What are the main/important features added/updated?
Thank you.
Hello,
Cortex-A9 and Cortex-A7 are almost the same. Both are Armv7-A processors.Because Cortex-A7 is the successor of the Cortex-A9, its power efficiency became increased and has some extentions such as hardware division instruction, Large Physical Address Extensions (LPAE) and so on.Please find attached figure shows some comparisons (source: Arm).Cortex-A7 can also be used for the little core of the bug code such as Cortex-A15 or Cortex-A17 in so called big.LITTLE configuration because the bus interface became AMBA4 ACE. AXI bus interface of Cortex-A9 cannot be used for the little core.Regarding Cortex-A53, it is ARMv8-A (i.e. 64bit architecture).The instruction set is not compatible with Armv7-A although the philosophy has inherited Armv7-A.Therefore, it is definitely different from Cortex-A9 or Cortex-A7.However, AArch32 mode of Cortex-A53 can emulate the Armv7-A (i.e. Cortex-A9/7).
Best regards,
Yasuhiko Koumoto.
Notice that the Cortex-A9 is slightly quicker than the Cortex-A7, so the Cortex-A9 is still going strong.
Hello Jens,
of course, I love Cortex-A9 rather than Cortex-A7.
However, in the recent press release, some vendors hide that its product is used Cortex-A9 and say only it is used just Armv7-A processor. I wonder it is an ashamed thing to say they are using Cortex-A9.
Cortex-A7 seems to have become very famous because of Raspberry Pi2.
I think Cortex-A7 is also great processor.
I will add the performance comparison between Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A53 from the Arm site.
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