Taiwan's MediaTek on Tuesday, announced its Helios X20 a mobile processor with 10 cores that it can offer better power efficiency and improved performance over competing processors, according to the company. The mobile processor has a "Tri-Cluster" CPU architecture and ten processing cores (Deca-core). Essentially, this configuration is packing together a dual-core chip with a pair of quad-cores. It provides three processor clusters, each designed to more efficiently handle different types of workloads. The dual-core cluster, which uses two ARM Cortex-A72 2.5 GHz processors, is meant to handle the most intensive tasks. The pair of quad-core clusters are designed for medium and lower-scale computing.

MediaTek claims this configuration can help save 30 percent on battery life over traditional chips, while keeping the phone's software running smoothly.

The Helios X20 will launch in December, and is designed for top-of-the-range smartphones.

Mediatek also launched its eight-core chip in 2013, but weeks later Qualcomm called such processors "dumb." Later, though, Qualcomm, took a step back from that remark, and began offering its own eight-core chips.

MediaTek's Helios X20 will be built with a 20-nanometer manufacturing process, and can operate two dual cameras with built-in 3D depth engine, plus multi-scale de-noise engines, in the back of a phone.

The Helio X20 refreshes smartphone displays at an accelerated 120Hz per second. A low power sensor processor ? ARM Cortex-M4 supports diverse always-on applications such as MP3 playback and voice activation. The sensor hub on the embedded ARM Cortex-M4 processor operates on an isolated, low-power domain to support diverse always-on applications such as MP3 playback and voice activation.

The SoC also has a modem for 4G LTE FDD/TDD and 3G bands.