ARM Cortex-X2

ARM Cortex-X2

General information
Launched	2021
Designed by	Arm
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	2.85 GHz to 3.0 GHz
Address width	40-bit
Cache
L1 cache	128 KiB (64 KiB I-cache with parity, 64 KiB D-cache) per core
L2 cache	256–1024 KiBper core
L3 cache	512 KiB – 16 MiB(optional)
Architecture and classification
Microarchitecture	ARM Cortex-X2
Instruction set	ARMv9.0-A
Physical specifications
Cores	1–12 (per cluster)
Products, models, variants
Product code name	Matterhorn ELP
Variant	ARM Cortex-A710
History
Predecessor	ARM Cortex-X1
Successor	ARM Cortex-X3

The ARM Cortex-X2 is a CPU 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. ^[1]

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. ^[2]

Architecture changes in comparison with ARM Cortex-X1

The processor implements the following changes: ^[3]

• ARMv9.0 ^[4]
• 10 cycle pipeline down from 11, created by reducing the dispatch stage from 2 cycles to 1
• Reorder buffer (ROB) increased by 30% from 224 entries to 288
• dTLB increased by 20% from 40 entries to 48
• SVE2 SIMD support
• Bfloat16 data type support
• Support for Aarch32 removed
• DSU-110
  • Up to 12 cores (up from 8 cores)
  • Up to 16M L3 cache (up from 8 MB)
• CoreLink CI-700/NI-700
  • Up to 32MB SLC

Performance claims:

• Comparing the Cortex-X2 ^[5] to the Cortex-X1 with the same process,
  clock speed, and 4MB of L3 cache (also known as ISO-process):
  • 16% greater integer performance / IPC
  • 100% greater ML performance
• 30% peak performance improvement over the Cortex-X1 in smartphones

(3.3 GHz, 1MB L2, 8MB L3)

• 40% faster than an Intel Core i5-1135G7 at 15W (3.5 GHz, 1MB L2, 16MB L3)

Architecture comparison

"Prime" core

uArch	Cortex-A78	Cortex-X1	Cortex-X2	Cortex-X3	Cortex-X4	Cortex-X925
Code name	Hercules	Hera	Matterhorn-ELP	Makalu-ELP	Hunter-ELP	Blackhawk
Architecture	ARMv8.2		ARMv9		ARMv9.2
Peak clock speed	~3.0 GHz			~3.3 GHz	~3.4 GHz	~3.8 GHz
Decode width	4	5		6	10 [6]
Dispatch	6/cycle	8/cycle			10/cycle
Max in-flight	2x 160	2x 224	2x 288	2x 320	2x 384	2x 768
L0 (Mops entries)	1536 [7]	3072 [7]		1536	0 [6]
L1-I + L1-D	32+32 KiB	64+64 KiB
L2	128–512 KiB	0.25–1 MiB			0.5–2 MiB	2–3 MiB
L3	0–8 MiB [8]		0–16 MiB		0–32 MiB

Usage

• MediaTek • Dimensity 9000(+)
• Qualcomm • Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 ^[9] • Snapdragon 8/8+ Gen 1 ^{[10] [11]}
• Samsung • Exynos 2200 ^[12]

See also

• ARM Cortex-A710, related high performance microarchitecture
• Comparison of ARMv8-A cores, ARMv8 family

References

1. "Cortex-X Custom CPU program". Arm. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
2. "Arm Total Compute solutions powering decade of compute - Arm Community". Arm. 2021-05-25. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
3. "Arm Launches Its New Flagship Performance Armv9 Core: Cortex-X2". WikiChip Fuse. 2021-05-25. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
4. "Documentation – Arm Developer". arm.com. Archived from the original on 2021-12-03. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
5. "Arm Announces Mobile Armv9 CPU Microarchitectures: Cortex-X2, Cortex-A710 & Cortex-A510". anandtech.com. Retrieved 2021-12-03.
6. "Arm Cortex-X4, A720, and A520: 2024 smartphone CPUs deep dive". Android Authority. 2023-05-29. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
7. "Arm's New Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1 Microarchitectures: An Efficiency and Performance Divergence". anandtech.com. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
8. Schor, David (2020-05-26). "Arm Cortex-X1: The First From The Cortex-X Custom Program". WikiChip Fuse. Retrieved 2023-05-30.
9. "Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 Mobile Platform". Qualcomm. Retrieved 17 March 2023.
10. "Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Mobile Platform | Latest 5G Snapdragon Processor". qualcomm.com. 17 November 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-02.
11. "The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Performance Preview: Sizing Up Cortex-X2". AnandTech. December 14, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2022.
12. "Exynos 2200 | Processor".