A mysterious new MediaTek SoC shows up in development for future Chromebooks

Alright, this one is a head-scratcher. In searching for some info surrounding another upcoming, new reference board that we’ll talk about in a future post (very soon, I promise) I came across not only another new development board, but an entirely new SoC being tested for upcoming Chromebooks, too.

The MediaTek MT8186 is basically a ghost at this point. We thought it was in a tablet or two last year, but that was simply a misprint that confused the MT8168 for this MT8186. Remember, when it comes to MediaTek, we have the existing devices running the Kompanio 500 (MT8183) and upcoming Chromebooks with the Kompanio 820 (MT8192) and Kompanio 1200 (MT8195) all on the way. This is the SoC lineup we’ve known about for some time and it really feels like there is a processor for every type of device in this group.

So, why would MediaTek start toying around with yet another SoC? I’m not really sure at this point. As I said above, there’s not much info out on the web about this processor at all, and even more confusing is the fact that MediaTek’s own website shows the 2020 Amazon Fire HD 8 tablet as having the MT8186 onboard. Further research seems to indicate that the MT8168 is actually the processor in that device, though, and that makes a bit more sense.

The Fire HD 8 has only 4 total cores and they are all the smaller Cortex-A53 cores that the MT8183 has in addition to the 4 larger, faster A76 cores. The processor in the 2020 Fire HD 8 would be a massive step backwards and would make no sense. Thankfully, it seems this is a simple typo and most material surrounding the Fire HD 8 states this is the MT8168, not the MT8186. There’s a landing page and everything for the MT8168. No such thing even exists for this MT8186 at this point.

So, that just means we’re somewhat in the dark with this chip for right now. Based on the model number, I’d expect a slight upgrade to the MT8183, though I really thought that was the point of the MT8192, known internally as ‘Asurada’ at this point. We feel pretty confident that we’ll see a few MT8192 devices before the end of the year, so that only makes the arrival of a new SoC that much more confusing at this point.

Either way, it looks like we might have a new MediaTek SoC in the mix, and depending on what it comes equipped with, that could be a really good thing. MediaTek doesn’t always name their models in such a way that equates bigger numbers with better performance, so don’t read too much into the MT8186 model name just yet. We’ll be digging to see what comes of this, but for now say hello to ‘Corsola’ and get subscribed below to be sure you don’t miss out on future updates on this brand new SoC from MediaTek for Chromebooks.