ARM Community: 1st Mali-T604 based device comes to market - Google Chromebook from Samsung - ARM Community

At the end of last week Google launched its latest Chromebook from Samsung. So what is different about this Chromebook? First off it is now ARM Powered, by the Samsung Exynos 5 Dual processor, bringing together the performance of the dual core ARM Cortex^TM-A15 with the graphics impact of the quad ARM Mali^TM-T604. This is the first device coming to the market with the latest CPU and GPU technologies from ARM. The pairing of Cortex-A class and Mali GPUs has become the leading combination in a wide range of devices including the Samsung Galaxy SIII, LG SmartTV and a wide variety of Android tablets, with over 200 end devices now shipping. We see this Chromebook as the first of many consumer products benefiting from the Mali-T604 and the range of graphics performance points it can address, in the same way its Mali-400 sibling has already enabled.

ChromeOS is all about being able to work in a different way. It is focused on cloud based working with your data, content, files, music all being held in the cloud for you to access when you need them. The difference the Cortex/Mali combination will make to previous Chromebook experiences is they have both been designed from concept with energy efficient high performance in mind. With this as a basis means that the device doesn’t have the annoying “whir” of a fan, it is also slimmer and lighter as well as offering over 6 hours of battery life. So for a mobile device it ticks many of the ease of use, portability aspects consumers expect.

Diversity and differentiation is what both OEMs and consumers are looking for to address their wide range of needs. The ARM Partnership is at the center of the diversifying mobile phone market and the same approach is now being applied to more computing devices. We have seen the impact of diversity in the tablet space where ARM is the leading architecture across all tablets and you will find Mali GPUs enabling the graphics in the majority of Android based tablets. What the Chromebook also shows us is the performance potential that we can look forward to seeing in any devices based on the Cortex-A15 / Mali-T604 combination. The Mali-T604 expands the range of resolutions that can be supported; our expectation is that you will see tablet devices leading the way to higher resolutions. Thus bringing even more exciting and visually stunning multimedia use cases through the increased graphics performance with the larger screen size.

This Chromebook shows what can be achieved by using silicon that has been designed for mobile devices. You can now get the performance to drive larger screen computing devices with exciting content while bringing this together with the energy efficiency of market leading smartphones, all enabling the cloud to become more alive. The mobile computing area has just gone even more mobile.

Trina Watt, Director of Channel Marketing, Media Processing Division, ARM. I like to think of myself as a “geek in marketers clothing”. Gadgets and technology have been a passion for me as long I can remember – from dismantling my first radio when I was about 8 to now running around regularly with 3 phones, a tablet and laptop to feed my tech thirst. I started in the tech industry nearly 20 years ago in Motorola and I have never ventured far from it. I am currently focused on promoting the visually exciting Mali graphics processors. I get to work with a wide range of partners who are creating the innovative devices of the future. For a geek it doesn’t get much better than that!