ARM targets mid range smartphones with new Cortex core
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ARM has announced the ARM Cortex-A17 processor and the ARM Mali-T720 GPU, both targeted at mid range mobile phones and at consumer applications such as smart TVs. The Cortex-A17 core is said to bring a 60% improvement in performance compared to Cortex-A9 processors and to support ARM's big.LITTLE processing approach.
"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, ARM's vice president of segment marketing.
The Cortex-A17 processor is scalable up to four cores, each offering a full out of order pipeline. ARM says the Cortex-A17 is optimised for highest performance within thermally restricted devices, making it a leading candidate for use in compact form factors like smartphones and tablets.
ARM expects a mid range smartphone in 2015 to feature a dual core Cortex-A17 running at between 1.5 and 2GHz, alongside a quad core Cortex-A7
In a supplied quote, Jessy Chen, executive vice president of Realtek, said the company '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'.
Meanwhile, the ARM Mali-T720 is a cost optimised version of the Mali-T600 GPU family. The core, intended to bring GPU compute functionality to low to mid range Android smartphones and tablets, increases energy efficiency by 150% and graphics performance by more than 50% over previous comparable Mali offerings.
