MediaTek Kompanio 1380 processor announced for premium Chromebooks
India Today
MediaTek, which currently holds a firm position in the budget segment for both phones and Chromebooks, has designed a high-end chipset for "premium Chromebooks."
MediaTek has added a new Kompanio 1380 processor to its growing lineup of chipsets designed for Chromebooks. The chip maker, which currently holds a firm position in the budget segment for both phones and Chromebooks, has designed a high-end chipset for "premium Chromebooks." The company claims that the new chip will offer high performance and consume less power.
The Chromebook Spin 513 will be the first laptop to feature this chip, which Acer unveiled at this year's CES. The Mediatek Kompanio 1380 has specifications similar to Kompanio 1300T chipset, but isn’t 5G-capable as it lacks a dedicated 5G modem. It is an octa-core processor, which is fabbed on TSMC’s 6nm node.
The new MediaTek Kompanio 1380 features four ARM Cortex-A78 performance cores clocked at up to 3GHz and four ARM Cortex-A55 efficiency cores working at up to 2GHz. There is an ARM Mali-G57 GPU for graphics-heavy duties, which is a downgrade from MediaTek Kompanio 1300T’s Mali-G77 MC9. It is backed by up to 16GB LPDDR4x RAM and there is also support for eMMC, UFS 3.1 and NVMe storage.
The chip can power up to two 4K displays at 30Hz or 60Hz refresh rates. With a single display, the chipset supports up to 4K resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate. There is also support for AV1 hardware decoding, and a dedicated audio digital signal processor (DSP) for ultra-low power voice on wakeup (VoW) capabilities.
There is a MediaTek APU 3.0 multi-core AI processor, which the company claims will accelerate AI camera and AI voice apps, and deliver improved battery life. While it doesn’t have 5G connectivity, it has support for Bluetooth 5.0, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E for fast, stable connections.
Speaking on the launch of the processor, C Tseng, general manager of MediaTek’s Intelligent Multimedia Business Unit said, “Kompanio 1380 continues MediaTek’s legacy as the No. 1 chipmaker for Arm-based Chromebooks, elevating premium Chromebook experience with next-level performance and extra-long battery life. This chip stands out with its outstanding processing performance, best-in-class multimedia and AI features, and smooth cloud gaming capabilities, all integrated into an ultra-efficient 6nm chip.”
Acer has already confirmed that it will start the shipment of its latest Chromebook Spin 513 device in the coming months. It will be available in select regions and will first be released in North America from June 2022. It is currently unknown when this Acer Chromebook or a Kompanio 1380-powered laptop will arrive in India.