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I am very new to ARM, still understanding the terminologies. What is the difference b/w the Cortex family and the x-gene?

Where can i get a list of all these family of ARM processors and their differences

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  • Well first of all you've got the instruction set architecture (ISA) as described in that link at infocentre.arm.com. They have 3 different levels A, R and M for different markets, and different versions through time, the latest in general use is ARMv7 and ARMv8 is the latest and greatest with a new 64 bit architecture for the A series.

    ARM licences designs for different cores like the ARM Cortex-M3 or ARM Cortex-A53 which manufacturers can integrate into their own chips. It also licences the instruction sets so companies like Apple or Applied Micro can design their own cores. The ARM cores are the Cortex family. The ones in Apples latest iPhones are from its own Cyclone design, and Applied Micro have designed the X-Gene ones, both are designed to support the ARMv8-A architecture. Designing something like the X-Gene is much more difficult than buying a ready made Cortex design from ARM but they believe they can make something better for their own markets. ARM designs tend to aim more at the mass market and be easy to move to different processes rather than optimizing for a particular job.

    This glossary may help with terms when you get into it more, it doesn't include basic things like ISA and IP (Intellectual property) or Cortex I'm afraid

    ARM Information Center - Glossary

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  • Well first of all you've got the instruction set architecture (ISA) as described in that link at infocentre.arm.com. They have 3 different levels A, R and M for different markets, and different versions through time, the latest in general use is ARMv7 and ARMv8 is the latest and greatest with a new 64 bit architecture for the A series.

    ARM licences designs for different cores like the ARM Cortex-M3 or ARM Cortex-A53 which manufacturers can integrate into their own chips. It also licences the instruction sets so companies like Apple or Applied Micro can design their own cores. The ARM cores are the Cortex family. The ones in Apples latest iPhones are from its own Cyclone design, and Applied Micro have designed the X-Gene ones, both are designed to support the ARMv8-A architecture. Designing something like the X-Gene is much more difficult than buying a ready made Cortex design from ARM but they believe they can make something better for their own markets. ARM designs tend to aim more at the mass market and be easy to move to different processes rather than optimizing for a particular job.

    This glossary may help with terms when you get into it more, it doesn't include basic things like ISA and IP (Intellectual property) or Cortex I'm afraid

    ARM Information Center - Glossary

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