For months, mobile silicon connoisseurs have been looking forward to the ARM Cortex-A15 (above) to deliver feeds and speeds. Those who appreciate battery life, however, could get a kick out of ARM’s new Cortex-A7 — coming in 2013. ARM claims the new multi-core processor (which measures just 0.45mm² at 28nm, compared to 2.7mm² for a 45nm Cortex-A8) will deliver the same performance as today’s high end handsets while sipping 60 percent less juice from your battery. What’s more, ARM’s going to pair the low-power chip to that very same Cortex-A15 in something it’s calling a big.LITTLE configuration, which dynamically switches between the A15 and A7 as necessary to maximize power efficiency or performance depending on the workload -- somewhat like the extra chips in Nvidia’s Kal-El, TI’s OMAP 5 and Marvell’s Armada 628.
ARM announces power-efficient Cortex-A7, big.LITTLE architecture for sharing it
is a senior editor and founding member of The Verge who covers gadgets, games, and toys. He spent 15 years editing the likes of CNET, Gizmodo, and Engadget.
It sounds like big.LITTLE may be a ways out, as ARM says we won’t see it until the second-generation Cortex-A15, but the littler chip could potentially make for cheaper smartphones too. ARM imagines the Cortex A7 could be paired with a Mali-400 GPU in a handset for under $100 in parts. Broadcom, Freescale, HiSilicon, LG, Samsung, ST-Ericsson and TI have already signed on, so expect those names to be the ones challenging Qualcomm, Nvidia and Marvell in mobile silicon over the next few years.
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