New-Tech Europe Digital Magazine | Feb 2016

Introducing Cortex-A32: ARM’s smallest, lowest power ARMv8-A processor for next generation 32-bit embedded applications

Dave Kinjal, ARM Processors

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use of Cortex-A processors in embedded applications. This blog focuses on these rich-embedded applications, where a full OS is required. These are the sweet spot for Cortex-A. Two fundamental aspects make rich- embedded applications different than the traditional embedded applications using Cortex-R and Cortex-M processors. The first is rich operating system support that requires virtual memory and memory management unit. The vast majority of Cortex-A based embedded products run full virtual memory based OSes like Linux, Android, and Windows. The second aspect is higher performance. The performance needed is again very diverse, and in some cases embedded applications need

he announcement of the ARM ® Cortex ® -A35 processor

question: Why did we create the Cortex-A32?

marked the beginning of a new family of ultra high efficiency application processors from ARM. Today, ARM announced the second member of that family, the Cortex-A32, a new 32-bit processor. Highlights of the Cortex-A32 include: ARM’s smallest, lowest power ARMv8-A processor, optimized for 32- bit processing (supports the A32/T32 instruction set, and is fully compatible with ARMv7-A) Provides ultra efficient 32-bit compute for the next generation of embedded products including consumer, wearable and IoT applications. In Article, I’ll provide the market context and some highlights of the Cortex-A32 while answering the

Embedded Markets The embedded market is incredibly diverse. It covers innumerable products - almost everything that is not a phone, a PC, or a server - and spans a huge range of processing requirements. The diversity of requirements in embedded is well served by the three major processor families from ARM: Cortex-A, Cortex-R and Cortex-M. The fundamental differences between the A, R, and M families are shown next page. Much has been written about Cortex-M processors in the embedded market - they are incredibly prevelant. Less attention has been given so far to the growing

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