MediaTek unveils flagship Helio X20 SoC with 10 CPU cores

[Scorpus]

MediaTek has today announced the Helio X20, a new flagship SoC that's designed to compete with similar high-end smartphone and tablet chips from companies like Qualcomm and Samsung.

The Helio X20's most interesting feature is a new CPU design that's the first of its kind. Rather than opting for a traditional quad- or octa-core setup with one or two core clusters, the Helio X20 features a ten-core CPU that's divided into three clusters, which improves upon the widely used ARM big.LITTLE CPU design.

In the Helio X20, MediaTek has opted for four ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.4 GHz for low-power tasks, four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 2.0 GHz for a balance of performance and power consumption, and two new Cortex-A72 cores at 2.5 GHz for high performance tasks. The cores are all interconnected via a custom system called the MediaTek Coherent System Interconnect (MCSI).

MediaTek claims that by opting for a tri-cluster design with ten CPU cores in total, the Helio X20 is 30% more power efficient than similar two-cluster designs. As the CPU is built on a 20nm manufacturing process, rather than the 14nm FinFET nodes we're seeing in the latest Exynos and upcoming Snapdragon SoCs, it'll be interesting to see how power efficiency compares.

On the GPU side, the Helio X20 uses an unannounced ARM Mali-T800 series GPU, similar to the high-end T880, with four shader cores and a clock speed of 700 MHz. MediaTek expects 40% higher GPU performance with 40% lower power requirements compared to the PowerVR G6200 used in the Helio X10 (MT6795).

The Helio X20 also features a 64-bit LPDDR3 memory controller clocked at 933 MHz for 14.9 GB/s of bandwidth, a 32-megapixel dual-ISP, 10-bit 4K HEVC/H.265/VP9 decoding and 4K HEVC encoding, and an integrated modem supporting LTE Category 6.

MediaTek will begin sampling for the X20 in the second half of 2015, and the company expects to see devices using the SoC to hit the market in early 2016.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/60645-mediatek-unveils-flagship-helio-x20-soc-10-cpu.html

 

[wastedkill]

Never heard of these... anyone else...?

I would be interested to see this up against cpu makers we actually know about so we can see if they are actually any good.

 

[Dukenukemx]

Never heard of these... anyone else...?

I would be interested to see this up against cpu makers we actually know about so we can see if they are actually any good.

MediaTek has a pretty bad reputation for being terrible, but honestly the chips are pretty decent. They're not Nvidia or Qualcomm performance level but they're cheap. It's like AllWinner CPU's but they kind try to be for performance, even though AllWInner is better.

I do enjoy their 8 core CPUs. Look at the Much 78P01 which is like a portable gamepad with decent specs. Unfortunately only the 8 cores have support for T-Mobile's 3G.

 

[Guest]

There is a typo in the text. four + four + four = 12.

 

[PC nerd]

There is a typo in the text. four + four + four = 12.

Are you blind? The high performance cluster is a dual core. 4+4+2=10.

 

[Guest]

Never heard of these... anyone else...? I would be interested to see this up against cpu makers we actually know about so we can see if they are actually any good.

they are used in budget android smartphones in the philippines.
even budget samsung smartphones use mediatek cpu.

 

[SirDigby]

There is a typo in the text. four + four + four = 12.

Are you blind? The high performance cluster is a dual core. 4+4+2=10.

No he's right.

four ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.4 GHz for low-power tasks, four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 2.0 GHz for a balance of performance and power consumption, and four new Cortex-A72 cores at 2.5 GHz for high performance tasks

 

[Guest]

Yes, the diagram (picture) is correct, but in the body of the article (the text), they state:

"MediaTek has opted for four ARM Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 1.4 GHz for low-power tasks, four Cortex-A53 cores clocked at up to 2.0 GHz for a balance of performance and power consumption, and four new Cortex-A72 cores at 2.5 GHz for high performance tasks"

As of 8am PT 05/12/15

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

There is a typo in the text. four + four + four = 12.

Are you blind? The high performance cluster is a dual core. 4+4+2=10.

Unless it's just my eyes or it's rendered incorrectly on my screen I also see 4+4+4 which used to equal 12 when I went to school but things have changed since then so maybe it's 10 nowadays. I dunno.

 

[Guest]

Move on from 4+4+2(or 4), is this big.little.big or big.little.little or little.big.little or what?

 

[Guest]

Unless it's just my eyes or it's rendered incorrectly on my screen I also see 4+4+4 which used to equal 12 when I went to school but things have changed since then so maybe it's 10 nowadays. I dunno.

Look at the diagram, it shows more than clearly the chip use two, NOT four, A72 cores. You do have to be blind to miss that.
As for the text in the article, it's obviously incorrect, the A72 cluster does not have four cores. You can find this same report on other tech sites, allof which confirm it's just two. If the chip is already listed on MediaTek's website, you can confirm it there too.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Look at the diagram, it shows more than clearly the chip use two, NOT four, A72 cores. You do have to be blind to miss that.
As for the text in the article, it's obviously incorrect, the A72 cluster does not have four cores. You can find this same report on other tech sites, allof which confirm it's just two. If the chip is already listed on MediaTek's website, you can confirm it there too.

You've missed the point altogether. I wasn't referring to any diagram, I was quoting the text.

 

[Tanstar]

Unless it's just my eyes or it's rendered incorrectly on my screen I also see 4+4+4 which used to equal 12 when I went to school but things have changed since then so maybe it's 10 nowadays. I dunno.

Look at the diagram, it shows more than clearly the chip use two, NOT four, A72 cores. You do have to be blind to miss that.
As for the text in the article, it's obviously incorrect, the A72 cluster does not have four cores. You can find this same report on other tech sites, allof which confirm it's just two. If the chip is already listed on MediaTek's website, you can confirm it there too.

You'd have to be blind to miss that his original message said, "There is a typo in the text."

 

[Camikazi]

Move on from 4+4+2(or 4), is this big.little.big or big.little.little or little.big.little or what?

LITTLE.MEDium.big or big.medIUM.LITTLE