ARM Cortex-A72

Last updated
ARM Cortex-A72
General information
Launched2016
Designed by ARM Holdings
Cache
L1 cache 80  KiB (48 KiB I-cache with parity, 32 KiB D-cache with ECC) per core
L2 cache512 KiB to 4  MiB
L3 cacheNone
Architecture and classification
Technology node 16 nm
Instruction set ARMv8-A
Physical specifications
Cores
  • 1–4 per cluster, multiple clusters [1]
Products, models, variants
Product code name
  • Maya
History
Predecessor ARM Cortex-A57
Successor ARM Cortex-A73

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. [1] It is available as SIP core to licensees, and its design makes it suitable for integration with other SIP cores (e.g. GPU, display controller, DSP, image processor, etc.) 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. [2] [3]

Contents

Overview

Chips

See also

Related Research Articles

ARM is a family of RISC instruction set architectures (ISAs) for computer processors. Arm Ltd. develops the ISAs and licenses them to other companies, who build the physical devices that use the instruction set. It also designs and licenses cores that implement these ISAs.

A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer to reduce the average cost to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to a processor core, which stores copies of the data from frequently used main memory locations. Most CPUs have a hierarchy of multiple cache levels, with different instruction-specific and data-specific caches at level 1. The cache memory is typically implemented with static random-access memory (SRAM), in modern CPUs by far the largest part of them by chip area, but SRAM is not always used for all levels, or even any level, sometimes some latter or all levels are implemented with eDRAM.

Project Denver is the codename of a central processing unit designed by Nvidia that implements the ARMv8-A 64/32-bit instruction sets using a combination of simple hardware decoder and software-based binary translation where "Denver's binary translation layer runs in software, at a lower level than the operating system, and stores commonly accessed, already optimized code sequences in a 128 MB cache stored in main memory". Denver is a very wide in-order superscalar pipeline. Its design makes it suitable for integration with other SIPs cores into one die constituting a system on a chip (SoC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARM Cortex-M</span> Group of 32-bit RISC processor cores

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-M52, Cortex-M55, Cortex-M85. A floating-point unit (FPU) option is available for Cortex-M4 / M7 / M33 / M35P / M52 / M55 / M85 cores, and when included in the silicon these cores are sometimes known as "Cortex-MxF", where 'x' is the core variant.

Qualcomm Krait is an ARM-based central processing unit included in the Snapdragon S4 and earlier models of Snapdragon 400/600/800 series SoCs. It was introduced in 2012 as a successor to the Scorpion CPU and although it has architectural similarities, Krait is not a Cortex-A15 core, but it was designed in-house. In 2015, Krait was superseded by the 64-bit Kryo architecture, first introduced in Snapdragon 820 SoC.

The ARM Cortex-A12 is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture. It provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores. The Cortex-A12 is a successor to the Cortex-A9.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AArch64</span> 64-bit extension of the ARM architecture

AArch64 or ARM64 is the 64-bit Execution state of the ARM architecture family. It was first introduced with the Armv8-A architecture, and had many extension updates.

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ARM Cortex-A53</span> Microarchitecture implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings

The ARM Cortex-A53 is one of the first two central processing units implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Cambridge design centre, along with the Cortex-A57. The Cortex-A53 is a 2-wide decode superscalar processor, capable of dual-issuing some instructions. It was announced October 30, 2012 and is marketed by ARM as either a stand-alone, more energy-efficient alternative to the more powerful Cortex-A57 microarchitecture, or to be used alongside a more powerful microarchitecture in a big.LITTLE configuration. It is available as an IP core to licensees, like other ARM intellectual property and processor designs.

This is a comparison of ARM instruction set architecture application processor cores designed by ARM Holdings and 3rd parties. It does not include ARM Cortex-R, ARM Cortex-M, or legacy ARM cores.

Qualcomm Kryo is a series of custom or semi-custom ARM-based CPUs included in the Snapdragon line of SoCs.

The ARM Cortex-A73 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Sophia design centre. The Cortex-A73 is a 2-wide decode out-of-order superscalar pipeline. The Cortex-A73 serves as the successor of the Cortex-A72, designed to offer 30% greater performance or 30% increased power efficiency.

The ARM Cortex-A55 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8.2-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Cambridge design centre. The Cortex-A55 is a 2-wide decode in-order superscalar pipeline.

The ARM Cortex-A75 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8.2-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings's Sophia design centre. The Cortex-A75 is a 3-wide decode out-of-order superscalar pipeline. The Cortex-A75 serves as the successor of the Cortex-A73, designed to improve performance by 20% over the A73 in mobile applications while maintaining the same efficiency.

The ARM Cortex-A76 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8.2-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Austin design centre. ARM states a 25% and 35% increase in integer and floating point performance, respectively, over a Cortex-A75 of the previous generation.

The ARM Cortex-A77 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8.2-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Austin design centre. ARM announced an increase of 23% and 35% in integer and floating point performance, respectively. Memory bandwidth increased 15% relative to the A76.

The ARM Cortex-A78 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8.2-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Ltd.'s Austin centre.

The ARM Cortex-X1 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8.2-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Austin design centre as part of ARM's Cortex-X Custom (CXC) program.

The ARM Cortex-X2 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv9-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Austin design centre as part of ARM's Cortex-X Custom (CXC) program. It forms part of Arm's Total Compute Solutions 2021 (TCS21) along with Arm's Cortex-A710, Cortex-A510, Mali-G710 and CoreLink CI-700/NI-700.

The ARM Neoverse is a group of 64-bit ARM processor cores licensed by Arm Holdings. The cores are intended for datacenter, edge computing, and high-performance computing use. The group consists of ARM Neoverse V-Series, ARM Neoverse N-Series, and ARM Neoverse E-Series.

References

  1. 1 2 "Cortex-A72 Processor". ARM Holdings . Retrieved 2014-02-02.
  2. Frumusanu, Andrei (3 February 2015). "ARM Announces Cortex-A72, CCI-500, and Mali-T880". Anandtech. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  3. Frumusanu, Andrei (23 April 2015). "ARM Reveals Cortex-A72 Architecture Details". Anandtech. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  4. "Raspberry Pi 4 on sale now from $35". Raspberry Pi. 2019-06-24. Retrieved 2019-06-24.