to best A9 and scorpion chips and consume less power at the same time.On the other hand, while there are Tegra 3 products already shipping and selling, there are no A15 chips available and no Krait based gadgets AFAIK.
infra_red_dude - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
But the point here is that nVidia has nothing better to offer in 2012. Tegra3 has to compete against Exynos 5000 series and Krait this year, whether that's a fair comparison or not.eddman - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
Very true but, I believe Tegra 4 would launch around the same time as other A15 chips form TI and even samsung and also quad kraits (late 2012), so not much to worry about there for nvidia in that respect.The real threat are dual-core kraits which will be available much sooner, and are apparently better than Tegra 3 in every aspect, although a shrink to 28 nm might help it to close the gap.
Dribble - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
They will be in different markets. The Krait using cutting edge 28nm will cost significantly more then tegra3 using cheap and plentiful 40nm.dcollins - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
Not necessarily. Tegra3 chips are larger than the MSM8960 and require a separate baseband chip for LTE. Krait is ahead of schedule so yields at 28nm must be pretty good so far. Altogether, I doubt the difference in price will be large enough to significantly effect the price of the phone.eddman - Friday, February 24, 2012 - link
Where did you read that krait is smaller? I couldn't find the die size anywhere, or maybe I missed it.Black1969ta - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
Kal-El+ is slated to launch Q3ish and Wayne launching by Jan 2013, so it is still possible that nVidia will top Krait, Exynos, and OMAP 5; at the least it will make it much more competitive.If Wayne is Delayed like other things this year, then the above three might enjoy dominance, for awhile.
nVidia has not flashed everyone with their blazing, dominating performance, they have made a name in the SoC market by bringing new technology first (dual-core and Quad-core ie...), not dominating in performance marks.
jcompagner - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
Yes exactly we compare here a A9 core against a A15And OMAP is again very late, i expect to have dual core A15 before that (Samsung?)
And in 1 year there will be already Tegra4 which is i guess a A15 with the next gen GPU.
I am still hoping for Samsung to have a dual core A15 with the latest Mali GPU. The current one still tops the charts when we compare phones even after 10 months...
SydneyBlue120d - Thursday, February 23, 2012 - link
Brian, considering the rumor that the Google Phone 2012 will be built from Motorola, do You think the timeline can be right to be used in it? I really hope the Google Phone running Android 5.0 will use OMAP 5 or Snaprdagon S4 1,7Ghz! Thanks.