Taiwan's MediaTek plans to release an 8-core mobile processor this year

The Taiwan’s Smartphone and tablet chip vendor MediaTek (known for MTK) plans to launch an 8-core processor. It is said the eight cores can run simultaneously at the same time. The chip will be seen in the market in the fourth quarter, according to MediaTek spokeswoman Sharon Lo on Thursday.

  The company emphasizes that the chip is a “real” 8-core processor, which is different from the other so-called 8-core processors, when they can only run 4 cores at a time. For example, the Exynos 5410, which was Samsung’s old 8-core processor once being used in its Galaxy S4 smartphone, is packed with two 4-core chips. The 8-core chip is designed roughly for two stages—one is the high performance, such as gaming or video playback; the other is energy saving, such as emailing or surfing the Internet. Only four of the cores can be used at one time.

Unlike the Exynos 5410, MediaTek said that its real 8-core chip can run each core independently, and it helps to energy saving. It also offers better stability in running more applications. Obviously the Taiwan’s vendor means to grab more share of the high-end mobile processor market.

Samsung released a new 8-core chip, the Exynos 5420 on Tuesday, which offers higher performance over the Exynos 5410. Samsung didn’t say whether the Exynos 5420’s 8-core can run at the same time.

Taiwan's MediaTek plans to release an 8-core mobile processor this year