ARM Community: Pushing the Boundaries - ARM Community

I try to stay close to the trends and use cases for mobile devices and follow them with interest, but despite my interest and close involvement in the industry, I am sometimes taken by surprise at the pace of the mobile industry. A little over 18 months ago the launch of the first dual-core Cortex™-A9 processor-based Smartphone provided the greatest boost in smartphone performance the market has seen. Now, a short period later, the benefits of multicore are so great that they account for over 40 percent of all smartphone shipments and all high end devices, with quad-core solutions powering some of the highest performance platforms. This may have been a rapid adoption, but we stand on the verge of Cortex-A15 processor-based mobile devices entering the market later this year doubling the performance bar and next year big.LITTLE™ processing will arrive providing a new tool to platform vendors to deliver great performance and reduced power.

The primary demand for the increased mobile platform performance is quite simple to explain: demand from consumers to do more on their mobile devices. This is not exclusive to those purchasing $500 superphones, but also to those buying lower cost platforms, but expecting a great smartphone experience. Evidence of consumers wanting to do more on mobile platforms surrounds us, from the mobile platform establishing itself as the primary source of internet traffic to some of the most popular websites to the first approach of mobile application developers. The Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 processors will deliver the performance to transition the mobile platform from being your primary platform into the only compute platform you will need, from replacing your gaming console to your laptop.

The relentless pace of mobile evolution is set to continue, with the emergence of new technology expanding the overall performance and experience of mobile platforms. Your smartphone will become hyper-connected thanks to the combination of LTE-Advanced delivering true 4G, Gigabit Wi-Fi connections around the home and sharing output onto multiple displays through Miracast. In combination, applications and operating systems are starting to position the mobile as your only compute platform as demonstrated by Canonical and their Ubuntu on Android™ program.

Innovation is not bound to the highest tier of Smartphones, in fact, the most rapid evolutions are occurring at lower price points where multicore solutions are starting to appear. Do not view the low cost platforms as fit only for emerging markets as this is an incorrect view. These markets have already emerged and are in strong demand in mature smartphone markets where MNOs want to replace all feature phones in their portfolios. My current estimation is that it takes two years for the performance of superphones to appear at entry-level price points and the Cortex-A53 processor provides the continuation of this trend.

The Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 processors will push the boundaries of what is capable of within a mobile power budget, either combined together to provide the only compute platform you need in the form factor of a superphone in 2014/15 or the Cortex-A53 processor alone bringing the existing superphone experience to all price points. By this approach of continued innovation of rapid micro-architecture, evolution combined with leading edge manufacturing processes of 20nm and below consumers will continue to be thrilled by the new capabilities of devices that outpace Moore’s law. Not to mention the abilities that will be unleashed by ARM bringing low power to 64-bit processing and for the first time making it suitable for mobile, but more of that later.

Laurence Bryant, Director of Mobile Solutions, ARM, focusing on new technology trends for small low powered battery powered devices. Enthralled at the ever increasing capabilities of portable devices Laurence enjoys seeing consumer adoption of compelling applications provided through technology.