Apple A5x vs Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad vs Texas Instruments OMAP 4460

Apple A5x

The Apple A5x is a dual-core processor that contains two Cortex A9 cores. The A5x integrates a relative fast Quad-Core PowerVR SGX 543MP4 graphics card and is used in the third generation iPad with Retina Display.

Samsung Exynos 4412 Quad

The Samsung Exynos 4 Quad (also called Exynos 4412, introduced in 2012) is an ARM SoC for tablets and smartphones. It includes a quad-core processor based on the Cortex-A9 architecture (including NEON SIMD extension), which clocks with 1.4 to 1.6 GHz (depending on the model). Thus, the computing power is similar to competitors like Nvidia's Tegra 3 SoC. The memory controller supports LPDDR2, DDR2 and DDR3 with a maximum of two 32-bit channels and 400 MHz clock speed, resulting in a bandwidth of up to 6.4 GB/s.

The SoC integrates an ARM Mali-400 MP4 GPU (15.8 GFLOPS at 440 MHz). Typical smartphone games (2012) will run fluently even in high resolutions like 1280 x 720 pixels. Videos can be accelerated by a multi-format video decoder (1080p AVI, WMV, H.264, H.263, VC1, MPEG2, MPEG4).

The chip is produced in Samsung fabs in 32nm HKMG and mainly found in high-end devices like the Samsung Galaxy S3 or Note 2. Depending on the clock speed, the power consumption should be between 2 and 4 W (estimated).

Texas Instruments OMAP 4460

The OMAP 4460 is a fourth generation SoC (System on Chip) developed by Texas Instruments (TI) for use in mobile phones and tablets. The 45 nm chip includes dual ARM Cortex-A9 CPU cores running at 1.2 GHz up to 1.5 GHz on an ARM v7 instruction set and ARM NEON SIMD (Single instruction, multiple data) engine. 

The SoC integrates an SGX540 GPU from PowerVR clocked at 384 MHz, which can utilize the same 400 MHz dual-channel LPDDR2 memory controller as the two core processors. Compared to the OMAP 4430, the 4460 is clocked higher on both the CPU and GPU.

The OMAP 4460 is found in a small number of tablets and smartphones, most notably the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and the Amazon Kindle Fire HD 7. In terms of raw processing and GPU power, the SoC is more in line with the Nvidia Tegra 2 than the Tegra 3. The integrated SGX540 is an older generation of graphics that has been largely superceded by the much more powerful SGX543 as found in the third generation iPad.