LONDON — Samsung Electronics will start sampling in December 1GHz application processors based on ARM's Cortex-A8, targeted at designers of smartphones and netbooks.
The company revealed the development at its Mobile Solutions Forum in Taipei, Taiwan, taking pace this week, where Samsung also unveiled a touch-embedded display driver IC, a quarter-inch 5-megapixel system-on-chip image sensor, and a 65-nm single-chip mobile TV channel decoder RF SoC compliant with China's prevailing mobile broadcasting standard, as well as 1-Gigabit OneDRAM chip based on fusion memory technology.
The two applications processors, dubbed the S5PC110 and S5PV210, will be made on Samsung's 45-nm process. Each integrates 32KB data and 32KB instruction caches, and comes with a 512KB L2 cache.
Samsung said it has been ramping up production of its 1Gigabit proprietary fusion memory over the past two months. Devices made in the process are targeted at multimedia handsets, game consoles and in other digital applications, especially those that use 3-D graphics.
"OneDRAM exemplifies our commitment to keep pace with innovative cell phone designs, in this instance by combining ultra-fast speeds and substantial power savings into an extremely efficient 1Gb package," said Sei-Jin Kim, vice president, mobile memory planning and enabling group, Memory Division, in a statement.
The part has a 1.3Gbits/s data transfer speed, 20 percent faster than its previous 512Mb version. Samsung also suggests the OneDRAM chip is seven times faster than a traditional dual-port RAM-based platform.
The 5 megapixel image sensor SoC, dubbed the S5K4EA, integrates a CMOS image sensor with an image signal processor and can process 1080p resolution images at 30 frames-per-second. It is sampling now, and will be available in volume during the first quarter of 2010.
Samsung says it used its latest pixel shrink technology to achieve a tiny, ultra-sensitive 1.4 micron pixel size. The company claims its Enhanced Energy Steering process integrates more light into an optimized pixel structure to present clear, high resolution images.
Quoting figures from market research firm Techno Systems Research, Samsung suggests sales of 5Mp and higher high resolution camera phones will reach 98 million units in 2009 and grow to 660 million units in 2013, at a compound annual growth rate of 61 percent.
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