LG Develops Its Own Multi-Core NUCLUN Mobile Processor

LG is no small name in the smartphone space, and its G-series of flagship Android devices have raised the bar year after year. Going forward, however, LG's phones will involve a twist: the silicon within will be LG's own handiwork. The company is revealing this week its first mobile application processor, which features an eight core architecture and LTE-A network capabilities. The new AP is being dubbed NUCLUN, and it'll make its debut in the G3 Screen, a phone engineered specifically for the Korean market (at least for now).

As you'd likely expect, NUCLUN is built around ARM's big.LITTLE technology. It employs a foursome of 1.5GHz cores (ARM Cortex-A15) for high performance tasks, while it's paired with four 1.2GHz ARM Cortex-A7 cores for less intense operations. The number of performing cores can be adjusted based on the requirements of the task for maximum processing power or maximum energy savings. NUCLUN is designed to support the next generation of 4G networks, LTE-A Cat.6, for maximum download speeds of up to 225Mbps while retaining backward compatibility with current LTE networks.

It remains to be seen if LG plans to expand its chip making operations to build for mid-range and low-end devices as well, and perhaps there's a market for LG to sell processors to up-and-coming smartphone builders who don't have the cash or time to construct their own chips. As everything shifts mobile, having a handle on your own chip making seems like a wise move. Just ask NVIDIA and Samsung.