| General information | |
|---|---|
| Designed by | ARM Holdings |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Instruction set | ARM, Thumb-2 (32-bit cores); ARMv7-A and ARMv8-A A64, A32, T32 (64-bit cores); ARMv8-A, ARMv8.1-A, ARMv8.2-A, ARMv9-A, ARMv9.2-A |
The ARM Cortex-A is a group of 32-bit and 64-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by Arm Holdings. The cores are intended for application use. The group consists of 32-bit only cores: ARM Cortex-A5, ARM Cortex-A7, ARM Cortex-A8, ARM Cortex-A9, ARM Cortex-A12, ARM Cortex-A15, ARM Cortex-A17 MPCore, and ARM Cortex-A32, 32/64-bit mixed operation cores: ARM Cortex-A35, ARM Cortex-A53, ARM Cortex-A55, ARM Cortex-A57, ARM Cortex-A72, ARM Cortex-A73, ARM Cortex-A75, ARM Cortex-A76, ARM Cortex-A77, ARM Cortex-A78, ARM Cortex-A710, and ARM Cortex-A510 Refresh, and 64-bit only cores: ARM Cortex-A34, ARM Cortex-A65, ARM Cortex-A510 (2021), ARM Cortex-A715, ARM Cortex-A520, and ARM Cortex-A720.
The 32-bit ARM Cortex-A cores, except for the Cortex-A32, implement the ARMv7-A profile of the ARMv7 architecture. The main distinguishing feature of the ARMv7-A profile, compared to the other two profiles, the ARMv7-R profile implemented by the ARM Cortex-R cores and the ARMv7-M profile implemented by most of the ARM Cortex-M cores, is that only the ARMv7-A profile includes a memory management unit (MMU). [1] Many modern operating systems require a MMU to run.
The 64-bit ARM Cortex-A cores as well as the 32-bit ARM Cortex-A32 implement the ARMv8-A profile of the ARMv8 architecture.
| 32-bit | |
|---|---|
| Year | Core |
| 2005 | Cortex-A8 |
| 2007 | Cortex-A9 |
| 2009 | Cortex-A5 |
| 2010 | Cortex-A15 |
| 2011 | Cortex-A7 |
| 2013 | Cortex-A12 |
| 2014 | Cortex-A17 |
| 2016 | Cortex-A32 |
| 32/64-bit | |
|---|---|
| Year | Core |
| 2012 | Cortex-A53 |
| Cortex-A57 | |
| 2015 | Cortex-A35 |
| Cortex-A72 | |
| 2016 | Cortex-A73 |
| 2017 | Cortex-A55 |
| Cortex-A75 | |
| 2018 | Cortex-A76 |
| 2019 | Cortex-A77 |
| 2020 | Cortex-A78 |
| 2021 | Cortex-A710 |
| 2022 | Cortex-A510 Refresh |
| 64-bit | |
|---|---|
| Year | Core |
| 2016 | Cortex-A34 |
| 2018 | Cortex-A65 |
| 2021 | Cortex-A510 |
| 2022 | Cortex-A715 |
| 2023 | Cortex-A520 |
| Cortex-A720 | |
ARM Holdings neither manufactures nor sells CPU devices based on its own designs, but rather licenses the processor architecture to interested parties. ARM offers a variety of licensing terms, varying in cost and deliverables. To all licensees, ARM provides an integratable hardware description of the ARM core, as well as complete software development toolset, and the right to sell manufactured silicon containing the ARM CPU.
Integrated device manufacturers (IDM) receive the ARM Processor IP as synthesizable RTL (written in Verilog). In this form, they have the ability to perform architectural level optimizations and extensions. This allows the manufacturer to achieve custom design goals, such as higher clock speed, very low power consumption, instruction set extensions, optimizations for size, debug support, etc. To determine which components have been included in an ARM IC chip, consult the manufacturer datasheet and related documentation.
The Cortex-A5 / A7 / A8 / A9 / A12 / A15 / A17 cores implement the ARMv7-A architecture. [2] The Cortex-A32 / A34 / A35 / A53 / A57 / A72 / A73 cores implement the ARMv8-A architecture. The Cortex-A55 / A65 / A75 / A76 / A77 / A78 cores implement the ARMv8.2-A architecture. The Cortex-A510, A710 and A715 cores implement the ARMv9-A architecture. The Cortex-A520 and A720 cores implement the ARMv9.2-A architecture
A typical top-down documentation tree is:
IC Manufacturers usually have additional documents, including: evaluation board user manuals, application notes, getting started with development software, software library documents, errata, and more.
ARM is a family of RISC instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured for various environments. Arm Ltd. develops the architectures and licenses them to other companies, who design their own products that implement one or more of those architectures, including system on a chip (SoC) and system on module (SOM) designs, that incorporate different components such as memory, interfaces, and radios. It also designs cores that implement these instruction set architectures and licenses these designs to many companies that incorporate those core designs into their own products.
XScale is a microarchitecture for central processing units initially designed by Intel implementing the ARM architecture instruction set. XScale comprises several distinct families: IXP, IXC, IOP, PXA and CE, with some later models designed as system-on-a-chip (SoC). Intel sold the PXA family to Marvell Technology Group in June 2006. Marvell then extended the brand to include processors with other microarchitectures, like ARM's Cortex.
The NX bit (no-execute) is a technology used in CPUs to segregate areas of a virtual address space for use by either storage of processor instructions or for storage of data. An operating system with support for the NX bit may mark certain areas of an address space as non-executable. The processor will then refuse to execute any code residing in these areas of the address space. The general technique, known as executable space protection, also called Write XOR Execute, is used to prevent certain types of malicious software from taking over computers by inserting their code into another program's data storage area and running their own code from within this section; one class of such attacks is known as the buffer overflow attack.
ARM7 is a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by ARM Holdings for microcontroller use. The ARM7 core family consists of ARM700, ARM710, ARM7DI, ARM710a, ARM720T, ARM740T, ARM710T, ARM7TDMI, ARM7TDMI-S, ARM7EJ-S. The ARM7TDMI and ARM7TDMI-S were the most popular cores of the family.
Jazelle DBX is an extension that allows some ARM processors to execute Java bytecode in hardware as a third execution state alongside the existing ARM and Thumb modes. Jazelle functionality was specified in the ARMv5TEJ architecture and the first processor with Jazelle technology was the ARM926EJ-S. Jazelle is denoted by a "J" appended to the CPU name, except for post-v5 cores where it is required for architecture conformance.
Atmel ARM-based processors are microcontrollers and microprocessors integrated circuits, by Microchip Technology, that are based on various 32-bit ARM processor cores, with in-house designed peripherals and tool support.
AVR32 is a 32-bit RISC microcontroller architecture produced by Atmel. The microcontroller architecture was designed by a handful of people educated at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, including lead designer Øyvind Strøm and CPU architect Erik Renno in Atmel's Norwegian design center.
ARM9 is a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by ARM Holdings for microcontroller use. The ARM9 core family consists of ARM9TDMI, ARM940T, ARM9E-S, ARM966E-S, ARM920T, ARM922T, ARM946E-S, ARM9EJ-S, ARM926EJ-S, ARM968E-S, ARM996HS. Since ARM9 cores were released from 1998 to 2006, they are no longer recommended for new IC designs, instead ARM Cortex-A, ARM Cortex-M, ARM Cortex-R cores are preferred.
PSoC is a family of microcontroller integrated circuits by Cypress Semiconductor. These chips include a CPU core and mixed-signal arrays of configurable integrated analog and digital peripherals.
ARM11 is a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by ARM Holdings. The ARM11 core family consists of ARM1136J(F)-S, ARM1156T2(F)-S, ARM1176JZ(F)-S, and ARM11MPCore. Since ARM11 cores were released from 2002 to 2005, they are no longer recommended for new IC designs, instead ARM Cortex-A and ARM Cortex-R cores are preferred.
An Advanced Encryption Standard instruction set is now integrated into many processors. The purpose of the instruction set is to improve the speed and security of applications performing encryption and decryption using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES).
The ARM Cortex-A8 is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture.
The ARM Cortex-M is a group of 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by ARM Limited. These cores are optimized for low-cost and energy-efficient integrated circuits, which have been embedded in tens of billions of consumer devices. Though they are most often the main component of microcontroller chips, sometimes they are embedded inside other types of chips too. The Cortex-M family consists of Cortex-M0, Cortex-M0+, Cortex-M1, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M4, Cortex-M7, Cortex-M23, Cortex-M33, Cortex-M35P, Cortex-M55, Cortex-M85. A floating-point unit (FPU) option is available for Cortex-M4 / M7 / M33 / M35P / M55 / M85 cores, and when included in the silicon these cores are sometimes known as "Cortex-MxF", where 'x' is the core variant.
The ARM Cortex-R is a family of 32-bit and 64-bit RISC ARM processor cores licensed by Arm Holdings. The cores are optimized for hard real-time and safety-critical applications. Cores in this family implement the ARM Real-time (R) profile, which is one of three architecture profiles, the other two being the Application (A) profile implemented by the Cortex-A family and the Microcontroller (M) profile implemented by the Cortex-M family. The ARM Cortex-R family of microprocessors currently consists of ARM Cortex-R4(F), ARM Cortex-R5(F), ARM Cortex-R7(F), ARM Cortex-R8(F), ARM Cortex-R52(F), and ARM Cortex-R82(F).
The ARM Cortex-A5 is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture announced in 2009.
XMC is a family of microcontroller ICs by Infineon. The XMC microcontrollers use the 32-bit RISC ARM processor cores from ARM Holdings, such as Cortex-M4F and Cortex-M0. XMC stands for "cross-market microcontrollers", meaning that this family can cover due to compatibility and configuration options, a wide range in industrial applications. The family supports three essential trends in the industry: It increases the energy efficiency of the systems, supports a variety of communication standards and reduces software complexity in the development of the application's software environment with the parallel released eclipse-based software tool DAVE.
AArch64 or ARM64 is the 64-bit extension of the ARM architecture family.
The ARM Cortex-A57 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings. The Cortex-A57 is an out-of-order superscalar pipeline. It is available as SIP core to licensees, and its design makes it suitable for integration with other SIP cores into one die constituting a system on a chip (SoC).
This is a comparison of processors based on the ARM family of instruction sets designed by ARM Holdings and 3rd parties, sorted by version of the ARM instruction set, release and name.
The ARM Cortex-A72 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Austin design centre. The Cortex-A72 is a 3-way decode out-of-order superscalar pipeline. It is available as SIP core to licensees, and its design makes it suitable for integration with other SIP cores into one die constituting a system on a chip (SoC). The Cortex-A72 was announced in 2015 to serve as the successor of the Cortex-A57, and was designed to use 20% less power or offer 90% greater performance.
| ARM Core | Bit Width | ARM Website | ARM Technical Reference Manual | ARM Architecture Reference Manual |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cortex-A5 | 32 | Link | Link | ARMv7-A |
| Cortex-A7 | 32 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A8 | 32 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A9 | 32 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A12 | 32 | merged into A17 | ||
| Cortex-A15 | 32 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A17 | 32 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A32 | 32 | Link | Link | ARMv8-A |
| Cortex-A34 | 64 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A35 | 32/64 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A53 | 32/64 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A55 | 32/64 | Link | Link | ARMv8.2-A |
| Cortex-A57 | 32/64 | Link | Link | ARMv8-A |
| Cortex-A510 | 64 (2021) 32/64 (2022) | Link | Link | ARMv9-A |
| Cortex-A520 | 64 | Link | Link | ARMv9.2-A |
| Cortex-A65 | 64 | Link | Link | ARMv8.2-A |
| Cortex-A72 | 32/64 | Link | Link | ARMv8-A |
| Cortex-A73 | 32/64 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A75 | 32/64 | Link | Link | ARMv8.2-A |
| Cortex-A76 | 32/64 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A77 | 32/64 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A78 | 32/64 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A710 | 32/64 | Link | Link | ARMv9-A |
| Cortex-A715 | 64 | Link | Link | |
| Cortex-A720 | 64 | Link | Link | ARMv9.2-A |
