arms has leveraged its Total Compute Solutions 2023 (TCS23) to offer its new suite of product intellectual properties, which span processor (CPU), graphics (GPU), and system. The company’s goal is to provide a broad range of computing capabilities and for use cases such as next-generation mobile devices.
On the TCS23 release list is the ARMv9.2 computing cluster, which is made up of the new Cortex-X4, Cortex-A720 and Cortex-A520 cores, plus the new DynamicIQ shared unit, DSU-120, which provides double-digit power, efficiency and performance improvements. On the GPU front, performance and efficiency have also been improved with the new fifth-generation architecture, from which the Immortalis-G720, Mali-G720 and Mali-G620 graphics processors. Arm mentions a 21% graphics performance improvement with the Manhattan 3.0 benchmark.
The new CPU cores only support 64-bit tasks and can be used in a cluster of up to 14 cores thanks to the new design of the aforementioned DSU-120. Arm says that he has seen a 27% performance increase on a 1 + 5 + 2 (X4 + A720 + A520) core configuration over the previous 1 + 4 + 3 build, which was the great reference of the brand and is implemented in processors such as Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and MediaTek Dimensity 9200/9200+. In specific tasks such as web browsing, the company has reported a 33% improvement in performance.
Going a little deeper into the cores, the Cortex-X4 takes up 10% less space and improves efficiency by 40% over the Cortex-X3 core. The Cortex-A720 improves efficiency by about 20% compared to the Cortex-A715 and the Cortex-A520 becomes the first upgrade in two years of the efficient cores to improve the efficiency provided by the Cortex-A510 by 8 %.
The new core configuration exposed by Arm is exactly the same that has been leaked on several occasions about the one that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC is supposed to use., which reinforces the information that we have been seeing in recent months. The 1 + 5 + 2 core configuration is expected to be present in the future MediaTek Dimensity 9300 as well. The Cortex-X4 core is likely to be reserved only for high-end device models, which could also be the case for the Immortalis-G720 graphics processor.
Other interesting data exposed by Arm are an average reduction of 30% in the use of bandwidth and an average energy saving of 20% in the execution of video games. It is important to bear in mind that the gains in terms of performance and efficiency are not things that will reach all users in a homogeneous way, since this depends on the flow of use of each one.
It seems that Arm has everything ready to license what would become the next generation of top-of-the-range SoCs, although the Cortex-A720 and Cortex-A520 cores and the Mali-G720 and Mali-G620 graphics processors indicate that they will be implemented. in lower range SoCs.
