ARM Opens Up on Cortex-A12: New Midrange CPU Offers A15 Performance at Lower Power

摘要

The newest Cortex CPU, the A12, exemplifies ARM's design and development cycle for IP cores. Cortex-A12 will replace the popular Cortex-A9 as the midrange performance and power core. The new processor is a significant reworking of the A9's dual-issue micro architecture; in fact, it borrows little from the proven A9 design. It updates the older core with the most recent ARMv7 instruction-set extensions, making it comparable to Cortex-A15 in performance, but at lower power.