Does anyone know what CPU is in the Samsung Mondi?

Posted on 03 April 2009, Last updated on 12 November 2019 by

Turning the tables on you this morning, I’m trying to find out what CPU/chipset Samsung are using in the Mondi. I’ve spent a lot of time searching but it seems that no-one at CTIA, so far, has popped the obvious question – “Hi Samsung. Is it correct that the Mondi is running an ARMv7 (E.g. Cortex) CPU and not the ARMv6 (E.g. ARM11) core that’s too under-powered for Internet browsing? inch If Samsung won’t say, just dive into the settings, please someone.

At the moment, all I can find is something that Qualcom leaked last year. At WITA, they said that Samsung would be producing a MID that would be based on ARM v7. I covered it in this article and I really hope it’s true because ’10 times the processing power of a Nokia N810′ would put this in a very special place on my wishlist.

There are a couple of new videos of the Mondi on YouTube this morning. I’ve linked them in at the bottom of the product page.

21 Comments For This Post

  1. Steve 'Chippy' Paine says:

    New article: Does anyone know what CPU is in the Samsung Mondi? http://cli.gs/yNyas4

  2. REMF says:

    It does look good, but i want to know what the OS is before i get excited, regardless of hardware.

    It might just be better to wait for the arm7 Nokia n900 using Maemo v5.

  3. Chippy says:

    OS is confirmed WM6.1 with Touch-Wiz UI.

  4. REMF says:

    cheers for the info.

    in that case, no thanks.

  5. UMPCman says:

    Frankly, I see that as good news. I like WM 6.1, and having used it almost daily for 5 years, and also used Symbian on my N800, I’ll take WM 6.1. Lots of decent software that does everything I need.

    This is shaping up to be my “most likely to replace my iPaq” device. Either this or the Toshiba TG01.

    Can’t wait.

  6. Robert says:

    Hello Steve:

    Considering the OS is WM6.1, I also would go with an Arm Cpu.

    In the last month there has been a rash of Mid’s coming out with Arm Cpu’s.

    If this Mid would have a Windows XP OS and a Atom 800mhz CPU, it would be a
    winner.

  7. T says:

    why don’t samsung make it a mobile???

  8. Chippy says:

    You mean traditional voice capable?

    I mentioned this in a previous article; I suspect this device has been commissioned by Clearwire as a WiMax showcase device.

    Here’s a question though, if you’re able to connect to the internet and run Skype for 24hours with Skype-in and Skype-out services, does it make this a mobile phone?

  9. T says:

    I don’t remember the skype that moment~

    But if you’re connected to the internet all day to run the skype, how about the battery life?

    2 or 3hrs is too short to be a phone~

  10. Arthur says:

    This website lists Intel and Samsung when referring to the device http://www.tacktech.com/news.cfm?subtype=Tech&nid=27713 However, I’m not sure it means anything.

  11. Benjiro says:

    Given that the N810 is a 400 MHz TI OMAP 2420 ( ARM1136 )… The only competing devices are the TI 3xxx Serie with the Cortex A8, or the Qualcomm Snapdragon…

    But a claim of 10 * faster then a N810… Even if it includes a TI OMAP 3630 ( 600Mhz ), thats just about what? 3? times faster…

    The only way i can see a claim like that, if its running a Snapdragon @ 1Ghz, vs the n810 with no hardware drivers for its gpu. And they benched on that, or something…

    Problem is, that article claims processing power, and that indicates CPU. So unless they included a 1.5Ghz Snapdragon, i don’t see that happening.

    Lets do that math. Lets assume the ARM11 does 1.2 vs 2.0 Cortex A8. At 400Mhz, that give a score of 480. For 10 times the processing power, the Cortex needs to be doing 2400Mhz. Fat chance for that one. Unless they also include the DSPs in some way, in there calculations… Now, lets say, 6.5 times faster, then in theory, a Snapdragon at 1.5Ghz can do it.

  12. Chippy says:

    It’s impossible to calculate the end-user effect. Per-clock estimates i’ve seen say that ARMv7 is 2-4times faster than ARMV6. At 1Ghz, ARMV7 could be 10x ARMv6 at 400Mhz but that’s theoretical. What the user sees on browser page loading for example, won’t relate directly to CPU perf improvements. It depends on how extensions are used, how good the compiler is, nomber of processes running, network conditions etc etc etc.

    I think we can safely say that the end user would see a significant improvement and that’s already been proven with the Archos 5.

  13. Benjiro says:

    Chippy:

    I’m rather sure that the performance is not 4 times faster between a ARMv7 & ARMv6 design. At best your looking at twice the performance, with only on a few subsystem on the CPU design with a greater gain ( but those do not add to the general speed as to create a 4 times speed increase ).

    There has been some significant discussion going on about that one, on the OpenPandora forums, and you can look up the data in the threads there.

    But having a browser loading a page 10* faster, that will be more up to:

    – Faster Memory access ( higher speed memory )
    – Faster internet access ( 3G ) vs whatever in the past.
    – Faster Storage ( SD card speeds have been going up plenty )
    – Faster browsers

    Do not expect the DSP to add that much to the general speed. The DSP / Neos is like SSE on the PCs. Sure, it gives a boost, but it does not magically turn something into a speed beast. And those bring there own set of problems into the equation.

    It all depends on how they compared the N810 vs the Mondi… Its like comparing apples vs oranges… Its like: Look, with the screen of, nothing running, our laptop does 6hour. Where as the competition with the screen on, running xxx threads, is only doing 1 hour.

    Take it from somebody who has falling before into that trap, lets first some real world benchmarks, before running into the claims with PR written all over it ;)

    I’d love to see a device that delivers ten times the “processing” power with x hours, but lets first stay realistic… Dreams can quickly turn into nightmares ;)

  14. Chippy says:

    Absolutely. for others thinking about this, one of the benchmarks improvements im expecting (if its got an armv7 at a decent, 600mhz + clock rate) is something like a 30% quicker web page loading time. maybe even 40% which would be fantastic. i’d also expect a big improvment in multitasking and keeping my fingers crossed for a fast ssd.

  15. alex says:

    Ok, firstly the Qualcomm statement was a prediction for June 2008. That hasn’t happened so one can’t immediately assume that they just delayed the tech for a year. There seems to have been delays for many OEMs in getting ARMv7 tech out the door so one might have to take Qualcomm’s statement with a pinch of salt.

    Also there’s the current trend of many companies putting ARMv6 chips in their summer 09 phones and delaying the ARMv7 tech to Q409(Toshiba and Palm being exceptions). I do hope I’m wrong though-the Mondi would be a great Snapdragon device!

  16. Arthur says:

    I know it doesn’t make much sense, and I’m not sure how Intel decides which press releases to pick up, but the Intel site lists the Mondi announcement http://www.intel.com/pressroom/chipshots/chipshots.htm?iid=SEARCH

  17. turn_self_off says:

    iirc, samsung makes their own ARM cpus. just look at the iphone, it uses a samsung made ARM.

  18. Chippy says:

    Yup. Samsung is a licensee of ARMv6 and V7.
    As for the Intel involvement, it’s probably due to WiMax. Intel are heavily investing.

    S

  19. Arthur says:

    it might be using the nvidia tegra platform…which use arm11 multicore processor.

  20. Benjiro says:

    Close to impossible Arthur.

    The tegra has only one cpu. You are mixing the fact that the tegra has the CPU & GPU on the same die. Thats just like the TI OMAP, and the Snapdragon…

    Also, it has been pointed out that the limitation on the Tegra is going to be its older cpu core. A ARM11 is in reality a older ARMv6 ( confusing is it not ;) ), while the TI OMAP, and Snapdragon use a Cortex A8 ( ARMv7 ).

    Like i posted above, a ARMv6 has a performance off around 1.2 / Mhz, while a A8 ( ARMv7 ) can do about 2 / Mhz.

    There is a Multi Cpu core in design for Arm, but don’t expect to see that in production for the next year or so.

  21. Chippy says:

    The answer has been found.
    Samsung Mondi to run on ARM11.

    http://www.pocketables.net/2009/04/samsung-mondi-wimax-mid-powered-by-arm11-cpu.html

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