Yet we haven’t see a single device with dual-core ARM A9 processor, but that isn’t stopping Marvell, as the company announced world’s first 1.5GHz tri-core ARM application processor, the Marvell ARMADA 628. The processor is capable of delivering dual stream 1080p 3D video and features 3D graphics with quad unified shaders for 200 million triangles per second for smartphones and tablets.

"Marvell has once again set the benchmark for the rest of the industry with the world's first 1.5 GHz tri-core processor, delivering dual stream 1080p 3D video and 3D graphics performance with quad unified shaders for 200 million triangles per second delivered on ultra-low-power, long battery life smartphones and tablets," said Weili Dai, Marvell Co-founder and Vice President and General Manager of Marvell Semiconductor's Consumer and Computing Business Unit. "This is important because today's consumers expect robust enterprise and consumer applications delivered to the palm of their hands. Marvell is uniquely equipped to lead this mobile revolution as the semiconductor industry's one-stop shop solution provider. This is an example of Marvell's unique ability to take a diverse cutting edge technology portfolio and integrate into differentiated solutions to give our customers game-changing advantage."

The tri-core design integrates two high performance symmetric multiprocessing cores and a third core optimized for ultra low power. The third core is designed to support routine user tasks and acts as a system management processor to monitor and dynamically scale power and performance. Marvell's ARMADA 628 tri-core CPU comprises a complete SoC design – a first for the industry. In addition to the tri-core CPU, there are six additional processing engines to support stunning 3D graphics, 1080p video encode/decode, ultra high fidelity audio, advanced cryptography, and digital photo data processing – for a total of nine dedicated core functions.

The ARMADA 628 is also designed to be the first mobile CPU to provide high-speed USB 3.0 connectivity, which offers 10x faster performance than USB 2.0. The ARMADA 628 is currently available for sampling to customers. Devices based on the new chip should come to the market by end of Q2 2011.