Qualcomm might be developing a mobile chip that uses 10 processor cores.
According to STJS Gadgets, a Qualcomm insider revealed that the company’s upcoming Snapdragon 818 will be a deca-core chip.
The system-on-a-chip will reportedly be split into the following composition: four low-power 1.2GHz Cortex-A53 cores, two mid-range 1.6GHz Cortex-A53 cores, and four high-power 2.0GHz Cortex-A72 cores.
The Cortex-A72 cores are new designs from ARM, and are set to appear in many of this year’s high-end smartphones.
Several features of the Snapdragon 818 were also listed, including the fact that it will use a flagship-grade Adreno 532 graphical processing unit.
Related: Best Android Smartphones 2015
The news is particularly interesting, because just last week MediaTek announced it was readying up its own deca-core chip.
Dubbed the Helio X20, the chip will use a slightly different core formation that its purported Snapdragon 818 rival.
The Helio X20 has four 1.4GHz Cortex-A53 cores, four 2.0GHz Cortex-A57 cores, and two 2.5GHz Cortex-A72 cores.
Once again, we must ask the question: do we really need ten processor cores on a smartphone?
Many of this year’s devices have already ventured into octa-core territory, but even that may be overkill.
Normal smartphone tasks require effort from a single processor core. With heftier apps, developers include support for multi-threading. This means the app can make use of two or more cores.
Currently, most apps don’t support multi-threading across more than four cores.
Do you think we need a deca-core mobile chip, or are chip-makers putting too much onus on chipset spec sheets? Let us know in the comments.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
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We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.