Just a week before the May 3 Samsung Mobile Unpacked 2012 event, where the company will finally unveil its much-anticipated Samsung Galaxy S3, Samsung has officially announced what SoC the new smartphone will feature.

The third generation of Samsung's flagship Galaxy S smartphone will be powered by the faster, energy-saving quad-core microprocessor Exynos 4 Quad, as previous rumors had suggested. The Exynos 4 Quad employs Samsung's 32-nanometer HKMG process, and runs on 4 ARM Cortex A9s exceeding 1.4GHz per core.

Press Release

"Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor solutions, today introduced the industry's first quad-core application processor built on the High-k Metal Gate (HKMG) low-power process technology," reads the press release. "With unprecedented performance capabilities exceeding 1.4GHz based on the ARM® CORTEXTM A9 quad-core, the powerful, yet energy-efficient Exynos 4 Quad, allows system-level architects to integrate maximized power efficiencies into smartphones and tablets which enables double the processing power at a 20 percent lower power bill over its predecessors, the 45nm process-based Exynos 4 Dual."

Samsung further stressed that Exynos 4 Quad has power gating on all four A9s, as well as per core frequency and voltage scaling. Samsung did not, however, mention what GPU blocks are inside the Exynos 4 Quad. The company also noted that the Exynos 4 Quad is both package (12x12x1.37mm) and "pin-to-pin" compatible with the 32nm Exynos 4 Dual, which will make it easier for manufacturers to upgrade current devices without additional costs.

Demo Video

Samsung has also uploaded a demo video on YouTube, demonstrating the Exynos 4 Quad and Exynos 5 Dual SoCs. The video features clear shots of the Exynos 4 Quad running GLBenchmark Egypt, while Exynos 5 is shown powering a WQXGA display.

The new chip, designed for both tablets and smartphones, will be first used in the next Galaxy phone. "Already in production, the Exynos 4 Quad is scheduled to be adopted first into Samsung's next Galaxy smartphone that will officially be announced in May," stated Samsung.

Samsung is set to unveil its next-generation Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone at a May 3 event in London, but the company has kept the phone under wraps ahead of the official unveiling. Other than the Exynos 4 Quad, other specs are yet to be confirmed. However, the rumored specs were found on the Amazon Germany site.

Check out the demo video below:

(reported by Alexandra Burlacu, edited by Dave Clark)