Qualcomm’s next-gen smartphone processor is a 5nm, octa-core chip with one ARM Cortex-X1 CPU core plus a mix of an integrated 5G modem and support for up to 26 TOPs of AI performance.
In other words, the new Samsung Exynos 2100Â sounds a lot like Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon 888 processor, at least on paper. Hopefully that means phones from Samsung or other companies that feature the Exynos 2100 will offer competitive performance to models with Qualcomm’s most powerful smartphone chip, something that wasn’t the case with the previous-gen Exynos processor.
Here’s a run-down of some key features for Samsung’s new chip:
- 1 x ARM Cortex-X1 CPU core @ 2.9 GHz
- 3 x ARM Cortex-A78 CPU cores @ 2.8 GHz
- 4 x ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores @ 2.2 GHz
- ARM Mali-G78 MP14 graphics
Samsung says the chip also has a triple-core neural processing unit (NPU) which delivers more processing power for artificial intelligence/machine learning tasks at twice the power efficiency of its previous-gen NPU and a new image signal processor (ISP) capable of connecting up to six different image sensors and/or processing up to four images simultaneously.
By processing data from multiple cameras, Samsung says the chip enables phones with improved zoom performance and image quality for ultra-wide angle shots. The ISP supports single camera image capture at resolutions up to 200 megapixels or dual-camera capture at up to 32MP + 32MP.
The Exynos 2100 processor also supports 4K video recording at up to 120 frames per second (or 8K video decoding at up to 60 frames per second).
The chip’s integrated 5G modem supports:
- mmWave speeds up to 7.35 Gbps down / 3.67 Gbps up
- sub-6 GHz speeds up to 5.1 Gbps down / 1.92 Gbps up
- 444G LTE speeds up to 3 Gbps down / 422 Mbps up
Other features include support for UFS 3.1 storage, LPDDR5 memory, and screens with up to a 144 Hz refresh rate and a new AMIGO “Advanced Multi-IP Governor” designed to balance performance and power consumption for longer battery life.
200 megapixel? FYI: Voyager 2 pixel counts:
The Infrared Interferometer Spectrometer (IRIS) - 128x128 pixel format mercury-cadmium telluride detector
The Ultraviolet Spectrometer (UVS) - Note: this page is really hard to read as it looks like it was scanned from a two column format with the columns interleaved. But it looks like this detector has 128 channels for the spectra.
the two Imaging Science Subsystem (ISS) vidicon cameras
The Narrow angle Camera (NAC) - 800x800
The Wide Angle Camera (WAC) - 800x800
The Photopolarimeter System (PPS) - One pixel - an EMR 510-E-06 photomultiplier tube (PMT) with a tri-alkali (S-20) photocathode.