(iTers News/Electronic Times) - Crack open Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 5.7-inch smart phone that went on sale on Sept. 25 in more than 50 countries, and you can find Samsung‘s in-house built Exynos 5420 CPU seating at its core.

A teardown analysis on Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 smart phone shows that the quad-core Exynos 5420 CPU comes integrated with a power management IC circuitry, Korean vernacular IT daily The Electronics Times reported.

The integration of the analog PM IC circuitry into the Exynos CPU solution ushers in Samsung’s ambitious entry into global power management IC market, as the PM ICs are taking on increasingly important role in a growing list of power-hungry applications from automotive to mobile devices, the IT daily reported.

In the past, Samsung’s Exynos series of CPUs paired with discrete PM ICs from analog chip makers like Maxim Integrated and Texas Instruments to power Samsung’s Galaxy series of smart phone and  tablet PC family.

Power management ICs are a sort of analog IC chip that manage the power requirements, or consumption of a host system as efficiently as possible, including a battery management, voltage regulator, and DC to DC converter.

As today’s smart phones and cars are getting more and more sophisticated with a wealth of multimedia features, how to manage power in the most efficient way is one of toughest challenge in the system design.

The integration of PM ICs into a CPU will lead to reduced BOM, bill of material costs and better power management and smaller form factors, compared with a discrete PM IC, as it allows a built-in firmware to manage power. 

To get the benefits, mobile CPU titan Qualcomm also embeds PM IC circuitry into its Snapdragon series of mobile CPUs.

The foray by Samsung and Qualcomm into PM IC market will eventually stir up big ferment in the competitive landscape of the market, threatening to make a dent in the stronghold of market leader Maxim Integrated Products and Texas Instruments.

To offset possible setbacks in the PM IC market, Maxim has been diversifying its chip portfolio into touch screen IC controllers, the IT daily reported.        

(Credit : By the courtesy of The Electronics Times)