ARM makes a number of chip announcements at Computex, including a next-generation processor for mid-range smartphones. June 2, 2013 10:24 PM PDT ARM is targeting the Cortex-A12 at mid-range phones, a position the iPhone 4S holds today. (Credit: Apple) ARM, the designer of most of the world's smartphone processors, announced new silicon that will likely find its way to future mobile devices. Mali-V500: This video encode/decode chip is designed to prevent piracy of 1080p class video. Using TrustZone technology, the V500 was developed after consultation with Hollywood studios, according to a report in the Financial Times. Hollywood movie studios and content distributors like Netflix "are demanding [that]...their highest value content...be protected not just by digital rights management but by the hardware, all the way from download through to display," the Times wrote, citing an ARM executive. Cortex-A12: This is a chip planned for mid-range smartphones. It's more powerful than the widely-used -- and dated -- Cortex-A9 (use in iPhone 4S for example) but not quite as powerful as the new Cortex-A15 chips, such as the Exynos 5 Dual (used in Google's Nexus 10 tablet). It offers a 40 percent performance improvement over the A9, according to ARM. Mali-T622 graphics processing unit: ARM claims it is 50 percent more energy efficient than earlier Mali chips. And because it's compliant with Open CL 1.1 and designed as a "GPU Compute" engine, it is much more efficient at handling some tasks that a central processing unit (CPU) would have done in the past. ARM isn't being too specific on timing because it doesn't make the chips, its partners -- like Nvidia and Samsung -- do. So, don't expect finished silicon for the Cortex-A12 anytime before mid-2014.
ARM makes a number of chip announcements at Computex, including a next-generation processor for mid-range smartphones.
ARM is targeting the Cortex-A12 at mid-range phones, a position the iPhone 4S holds today.
(Credit: Apple)
ARM, the designer of most of the world's smartphone processors, announced new silicon that will likely find its way to future mobile devices.
Mali-V500: This video encode/decode chip is designed to prevent piracy of 1080p class video. Using TrustZone technology, the V500 was developed after consultation with Hollywood studios, according to a report in the Financial Times. Hollywood movie studios and content distributors like Netflix "are demanding [that]...their highest value content...be protected not just by digital rights management but by the hardware, all the way from download through to display," the Times wrote, citing an ARM executive.
Cortex-A12: This is a chip planned for mid-range smartphones. It's more powerful than the widely-used -- and dated -- Cortex-A9 (use in iPhone 4S for example) but not quite as powerful as the new Cortex-A15 chips, such as the Exynos 5 Dual (used in Google's Nexus 10 tablet). It offers a 40 percent performance improvement over the A9, according to ARM.
Mali-T622 graphics processing unit: ARM claims it is 50 percent more energy efficient than earlier Mali chips. And because it's compliant with Open CL 1.1 and designed as a "GPU Compute" engine, it is much more efficient at handling some tasks that a central processing unit (CPU) would have done in the past.
ARM isn't being too specific on timing because it doesn't make the chips, its partners -- like Nvidia and Samsung -- do. So, don't expect finished silicon for the Cortex-A12 anytime before mid-2014.
