ARM Cortex-A53

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ARM Cortex-A53
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A picture of the Amazon Echo Dot (RS03QR) - motherboard
General information
Launched2012
Designed by ARM Holdings
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate 400 MHz   to 2.30 GHz  
FSB speeds100 MHz   to 118 MHz OC 
Cache
L1 cache 8–64 KiB
L2 cache128 KiB – 2 MiB
Architecture and classification
Instruction set ARMv8-A
Physical specifications
Cores
  • 1–8 per cluster
Products, models, variants
Product code name(s)
  • Apollo
History
Predecessor(s) ARM Cortex-A7
Successor(s) ARM Cortex-A55

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. [1] It was announced October 30, 2012 [2] 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.

Contents

Overview

Utilization

The Cortex-A53 is the most widely used platform for mobile SoCs since 2014 to the present day [ as of? ], making it one of the longest-running ARM platform for mobile devices. It is currently featured in most entry-level and lower mid-range SoCs, while higher-end SoCs used the newer ARM Cortex-A55. The latest SoC still using the Cortex-A53 is the MediaTek Helio G36, which is an entry-level SoC designed for budget smartphones.

The ARM Cortex-A53 processor has been used in the LeMaker HiKey since 2015, [3] the Raspberry Pi 3 since February 2016, [4] and the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W since October 2021. [5]

The Cortex-A53 is also used in a number of Qualcomm, Samsung, and MediaTek SoCs. [6] [7] [8] Semi-custom derivatives of the Cortex-A53 have been used in Qualcomm's Kryo 250 and Kryo 260 CPUs. [9] [10] The Starlink ground terminals utilize a quad-core Cortex-A53 SoC from STMicroelectronics as a main control unit. [11]

The processor is used in the ODROID-C2 [12] and in Roku streaming media players (in the high-end models from 2016 and in all models released between 2017 and 2019). Another notable Cortex-A53 application is the Pine A64/A64+ single-board computer.

These cores are used in a 24-core SoC, the Socionext SynQuacer SC2A11.

The processor is used in Amazon Fire tablets, including the Fire HD 8 and the Fire HD 10 (the latter also includes Cortex-A72 cores) as well as the Nintendo Switch. It is also used in some Amazon Echo Show models such as the Echo Show 5, Echo Show 8, and Echo Show 5 (2nd Gen). [13]

The processor is used in Fortinet's Fortigate 81F entry-level firewalls.

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "Cortex-A53 Processor". ARM Holdings . Retrieved 2015-11-08.
  2. ↑ "ARM Launches Cortex-A50 Series, the World's Most Energy-Efficient 64-bit Processors" (Press release). ARM Holdings. 2012-10-30. Retrieved 2023-05-15.
  3. ↑ "HiKey attends the ET Show in Japan 2015". LeMaker. 12 November 2015. Archived from the original on 2018-07-18. Retrieved 2018-07-17.
  4. ↑ Upton, Eben (29 February 2016). "Raspberry Pi 3 on sale now at $35 - Raspberry Pi". Raspberry Pi. Retrieved 2016-02-29.
  5. ↑ "Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W Product Brief" (PDF). Raspberry Pi. 28 October 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-28.
  6. ↑ Lal Shimpi, Anand (9 December 2013). "Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 410 based on 64-bit ARM Cortex A53". Anandtech. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  7. ↑ Lal Shimpi, Anand (24 February 2014). "Snapdragon 610 & 615: Qualcomm Continues down its 64-bit warpath with 4/8-core Cortex A53 designs". Anandtech. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
  8. ↑ "Snapdragon 625 Mobile Platform". Qualcomm.
  9. ↑ "Snapdragon 632 Mobile Platform". Qualcomm.
  10. ↑ "Snapdragon 660 Mobile Platform". Qualcomm.
  11. ↑ Wouters, Lennert (2022-08-10). Glitched on Earth by Humans: A Black-Box Security Evaluation of the SpaceX Starlink User Terminal (PDF). Black Hat USA 2022.
  12. ↑ "en:c2_hardware [Odroid Wiki]". odroid.com. Retrieved 2017-03-26.
  13. ↑ "All New Echo Show 5 – Compact smart display with Alexa". Amazon.
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