ARM Mali-T600 GPU Series Promises Up To Eight Cores

The international versions of the Galaxy S II, Galaxy Note, and Galaxy S III all make use of an Exynos processor paired with a Mali-400 GPU, which has proven to be quite a champ in the performance department. Now ARM has unveiled its second-generation of graphics, the Mali-T600 GPU. ARM says that the T600 series has been fine tuned for smartphones, tablet, and smart TVs, with variants ranging from quad- to octo-core.

The Mali-T624 starts with a single core but scale up to four cores, while the more powerful T-628 can go all the way up to eight cores for twice the graphics performance. Both chips are aimed at smart TVs and smartphones, while the T678 is designed for tablets. That chip is four times more powerful than the T624 thanks to increased ALU support, and is meant to be used for computational photography as well as augmented reality.

On top of the boost in performance, ARM is keen to point out the investments it has made in the GPU compute department too. By tapping into the GPU, a wider range of smartphones will be able to leverage real-time photo editing, plus others functions like improved video stabilization. That ties in with partnerships with MediaTek and Rockchip, with both companies working with ARM in order to utilize the new T600 GPUs across a large range of devices.

Naturally, Samsung is along for the ride as well, saying that it will be working closely with ARM in order to bring the improved GPUs to future Exynos chipsets. Currently the Galaxy S III uses an improved Mali-400 GPU, but it's not hard to imagine that future smartphones and tablets from the company will make use of the new T600 series.