big.LITTLE design, Cortex-A7 pioneered by ARM

Britain based ARM is responsible for the designs of the majority of smartphone processors in the market. Its blueprints are used by manufacturers ranging from Qualcomm and Texas Instruments to LG Electronics and Freescale Semiconductors.

ARM’s latest offering, the Cortex-A7 processor, is a step ahead of its predecessor the Cortex-A8. It is being hailed as the most energy efficient application class chip the company has ever built. At one fifth the size of the popular Cortex-A8, the Cortex-A7 offers five times its energy efficiency. Currently, the Cortex-A8 is the most commonly found chip in the smartphone arena.

The inexpensive 28-nanometer Cortex-A7 chip will make systems work faster and better in low end smartphones as early as 2013. In fact, its performance will be comparable to that of the processors that power high end phones. This will open up new opportunities for smartphone manufacturers looking to enter developing markets like Africa and Asia.

ARM’s next crowning glory might be its big.LITTLE architecture. The new system addresses users’ demands for longer battery life and better performance on one hand and lower power consumption on the other. 

With big.LITTLE, the Cortex A-7 and Cortex-A15 will work simultaneously and interchangeably on the same device. The Cortex-A7 will be used for lighter tasks like calls and social networking and the Cortex-A15 will be used for more complex tasks like navigation and gaming. A power management software will distribute tasks between the processors intelligently and seamlessly.

If ARM’s recent developments are anything to go by, smartphones are going to get faster, stronger and more powerful with time. When the Cortex-A7 and big.LITTLE come into play, the world will have thousands of high performance, energy efficient devices to choose from. Come 2013, the competition is set to heat up like never before.