ARM Unveils Cortex-A17 Processor for Mid-Range Mobile and Consumer Devices

[[Coi] Mr.CLuBBeR]

New chip from ARM takes aim at smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and more

ARM on Tuesday added to its mobile arsenal by announcing its Cortex-A17 processor, a mid-range part the company hopes will find its way into a number of different devices. According to ARM, the Cortex-A17 boasts a 60 percent performance uplift over Cortex-A9 processors, making it the fastest mid-range solution available. ARM also claims that it offers superior efficiency.
"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 28nm Cortex-A17 is based on the ARMv7-A architecture with support for over 1 million apps. It's scalable up to four cores, each of which offers a full out-of-order 11+ stage pipeline. It also has a fully integrated, low-latency L2 cache controller. ARM says it expects frequencies to run north of 2GHz.

ARM sees the Cortex-A17 being paired with its high-efficiency Cortex-A7 as part of its big.LITTLE platform, which consists of higher-end processors for CPU intensive tasks and power efficient processors for longer battery life.
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