MediaTek is a company that came seemingly out of nowhere in the mobile tech world and has made a name for itself by providing quad-core and octa-core chipsets to the entry-level and mid-range markets at a low-cost. While the company has been around since 1997, it wasn’t until last Summer that they finally got their big break with the world’s first true octa-core mobile processor. Even with those 8 cores, however, MediaTek’s chip performance was still relegated from being in flagship device. While their newest lineup doesn’t seem to be changing those fortunes just quite yet, it looks like they may be one of the first to market with a 64-bit chipset, which spells some awesome news for upcoming entry-level and mid-range phones. The chips themselves have been leaked through a MediaTek document obtained by Mydrivers.com, and are based on the ARM Cortex A-53 core, which is ARM’s 64-bit mid-range architecture. For reference this line scales up to the Cortex A-57 at the high-end. The MT6732 will be the quad-core version of the chipset, while the MT6752 will have all 8-cores available to use.
What’s actually pretty impressive here outside of pushing the 64-bit architecture is the implementation of LTE connectivity onboard. While many manufacturers like Intel, Nvidia and Samsung use separate LTE modems on their chips, most companies choose Qualcomm because the LTE modem is integrated into the chipset directly, giving power savings and even possible performance increases in network speed. Heck even Apple, who is generally lauded for their custom implementation of chipset technology, uses a Qualcomm LTE modem. MediaTek is showing everyone up though by integrating their own LTE modem here, and it might give them the advantage in the upcoming year over Qualcomm because of it. The Snapdragon 410 is the only other officially announced 64-bit chip announced for more budget-friendly phones, and that doesn’t even have LTE connectivity either. Nvidia also has an LTE chipset coming up called the Tegra 4i, but that’s not a 64-bit component either, so MediaTek seems to have hit all the needed spec checkboxes to get this one in the door to manufacturers of mobile devices. The next few months should prove to be incredibly interesting for new chipsets coming out, especially with all this new 64-bit tech and on-die LTE happening at the same time. Look for an official announcement in the coming months from MediaTek.
