What you need to know
- The Total Compute Solution package uses three new Cortex core designs
- The Immortalis-G720 GPU offers 15% better performance while using 40% less memory bandwidth
- The Cortex-X4 also boasts a 15% performance increase while using 40% less power that its predecessor.
Arm, the company that designs the base for every smartphone chip manufactured today, has announced its new lineup at Computex. As we see every year, the focus is all about being better and faster while using less power to do it.
First up is the new DSU-120 and the Cortex cores that drive it. A DSU (DynamIQ Shared Unit) "integrates one or more cores with an L3 memory system, control logic, and external interfaces to form a multicore cluster" meaning it's essentially the heart of a multi-core Arm-based System on Chip.
This year we get to see three new core designs running the gamut from ultra-powerful to designs that conserve battery.
The heavy hitter is the Cortex-X4. It's designed to be used for the most demanding tasks and has the power to offer fast and precise computation when you need it. In 2023's design, the Cortex-X4 is 15% more powerful than last year's model while using a whopping 40% less power.
Arm also introduced the Cortex-A720 design, which can power through computing that demands it but doesn't require the horsepower of the Cortex-X4. It's balanced for performance and efficiency and should deliver comparable performance to the current 7 series design while being 20% more efficient.
Finally, the new Cortex-A520 is there when you don't require high-demand computing but still want a precise and efficient chip to perform the everyday tasks of keeping your phone up and running. It also compares to the current 5 series on the performance side while being 22% more power efficient.
You don't need to know or care about the low-level specifications here to learn how your next phone will benefit from this. Most phone chips use a design with multiple computing cores of varying power that jump into the mix when needed to keep everything running smoothly. Arm's new DSU-120 is precisely that — big cores for heavy loads, and small cores to handle typical tasks. This is set in an arrangement that offers the best battery life possible.
The other part of the Total Compute Solution package is the new Immortalis-G720 GPU.
Arm's 5th generation GPU architecture is the most efficient ever offered by Arm and brings 14% better performance than the previous model as well as a 14% improvement when it comes to power use. this means it's not only stronger than the Immortalis-G715 we see in chips like MediaTek's Dimensity 9200 but it does it while using less of your battery.
The new Immortalis-G720 also delivers ray tracing and real-time 3D, and the new 2023 design supports deferred shading to further optimize demanding visuals on the screen we use most of the time.
There are more technical details of course and Arm is especially excited about the scalability of the new core designs. For all the details you can read the whitepapers provided by Arm. For most of us, there is only one thing to know — Arm is driving innovation to make sure their designs are ready for whatever the future has to offer.
