ARM CORTEX-A15 processor Architecture and IPAD3 performance/configuration Outlook

As the March 7, 2012 draws near, the news of Apple's next-generation ipad is growing, but compared to the variety of previous speculation, the new ipad's many specific features and performance prediction messages have been more unified, This is because these features are ready for Apple before iPad2 release, such as retina-level screens that reach 2048x1536 resolution, Siri that has been used on iphone, and so on. But the recent controversy is that the latest processor is Apple A6, or a5x. Today, we also hold a gossip of the heart, and scientific rigorous attitude, to predict the IPAD3 configuration exactly what ah? In theory, the following is definitely not a random guess, we are in accordance with Apple's past habits, product updates in the past, and the entire upstream technology development comprehensive analysis to predict. This is a joke, seriously, it's not just about what processor IPad3 uses, but how it performs, it also represents the development trend of the entire tablet computer, and even a variety of new mobile devices and smart devices. ARM company CORTEX-A15 Core if not the news of the previous days, claiming that the Apple IPad3 processor is a5x rather than A6, I am afraid most of the Apple IPad3 processor will not be suspected of using a new ARMCORTEX-A15 architecture processor. However, we believe that the CORTEX-A15 core is extremely likely to be used, regardless of the name, and there is little reason or indication to reject the update. Although Apple did not release the performance of a5x or A6 processors, our products from Ti, Samsung, Qualcomm and other companies have been able to understand the overall level of the product. ARMCORTEX-A15 architecture schematic diagram CORTEX-A15 core, and CORTEX-A9, the same based on the ARMV7-A architecture, positioning is a substitute for cortex-a9, but the structure of a larger change in the core of the efficiency and management is of great significance. There are also upgrades on floating-point units. Let's simply look at the changes in Cortex-a15. ARMCORTEX-A9 schematic diagram armcortex-a9 Workflow diagram First of all, we see the two-processor schematics provided by ARM's official company. We found that in the workflow of the CORTEX-A9 processor, multiple core interrupt control and allocation are placed on the last level, and in Cortex-a15, this part of the work is placed before the core operation. In Nvidia's TEGRA3 technical documentation, it has been said that under Android, where multiple cores operate at different frequencies, the overall efficiency is limited by the core of the lowest frequencies, so TEGRA3 is optimized for the management of multiple cores. Perhaps this is related to ARMCORTEX-A9 's core original design. And on the CORTEX-A15, the architecture has changed a lot., and many of the core processing efficiencies will be higher. From the point of view of floating-point operation unit, the VFPV4 floating-point units are built in each core of the CORTEX-A15 core. VFPV4 is Vectorfloating-pointversion4, and on the cortex-a9 is Version3,cortex-a8 Version2. This VFPv4 is the first time the ARM processor's floating-point operation fully supports the IEEE754 standard. In the past, the ARM processor's floating-point performance has been a short board, especially before ARMV7, this VFPv4 will be how to improve floating-point operations? In addition, CORTEX-A15 cache management has improved slightly. Each core will have 32KB of data and instructions L1cache,l2cache two cache is shared by a number of core, currently provide data support 512KB, 1MB, 2MB, 4MB and other standards, the two-level cache control mechanism delay than the cortex-a9 progress. Finally, CORTEX-A15 is not only positioned on mobile devices at the beginning of the design, it supports 40BITLARGEPHYSICALADDRESSEXTENSIONS,LPAE, memory addressing up to 1TB, and it begins to fully support hardware virtualization. These applications are even aimed at high-performance computing platforms built by multiple ARM processors. TI, Samsung, Qualcomm's CORTEXA-15 Core Products TIOMAP5 Series: omap5430/5432 is known as the industry's first CORTEX-A15 core products. TI company released at the end of 2011 OMAP5SOC chip detailed structure schematic diagram, and probably announced the related performance, we from OMAP5 to see CORTEX-A15 performance. TIOMAP5430 processor architecture schematic diagram tiomap5430/5432 main parameters OMAP5430 and 5432 are not different in general architecture, just package size, external I/O because positioning is slightly different. OMAP5430 is still positioned on smartphones, tablets, etc., while OMAP5432 may be biased towards larger-size devices, such as laptop-like products. So, let's take a look at a OMAP5430 architecture chart. From the architecture diagram, we see that it uses two CORTEX-A15 cores with a maximum frequency of up to 2GHz. To ensure lower power consumption under low load, the OMAP5430 also uses two CORTEX-M4 cores. In the video, the 2D image part, has the specialized DSP unit to be responsible for, the power management and the audio management module and the OMAP4 series are not different. In the surrounding I/O module, a variety of new standards are readily available. SD3.0, eMMC storage interface, SATA2.0 interface [for SSD design],USB3.0OTG interface, USB2.0 interface, hdmi1.4aStandards and so on. Of course, OMAP5430 is also paired with the PowerVRSGX544 graphics processing unit, which is a little more than the previous OMAP4 series. TIOMAP5 platform Performance Map Ti also describes the OMAP5 series and CORTEX-A15 performance improvements, and in January 2012 demonstrated the use of OMAP5 production equipment. Generally speaking, the 28nm process manufacturing CORTEX-A15 and 40nm process cortex-a9 compared to the single-threaded operation efficiency increased 1.5 times times, floating-point operation performance increased 1.6 times times. A new, multi-core management architecture makes it more intelligent to distribute multiple-core processing, and can be distributed on demand [cortex-a9 significantly less efficient]. In addition, TI uses SMARTREFLEX3 energy management technology on OMAP5, which allows the OMAP5 processor to achieve the same performance as the specified OMAP4 processor, requiring only OMAP4 processor 60% of the energy consumption. To put it another way, if the same energy consumption is used for OMAP4, then the OMAP5 will take only 60% of the time to complete the required work. TI has no more introduction to the performance of PowerVRSGX544 in OMAP5, but to remove the difference in the frequency of the operation is not estimated, we know that Sonypsvita use is powervrsgx543mp4 [the same four core], The Apple A5 processor uses POWERVRSGX543MP2, which is 4 cores and the latter 2 cores. Compared to the OMAP4 series [excluding 4470] PowerVRSGX540, performance is 5 times times elevated [official data]. Samsung exynos5250:2011 November 30, Samsung released Exynos5250 processor, it also uses CORTEX-A15 dual core, but the use of 32nmhigh-k process production. From the figures provided by Samsung, the 2.0GHz dual-core Exynos5250 operation performance can reach the 1.5GHZCORTEX-A9 core processor twice times, the efficiency obviously greatly improved. EXYNOS5250 also supports the EDP interface, support Dispalyport output, the highest support for 2560x1600 resolution, while supporting 3D stereo output, as for the specific performance of the graphics unit, the official message was not disclosed. Qualcomm SnapdragonS4: Qualcomm also released the Snapdragon S4 platform at the end of 2011, and on the upcoming MWC2012, Qualcomm mobile phones using the S4 platform will be on display. Foreign website AnandTech on 21st just released, S4 platform performance test. SnapdragonS4 platform, the same use of CORTEX-A15 architecture, different Qualcomm named Krait, chipset code MSM8960, it uses 28nm process manufacturing, dual core transportLine frequency 1.5GHz. The display unit is upgraded from Adreno220 to Adreno225. From the test results, compared with Qualcomm S3 platform, i.e. msm8260/8660, single-threaded LINPAC floating-point operation performance increased 1 time times, multithreading floating-point performance increased by 120%. Don't forget that MSM8260 are just VFPv2 floating-point units, that is, armv7-a architecture, cortex-a8 the core of the improved version, so the test results lead a larger range. From Sunspider's Java performance test, S4 platform performance increased by 54%, compared to iphone, Apple A5 core, performance increased by 46%. Browsermar's score is 23.5% higher than the S3 platform. Adreno225 3D performance, compared to Adreno, there are about 100% of the promotion. From TI's OMAP5 series, Samsung's Exynos5250, Qualcomm SnapdragonS4, we can already see the CORTEX-A15 core as well as the general performance of the new generation of products using the core. No matter from the semiconductor manufacturing process, the core structure update, the synchronization of graphics unit upgrades and other aspects, the performance has been significantly improved. And from the relatively detailed TI's official data, its energy consumption has also been reduced, the effectiveness of the promotion is very obvious. IPAD3 hardware Performance looking forward to the products of CORTEX-A15 and Apple's major competitors, here we can simply analyze what technology the entire new ipad processor will be using and what performance it will achieve. Although Apple will not tell us anything about cortex-a9 and A15 in all the press conferences, it's not going to happen once in the history of the iphone and MacBook releases, using the latest core technology to provide first-rate computing power. From the above analysis, we can not infer the new processor architecture of Apple by the old news in early 2011, because according to arm company's plan in early 2011, CORTEX-A15 release date is 2012 late 2013, And now the release plan for each of the products has basically been identified as the second quarter of 2012, so we believe that whether the Apple IPad3 processor than a5x or A6, the use of CORTEX-A15 architecture is very likely. In the IPad2 press conference, Apple A5 processor relative A4 processor changes, Apple gives the following: Dual-core, twice times the A4 performance, 9x in the A4 graphics performance, and A4 as low power consumption, the first dual-core flat. Therefore, the current IPAD3 on the hardware configuration, the most vocal saying is: Four core, 2GHz frequency, than the A5 at least one time to improve the graphics performance and so on. From the above analysis of CORTEX-A15, the possibility of using four cores may be small, but it is not impossible, because under low load Apple can use similar Tegra3 or TiomaP5, the method of using the low power Co core is used. And even if the use of dual-core CORTEX-A15, the operating frequency reached 1.5GHz, then its operational performance is also A5 twice times. In the graphic unit, because the IPAD3 Retina screen has been basically confirmed, so graphics performance must be greatly improved. The units that use PowerVR are naturally impossible to change, PowerVRSGX544 are also ready-made configurations, and it is possible to use PowerVR's newest SGX5XT series of graphic units. In this way, its graphics performance is also relatively A5 at least one times. Perhaps some predict that, in iphone, just add Siri and upgrade iOS5, then complete this disappointing upgrade, IPAD3 changes will not be big, after all, retina screen is enough to ensure that IPAD3 sales again high. However, we believe that the core technology is not the possibility of upgrading is very small. First, Apple has never upgraded its core technology, the processor and graphics processor, from the iphone, iphone, IPhone4, iphone, and so on, every time in a similar product upgrade. Second, although the existing computing power, to solve the day-to-day use of mobile phones have more than enough, but the mobile phone as a new intelligent terminal, the whole industry's dream is not so simple. Software developers, need to have advanced hardware platform to design related applications, in different periods of computer applications, different areas, are in this mode of development. If the a5x processor or A6 processor is not using CORTEX-A15, it will not be possible to make up for it through a six-month iphone or an ipad a year later. Third, under the CORTEX-A15, the application of mobile intelligent devices has been very clear. Wireless video, wireless imaging, and even the Kinect-like body-sensing operation, 3D output; and Apple is doing the gradual integration of OS X system and iOS system--OSX system control more like IOS,OSX application, gradually on the iOS implementation. This requires very strong processor performance. While doing so may, in the short term, sacrifice certain battery life, it is believed that it can be controlled within acceptable limits. So, here's a bold prediction, a5x[x=10? Corresponds to A15. In addition, from the personal experience of the iphone and the ipad, it is a small prediction to put forward a few hopes for iPad3. First, the IPAD3 should have a faster cache and consider introducing a Thunderbolt interface adapter to use with the Mac to improve data transfer speed. Second, Ariplay enhancements allow two or more ipads to work wirelessly. Third, the Apple is updated simultaneously with the a5x processor. Four, Siri early support Chinese ... Of course, Apple products are always surprising or unexpected before they are actually released. The above analysis and logic isIn the normal thinking of the conclusion ..., if March 7, iPad3 and this article really discrepancy, can only blame our practice is not enough. If we can really talk about the above, we should not forget to join the crowd.