ARM currently holds 90% of the smartphone chipsets market. Ranging from the lowest end and most basic to the fastest smartphones, it's all running on ARM architecture. Currently, ARM's Cortex-A15 is their fastest core. However, there is only one real world product using the same, which is the Google Nexus 10 tablet which was announced only 2 days back. Now, ARM is preparing their Cortex-A50 series to bring a huge 3x performance increase over current generation, plus a powerful new GPU, 64-bit and the new 20 nm manufacturing process.
ARM Cortex A53 and A57
ARM is introducing ARMv8 64-bit architecture with their new A53 and A57 cores. These cores will work in tandem in big.LITTLE configuration for enhanced power efficiency. Among the two, the A57 core is the top dog, promising upto 3x the performance of current generation ARM cores. This would come in real handy as there is a limitation to the number of cores that can be put in a smartphone. After that, per core and per clock performance becomes more important.
Read more from the press release:
ARM Cortex-A57 processor:
• The most advanced, highest single-thread performance ARM application processor
• Delivers the enhanced performance required for smartphones as they continue to transition from content-consumption devices to content-creation devices, with up to three times that of today's superphones in the same power budget
• Provides computer performance comparable to a legacy PC, while operating in a mobile power budget, enabling cost and power efficiency benefits for both enterprise users and consumers
• Extended reliability and scalability features for high-performance enterprise applications
• The most advanced, highest single-thread performance ARM application processor
• Delivers the enhanced performance required for smartphones as they continue to transition from content-consumption devices to content-creation devices, with up to three times that of today's superphones in the same power budget
• Provides computer performance comparable to a legacy PC, while operating in a mobile power budget, enabling cost and power efficiency benefits for both enterprise users and consumers
• Extended reliability and scalability features for high-performance enterprise applications
The A53 is ARM's new energy efficient chip that performs as well as the smallest 64-bit processor in the world. It is smaller than ARM Cortex A9 at the same process (and far far smaller at 20 nm manufacturing process). Read more from the press release.
ARM Cortex-A53 processor:
• The most efficient ARM application processor ever, delivering today's superphone experience while using a quarter of the power
• Incorporates reliability features that enable scalable dataplane applications to maximize performance per mm2 and performance per mW
• Optimized for throughput processing for modest per thread compute applications
• The Cortex-A53 processor combined with the Cortex-A57 and big.LITTLE processing technology will enable platforms with extreme performance range while radically reducing the energy consumption
• The most efficient ARM application processor ever, delivering today's superphone experience while using a quarter of the power
• Incorporates reliability features that enable scalable dataplane applications to maximize performance per mm2 and performance per mW
• Optimized for throughput processing for modest per thread compute applications
• The Cortex-A53 processor combined with the Cortex-A57 and big.LITTLE processing technology will enable platforms with extreme performance range while radically reducing the energy consumption
We can't wait for smartphones packing these new babies in pure performance (A57), energy efficiency (A53) and balanced out (big.LITTLE) configurations. Expect products based on ARM's latest by 2014. The Galaxy S 5? Who knows!
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