Smartphones about to get a whole lot quicker as ARM improves chip design

4 Feb 2015

ARM’s new Cortex-A72 processor has been designed to be slimmer, more powerful and use 75pc less energy than its predecessor, which is good news for smartphone fans.

ARM’s chip designs are used in pretty much all leading smartphones, powering them to do what you want, when you want them to. So when the high-tech company develops another game changer, it’s best to take notice.

Next year’s ‘Premium Mobile Experience’ from the company will see it release upgrades in its Cortex, Mali, CoreLink and Finfet suite – each to improve our mobile world considerably.

The most eye-catching aspects to the improvements will see the Cortex-A72 become 3.5 times more powerful than last year’s predecessor. Running at 25pc the power of the 2014 model, energy consumption is to be vastly improved, too.

“The improved performance and power efficiency of the Cortex-A72 processor will redefine the rich connected and context-aware experiences delivered to consumers by premium devices in 2016, scaling from premium smartphones to large and mid-size tablets, clamshell, and convertible form factors,” said the company.

ARM’s USP for the A72 will be 4K technology, mobile gaming, and connecting the internet of things, the company said.

ARM’s Mali graphics technology will be improved, with 1.8 times better graphics performance coming from the new T880.

“It brings complex graphics use cases, such as advanced gaming, to high-end mobile devices. Additionally, the Mali GPU family enables stunning visuals for UHD content.”

Cortex

ARM’s Cortex models’ processing power evolution. Image via ARM.com

Smartphone use image via Shutterstock

Gordon Hunt was a journalist with Silicon Republic

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