Creative ZiiLabs introduce quad core ARM processor

The subdivision of Creative, ‘ZiiLabs’, has been developing a somewhat revolutionary ARM processor which brings a similar product to the table that AMD’s APUs do except for the ARM market. The ZMS-40 ARM processor gets four 1.5GHz Cortex A9 cores to form the processor alongside 96 ‘StemCell media processing cores’ or GPU cores.

ZiiLabs claim by using more cores with lower clocks they were able to reduce power consumption by around 50%. Having got 200% more efficiency and performance out of their second generation ZMS-40 means they can now support features like ultra-high-resolution H.264 HP decoding of up to 3840×1080, 2560×1600 (WQXGA) display resolution support, OpenGL ES graphics and support for High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC).

Specifications:

• Quad 1.5 GHz ARM Cortex-A9 MP Cores
• 96 fully-programmable StemCell Media Processing cores
• 58 GFlops StemCell compute power
• Wide range of accelerated video codecs including HEVC, H.264, VC1 and WebM (VP8)
• True 1920x1080p 3D stereo playback (3840×1080 @ 60 Hz, or 1920×1080 @ 120 Hz)
• Double the CPU performance for enhanced multi-tasking
• Double the Graphics and Media performance
• Half the power consumption for longer battery life ii
• Support for ZiiLABS enhanced Android 4.0 implementation
• 2560×1600 (WQXGA) resolution support for next-generation LCDs and Displays

Key Features:

• High-Definition, low-latency video conferencing
• Optimised OpenGL ES 2.0 for robust 3D graphics acceleration
• Accelerated OpenCL 1.1 (desktop profile) integrated into Android NDK
• High Dynamic Range (HDR) Image Processing
• High-quality Text-to-Speech and Voice Recognition
• Integrated HDMI 1.4 with 3D stereo support
• 2GB addressable memory
• DDR2/3 at 533 MHz for low-cost
• LPDDR2 for maximum memory bandwidth and low-power
• 64-bit wide memory bus
• Quad independent video controllers supporting 24-bit displays and cameras
• 3V3 and 1V8 I/O’s reduce peripheral power consumption
• Dual USB 2.0 HS OTG (Host/Peripheral) controllers with PHY for low system cost
• Three independent SDIO/MMC controllers
• Extended battery life with robust Dynamic Power Management and Instantaneous On
• Enhanced Security: 256-bit AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and TrustZone

Availability
The ZiiLABS ZMS-40 is sampling to select customers based on the JAGUAR tablets running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

Source: Press Release