What you need to know
- ARM has introduced its latest mobile solutions aimed at next-generation flagship smartphones.
- The new Cortex-A78 CPU brings a 20% performance increase over Cortex-A77 based devices.
- ARM's new Mali-G78 promises 'game-changing' graphics, with a claimed 25% improvement in performance.
ARM today unveiled its next-generation mobile computing solution, including two new high-performance CPU core designs and a Valhall-based GPU (via AnandTech).
ARM's new Cortex-A78 is designed for high-end devices and promises to deliver a 20% improvement in sustained performance over the Cortex-A77 within the same mobile thermal power envelope. Along with higher performance, the new Cortex-A78 CPU core design is claimed to deliver impressive efficiency improvements as well. ARM claims the Cortex-A78 can provide up to 50% energy savings over devices from 2019 at the same performance as Cortex-A77. What's more, the Cortex-A78 is 5% smaller, which will help free up space inside smartphones for other components.
ARM has also introduced a new Cortex-X custom program, which will allow partners to shape a Cortex CPU product for specific use cases. The first CPU designed as part of the Cortex-X program is the Cortex-X1 CPU, which brings a 30% increase in peak performance over the current Cortex-A77 CPU. When compared to the new Cortex-A78, the ARM Cortex-X1 offers 22% higher integer (single-thread) performance.
ARM's latest Valhall-based GPU for flagship smartphones is the Mali-G78. The company claims the GPU will deliver a 25% increase in graphics performance compared to the current Mali-G77. It supports up to 24 cores and is said to have 10% better energy efficiency to enable longer battery life. In addition to the Mali-G78, ARM has announced a new GPU for mid-range smartphones as well, the Mali-G68. ARM says it offers all the key features of the Mali-G78, but supports 6 cores instead of 24.
Finally, there's the new Ethos-N78 neural processing unit (NPU), which provides up to 30% higher area efficiency and 2x peak performance compared to the first-gen Ethos-N77 NPU.
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