Architectures and Processors blog

As the adoption of Arm big.LITTLE processing spreads there are a number of common questions which have been raised. I'd like to use this blog to answer some of the more common queries.

At last the time has finally come when I can talk about AMBA 5 - the next generation of Arm interface standard.  So, what's new?

With the ARM Cortex-A50 series processors, ARM has introduced a "big" and "LITTLE" processor pair that is 64-bit capable. What does this mean for big.LITTLE software?

I may only weigh in at just over half a square millimeter on die, but I can handle a heavy workload and I pack quite a processing punch, and frankly I'm tired of the lack of respect I get as a "LITTLE…

Back in April, I wrote about how Atrenta - an ARM Connected Community Partner - was helping to tame the SoC design problem with early power, performance and area or ePPA technology.  ePPA holds great promise…

It's often said that as one gets older, time appears to pass faster and faster. As proof of that it seems only yesterday that I had a full head of hair and ARM launched big.LITTLE. In fact it's been…

If you've watched any sporting event on television lately, you've seen the pressure put on referees and umpires.  They have to make split-second decisions in real-time, having viewed ultra-high-speed action…

It is entirely appropriate that ARM will announce technical details of its latest hard macro product, the Cortex™-A15 MP4 Hard Macro for TSMC 28HPM node at COOL Chips XV, the IEEE Symposium on Low…

Now available design strategies and documentation to ease the migration to an ARM platform - From one programmer to another.  You could say I'm an "Acorn boy" - I cut my programming teeth on personal computers…

The Jasper User Group Meeting was held on November 8 & 9 and was full of presentations on the diverse ways that users are applying formal techniques — some in areas where never before thought possible…

Updated 29th October 2013High performance and power efficiency are critical to the latest mobile devices, and AMBA® 4 ACE™ is a fundamental technology supporting ARM's big.LITTLE proces…

At the TSMC Open Innovation Platform (OIP) forum in San Jose this week Mike Inglis, the General Manager of the Processor Division at ARM, presented a keynote speech succinctly titled "Enabling Smart System…

I've recently realized just how similar mechanical and electronic engineering are when it comes to energy conservation. You see, I've recently begun construction of an energy-efficient, Frank-Lloyd Wright…

Thank goodness for the new packetization, virtual networking and clock gating features of the ARM CoreLink NIC-400. I'm fed up with hearing about spurious comparisons between a single humungous crossbar…

If you missed DAC, then you missed the seminar on cache coherency and verification of cache coherency given by ARM and Jasper.  Learn how to overcome the typical challenges of capturing the intent, reviewing…

In the previous three blogs (Parts 1, 2 and 3) I've outlined the background and key decisions involved in the development and implementation of the Elba testchip.  Now we'll look at the final steps taken…

In part 1 of this blog, I outlined the thought process behind the Elba program. Here I'll look at the implementation decisions for the project.In ARM there are various stages of maturity of a new processor…

"Wouldn't it be interesting if we....". That's the way many step changes have started in ARM.  In the next four blogs I'd like to take this opportunity to tell you about just one of those, we called it…

The answer is functional safety applications.  At least, that's where TI's ARM® Cortex™-R cores are utilized - in high performance, real-time microcontrollers. As many real-time…

A wide variety of applications will be impacted by the massive trend which is broadly named as the "Internet of Things" (IoT). Even if some may consider this term as being overused, and newer marketing…

As usual it happened late on Friday afternoon. A couple of weeks ago a message arrived in my inbox from one of our latest ARM® Cortex™-M0+ partners: "We're using 90LP and a similar configuration…