realized until someone makes a dual-core chip that would know what to do with them. Samsung’s new Orion 1GHz dual-core ARM microprocessor could make those kinky dreams come true.

Samsung announced the new chip in a press release earlier this week; it will be pushed out to “select customers in the fourth quarter of 2010? and go into “mass production in the first half of 2011.”

So what’s the big deal? We’ve had dual-core processors in our laptops for years! Ah, but those processors are way too big and power-hungry for mobile standards. You don’t want to strap your laptop’s battery to your phone, do you? By necessity, mobile chips are all about small size and low power-consumptions. That’s why IBM’s working on mobile chips with super-sleep modes and Intel just went ahead and bought smartphone chipmaker Infineon just to get in the game, as Gadget Lab reported last week.

But wait — haven’t Qualcomm and Texas Instruments already announced their dual-core processors for mobile devices? And didn’t LG even announce that they’re going to start packing graphics champ NVidia’s Tegra 2 dual-core processor into smartphones? This can’t just be about mobile multicore processors.

How right you are. This is where we have to unpack those other big numbers attached to the Orion’s specs. The real gem of the Orion is its video processing. Part of this is just the multicore processing; lightweight single-core mobile chips can’t really handle true high-definition (1080p) video. Like the Tegra, the Orion can. What’s more, it’s got an “onboard native triple display controller architecture that compliments multi-tasking operations in a multiple display environment.” Translation: three-way. Smartphones with multiple screens that can display different video to each screen, plus output an entirely different video to a third. These chips are polymorphously perverse.

So that’s the truth about these chips. A smartphone or tablet’s hardware body and capacitative touchscreen are just pretty clothes and suggestive sunglasses. Once you strip those away away, all of the hot, sinewy action is happening underneath.

Photo: “Big Sister” by Schodts at Flickr. Used gratefully under a Creative Commons license.

See Also:

• Probabilistic Chip Promises Better Flash Memory, Spam Filtering …
• Prototype Smartphone Uses Intel Chip and OS
• Qualcomm Ups the Game With Faster Smartphone Processor
• Intel Introduces Ultra-Low-Power Processor for Smartphones …
• Texas Instruments Embraces Next-Gen Mobile Processor
• Samsung Captivate Processor Overclocked to 1.2 GHz
• IBM and Intel Getting a Makeover for Mobile
• Android Holds the Key to Samsung's Smart TV Plans
• Samsung Enters Tablet Race With the Galaxy Tape

Authors: Tim Carmody

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