Android Central has a weekly column, Ask Jerry, the place you’ll be able to ship in your questions for a (hopefully) easy-to-understand reply. I like it as a result of I take pleasure in breaking down loopy tech discuss right into a factor anybody can perceive. Generally, although, I get a query that goes past the scope of a easy tech recommendation piece as a result of there is no such thing as a simple reply.
I received a type of just lately, and somebody was asking concerning the pace of a telephone chip versus what number of cores it has and what’s extra necessary. I’ll try to simplify it right here and assist everybody perceive that there is no such thing as a actual reply to which is best, and why.
System on Chip
The processor inside your telephone is not only a processor — it is a full package deal that gives a number of features often known as a SoC (System on Chip).
A SoC is a kind of built-in circuit that incorporates most of the elements that energy the brains of a tool. In a typical telephone or pill, the SoC has the system’s processor and GPU cores, different processors for issues like AI acceleration, reserved house for cached information and reminiscence wanted by the system, Digital Sign Processors (DSP) for issues like digital camera seize and audio, exterior interfaces for numerous communication protocols, and wi-fi modems for connectivity.
There are additionally gadgets like timers, voltage regulators, or energy administration ICs that do not actually have an effect on efficiency. It is also price noting that some wi-fi modems and system reminiscence modules can both be within the SoC or exterior relying on the system.
In brief, there’s plenty of stuff occurring inside one small chip that wants plenty of energy and runs extremely sizzling.
Some corporations construct SoCs tailor-made for a novel expertise whereas others make SoCs designed to work nicely throughout loads of gadgets. There are execs and cons to every method, however chances are high your gadgets have the latter type of SoC inside from an organization like Qualcomm. These corporations work exhausting to make chips that carry out nicely when used as designed; a chip designed for a smartwatch is not supreme for a telephone, and vice-versa. All of them use the identical fundamental idea although — construct a package deal of {hardware} the place every part compliments the others and the outcome additionally enhances the {hardware} a person interacts with.
There may be pace in numbers
If you deal with the “processor” portion of the SoC issues are just a little complicated. You will see specs that record a number of completely different cores clocked at completely different speeds, and the web is crammed with individuals arguing the deserves of all of them. Ignore these arguments for a second.
You want stability greater than the rest for the efficiency you have come to count on from a tool like a telephone. It might be finest to have some cores that are not extraordinarily quick, some which are, and software program designed to distribute the load in a means that gives the right combination of pace and battery life. And that’s exhausting to do on each stage.
A CPU (Central Processing Unit, the place most computing duties are completed) core can solely do one factor at a time. All pc processing is math, and the core inside a CPU cannot actually suppose forward or look backward; it solely tackles the one drawback in entrance of it earlier than it strikes on to the subsequent one.
Clock pace — the GHz numbers you see within the spec sheet, decide how briskly every factor may be completed. It is all completed extremely quick (hundreds of thousands of operations per second) and the upper the pace the quicker every operation is carried out.
Cores decide what number of issues may be completed on the identical time. If one core can do 100,000 issues per second (no CPU core is that this sluggish but it surely’s a straightforward quantity) then 5 cores can do 500,000 issues per second. The extra cores a CPU has, the extra duties may be run concurrently.
A thread is a set of directions for the CPU core. They share the identical assets as the method that created them however they are often switched so quick it looks like a CPU core is doing a couple of factor at a time.
You probably have a CPU with a number of quick cores, threads work to make a number of issues occur so quick that it looks like they occur on the identical time as a result of our brains will not be almost as quick as a CPU core.
You want quick in-order processing calculation efficiency on a single core, quick out-of-order (utilizing threads) calculation efficiency on a single core, and ultra-fast in and out-of-order calculation efficiency on a number of cores for an excellent person expertise. That is the place software program comes into play.
Usually talking, a quick CPU core means an utility will run rapidly on a pc like your telephone. Quick a number of cores imply extra issues may be completed within the background, together with a number of apps working directly. That is why each single-core and multi-core efficiency issues.
Some software program, like a sport or a video modifying program, may be written in methods to profit from a number of CPU cores, spreading processes and threads throughout cores in a single utility.
One of the best analogy I’ve ever heard to explain this, and I want I bear in mind the place I learn it to credit score the clever one who first mentioned it:
A freeway has a number of lanes and a pace restrict.
On Freeway 10 you may have a pace restrict of fifty and eight lanes.
On Freeway 11 you may have a pace restrict of 100 and one lane.
You probably have one quick automobile you are higher off utilizing Freeway 11. You probably have eight slower vehicles you might be higher off utilizing Freeway 10. Some software program is a quick automobile and a few is a fleet of slower vehicles. One of the best factor to do could be to place Freeway 10 beside Freeway 11 and use each.
Often, we’re doing a number of issues directly however need no matter our eyes are taking a look at to run nicely. We’re OK with letting the background duties be just a little slower. The software program powering your telephone wants to ensure the duties working on it are prioritized this manner.
Is core clock pace extra necessary than the variety of cores? Sure, No. Generally. Possibly.
There isn’t a reply to this as a result of the right combination of the variety of cores, their pace, and the software program utilizing them is what’s actually necessary.
