Samsung is expected to introduce a range of new products at Mobile World Congress this month, including a next-gen Galaxy Gear smartwatch, the Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone, and maybe some new tablets. But it looks like the company also has some big announcements for smaller products: new Samsung Exynos processors are on the way.

Samsung Exynos Infinity

Details are a bit thin at the moment, but Samsung posted a teaser on Twitter promising its “latest innovations,” along with a picture with “Exynos Infinity” on it.

It’s likely that this next-gen Exynos chip for phones, tablets, and other devices could be Samsung’s first 64-bit processor based on ARMv8 architecture. Korean website Chocoberry spotted some Linux kernel patches for an unannounced Samsung GH7 chip with those properties.

Right now Apple’s A7 processor is the only 64-bit ARM-based chip, but pretty much every major ARM chip maker is working to make the move from 32-bit to 64-bit and it’s no surprise Samsung wants to be one of the first.

It’s not clear what products would be powered by that new processor. But it looks like the Exynos Infinity (or whatever it’s called) might not be the company’s only new processor.

CNX Software spotted another kernel patch for an unannounced chip called the Exynos 5260. This appears to be the same 6-core chip used in the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo. It pairs two ARM Cortex-A15 processor cores with 4 lower-power ARM Cortex-A7 CPU cores.

This 6-core chip is still be based on 32-bit, ARMv7 architecture and joins Samsung’s existing Exynos 5 chips like those found in the company’s Galaxy S4 smartphone, Samsung Chromebook, and Google Nexus 10 tablet.

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11 replies on “Samsung Exynos Infinity chip on the way”

  1. Right, so when can I get my new Series 3 Chromebook with this Infinity? 🙂

    Some hefty performance upgrade would be appreciated, this is the only reason I have not upgraded to the HP ARM Chromebook. (the IPS screen and the micro-USB charging where very appealing, it was hard to resist).

  2. “Apple’s A7 processor is the only 64-bit ARM-based chip”

    That is partially true, it is the only one for phones but there are already the AMD 64 bit server chips available

    1. Getting ahead of yourself there, AMD only made an official announcement for their product a few weeks ago but the actual release schedule will only have a reference board available to interested parties starting in March, with server and OEM announcements to come no sooner than Q4 of
      this year!

      While the Apple A7 is officially available now!

        1. The reference boards are the development boards, and they won’t go out until March, pre-orders don’t count as already available… Besides, server market often requires completely custom systems and so nothing is final until they order the final configured server and those won’t be out till the end of the year.

          While software development and sample boards don’t count either as final products…

          So there’s still no actual products being sold besides Apple’s A7 SoC, which is a complete product with software already updated and not vaporware development boards that can’t be put into any real work uses yet because they have to do everything from scratch and is only for preparing for ordering the final server system…

          1. There’s software for ARMv8 right now. Applied Micro has demonstrated that board running Linux and several VM’s.

            I’m not trying to diminish from Apple’s achievement. We’re just pointing out that it’s not entirely true to say that their chip is still the only ARMv8 chip out there. At least a few are available, if only to developers.

          2. No, unless there’s an actual product for end users that doesn’t require them to code, write their own drivers, setup from scratch, etc. then you’re only comparing what’s available for development to what’s really available and that’s the distinction I’m pointing out…

            Technology doesn’t always make it to market all at once and it can still take up to years for final products to be released even after the initial technology is developed and testable…

            Like it can take up to two years from a initial FAB tape out to final mass production, for example… This doesn’t stop them from making reference systems, development boards, etc, but all that is just to prepare for final product and to get everything else they need in place by then…

            The available ARMv8 software doesn’t mean you can just start using any ARMv8 device, and demonstrating Linux isn’t very hard but doesn’t mean the product is already in final stages yet… Like they’ve shown Bay Tray running Linux for months but we’re still waiting for full support, for example… Heck, Bay Trail is already 64bit but we’re still waiting for them to fully take advantage of that as well…

            Thing to understand here is Apple’s A7 is already done, it’s a final product that consumers can already hold in their hands and not need to put any additional work into getting it to fulfill its intended purpose… While comparing that to products that aren’t ready for mainstream release might as well be comparing to vaporware as that is what it amounts to for the end consumers right now…

            Besides, there are other things we’re waiting for as well… the mobile market isn’t the same as the rest of the PC industry… Mind this is where the vast majority of people will be dealing with ARM devices for some time yet… So things like RAM capacities are still very limited because of constraints on power usage and costs for mobile designs…

            Going 64-bit isn’t going to be as easy for Android and GNU/Linux as it was for Apple’s iOS… both Android and GNU/Linux will tend to require a bit more memory to fully take advantage of 64-bit… legacy support means keeping both 32bit and 64bit code that’ll make the software more bloated… among other concerns…

            So, we’re going to see a push for higher storage and RAM capacities in mobile devices…the storage may be fairly straight forward but the RAM means they need to start mass production already and that takes time to ramp up from the limited 2GB capacities that dominate now… especially, if they want to keep the pricing about the same and not significantly increase costs…

  3. Exynos 5260 is already available and shipping in products like the Galaxy Note 3 Neo, which is a mid-range variant of Galaxy note.

    1. Ahh… I think you’re right. Samsung has a habit of not naming the chips in its new devices, so I’d kind of forgotten that the Note 3 Neo has a 6-core chip.

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