Why the Galaxy Nexus uses OMAP instead of Exynos

 
The rumors seemed strange from the start — a Samsung phone with a Texas Instruments processor? Last year’s Nexus S was a Samsung device, and it was Samsung through and through with a 1GHz Hummingbird system-on-a-chip (SoC). Now here we are looking at the new Google flagship, the Galaxy Nexus, and it has a TI OMAP4460 on the inside. Why not Samsung’s own Exynos part?
There area few factors at work here, but the most important one is related to how the Nexus program works. Back when Google announced the Motorola Mobility buy, the company finally revealed a bit about how it operates the Nexus program. This was done in an effort to show that Motorola won’t be getting preferential treatment.
According to Google’s Andy Rubin, each year Google selects a device maker that it wants to work closely with on the next Nexus phone. But it’s not just the OEM that is involved — Google decides on components in the phone individually. Unlike other devices, Google gets it way with the Nexus.
So the team that will eventually “huddle together in one building” will be made up of the OEM, and several component makers that supply things like the SoC and radios. Then 9-12 months later, a little Nexus is born. Last year, Google went with Samsung for the device itself, and the SoC. This year, Google has decided to put Texas Instruments on the processor team.
So now the OMAP4460 is getting quite a lot of scrutiny, even though it isn’t exactly a new chip. This dual-core SoC is clocked at 1.2GHz, and uses ARM Cortex-A9 architecture, just like the Exynos. That’s not a problem, but the older GPU, the PowerVR SGX540 is. We were hoping for a step up in the graphics department.
Why did Google choose the OMAP for its new Nexus? Well, it might not live up to the high graphical standards set out by the iPhone, but it is a solid chip in its own right. The OMAP4 platform makes use of an additional hardware accelerator called IVA 3 that makes encoding and decoding HD video a snap. The Galaxy Nexus has an HD screen, so this hardware focus on video is a big plus.
Google engineers were likely also drawn to the OMAP for its use of a dual-channel memory controller. Android’s multitasking system means that data is constantly being moved into, and out of, active memory. This is definitely a strength of TI’s OMAP parts.
Google will be developing the new version of Android on OMAP for the next year, so be ready for more devices based on this one. Much like the Nexus One started the Snapdragon revolution two years ago, this could be TI’s time to shine. If that OMAP4460 starts looking old and tired to OEMs in the coming year, there is always the upcoming OMAP4470 (which is armed with the much-newer and faster SGX544 GPU) to maintain compatibility and increase performance, too.