We recently informed you about the start of a teaser campaign by Samsung to announce a new evolution in its processors Exynos. Through intriguing images of a microphone or a guitar, the South Korean company encouraged us to learn about the newness of its chipset that now, thanks to a music video, we can know that it is the simultaneous operation of its eight cores.
Under the title "Samsung Exynos Octa-pella: Performance + Efficiency in Perfect Harmony”- Performance and efficiency in perfect harmony - the Seoul-based firm unravels the mystery of the new evolution of its processors. In this way, Samsung aims to show that it has overcome the errors of the Exynos 5 Octa 5410 in which certain design flaws prevented more than four of the eight existing cores from working simultaneously - four of them ARM Cortex-A15 and the other four ARM Cortex-A7 -. In principle, it was unknown whether these errors had been corrected in the Octa 5 Exynos 5420 since until now it was only known that "the system switches between the eight processor cores depending on the workload".
"Exceptional" performance and increased energy efficiency
As you have already seen in the video, Samsung bets on the simultaneous operation of the eight cores of its Exynos 5 Octa processor as a means to achieve a higher performance while maintaining controlled energy consumption, going a step beyond the laconic phrase with which we closed the previous paragraph.
For that, the new generation of the chipsets of the South Korean firm will once again make use of ARM big.LITTLE technology who now has the possibility of supporting the heterogeneous multi-processing - HMP by its name in English –, which is nothing other than the abandonment of 'migration mode' with which the Exynos 5 Octa 5410 worked and which consisted of the cores ARM Cortex-A7 Low-power devices were used by default until workload required the use of the ARM Cortex-A15, which was accompanied by the 'shutdown' of the first ones.
With new technology HMP be supposed to the processor knows which tasks should be transferred to one or the other core, so that they can operate simultaneously to combine the best performance adapted to the workload, with the greatest possible energy efficiency. In practice, this implies a fine distribution of threads between “large” and “small” clusters, lower latency when switching contexts and a more stable response under peaks for use in apps, games and intensive multitasking.
This development fits with the trajectory of Exynos, which went from single-core solutions such as Hummingbird (Exynos 3) with CPU Cortex-A8 y GPU PowerVR, to multi-core configurations like the Exynos 4210 with Cortex-A9 y Mali-400 MP4, and later to four cores at higher frequencies in the 4412 series. In each jump there were two constants: more graphics power y better efficiency, although with relevant connectivity challenges —especially integrated LTE modems— against rivals like Qualcomm. The arrival of the HMP approach represents the point at which Exynos aims add all your cores at once without penalizing autonomy.
From big.LITTLE to HMP: Why it was a turning point
'Migration mode' assigned task groups to one cluster or another, but did not allow mix in granular form light and intensive loads simultaneously. HMP, on the other hand, enables Global Task Scheduling (GTS) so that the operating system distributes each thread according to its needs, occupying any combination of cores. The result is a more linear yield curve and better thermal control because peaks are spread across more resources.
Furthermore, this approach lays the groundwork for what we see today in the latest Exynos: Hybrid CPUs with performance and efficiency cores, NPUs with double-digit increases in computing power for AI and More advanced GPUsThis route explains why Samsung incorporated, in later generations, RDNA-based Xclipse graphics in collaboration with AMD, adding ray tracing acceleration and visual quality improvements in supported games.
In practical terms, the jump to HMP brought direct benefits: less 'stuttering' in interfaces, faster starts of heavy apps, more stable multitasking with multiple apps running in the background and a perceived reduction in sustained heat by better distributing the load. The focus isn't just on raw power, but on how each milliwatt is used.
From Octa to the AI Era: Exynos 2400 and Roadmap
The vision of “performance + efficiency in perfect harmony” has evolved into platforms such as Exynos 2400, with 10-core CPU (including Cortex-X4 and clusters Cortex-A720/A520), NPU with a performance multiplied compared to previous generations and Xclipse 940 GPUs about architecture RDNA3 with hardware ray tracing. Samsung has also focused on thermal management and in packaging techniques such as FOWLP (Fan‑out Wafer Level Package) that help improve dissipation and reduce thickness of the set.
In photography, the platform supports sensors of high resolution with advanced real-time processing, which opens the door to computational zoom, nighttime improvements y stable video with low latency. In 5G connectivity, the integrated modem and signal stack aim to sustained bandwidth and support for advanced features of the standard.
In product strategy, Samsung alternates between Exynos and Qualcomm depending on markets and modelsIn the recent high-end range, a combination has been seen in which the most premium models opt for Snapdragon at a global level, while others in the same family integrate Exynos in selected regions. The company explains that this allows it to more flexible supply chain and, facing the user, maintains commitments of long term software support thanks to more direct control over its own platform.
Looking ahead, the transition to 3nm nodes —and later of 2 nm— is the big challenge. The first iterations require stable wafer yields to scale to millions of units. Industry reports indicate that Samsung has improved stability of its 3nm process and is working on new platforms such as Exynos 2500, while advancing in the development of Exynos 2600 for finer nodes. The goal: closing the efficiency gap and better sustained performance compared to alternatives such as Latest generation Snapdragon 8 or proposals for Apple y MediaTek.
In parallel, the competitive context has led large clients to prioritize TSMC in certain projects, which adds pressure for Samsung Foundry to demonstrate capacity, performance and costs up to par. The answer is innovate in packaging, optimize physical design and align the software (scheduler, thermal control, DVFS) with CPU/GPU/NPU architecture to extract every point of efficiency.
With HMP as a starting point, the evolution of Exynos links multi-core performance, ray traced graphics, Practical AI applied to photography and productivity, and a roadmap of advanced nodes that aspires to compete at the top. The combination of architecture, manufacturing processes, and software will determine when and how these advances translate into real-world experience in the next Galaxy.
Source: SamsungExynos (YouTube) Via: Android Authority y SamMobile.
