Arm Holdings on Wednesday raised the clock speed of its Cortex A9 processor to 2GHz, with the aim of boosting application performance while drawing less power.
Arm designs processor cores that are licensed to chipmakers. The processors can be found in billions of mobile devices like smartphones and are making their way into devices such as netbooks. Known mostly for low-power consumption, Arm wanted to show its processors are scalable and can provide the performance needed to run demanding applications like multimedia.
[ Keep up with new hardware trends. Read InfoWorld's Technology: Hardware newsletter. | And catch all the day's tech news headlines with InfoWorld's Today's Headlines: Wrap Up newsletter. ]
Most Arm-based chips in the market are perhaps 1GHz or a little more, and there are not many 2GHz Arm processors, said Nandan Nayampally, director of CPU marketing at ARM. The latest processor is an attempt by Arm to show that it can raise clock speeds if needed.
"It's just changing the perception of Arm as being a low-cost, low-power processor not associated with performance. We're actually providing performance level very attractive to a large suite of applications," Nayampally said. The speed increase could be useful for Arm chips used in devices such as netbooks and multimedia devices at home, he said.
The dual-core Arm processor runs at 2GHz while consuming 1.9 watts of power. The processor delivered better performance than Intel's Atom N270 netbook chip operating at 1.6GHz, according to benchmarks provided by Arm. The speed could be scaled down to drop power consumption, Nayampally said.
"Is it always going to be used at 2GHz? Probably not," Nayampally said. Ultimately, the clock speed of a chip will depend on customers who implement the design. Some Arm customers have already shown dual-core Cortex A9 chips.
It isn't a surprise that a dual-core Arm chip with a faster clock speed outperformed a single-core Intel Atom chip, said Dean McCarron, principal analyst at Mercury Research. "Upping the clock rate, going multicore buys you performance," he said.
Arm may be sending a powerful message about performance, but it faces stiff competition from Intel, McCarron said. Intel is trying to bring x86 down to lower power levels so that its chips can go into devices that smartphones, a space that Arm has dominated for a long time.
"Intel is by design a paranoid culture. I'm sure a product like this is on their radar," McCarron said.
Intel is expected to share more details about its upcoming Moorestown platform for mobile devices, which includes a system-on-chip that integrates multiple components like the CPU and graphics core. Intel has said that Moorestown reduces idle power consumption by 50 times compared to its existing Menlow platform.
Though Arm chips have long held an advantage over Intel with respect to power, Arm needs better software support around the chip architecture. There is a strong software infrastructure around the x86 architecture, which could help push Intel chips into many mobile devices, McCarron said.
Arm is trying to build a larger software support around the architecture, Nayampally said. The chip already supports multiple flavors of the Linux OS, but does not support Windows 7.
There is a compelling case for Microsoft to port Windows 7 to Arm, considering the growing volumes of Arm-designed chips appearing in devices, Nayampally said. However, porting the OS is a decision Microsoft has to ultimately make.
Get the independent advice and expertise you need to support a virtual workforce.
The increase in Linux popularity has increased the frequency and sophistication of malware attacks. Read this 2 page white paper now to learn how you can protect your Linux environment with real-time protection that is certified by all major Linux vendors.
Download now »
Ensuring acceptable application delivery will become even more difficult over the next few years. As a result, IT organizations need to ensure that the approach that they take to resolving the current application delivery challenges can scale to support the emerging challenges. This handbook elaborates on the key tasks associated with planning, optimization, management and control and provides decision criteria to help IT organizations choose appropriate solutions.
Download now »
A common misconception is that mid-range storage requirements are dramatically different than that of a larger enterprise. Mid-range storage users may require less capacity, but they have similar functionality and management requirements. This ESG paper examines mid-range storage needs and reviews a new solution that adjusts size while retaining value, performance and functionality.
Download now »The processors can be found in billions of mobile devices like smartphones, and are making their way into devices such as netbooks.The processors can be found in billions of mobile devices like smartphones, and are making their way into devices such as netbooks.
Arm scaled performance of its Cortex A9 processor to 2GHz in an attempt to highlight clock speed.
Sign up to receive InfoWorld Resource Alerts
13 Recommendations
