75 % reduction in energy use.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Chip maker ARM revealed a new processor on Tuesday aimed at smartphones and tablets launching next year. The company, whose designs are built into over 95 percent of all smartphones, claims the new processor is capable of speeds 3.5 faster than anything available in 2014.
Besides offering a vast increase in computing power, the new chip design also provides a 75 percent reduction in energy use, helping reduce battery drain significantly.
Nandan Nayampally, ARM’s vice-president of marketing, told Reuters with the Cortex-A72’s increased horsepower, smartphones and tablets would be able to handle “complex computing like voice analysis without having to connect to the internet.”
Currently, many computationally intensive tasks are handled remotely in sprawling data centers managed by companies such as Google, Facebook, and Amazon instead of by a smartphone’s processor, with results then being sent back to the device.
However, according to Nayampally, those days may soon be resigned to the past.
“There’s more than enough performance on tap [for] increasing complexity on the local device,” he stated.
The Coretex-A72 arrives during a period of shifting paradigms within the smartphone sector. Recently the industry has had to acknowledge waning demand and general ambivalence towards advances in smartphone tech, as opposed to the massive boom the industry witnessed after the advent of the iPhone in 2007.
Furthermore, current trends have ARM’s investors anxious about lower royalty rates as growth in the smartphone market shifts to China, where consumers typically buy handsets priced at $200 or less, compared to over $600 in the United States, according to Reuters.
ARM operates on a business model that is based on licensing processor technology as opposed to manufacturing its own chips. The Cambridge, England-based company generates revenue by collecting royalties on the chips shipped by their clients, which include Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm.
Ten companies have already licensed the brand new technology, with new devices made with the chip technology likely to ship in early 2016.