ARM IP Enhanced for Mid-Range Mobile Markets

ARM announced last month an enhanced suite of higher performance and energy-efficient products designed for the rapidly growing mid-range mobile and consumer electronics markets. According to ARM, the suite, comprised of processor, graphics processor and physical IP, is an update to ARM's mid-range IP are offering targeting devices for production in 2015 and beyond. ARM’s Cortex-A17 processor and the ARM Mali-T720 GPU provides both mid-range mobile and other consumer applications such as smart TVs and Over-the-Top media devices.

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"We expect to see a rich set of innovation in the mid-range mobile phone segment which is forecast to become a half a billion unit market annually from 2015 and the Cortex-A17 processor will be a key component in that growth," said Ian Ferguson, vice president of segment marketing, ARM. "To date, the ARM Partnership has shipped more than 50 billion ARM-based chips and the continued broadening of our processor family will enable our partners to further optimize their offerings in existing and new product categories."

The Cortex-A17 processor is said to deliver a 60 percent performance improvement over Cortex-A9 processors. This enables more power and efficiency. It supports full-system coherency for ARM big.LITTLE™ processing using the CoreLink™ CCI-400 Cache Coherent Interconnect. The Mali-T720 GPU is a cost-optimized graphics solution targeted at entry-level Android devices developed to reduce an OEM's manufacturing complexities and time-to-market.

The Android GPU also supports the latest graphics and GPU computing APIs, including Open GL ES 3.0, OpenCL and RenderScript. These visual experiences are only found on high-end smartphones and tablets. The POP IP for the Mali-T720 GPU enables best-in-class area efficiency (fps/mm2) and market-leading power efficiency (fps/mW).

About ARM

ARM® designs the semiconductor intellectual property and enabling technology at the heart of the world's advanced digital products. Our energy efficient and scalable processors deliver the intelligence which is transforming society; from smartphones and wearable devices, to enterprise infrastructure and servers, to embedded technology in automotive, industrial applications and the 'Internet of Things'.

Our technology is licensed by partners who have now shipped more than 50 billion microchips containing ARM processors since the company was founded in 1990. Together with our Connected Community, we are breaking down barriers to innovation for developers, designers and engineers, ensuring a fast, reliable route to market for leading electronics companies.