ARM spoke about the processor, which will be the core of smartphones in 2016

New on-chip system supports 4K 120 fps recording

2015 has barely begun, and we have just managed to evaluate the performance of the Cortex-A57 core, and the British corporation ARM is already announcing the specifications of its future system on a chip. The 64-bit 2.5-GHz Cortex A72 core will be based on the ARMv8-A architecture and the 14 nm / 16 nm FinFET + process technology. The power of the new Mali-T880 graphic chip is enough for comfortable work with 4K content.

ARM is pleased to compare the new product with chips of the past. Regarding the 28-nanometer Cortex-A15, which appeared in late 2012, the growth will be 3.5 times. Performing a load of A15, A72 can spend 75% less energy. Compared with the Cortex A57 (Qualcomm Snapdragon 810, Samsung Exynos 5433), the new A72 is 1.9 times faster.



But no specific numbers from the benchmarks have been named, which is expected for such early announcements with vague promises. Unless it was said that the power is enough to record 4K video at 120 frames per second - today even top-end smartphones hardly pull out 30. In many respects this is possible thanks to the new north bridge CCI-500 , the peak bandwidth of which is twice as high the predecessor of the CCI-400.
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In a big.LITTLE configuration, four Cortex-A53 cores that do not require a lot of energy and four Cortex-A57 productive cores can be combined. Cortex-A72 will also be possible to pair with the A53 using this technology, and according to ARM, this will reduce energy costs by 40-60%.



The new Mali-T880 video processor is about 1.8 times faster than the current Mali-T760. If the new product performs the same load, then you can spend 40% less energy. Mali-T880 has native support for 10-bit YUV.

As you can see, ARM often compares energy efficiency, which is not surprising - over the past five years, smartphone performance has increased 50 times, and the batteries have shown only a two-fold increase in capacity. Due to the increasing resolution and “voracity” of the screens, one has to go for various tricks, saving every milliwatt spent. As a result, the current AMD Desktop Processor process technology — 28 nm — is twice as large as that of future mobile chips.

ARM reports that agreements have already been signed with about a dozen partners, including Rockchip, HiSilicon, Cadence, Synopsys and MediaTek. The current version of Android 5.0 Lollipop can already effectively use the advantages of 64-bit ARMv8-A, but the Cortex A72 will only appear in flagship devices next year.