MediaTek today announced the Helio X20, a mobile application processor that packages 10 cores together in three separate clusters.
Many of today’s high-end processors package eight cores in two clusters. MediaTek designed the Helio X20 for high-end smartphones. The chip features two ARM Cortex A72 cores at 2.5 GHz, four Cortex A53 cores at 2.0 GHz, and four Cortex A53 cores at 1.4 GHz. MediaTek claims its CorePilot 3.0 scheduling algorithm sends tasks to the proper bank of cores to balance performance needs with power efficiency.
For example, the Cortex A72s will be tasked with extreme performance calculations, while the middle bank of Cortex A53s will handle medium loads, and the low bank of Cortex A53s will handle light activities.
MediaTek says the Helio X20 is more power efficient and doesn’t run as hot as comparable dual-cluster designs. The Helio X20 is paired with ARM’s Mali T880 GPU and a cellular baseband for integrated LTE 4G.
The Helio X20 will be sampling by the third quarter and MediaTek expects to see it in flagship designs by the end of the year.
