Thanks. So are there many apps that take advantage of the dual core devices? My point being, if we are not really taking advantage of the dual core now, we most likely have a ways to go before we can take advantage of the quad core. I'm only asking because I really don't know and I'm trying to understand this.
Android = Linux + Dalvik Virtual Machine + apps that run inside the Dalvik and use Linux services
The magic for multi core use happens at kernel level, that's a part of Linux.
Works like this - in programming, a developer can conceive of his solution to sometimes have some subprocesses that _could_ run in parallel, but managed properly, don't have to. The programming techniques for that are now old and well-established. The Android Developers website even walks devs though the overall how-to.
The potentially parallel processes are put into what programmers call threads. Just like in this forum, we have parallel threads about the screen, audio, etc, making up the whole conversation, similar concept.
So what happens to the threads at runtime?
The kernel decides how to load-balance across cores, Linux has been doing this for a long time.
This is why Android dual cores showed an advantage from day one.
http://androidforums.com/htc-evo-3d/381826-dual-cores-anyone-taking-advantage-them.html
Unlike iOS, apps don't get multiple core optimized. They are either written properly in the first place or they're not.
A key point of ICS is the upgrade to the Linux 3 kernel. This is far more efficient at task scheduling than before, especially for multiple cores.
So, if someone says that they have to optimize an app for quad core use, what they really said is, fix broken thread design in the first place.
When you think about these factors, you can begin to see that benchmarks are becoming less relevant than before - they tie less to real world applications from the cpu side.
A single S4 cpu core is at least twice as powerful as a single T3 core. Depending on the user's choice of apps with the two cores side by side, you will correctly judge either the S4 or T3 to be faster, or both equal.
As for the T3 having faster graphics: _maybe_.
Graphics benchmarks show programmers which graphic library functions may be more effective on which processors.
Neither cpu nor gpu benchmarks can tell you which horse is faster. It's an urban myth that they do.
Both the S4 and T3 represent the same order of magnitude upgrade over the single and dual core phones we use today. I would be equally happy with either.
Disclaimer - I'm a Qualcomm fan, prefer it to the ARM architecture that everyone else uses.
