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ARM unveils new chips for 'console-like' mobile gaming, faster work apps

ARM projects new devices sporting the technology unveiled today will hit the market by next year.
Written by Rachel King, Contributor
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SAN FRANCISCO---ARM unveiled a bevy of new chips on Tuesday, all tailored for mobile computing as the micro-processor giant prepares for world teeming with connected devices in every direction.

But ARM has built these new processors with much more than just real-time collaboration and high-definition streaming video in mind. (Although certainly both of those use cases have been well considered and factored in, too.)

For example, the new Mali-T880 GPU promises "console-class gaming performance and graphics" on mobile platforms while also guaranteeing up to 40 percent less energy consumption across identical workloads compared to the previous generation.

Also boasting significant power reduction is the CoreLink CCI 500 Cache Coherent Interconnnect, upgraded to speed up processing memory-heavy workloads (i.e. video editing) in conjunction with multimedia content running on the Mali GPU family.

But the hero of the new portfolio is the Cortex-A72 processor. Based on the ARMv8-A architecture, the Cortex-A72 sports 64-bit processing rates while also supporting full backward compatibility to existing 32-bit software.

This translates to up to 75 percent in reduced energy consumption compared to 2014 Cortex-based devices with up to three and a half times the performance of last year's gadgets running on the Cortex-A15 processor.

For end users, this is supposed to be noticeable everywhere on the device from the aforementioned faster workloads on collaboration and productivity apps to better video (including 4K120fps video content).

ARM highlighted a few other improved experiences well that could change work habits and practices, including boosted support for natural language user interfaces capable of running natively on a smartphone.

With ARMv8-A in mind, ARM is honing in on the Android ecosystem with its new IP suite, projecting Android 5.0 (a.k.a. Lollipop) to gain greater ground in the global smartphone market on higher-end devices especially.

ARM boasted it has already signed up at least 10 licensees from wireless hardware and supply chain brands to work with the Cortex-A72 chip, including HiSilicon, MediaTek and Rockchip.

ARM also projects new devices sporting the technology unveiled today will hit the market by next year.

Image via ARM

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