Difference Between Samsung Exynos 3110 and 4210

Samsung Exynos 3110 vs 4210 | Samsung Exynos 4210 vs 3110 Speed and Performance 
 

This article is about two recent System-on-Chips (SoC) designed and manufactured by Samsung targeting handheld devices. In a Layperson’s term, a SoC is a computer on a single IC (Integrated Circuit, aka chip). Technically, a SoC is an IC that integrates typical components on a computer (such as microprocessor, memory, input/output) and other systems that cater electronic and radio functionalities. While Samsung released Exynos 3110 in June 2010 with its Samsung Galaxy S, its successor Exynos 4210 came a year later in April 2011 when Samsung released Galaxy S2.

Typically, the major components of a SoC are its CPU (Central Processing Unit) and GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). The CPUs in both Exynos 3110 and Exynos 4210 are based on ARM’s (Advanced RICS – Reduced Instruction Set Computer – Machine, developed by ARM Holdings) v7 ISA (Instruction Set Architecture, the one that is used as the starting place of designing a processor). Both the SoCs are manufactured using a semiconductor technology known as 45nm.

Samsung Exynos 3110

In June 2010, Samsung in its Galaxy S first deployed Exynos 3110. The original design of Samsung Exynos 3110 (aka Samsung S5PC110) is co-developed by Samsung and Intrinsity (a chip design company later acquired by Apple) under the codename Hummingbird. At the time of the design, Hummingbird was considered the SoC for the next generation high performance and low power handheld devices. For the same reason, Apple adapted Hummingbird’s CPU for its Apple A4 processor. The designers used ARM’s Cotex A8 architecture for its CPU, and PowerVR’s SGX540 architecture for its GPU. The single core CPU in Exynos 3110 used both L1 (instruction and data) and L2 cache hierarchies. The SoC was stacked typically stacked with 512MB DDR2 (Double Data Rate Synchronous Random Access Memory, version 2 – DDR2 SDRAM), out of which 128MB was used by the GPU as its cache. With this special (and weird) cache configuration, the designer claimed unexpectedly high graphics performance out of this chip.

Samsung Exynos 4210

In April 2011, Samsung in its Galaxy S2 first deployed Exynos 4210. Exynos 4210 was designed and manufactured by Samsung under the codename Orion. It is a successor to Exynos 3110; therefore, better than Exynos 3110 in many ways. Both its CPU, dual core ARM Cotex A9 series clocked at 1.2GHz, and its GPU, ARM’s famous Mali-400MP (4 core) design clocked at 275MHz, are much better designs compared to what were at the disposal for Exynos 3110. Exynos 4210 was the first SoC (or rather MPSoC – Multi Processor System-on-Chip) to deploy ARM’s Mali-400MP. Another attraction for Exynos 4210 is its native support for three displays (triple display outs: 1xWXGA, 2xWSVGA), which is very handy for devices that are targeted by Exynos 4210. The chip was packed with both L1 (instruction and data) and L2 cache hierarchies and had a 1GB DDR3 SDRAM inbuilt.

A comparison between Exynos 3110 and Exynos 4210 is tabulated below.

Summary

In summary, Exynos 4210 is obviously better than Exynos 3110 (which is expected from a later design). While Exynos 3110 used a single core CPU and a single core GPU, Exynos 4210 uses a dual core CPU (which is clocked at a faster frequency compared to its predecessor) and a multi-core GPU. In addition, it is equipped with larger L2 cache (512kB vs. 1MB) and larger (384MB vs. 1GB) and better memory (DDR2 vs. DDR3) architecture.

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