MediaTek MT679X chipset to run ARM's Cortex-A72 CPU

Wikipedia

Shortly before the Mobile World Congress kicked off in Barcelona, Taiwanese smartphone chip maker MediaTek announced the company's flagship chipset that would be running ARM's Cortex-A72 CPU. Now, according to the information posted on the Taiwanese publication website Digitimes, the company is expected to release the chip during Q4, 2015, which means that it will most likely be showcased during the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show.

The upcoming chipset has been named the MediaTek MT679X and it will possess an octa-core package that will feature ARM's finest processors; a quad-core Cortex-A72 processor paired with a Cortex-A53 quad-core CPU. The Cortex-A72 CPU is ARM's flagship processor, and apart from delivering stunning performance in both multitasking and gaming categories, it will also allow smartphone users to record 4K videos at a fluid frame rate of 120 FPS. The octa-core package is based on ARM's big.LITTLE architecture which combines the capabilities of one powerful CPU with a lesser performing one to perfectly balance out ground shaking performance and energy efficiency in a smartphone package.

According to GSMArena, MediaTek will be waving goodbye to the 28 nm process but it has not been confirmed if its MT679X will be processed on the 20 nm or the superior 16 nm FinFET architecture. If it does happen to be the latter, then it will allow the Cortex-A72 to succeed the following performance barriers of its predecessor chips:

  • 3.5 times the speed of the Cortex-A5
  • 1.9 times the speed of the Cortex-A57

While that is just the processing side of things, the company recently partnered with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)to have its chipsets powered by AMD's mobile GPUs. Even though AMD had sold its mobile GPU department to Qualcomm (who later named it to Adreno), it is still possible for the tech firm to start rolling out mobile graphics processors meant for smartphones and tablets.

Additional details of the MediaTek MT679X will be revealed once the chipset draws nearer to its official release date.