Octa Core processors

[Sam Hobbs]

Does an Octa Core processor actually provide twice as much processing ability than a quad core processor? The HTC Desire 616 has an Octa Core processor. I cannot find the details (see the following) of what that means. I know that in some processors, the processor is able to switch between cores to reduce battery consumption.

Note that I am a programmer. I understand multi-tasking, also known as multi-threading. An explanation of that stuff might help others but I already understand that stuff.

Is an Octa Core processor such as in the HTC Desire 616 capable of using all 8 cores at once? Note that I personally understand that software must be able to use 8 threads simultaneously to use 8 cores, but assuming the software has been developed so that it can do 8 or more tasks (or threads or whatever) at a time, can the processor use all 8 cores?

My understanding of the processor in the HTC Desire 616 is that there are actually four cores at one speed and the other four cores at another speed. That allows the phone to consume less battery when less processing is required. Can the processor (in a phone such as the HTC Desire 616) however use all 8 cores if the processing is needed?

Note that I see no tag for "Octa Core" but it might be time to add one.

 

[Someone Somewhere]

The feature you're talking about is called big.LITTLE, and is made by ARM. Many (all?) of Samsung's Octa-core SoCs use big.LITTLE.

That phone has a MediaTek 6592 SoC, which is not a big.LITTLE chip. All cores can thus operate simultaneously.

Note that, even with perfect threading, there are many other factors besides cores that aren't doubled. The GPU and memory bandwidth are also likely to be limiting factors.

 

[Sam Hobbs]

Thank you. Yes, the HTC Desire 616 is a very economical phone. I would expect it to have limitations. The GPU limitation would be significant if I wanted to watch many videos or play graphic games. I am not sure what the memory bandwidth would affect but I assume it could limit the processing of a large amount of data.