LG Making Own Chip for G2, G Pad Successors?
Odin will likely appear in the successor to LG's G2 and G Pad tablet.
Korean-based DigitalTimes reported on Thursday that LG is testing two in-house mobile processors codenamed "Odin" that could find their way into the successors of the G2 and G Pad. News of "Odin" has been lingering around since the beginning of the year, and was originally rumored to first appear in the LG G2 smartphone. Obviously, that didn't happen, and the two new chips may not arrive until next year as it is.
Unnamed sources said there are two Odin chips in the works: a model with four Cortex-A15 cores clocked up to 2.2 GHz and an ARM Mali-T604 GPU, and an eight-core big.LITTLE model sporting four Cortex-A7 cores clocked at 1.7 GHz and four Cortex-A15 cores. The eight-core chip may also be paired with ARM's latest Mali-T760 GPU, although it's highly unlikely.
According to PhoneArena, the Mali-T604/T624 supposedly clocks at 600 MHz, which equates to respectable performance. TSMC is reportedly tasked to produce the Odin chips with its 28 nm process, so device makers should expect to see a decent power envelope as well. The Mali-T760 GPU will likely not be a part of the picture because it was just announced three weeks ago. The Odin chipset is likely already in the engineering test phase.
LG will reportedly save its quad core Odin for its Smart TV line, and use the eight-core Odin variant for smartphones and tablets. If the rumors are true, then LG will finally join Samsung and Apple as device makers that actually supply their own chips (the Exynos 5 and A7, respectively) in devices. This prevents device makers from depending on third party suppliers like Qualcomm and Nvidia, and helps provide even more device customizations.
Naturally, LG is refusing to comment on speculation and rumors, so we'll just have to sit tight and see what LG has up its sleeve during the next few quarters. Any bets that Odin-powered devices will make an appearance at CES 2014 in January?
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
-
qlum I wonder if they will still use Qualcomm like samsung still does here and in the rest of europe.Reply -
m32 ^ I always found that funny. Samsung could be using their own chips but I guess they like building stuff and suing Apple to put it at the very top of the list.Reply -
halcyon Neat stuff, as great as the G2 and GPad 8.3 are it'll be neat to see how their successors turn out.Reply -
ericburnby LG will be like Samsung, but not like Apple. Samsung doesn't make custom processors yet relying instead on ARM designs.Reply
Qualcomm and Apple do design custom ARM processors, and both are a step above companies that just make ARM designs.
Samsung is planning on making their own designs as they have a license from ARM to do so, but they're not there yet. -
falchard I find it funny how LG pretty much copies whatever Samsung is doing and tries to make it better. Samsung makes VA panels. LG makes IPS panels... Can't wait to buy my LG Washing Machine/Dryer combo unit.Reply -
halcyon Reply12071376 said:I find it funny how LG pretty much copies whatever Samsung is doing and tries to make it better. Samsung makes VA panels. LG makes IPS panels... Can't wait to buy my LG Washing Machine/Dryer combo unit.
So far, I'm really liking LG's version of Samsung.