{"id":3486,"date":"2020-05-26T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-05-26T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/blog\/arm-just-showed-2021s-smartphone-cpus-led-by-the-powerful-cortex-x1\/"},"modified":"2020-05-26T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T13:00:00","slug":"arm-just-showed-2021s-smartphone-cpus-led-by-the-powerful-cortex-x1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aviancetechnologies.com\/blog\/arm-just-showed-2021s-smartphone-cpus-led-by-the-powerful-cortex-x1\/","title":{"rendered":"ARM just showed 2021’s smartphone CPUs, led by the powerful Cortex-X1"},"content":{"rendered":"

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ARM just showed 2021’s smartphone CPUs, led by the powerful Cortex-X1<\/h2>\n

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ARM has announced the next generation of smartphone processors, set to deliver up to 20 percent or greater performance than the prior generation. It includes something special: a new Cortex-X1 design, an optimized version designed for \u201cultimate performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the smartphone industry, ARM designs its Cortex CPUs, Mali GPUs, and Ethos machine-learning processors, then licenses them to companies like Qualcomm. (This differs from the PC chip business, where AMD and Intel keep their designs proprietary\u2014and Intel manufactures its own CPUs as well.) Those chip designers, in turn, are permitted to customize and enhance them, depending upon their license terms.<\/p>\n

The new cores\u2014the Cortex-A78, the Mali-G78, and the Ethos-N78\u2014will debut in smartphones shipping in 2021, ARM executives said. The company is promising that the Cortex-A78 will deliver 20 percent greater sustained performance over the prior generation; the Mali-G78, 25 percent better overall performance; and the Ethos-N78, 25 percent more performance efficiency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"arm<\/a> ARM<\/small><\/figure>\n

Then there\u2019s the ARM Cortex-X1, which ARM is promising will deliver 30 percent peak performance over the prior Cortex-A generation. This, according to ARM, represents a new category of \u201coff roadmap\u201d performance, requiring specific engineering collaboration with partners. It sounds like we\u2019ll be hearing more about the first fruits of the Cortex-X1 partnership within the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt answers the question of how much performance can be pushed for this generation when you\u2019re not so constrained by the usual power area constraints,\u201d Paul Williamson, vice president and general manager of ARM\u2019s client line of business, said of the Cortex-X1. \u201cIt\u2019s really targeting flagship smartphones and larger-screen devices. And given the silicon area and dissipated power, it\u2019s not really something we expect to see in every device.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smartphone makers have a choice between using the new ARM cores to maximize performance, or to deliver better battery life with the same performance as the prior generation. This is actually the angle Williamson took when explaining the new cores, as the three deliver \u201cmore out of the same power budget as last year,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

More on the Cortex-A78<\/h2>\n

Williamson said the A78 was specifically designed for the demands of 5G, with use cases that included how fast applications launch, and how responsive webpages are when scrolling. \u201cSustained performance in a device with limited power will avoid power throttling in really high-performance applications,\u201d Williamson said. \u201cSo you\u2019ll get less lag and less framerate drops.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"arm<\/a> ARM<\/small>
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A summary of the ARM Cortex-A78\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Like the prior Cortex-A77, the Cortex-A78 will consist of what ARM calls its big.LITTLE octacore architecture, with four high-performance A78 cores and four A55 cores optimized for long battery life. ARM said that a Cortex-A78 core running at 3GHz would deliver 20 percent more sustained, single-core performance than the Cortex-A77 core running at 2.6GHz, assuming 1 watt per core. The performance is based on simulated estimates.<\/p>\n