The British chip designer ARM, on whose architectures rely most mobile processors these days, is a company that never sleeps, and it just proved that with the announcement of its next architecture - Cortex-A17.
Made with the 28nm process, it is aimed to replace the aging Cortex-A9, which is in most smartphones, and offers 60% better performance with much improved power efficiency to boot. For comparison, today's top-shelf Cortex-A15 cores, as found in Exynos 5 Octa and Snapdragon 800, are 40% faster than A9s. The Cortex-A17 processor is coupled with midrange Mali-T720 graphics and enhanced IP suite, so next year's entry level devices will have quite a lot to brag about.
Cortex-A17 chipsets will be aimed precisely at the booming low- and mid-range market, offer up to 2 GHz+ quad-core versions, and can be paired with less powerful cores in a big.LITTLE config. The processor can also be paired up with the Mali-V500 video solution in midrange phones and tablets, which would allow power efficient 4K video encoding and decoding, bringing the new video and display resolution standard downmarket to more affordable mobile devices.
Future seems bright for ARM-based phones, and the Chinese from MediaTek, whose processors seem to find place in more and more budget Androids these days, are already working on the Cortex-A17 implementation, as are Realtek and VIA. These chips are meant not only for phones and tablets, but TVs and automotive applications as well.
ARM Enhances IP Suite for 2015 Mid-Range Mobile and Consumer Markets 11 February 2014
Highlights:
Latest suite of ARM® IP delivers today's premium user experience in the mid-range mobile and consumer devices for 2015
ARM Cortex®-A17 processor delivers better efficiency and 60 percent more performance than the ARM Cortex-A9 processor, which is the current market leader by volume shipped
The ARM Mali-T720 GPU and ARM Mali-V500 video processor bring scalable, energy-efficient compact multimedia solutions to mid-range devices and are complemented by the ARM Mali™-DP500 display processor.
CAMBRIDGE, UK, FEB 11, 2014 – ARM today announced an enhanced suite of higher performance and more energy-efficient products specifically designed for the rapidly growing mid-range mobile and consumer electronics markets. The suite, comprised of processor, graphics processor and physical IP, is an update to ARM's mid-range IP offering targeting devices for production in 2015 and beyond. The combination of the ARM Cortex-A17 processor and the ARM Mali-T720 GPU gives an enriched offering for mid-range mobile and other consumer applications such as smart TVs and Over-the-Top media devices.
"We expect to see a rich set of innovation in the mid-range mobile phone segment which is forecast to become a half a billion unit market annually from 2015 and the Cortex-A17 processor will be a key component in that growth," said Ian Ferguson, vice president of segment marketing, ARM. "To date, the ARM Partnership has shipped more than 50 billion ARM-based chips and the continued broadening of our processor family will enable our partners to further optimize their offerings in existing and new product categories."
More Performance, Greater Efficiency The Cortex-A17 processor offers a 60 percent performance improvement over Cortex-A9 processors, enabling better power and area efficiency while supporting full-system coherency for ARM big.LITTLE™ processing using the CoreLink™ CCI-400 Cache Coherent Interconnect. Additional information on the Cortex-A17 processor can be found here.
The Mali-T720 GPU is a cost-optimized graphics solution targeted at entry-level Android devices developed to reduce an OEM's manufacturing complexities and time-to-market. It supports the latest graphics and GPU computing APIs, including Open GL ES 3.0, OpenCL and RenderScript, extending the rich visual experience previously found only on today's high-end smartphones and tablets. More detail on the Mali-T720 GPU can be found here. Additionally, the mid-range IP suite includes the Mali-V500 video solution, a very efficient and compact video processor delivering up to 4K resolutions and when combined with the new Mali-DP500 display controller, enables security from content to the glass.
Faster Time-To-Market Support To enable SoC designers to combine their own IP in the most efficient and effective manner, ARM provides ARM POP™ IP implementation solutions on 28nm process technology. POP IP for the Cortex-A17 processor includes core-hardening acceleration technology and delivers 2.0+ GHz implementations. POP IP for the Mali-T720 GPU enables best-in-class area efficiency (fps/mm2) and market-leading power efficiency (fps/mW). It includes a proven RTL-GDS flow to easily reproduce complex implementations for a faster time to market. More information on POP IP featuring ARM Artisan® Physical IP can be found here.
Partner Quotes "MediaTek is committed to providing the world's most compelling SoC solutions, and ARM technology builds the ideal foundation for fully integrated platforms with rich feature sets. The new ARM Cortex-A17 processor combines high performance with cost and efficiency, delivering an excellent user experience and a premium feature set, making it the best processing option available to continue our success in the mobile market," said Johan Lodenius, chief marketing officer, MediaTek.
"As a leader in multimedia SoC solutions, Realtek sees the Cortex-A17 processor as continuing the ARM track record of delivering the right balance of performance and power to address the demand for new products," said Jessy Chen, Executive Vice President of Realtek.
"Our rich experience and expertise in ARM SoC architectures, including Cortex-A9 and Cortex-A12, combined with our core strengths in advanced wireless telecommunications technologies makes VIA well-positioned to leverage the mid-range mobile devices opportunity with the ARM Cortex-A17 processor," said Ker Zhang, Chief Executive Officer of VIA Telecom.
About ARM ARM® designs the semiconductor intellectual property and enabling technology at the heart of the world's advanced digital products. Our energy efficient and scalable processors deliver the intelligence which is transforming society; from smartphones and wearable devices, to enterprise infrastructure and servers, to embedded technology in automotive, industrial applications and the 'Internet of Things'.
Our technology is licensed by partners who have now shipped more than 50 billion microchips containing ARM processors since the company was founded in 1990. Together with our Connected Community, we are breaking down barriers to innovation for developers, designers and engineers, ensuring a fast, reliable route to market for leading electronics companies. Join the conversation at http://community.arm.com.
ENDS
ARM, Artisan and Cortex are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. big.LITTLE, Mali and POP are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc; its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM Inc.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Limited.; ARM Taiwan Limited; ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; ARM Germany GmbH; ARM Embedded Technologies Pvt. Ltd.; ARM Norway, AS and ARM Sweden AB.
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