MediaTek signs on for new ARM Cortex-A73
Much of the tech world is gearing up for Virtual Reality (VR) and ARM is no exception. Their next set of high-end mobile CPU Cortex tech will be Cortex-A73.
From ARM official:
ARM® and its partners will boost the mobile experience associated with use cases such as:
- Deliver a compelling virtual reality (VR)/augmented reality (AR) experience
- Immersive and sophisticated image and video capture, including 4K video content and higher
- Console gaming-class performance and graphics
Cortex-A73
Cortex-A73 will be ARMs most efficient and powerful mobile processor yet. A73 will support full ARMv8-A architecture and is “optimized for mobile and consumer workloads”.
ARM Cortex-A73 features
- 30% more sustained performance than Cortex-A72
- 30% more power efficient than Cortex-A72
- big.LITTLE technology to provide scalable performance when combined with Cortex-A53 or Cortex-A35
Where will Cortex-A73 be used
ARM plans on marketing these powerful cores to manufacturers of smartphones, tablets, 2-in-1’s, and clamshell notebooks. Not only are tablets, phones, and notebooks targeted, ARM is looking towards getting Cortex-A73 implemented in devices such as Smart TV’s, set-top boxes and home networking products.
The GPU, Mali-G71
- The GPU recommended to go with Cortex-A73 is Mali-G71. G71 is built on new a new architecture dubbed “Bifrost”. Mali-G71 provides “1.5x” the performance when compared with ARM’s current 2016 flagship GPU– Mali-T880.
- Mali-G71 is designed from the ground up to work with the latest APIs, OpenCL2.0 with full HW coherency, and Vulkan technology (cross-platform GPU API).
- While Cortex-A73 will work with whichever GPU a manufacturer sees fit to pair it with, the A73 is built for top performance when paired with Mali-G71.
- Will be powerful enough to push 4K screens with refresh rates of up to 120Hz.
When is it coming
We should begin to see Cortex-A73 and Mali-G71 in SoCs as early as Q1 2017.
Who’s signed up so far
MediaTek, Marvell, and HiSilicon are confirmed already to implement the technology. No word yet on Qualcomm, who is breaking records with their in-house developed custom Kryo core CPU tech.
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