ARM announces its most efficient ARM CPU for flagship mobile devices

ARM today announced next generation products are optimized for the latest 10nm FinFET process technology. The ARM® Mali-G71 graphics processor offers advanced efficiency and performance gains from the new Bifrost architecture. The ARM Cortex-A73 addresses the most demanding use cases with impressive increases in sustained performance and efficiency

The Mali-G71 graphics processor unit (GPU) increases the momentum for ARM Mali products, now the industry’s number one shipping graphics processor technology. The new core enables a 50 percent increase in graphics performance, a 20 percent increase in power-efficiency and 40 percent more performance per mm2.The Mali-G71 scales efficiently up to 32 shader cores, twice as many as the previous generation premium IP GPU – the Mali-T880. The uplift means the Mali-G71 surpasses the performance of many discrete GPUs found in today’s mid-range laptops. The product is also fully coherent, helping to simplify software development and efficiency. It is ideally suited to power immersive VR and AR experiences on mobile devices and leading silicon providers including HiSilicon, MediaTek and Samsung Electronics have already taken licenses.

At under 0.65mm2 per core (on a 10nm FinFET process technology) the Cortex-A73 is the smallest and most efficient ‘big’ ARMv8-A core. Its advanced mobile microarchitecture enables a 30 percent uplift in sustained performance and power efficiency over the Cortex-A72.

Size and efficiency improvements enhance the ability of silicon providers to use the Cortex-A73 in ARM big.LITTLE™ configurations. These improvements create further opportunities for designers to scale big cores along with the GPU and other IP in a single SoC. Ten partners have licensed the Cortex-A73 so far, including HiSilicon, Marvell and Mediatek.

ARM claims that its premium IP will redefine virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) experiences on 2017 flagship mobile devices.