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ewertz2
I thought that the current Cortex-A ISA supported 40-bit physical under 32-bit ...
glennthera
Thanx 4 d info Peter! New processor cores n newer tech. is ALWAYS welcome! ...
ARM tips 64-bit 'big-little' processors, partners
Peter Clarke
10/30/2012 4:53 PM EDT
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Processor IP licensor ARM disclosed details on Tuesday (Oct. 30) of its next generation of big-little processors that support 64-bit processing and addressing. The Cortex-A53 and -A57 processors are aimed at 20-nm implementation.
Simon Segars, ARM's executive vice president and general manager of the processor and physical IP divisions, provided the details during a keynote talk at the ARM TechCon conference and exhibition here. More details about the micro-architecture of the two chips are expected later in the conference, which was organized by UBM Electronics, the publisher of EE Times.
Segars also announced six partners working with ARM on Cortex-A50-series processors but did not identify which partners are working on A57, A53 or future processor cores. The partners are: AMD, Broadcom, Calxeda, HiSilicon, Samsung and STMicroelectronics. They are expected to ship Cortex-A50 series-based chips in 2014.
The A57 and A53 processors support the ARMv8 64-bit instruction set and are intended to be used in both mobile and enterprise applications. The A57 and A53 were previously codenamed Atlas and Apollo, respectively.
As a big-little combination the processor cores are expected to be used in future "superphones" as well as in some server applications. The big-little approach leverages core pairs optimized for both performance and power efficiency and allows the cores to shift the processing load. The approach can produce more power efficient processing while delivering peak performance.
Click on image to enlarge.
ARM's Simon Segars describes the future of computing, from enterprise to mobile, during ARM TechCon.
However, the A53 "little" processor on its own can provide enough performance for entry-level smartphones while also being used in multiprocessing configurations, said Peter Greenhalgh, lead architect on the A50-series processors.
The A57 and A53 processors will target multi-GHz performance for advanced CMOS and FinFET processes technologies, which are supported by the early availability of ARM Artisan Physical IP and ARM optimization packages for core-hardening acceleration.
The Cortex-A57 is expected to provide about three times the performance of current superphone platforms in 32-bit mode, Greenhalgh and Segars said. The A57 also is being touted as providing five times the power efficiency for future tablets and notebooks, taking into account the benefits of process node scaling. It also features enhanced floating-point performance, ARM said.
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digital_dreamer
10/30/2012 5:27 PM EDT
Anyone know what the roadmap is for ARM Cortex? I'm more interested in what's in store for a Cortex M0/M3/M4 update in the embedded space, not smartphone/tablet CPUs.
MAJ
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peter.clarke
10/30/2012 6:57 PM EDT
I am meeting someone from embedded side of business tomorrow so I'll ask. But I don't think ARM has any announcements scheduled so probably won't say much.
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rick.merritt
10/30/2012 10:33 PM EDT
I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts about how initially mobile developers might try to use this 64-bit capability.
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glennthera
10/31/2012 12:00 AM EDT
Does anyone have any clues about Samsung's big.Little based Cortex A15/A7 chips which were supposed to be announced at ARM Tech Con? It's long overdue from Samsung n many of us r left wondering when the 1st big.Little SOCs from Samsung r gonna be delivered n move into the sphere of mass availability? Thx for any info!
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rick.merritt
11/1/2012 11:21 AM EDT
At Samsung's keynote, the chip exec talked about its dual core Exynos 5, presumably with an A15 and A7 made in a 32 nm HKMG process.
It uses ARM Mali T604 graphics core supporting OpenCL.
The SoC is in the new Google Chromebook and Galaxy 10 Tab amd a Quanta ultra thin ODM tablet design.
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rick.merritt
11/1/2012 2:22 PM EDT
Correction:
Samsung's Exynos 5 dual uses two A15 cores.
ARM says the first big/little SoCs won't be ready until early next year. Some of the sw for it is still in development though early test results are promising.
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glennthera
10/31/2012 12:07 AM EDT
All we seem to be getting at present r future projections of more advanced chips (read Cortex A57-A53)which r still a good year n half away but v r yet to get any practical implementations of the 1st gen Cortex A15-A7 big.Little chips which hav been long announced!
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rick.merritt
11/1/2012 11:22 AM EDT
See above re the Dual Exynos 5 from Samsung.
Not many tech or preformance details but the chip is out.
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tb1
10/31/2012 6:46 PM EDT
"I'd love to hear anyone's thoughts about how initially mobile developers might try to use this 64-bit capability."
Smartphones already have 2G of DRAM. And there is a lot of feature growth (and bloat) with every new generation. It won't be long before that memory doubles, and then you've exceeded your 32 bit processor memory space.
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ewertz2
11/3/2012 11:41 AM EDT
I thought that the current Cortex-A ISA supported 40-bit physical under 32-bit virtual addressing, but I could be wrong since I'm more of an -M guy.
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help.fulguy
11/2/2012 12:57 AM EDT
Good luck putting Exynos5 as it is at 1.5GHz in a smartphone. The battery will last 2 hours. Rick, I thought you are smarter than what you are saying here. Putting A57 in a mobile phone. Good luck. Why not put AMD Trinity into a phone, then. i think your gray hair is covering your brain from working or may be you are too old for this
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glennthera
11/2/2012 4:31 AM EDT
Yep i wud 2nd that notion! D current drastic improvements in processing power mean little or nothng wthout commensurate improvements in power efficiency n battery life! All the smartphone n handheld device specs these days r getting bloated without any1 focusing proper attention on d most basic thing wich runs it all- the battery! ARM seems 2 hav at least partially addressed the problem with their big.Little approach but we're yet to see any real chip implementation of a big.Little part for the 1st generation n v alrdy hav an announcement of 2nd gen big.Little processors! Somethng dsnt add up here! ARM n Samsung where r d 1st gen big.Little SOCs featuring Cortex A15-A7 pairs???
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peter.clarke
11/2/2012 12:42 PM EDT
Part of the issue is that:
because ARM is developing IP for licensing to semiconductor partners it has to be a couple of years ahead of those semiconductor partners.
When ARM announced Cortex-A7 and the big-little approach in Oct. 2011 the company said tape-outs including the Cortex-A7 were expected 1H12 with SoCs and products based on them to follow in 2013, East said.
Seems like ARM and partners are not late on that timetable...yet!
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glennthera
11/3/2012 12:43 AM EDT
Thanx 4 d info Peter! New processor cores n newer tech. is ALWAYS welcome! However, I believe Samsung were supposed 2 announce their 1st big.Little chips at this ARM TechCon! Any news about that yet?
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