Samsung’s Wednesday keynote was a sizzler that built to an appearance by former President Bill Clinton, but it was the new Exynos 5 Octa Processor that was the star of the stage. Samsung Electronics’ Dr. Stephen Woo shared details of the company’s new mobile chip. The eight-core Exynos 5 Octa features two sets of four cores each, and is the first mobile processor to use chip manufacturing firm ARM’s big.LITTLE architecture, which toggles between each core depending on the application.

A four-stack of Cortex A-7 cores will handle low-power demands while the quad of Cortex A-15s fires up for tasks like HD streaming and real-time gaming. (All eight can also activate in tandem.)

ARM CEO Warren East said when compared with Samsung’s previous Exynos Quad Core the Octa offers “twice the performance at half the power consumption.”

“We’re creating game changing components,” said Woo, who is president of System LSI Business, Device Solutions Division, Samsung Electronics. And he was speaking literally. The Exynos 5 brings console techniques to the phones and tablets for the first time. A demo that ran Electronic Arts’ “Need for Speed: Most Wanted” game on a pre-production model Galaxy tablet equipped with Exynos 5 Octa was truly dazzling.

Samsung had no word on when Exynos 5 products might begin hitting the market, but said it is commercially available now, for Samsung as well as third-party products. “This level of pure processing power has never seen before in a mobile device,” Woo said. “And it’s not just for better graphics, but can handle heavy multitasking too.” (The example he gave was looking up a restaurant, calling to make a reservation and downloading GPS directions, all while streaming an HD movie.)

Woo also showcased a proto technology that allows games being played at home to spill outside the TV set and onto the walls and ceiling of the room, creating an ambient gaming environment, and talked about displays that have facial recognition, so gamers can have different experiences depending on where they’re sitting.

Samsung’s new flexible display technology was also showcased under the brand name Youm. A display model phone that uses the flexible surface had a screen that curved around the device, enabling a ticker-tape to run down the side. “With this type of technology, we start approaching the point where anything can become a screen,” Woo said.

It was a tough act to follow for Bill Clinton, but his showmanship skills haven’t waned, and the crowd loved him. Clinton said the world had “huge challenges that technology can help us overcome, and not just economically, but socially.” He used the social media role in the Arab Spring as one example and its ability to generate dialogue across different economic and class boundaries as another.

Clinton spoke out forcefully for gun control, and advocated for the Internet. “We need to see the Internet as part of our global commitment to infrastructure. I hope there will be an Internet policy set up and one of their goals will be universal access.”

The keynote presentation video — although with the Clinton segment pared down — is available on the Samsung CES page (click on Keynote Speech VOD). Samsung also has a collection of videos, including its pre-show press conference, posted on its Live from CES page.