Mobile ARM processors.

Internet. Who has material about processor architecture?

Wireless products based on this can be found in smartphones, routers, tablet PCs and other mobile devices, which have recently occupied leading positions in this market segment.

New and fresh processor solutions are constantly emerging.

A short introduction about the ARM company

The history of the ARM company began in 1990, when it was founded by Robin Saxby.

The basis for this creation was a new microprocessor architecture.

Since previously the dominant position over the CPU market was occupied by x86 and CISC, after the creation of the company a good alternative appeared as RISC.

In the first edition of the new era, the program code was reduced to 4 stages: Obsession with machine quotes.The microcode is rewritten.Obsession with microinstructions.

Step by step microinstruction. About the main idea of ​​architecture

RIS About the main idea of ​​architecture

It was assumed that the processing of program code can be reduced to 2 stages: OtrimannyaRISC- instructions. Obrobka

Before

Like the first, and the other type has both advantages and disadvantages. x86 successfully conquered the computer market, and

RISC (

Initially, A7-based conductor products were developed at 65 nm technology standards.

This technology is hopelessly outdated.

Next, two more generations of A7 processors were released with tolerance standards of 40 nm and 32 nm. The ale and stench have already become irrelevant.The most recent CPU models based on this architecture are being manufactured at 28 nm standards, and they are still on sale.

A further transition to a new one with new approval standards and outdated architecture is unlikely to happen. Chips based on A7 immediately occupy the most budget segment of the market of mobile devices, and they are gradually followed by gadgets based on A53, which means that with the same energy efficiency parameters there is a higher level of speed code.Microprocessor core architecture

1, 2, 4 or 8 cores can be included in stock CPUs based on ARM Cortex A7.

Characteristics Processors are often specified as having, apparently, 2 clusters of 4 cores each.2-3 years of processing cob products were primed on chips with 1 or 2 processing modules.

The middle market was occupied by 4-core solutions.Well, the premium segment is for 8-core chips.

The skin microprocessor core based on this architecture included the following modules:

B lock of number processing with a floating coma (

FPU).

Level 1 cache.

Block

NEON

for optimization of CPU work

Computing module

ARMv7.

As an example, let’s look at the algorithm of the MT6582 robotic chip, which is based on the A7 and includes 4 computing units, the frequency of which varies from 600 MHz to 1.3 GHz.

In idle mode, this processor device may only have one processing unit, and it operates at the minimum possible frequency of 600 MHz.

A similar situation will occur if a simple security program is running on a mobile gadget. If the list asks for a resource-consuming game optimized for high traffic flow, then the robot will automatically enter all 4 blocks of program code processing at a frequency of 1.3 GHz.As the CPU heats up, the hottest cores reduce their clock speeds or turn off. On the one hand, this approach ensures energy efficiency, on the other hand, a pleasant efficiency of the chip. Cache memoryMore than 2 cache levels have been transferred to the ARM Cortex A7. Characteristics of the conductor crystal, in its own way, indicate those that the first level of obligatory divisions into 2 equal halves.One of them It is your responsibility to save the data and other instructions. Total size

cache on the 1st level

Specifications may be requested



64 KB.

As a result, we remove 32 KB for data and 32 KB for code.

The cache of the 2nd level will be stuck in this situation

e

This depends on the specific CPU model.

The smallest amount you can add is 0 MB (this will be daily), and the largest one is 4 MB.

RAM controller.

All other systemic security programs have not yet undergone great expansion.

As you might guess, the largest share of the market for such software is occupied by Android itself.



This system has a simple and intelligent interface and devices based on the cob level are even accessible.

Until version 4.4, inclusive, it was 32-bit, and with 5.0 it began to support 64-bit calculations.

This OS operates successfully on any family of CPUs with RISC architecture, OSCR and ARM Cortex A7.

It is still possible to find mobile devices on store shelves, which are based on a 4X ARM Cortex A7-based processor device.



This is MT6580, MT6582 and Snapdragon 200.

All chips include 4 computing units and have an outstanding level of energy efficiency.



Also, the price in this case is even more modest.

After all, the best hours of microprocessor architecture are already behind us. The peak of sales of products on this basis fell in 2013-2014, since there are practically no alternatives to the market of mobile gadgets.

ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore is a processor core for mobile devices, specially for the budget sector of the market, developed by ARM Holdings and implements the ARM v7 architecture.
It was announced earlier this year at ARM TechCon, with the development code – Cortex-A7 “Kingfisher”.
Main features of the core: fast, energy efficient and smaller in size than Cortex A8;

A unique feature of the big.LITTLE architecture, which combines one or more Cortex A7 cores with one or more Cortex A15 cores in a heterogeneous computing system.

For such a development, the core was created entirely according to the architectural settings of the Cortex A15.

In other words, ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore has adopted the features of the Cortex-A15 processor model and can boast of high energy efficiency indicators.

The CPU frequency is 0.6 to 3 GHz, although the maximum frequency of the ARM Cortex-A7 is set at 1.5 GHz.

• Vibration technology – from 65 to 28 nm.
• Set of instructions for ARMv7.
• Number of cores from 1 to 4 per cluster, up to 2 clusters per chip.
• First level cache (L1): 8-64 KB I, 8-64 KB D and second level cache (L2): 0–1024 KB (configurable with L2 cache controller)

Hello our beloved readers.

• Today we will inform you about the architecture of Cortex a53 processors.
• You probably won’t suspect how many of your gadgets rely on the same processor.
• Few people know about the peculiarities of the cores of technology and they are divided into one type of another.
• In this article you will learn about the features of the particular popular Cortex a53.
• Characteristics
• Support for virtualization of ownership.

This is a standard set of functions for a technical warehouse, but not all the functions that this folding mechanism has.

Where is most often vikorist

Processors of this type are found not only in mid-range smartphones (Xiaomi redmi 4, Redmi 3s, Meizu m3/m5 Note etc.), but also in modern technologies:

• Aviation and space technology;
• Merezha;
• Data collections (such as HDD, SDD);
• Automotive information and distribution system;

Additional possibilities

• Pipeline, which indicates low energy consumption;
• High throughput, which allows you to terminate a number of commands at once;
• Expanded energy saving functions.

Processor of connections with different IPs

This technology is used in SoC, as well as in technologies such as Arm, graphical IP, system IP and physical IP. :

• We provide a complete list of tools that can be added to the core of this brand
• Mali-T860/Mali-T880;
• Mali-DP550;
• Mali-V550;
• CoreLink;
• Memory controller;
• The controller is interrupting;
• Development Studio DS-5;
• ARM compiler;
• The little girls are growing up;

Swedish models.

• There are 2 types of Cortex a53 processors:
• AArch64 – allows you to install and use 64-bit programs;

AArch32 – allows you to use other Armv7-A programs.

Why do you need all this technical information?

If you don’t know anything about technology and parameters, then in simple words Cortex a53 will provide much more productivity than its predecessors with a higher level of energy efficiency.

The productivity of the core is superior to that of the Cortex-A7 brand, which is found on many popular smartphones.

The Armv8-A architecture is all about technology functionality. This brand of kernel has 64-bit data processing, expanded virtual addressing and 64-bit registers of legal recognition..

What is important is that most of today's gadgets rely on processors based on the ARM architecture, which is developed by the same company ARM Limited.

What’s important is that the company itself does not develop processors, rather it licenses its technologies to third-party chip manufacturers.

In addition, the company also disaggregates the Cortex processor cores and Mali graphics processors, which are closely related to this material.

The ARM company actually has a monopoly in its field, and most importantly, the majority of current smartphones and tablets on various mobile operating systems use core processors themselves on the ARM architecture.

Chip developers are licensed from ARM for cores, instruction sets and related technologies, and the availability of licenses varies according to the type of processor cores (this may be both low-power budget solutions, and ultra-modern four-core and eight-core chips) and additional components.

River report about ARM Limited's revenue for 2006, showing revenue of 161 million dollars for licensing about 2.5 billion processors (in 2011, its total turnover was already 7.9 billion), which means approximately 0.067 dollars for one chip.
However, for the main reason stated, even the averaging indicator is due to the difference in prices for different licenses, and from that time the company’s profits are due to grow exponentially.
Nowadays, ARM processors are growing even wider.
Chips on this architecture are used everywhere, right up to the servers, but most often ARM can be used in installed and mobile systems, starting with controllers for hard drives and ending with modern smartphones, tablets and other gadgets.
ARM splits up a small family of cores that are customized for different tasks.
For example, processors based on Cortex-Mx and Cortex-Rx (where “x” is a number or a number that indicates the exact core number) are used in systems that are being installed, and on consumer devices, for example, routers or printers.
We won’t dwell on them in detail, but let us first mention the Cortex-Ax family - chips with such cores are used in the most productive devices, including smartphones, tablets and game consoles.

The larger the number, the higher the productivity of the processor and, obviously, the expensive class of devices for which wines are used.

However, it is important to note that this rule is not always followed: for example, chips on Cortex-A7 cores can be more productive than those on Cortex-A8.

Tim is no less, since processors on Cortex-A5 are already respected and are not outdated and may not be used in modern devices, then CPUs on Cortex-A15 can be found in flagship communicators and tablets.

Recently, ARM officially announced the development of new, stronger and, at the same time, energy-efficient cores Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57, which will be combined on one chip from the stagnant ARM big.LITTLE technology and support select the ARMv8 command set (“architecture version”), Ale Nina stinks will stagnate at the mass living outbuildings.

Most chips with Cortex cores can be multi-core, and today's top-end smartphones are increasingly using multi-core processors.

Processors on Cortex-A7 are thicker than Cortex-A5 chips, and also wider.

Such chips are built on a 28-nanometer process technology and contain a large cache of up to 4 megabytes.

Cortex-A7 cores are common, most importantly, in budget smartphones and inexpensive mid-segment devices like the iconBIT Mercury Quad, and also, as a matter of fact, in the Samsung Galaxy S IV GT-i9500 with an Exynos 5 Octa processor - this chipset, with its unobtrusive design energy saving Four-core processor based on Cortex-A7.

Cortex-A8

The Cortex-A8 core is not as wide as its “neighbours”, Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A9, but is still used in various gadgets of the market.

The operating clock frequency of chips on Cortex-A8 can go from 600 MHz to 1 GHz, or sometimes the processors can be pushed to higher frequencies.

The peculiarity of the Cortex-A8 core is the lack of support for multi-core configurations (so processors on these cores can only be single-core), and there is no trace of the 65-nanometer technical process, which is already considered outdated.

Сortex-A9

As of 2013, the Cortex-A15 core is similar to top solutions and is used in flagship communicator chips of various manufacturers.

Among the new processors based on the 28nm process technology and based on Cortex-A15 are Samsung Exynos 5 Octa and Nvidia Tegra 4, and this core often acts as a platform for modifying other processors.

For example, the remaining Apple A6X processor uses Swift cores, which are a modification of Cortex-A15.

Cortex-A15 chips typically operate at frequencies of 1.5-2.5 GHz, and the support for the impersonality of third-party standards and the ability to address up to 1 TB of physical memory makes it possible for such processors to stagnate in computers (how can you not guess the mini-computer? 'Yuter the size of a Raspberry Pi bank card).

Cortex-A50 series

Processors based on Cortex-A57, which will be based on the 20-nanometer process technology, will be responsible for the most powerful ARM processors in the next one.

The new core significantly outperforms its predecessor, the Cortex-A15 in various performance parameters (the same can be achieved more), and, according to ARM, which is seriously aimed at the PC market, it will become a viable solution for basic computers (including laptops), and not just mobile devices.

As a high-tech problem of energy saving of current ARM processors, the big.LITTLE technology is promoted, the essence of which lies in the combination of cores of different types on one chip, usually, however, the same number of energy-saving and high reproductive

There are three schemes for operating different types of cores on one chip: big.LITTLE (migration between clusters), big.LITTLE IKS (migration between cores) and big.LITTLE MP (heterogeneous multiprocessing).

big.LITTLE (migration between clusters)

The first chipset based on the ARM big.LITTLE architecture was the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa processor.

This one has an original big.LITTLE “4+4” scheme, which means combining two clusters (series and names of schemes) on one chip with four highly productive Cortex-A15 cores for resource-intensive additions and energy savings and powerful Cortex-A7 cores for everyday work with a large number of programs, and at the same time they can produce kernels of more than one type.

The alternation between groups of nuclei is carried out in a practical manner and is imperceptible for the operator in a completely automatic mode.

According to obvious information, in the near future ARM, together with other companies, plans to release big.LITTLE chips of the next generation, which will use the new Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 cores.

In addition, budget processors on ARM big.LITTLE are going to be released by the Chinese manufacturer MediaTek, which will use the “2+2” scheme, which will consist of two groups of two cores.

In addition to processors, ARM also expands the graphics processor family of Mali.

Similar to processors, graphics processors are characterized by a number of parameters, for example, smoothing, bus interface, cache (overhead memory, which is used to improve the speed of the work) and a large number of graphics ichnyh nuclei” (although, as we wrote in the last article, this show , regardless of the similarity of the term used when describing the CPU, practically does not affect productivity when two GPUs are equal).

The first graphical fast-track ARM was the Mali 55, which is not currently used, but which was used in the LG Renoir touch phone (that is, the most popular smartphone).

Apparently, at the end of 2014, smartphones with the latest ARM graphics processors may appear: Mali-T720, Mali-T760 and Mali-T760 MP, which were presented at the end of 2013.

Mali-T720 is the new GPU for low-cost smartphones and the first graphics processor in this segment with support for Open GL ES 3.0.

Mali-T760, in its turn, will become one of the most powerful mobile graphics processors: according to the stated characteristics, the GPU has 16 processing cores and has a truly great processing capacity, 326 Gflops, or at the same time less energy consumption, lower fortune telling in Mali-T604.

The role of CPU and GPU in ARM on the market

Regardless of the fact that the ARM company is the author and developer of the same architecture, which, we repeat, is currently being developed in the vast majority of mobile processors, its solution to the appearance of cores and graphics cards does not deteriorate popularity among the great smartphone manufacturers.

For example, it is rightly appreciated that the flagship smartphones on Android OS are based on the Snapdragon processor with Krait cores and the Adreno graphics processor from Qualcomm, the company’s chipsets are used in smartphones on Windows Phone, and in many gadgets In, for example, Apple is disintegrating the power of the core.

Microprocessors based on ARM architecture have successfully conquered the market of mobile devices due to low energy consumption and high computational effort.