When do processors and chips get exciting?  When they’re announced by Samsung and include the phrases ’1Ghz’ and ’1080p’ that’s when!  The Korean company sent out a flurry of press releases late yesterday, and two stood out as being very interesting to lovers of high performance mobile phones and capable camera phones.

The first is the latest ARM CORTEX processor, but instead of being of the everyday 600Mhz variety, this one steams along at a speedy 1Ghz!  Samsung have actually launched two of these processors, one for smartphones and one for netbooks, but both feature support for high speed 3D graphics and a full 1080p HD codec for 30fps video recording and playback!  This made us think back to the picture of an OmniaHD supposedly running a 1Ghz processor, which perhaps not the mistake it was subsequently revealed to be!

Secondly, Samsung have provided details of the S5k4EA.  Sounds exciting, right?  No, of course it doesn’t, but it will when we say it’s a new 5-megapixel camera sensor which Samsung claim will bring ‘digital still camera functionality to mobile devices’!  In addition to being smaller and slimmer than previous sensors, it will be able to shoot 1080p video at 30fps and provide auto focus, a xenon flash and support for a mechanical or electronic shutter.

Both of these, along with a new, slim display chip which supports capacitive touchscreens, were introduced at the Samsung Mobile Solutions Forum being held in Taipei, however we’re going to have to wait until next year to start seeing news of devices utilising them.  Still, we always like to have a hint of what’s round the corner!