What's in a name?
Interesting to see Samsung's launch last week of the Exynos 5 Octa applications processor.
It's the first chip to take advantage of ARM's big.LITTLE approach, in which a Cortex-A15 core does the 'heavy lifting', while a Cortex-A7 is available for less intensive tasks. The Octa has four of each core, making eight cores in all.
Some years ago, I visited a now defunct communications company which was developing a chip featuring eight ARM cores. The chip's official name hardly tripped off the tongue. "Why didn't you call it the Octopus?" I asked. "After all, it's got eight ARMS."
Not sure the spokesman was that impressed with the suggestion, but his stare wasn't as blank as the company's order book for the part.
