ARM has announced three new upcoming processors for the coming year. The Cortex-A75, Cortex-A55, and MALI-G72 are designed to power the current push for artificial intelligence and machine learning. ARM is also using its new processors in the big.LITTLE configuration for asymmetric pairings.
The Cortex-A75 is 20 percent more powerful than the Cortex-A73; although it appears to draw roughly the same amount of power. It’s designed to be the high performance core of the big.LITTLE pairing, with the Cortex-A55 intended as the more general purpose CPU.
These CPU cores are intended to further ARM’s vision of ‘edge’ computing. Which puts most of the processing for AI and machine learning on the devices themselves. According to the company, it’s studies show that customers are still wary of being able to secure cloud based AI processing. Thus, it is critical that ARM provide the option for device level machine learning.
Machine learning is not only handled in the CPUs, but is often also processed in the GPU which is better suited for linear calculations. The new MALI-G72 is designed with this in mind, and is built using new advancements with the Bifrost architecture. It’s 40 percent better at handling graphics, which is aimed at virtual reality and mobile gaming. On the other hand, other improvements also make it 17 percent more efficient at machine learning.
None of these cores are set to appear this year. ARM is currently working with manufacturing partners to get production going, and it expects to see the first devices appear in early 2018.
