MTK "true eight cores" will be released soon

MTK recently broke out "True Eight Core" MT6592. It sounds like really powerful. Opponent Qualcomm has not planned for eight cores. MTK is ahead of its opponents in product quality for the first time, but is the truth so?

Four modes of operation for multi-core chips

At present, there are mainly four kinds of multi-core chip operating modes: asynchronous with the same frequency, different frequency asynchronous, different frequency synchronization, and frequency synchronization.

Qualcomm’s product line currently has no eight cores and only four cores.

Among them Snapdragon S4 belongs to the same frequency asynchronous, namely in the same chip frequency band, for example 1.6G main frequency, can switch on two A9 nuclear at once, also can all open. (The proportion of openable auditors is 2:4)

Qualcomm's other product lines, 600 and 800, use a different-frequency asynchronous system, which is developed by Qualcomm's own Krait architecture. Different frequencies can be achieved through frequency modulation, and cores in different frequency bands can be switched alternately. (The openable ratio is 1:2:4)

Samsung's "fake eight core" 5410 is different frequency synchronization, that is, only four cores can be switched at a time, usually when A7 is opened, A15 is closed, and when A15 is opened, A7 is closed. (The number of open cores is 4)

There is also a synchronization with the same frequency, MTK's quad-core 6589 is this way, only four A4 can be opened at the same time (opening the number of 4)

We already know that the MT6592 will use the eight-core A7 architecture, so it must be the same frequency. The remaining two options are the same frequency synchronization (the number of open cores is 8) or the same frequency asynchronous (the number of open cores is 2:4:8).

Different frequency asynchronous is the best choice

Next we judge the advantages and disadvantages of the above several working modes. In the era of quad-core, the hardware performance of mobile phones is no longer a major factor for manufacturers to consider. The idea that hardware should serve user experience is widely recognized by the industry. Anyway, the architecture is ARM. How to achieve the balance of performance, power consumption, and cost through various combinations is an important ability to test the product planning of chip vendors.

From the perspective of power consumption and heating, two cores definitely work better than four cores at the same time. One core is definitely better than two cores. The operating mode in which the same frequency is synchronized is obviously the most inflexible and the selection range is also the smallest. In this mode, the CPU's power consumption will become very large. At the same time, high-performance operation for a long time, the attenuation cycle of the chip will become larger, and the physical constitution of the chip will become weaker. Previously, Samsung's 4412 was using the same frequency synchronization, so that the performance of the work is not stable, often the problem of losing the baseband or restart. After eight cores, if the MTK uses the same frequency synchronization, the power consumption of the eight cores running at the same time is far from the quad-core comparability. There is currently no good solution to this problem.

Another method is the same frequency asynchronous, that is, according to the application requirements, from the dual-core A7 to the quad-core A7, and finally to the eight-core A7. Only by doing so can the power consumption of the eight-core A7 be dramatically reduced. However, this puts higher requirements on the power saving control of the hardware circuit. It remains to be seen whether MTK's technical level can be effectively optimized.

If the MT6592 can achieve the same frequency asynchronous, compared with Samsung's "false eight core" 5410, in a certain working phase does have certain advantages. For example, in the lowest power state, dual-core A7 certainly has advantages over quad-core A7. But in the highest power state, can the eight-core A7 surpass the quad-core A15? Performance competition? There are still pending announcements of further testing parameters.

" Size and nuclear" may still be the mainstream

On the whole, MTK's “true eight cores” actually played a time lag, grabbing products before Qualcomm and other competitors and having no competitors in a certain period of time. This is similar to MT6589. Therefore, it is not appropriate to compare MT6592 with any current chip manufacturer's product, because it is not the same product at all, and there is no way to make a quantitative comparison.