Marvell ARMADA 628 is the world's first 1.5 GHz tri-core application processor

Marvell has introduced the world's first 1.5 GHz tri-core application processor, the Marvell ARMADA 628. This product incorporates a full System-on-a-Chip design (SoC) with three high performance Marvell-designed, ARM-compliant CPU cores operating as the world's first commercially available heterogeneous, multi-core, applications processor.

The new ARMADA 628 tri-core processor incorporates a number of advanced processing and power management features. The tri-core design integrates two high performance symmetric multiprocessing cores and a third core optimized for ultra low-power. The third core is designed to support routine user tasks and acts as a system management processor to monitor and dynamically scale power and performance. The tri-core architecture provides superior performance and lower power over dual-core designs while maintaining industry compatibility and leadership — ensuring a richer, faster and smoother experience than any other ARM-based processor available today.

The architecture is analogous to a hybrid muscle car. The ARMADA 628 is intended to perform like a race car engine on demand, while still delivering the frugal gas-mileage of a hybrid automobile. In real world terms, this enables the ARMADA 628 to play more than 10 hours of full 1080p HD video or 140 hours of music on a single charge while still providing 3 GHz of raw computational horsepower.

Marvell's ARMADA 628 tri-core CPU comprises a complete SoC design – a first for the industry. In addition to the tri-core CPU, there are six additional processing engines to support stunning 3D graphics, 1080p video encode/decode, ultra high fidelity audio, advanced cryptography, and digital photo data processing – for a total of nine dedicated core functions.

The ARMADA 628 is also designed to be the first mobile CPU to provide high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity, which offers 10x faster performance than USB 2.0.

The ARMADA 628 is based on a Marvell-designed ARM v7 MP compatible CPU offering 1.5 GHz performance. It offers support to use LP-DDR2 or DDR3 memory up to 533 MHz, a highly flexible display controller capable of driving four simultaneous displays at up t o 2K x 2K resolution, and a highly robust security subsystem that includes a secure execution processor. An integrated 3D engine renders 200 million triangles per second for an immersive game play experience and a multi-format video engine supports dual stream 1080p video for a true 3D visual experience. In addition, the ARMADA 628 supports DirectX, Open GL ES 2.0, and Open VG 1.1 – ensuring complete compatibility with the most hotly anticipated mobile game titles. ARMADA 628 supports RIM OS, Android, Linux, Windows Mobile, and full Adobe Flash.

Marvell ARMADA 628 Key Features
+ World's first "tri-core" application processor
o Up to 1.5 GHz for the two main cores and 624 MHz for the third low power core
o "Heterogeneous multiprocessing" with "hardware-based Cache Coherence"
o 1 MB System Level 2 Cache
o Platform leading multimedia capabilities, including support for both WMMX2 and NEON acceleration; and a highly optimized pipelined VFPv3 floating point engine
o Member of the ARMADA family of processors for easy software porting
+ 1080p dual stream 3D video applications (30 FPS, multi-format)
+ Ultimate 3D graphics performance with quad unified shaders for 200 million triangles per second (MT/s)
+ High performance, integrated image signal processor (ISP)
+ Ability to project images on multiple simultaneous displays
o 2 LCDs
o 1 HDMI
o 1 advanced EPD controller
+ Peripherals support: USB 3.0 Superspeed Client, MIPI CSI, MIPI DSI, HDMI with integrated PHY, UniPro, Slimbus, SPMI

The ARMADA 628 is currently available for sampling to customers. For more information please go to www.marvell.com.