ARM jumps ahead - Intel falls farther behind... irrelevancy looms by 2020

[GreyFox7]

Ref: Computex 2016: ARM muscles up with new Mali GPU and 10nm Cortex SoC plans | ZDNet

ARM jumps further ahead with 10nm offering and updated CPU/GPU architectures.


Based on a 10 nanometre FinFET process, the Cortex-A73 system on a chip (SoC) can run up to 2.8Ghz and boasts a 30 percent jump in power efficiency, and what ARM calls "sustained performance", over its A72 predecessor.

"The Cortex-A73 is also the smallest premium ARMv8-A processor," the company said on its product page. "The Cortex-A73 delivers the highest single-thread performance in the smallest area footprint."

ARM has already signed up ten licensees for the chip, which is expected to find its way into in smartphones and tablets, including HiSilicon, Marvell, and Mediatek.

The company also announced today the Mali-G71 graphics processor unit (GPU), which is the first to be built using Bifrost architecture. Compared to the Mali-T880, the new GPU offers 20 percent better energy usage, a 40 percent increase in performance density, and can double the number of shader cores used in the T880, topping out at 32.

"The uplift means the Mali-G71 surpasses the performance of many discrete GPUs found in today's mid-range laptops," the company boasted in its announcement.

Samsung, HiSilicon, and MediaTek are licensees for the GPU, which ARM said is optimised for the Vulkan graphics API -- the 1.0 specification of Vulkan was announced in February.

ARM said it expects the chips to push forward virtual reality and augmented reality usage.

"The smartphone is the world's most ubiquitous compute device, offering experiences that improve with each new product generation," said Pete Hutton, ARM executive vice president and president of product groups.

"This technology can make engaging with 4K video, virtual reality, and augmented reality an everyday experience on a mobile device."

 

[GreyFox7]

With these offerings ARM could fill the computing power needs of most users (both consumers and business users). Software will be critical, the question remains, who's software will it be.

 

[jrioux]

WOW! The fastest and most powerful ARM CPUs are now almost as fast and powerful as a 7-year old Intel 4-core i5, right?

 

[GreyFox7]

Point being with Intel bailing on the low power (watts) segment which is the only segment with growth and everything else is collapsing. ARM has the processing power to serve most users needs, you know, all those users with 5-7 year old and older computers and most of the people with newer ones too since they only use 10% of it's capabilities, just sayin.

 

[leeshor]

ARM processors have worked well in phones and tablets. A few of each, (Android), have had Intel processors that have proved to be incompatible with some phone apps.. I say stay with ARM.

 

[GreyFox7]

One thing I don't get about the manufacturers is they make smartphones with the highest spec SoCs but Tablets with second tier SoCs. i.e. Samsung galaxy S7 uses Exynos 8890 or Snapdragon 820 but the 9.7" Galaxy Tab S2 uses the Exynos 5433 or Snapdragon 652.

To me; Apple does the logical thing, the iPhones have an An (A8, A9) and iPads have a higher spec AnX (A8X, A9X).

If somebody's going to make a Tablet put the best SoC you can find in it, don't hold back.

 

[jrioux]

...To me; Apple does the logical thing, the iPhones have an An (A8, A9) and iPads have a higher spec AnX (A8X, A9X)...

I agree totally. Though I also agree that most people don't need the newest and fastest CPUs in their tablet, so manufacturers should also offer cheaper options. Like Apple offers the iPad Air 2.