[Nexus 10 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] 404 ERROR:
Here's the post that stamps its feet and declares the absolute truth:

Cores aren't everything.

And you can think that we're just a bunch of fanboys trying to justify the use of dual core in the Nexus 10, but even non-fanboys who know how these processors work would tell you a dual core A15 is far more powerful than a quad core A9.

Now everything below this post is purely observation based (I'm not an engineer nor have I really studied up on computer parts), but I think it gives a casual user a good idea of how a CPU works.

So, before you go out screaming "wtf. why are there only 2 cores in the nexus 10. lol so noob," ask yourself this: what do extra cores even do? If you can't answer that, then don't complain because you clearly don't know what you're talking about. It's not simple multiplication of the frequency (for example, 4 x 1.2ghz = 4.8ghz). A 4.8ghz phone would be able to run Crysis without a problem (of course with a dedicated GPU, but that's besides the point). That's obviously not the case.

The major difference between the A15 and the A9 is their microarchitecture. You can think of it this way. A mouse has to go through a course. There are two courses:

and .

We call the maze A9 and we call the straight route A15.

Now, we will pretend "ghz" is a measure of intelligence (higher the better). A mouse that has an intuition level of 2.0ghz has to go through maze A9. Complicated right? It'd take awhile even if the mouse was kinda smart. But now a mouse that has an intuition level of 1.7 ghz has to go through maze A15. Easy. The maze route is a straight line - who wouldn't be able to find the end? So in the end, we ask ourselves, "Who gets the job done faster?" Obviously, the mouse in the A15 does even though it's not as smart. In this way, the A15 is just more efficient. So clock speeds (which are things like 1.0 ghz, 2.0 ghz, 1.5 ghz, 1.8 ghz) are only a part of the story. You need to factor in the microarchitecture (or in this example, the way the maze is organized).

Now, we go into cores. We can think of cores as splitting the work. Now, we will consider this scenario: we want to calculate how much time it takes for the maze to be completed four times (regardless of how many mice you are using - we just want to complete this maze 4x). A quadcore CPU that contains the 2.0ghz mouse can be represented by 4 mazes:

The dualcore CPU that contains the 1.7 ghz mouse can be represented by 2 mazes.

.

With the quadcore CPU, we will finish the task in only one go. Just put a mouse in each maze, and once they're done, we've completed the maze four times. With the dualcore CPU, we will finish the task in two go's. The mouse in each maze will have to go through each maze twice to finish the maze 4x. However, let's look at the "microarchitecture," or the maze route. Even though the dual core CPU (A15) needs to finish this task in two go's, it'll still do it a lot faster, because the route is far easier to go through. This makes the A15 more powerful. You can complete tasks quickly.

So when judging the "power" of SOCs, you need to keep three things in mind: cores, clock speed, and microarchitecture.

Clock speed = frequency such as 1.5ghz

Cores = dual core, quad core

Microarchitecture = A9, A15

Sometimes the microarchitecture won't be a vast enough improvement to justify a seriously lopsided clock speed. For example, a 4.5 ghz Intel Sandy Bridge CPU will be tons faster than a 3.2 ghz Intel Ivy Bridge CPU even though the Ivy Bridge CPU has a new microarchitecture. But, an Intel Sandy Bridge CPU clocked at 4.5 ghz will be slower than an Ivy Bridge CPU clocked at 4.4 ghz because the microarchitecture is slightly better.

Anyway, I hope this clears things up. I know the information here is probably not 100% accurate, but I'm hoping this is easier to understand than pure numbers and technical talk.