The document discusses the ARM Cortex A15 processor. It was designed by ARM and began production in late 2011 for market in late 2012. Key features include NEON for SIMD operations, a VFPv4 floating point unit, Thumb-2 instruction encoding, and TrustZone security. Applications include smartphones, computing devices, and digital home entertainment systems.

1. By
Komal Yamgar
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2. AGEND
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INTRODUCTION
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GENERAL CONCEPT
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ARM CORTEX A15
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FEATURES
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APPLICATION
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SUMMARY
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REFERENCES
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3. ARM CORTEX A15 is in production late 2011, to market late
2012.
Designed by ARM.
The Cortex-A15 MPCore processor is the latest member of the
Cortex-A series of processors.
The ARM Cortex -A15 MP Core processor is the highestperformance licensable processor the industry has ever seen.
It delivers unprecedented processing capability, combined with
low power consumption.
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4. 4

5. ARM CORTEX A 15
ARM Cortex-A15 Core
Produced
In production late 2011, to market late 2012
Designed by
ARM
Max. CPU clock rate
1.0 GHz to 2.5 GHz
Min. feature size
32 nm/28 nm initially to 20 nm roadmap
Instruction set
ARMv7
Cores
1-4 per cluster, 1-2 clusters per physical chip
L1 cache
64 kB (32 kB I-Cache, 32 kB D-Cache) per core
L2 cache
up to 4 MB
L3 cache
None
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6. Key features of the Cortex-A15
core
•NEON
•SIMD.
•VFPv4 Floating Point Unit.
•Thumb-2 instruction set encoding reduces the size of
programs with little impact on performance.
•TrustZone security.
•Jazelle .
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7. Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD)
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Some modern software, particularly media codecs and graphics
accelerators, operate on large amounts of data that is less than wordsized.
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Generally audio applications uses 16-bit data , graphics and video uses 8bit data .
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When performing these operations on a 32-bit microprocessor, parts of
the computation units are unused, but continue to consume power.
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uses a single instruction to perform the same operation in parallel on
multiple data elements of the same type and size.
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This way, the hardware that normally adds two 32-bit values instead
performs four parallel additions of 8-bit values in the same amount of
time.

8. EXAMPLE
Instruction UADD8 R0, R1, R2.
This operation performs a parallel addition of four lanes of 8-bit elements packed
into vectors stored in general purpose registers R1 and R2, and places the result
into a vector in register R0.
4-way 8-bit unsigned integer add operation

9. NEON
NEON technology is implemented on all current ARM Cortex-A
series processors.
NEON instructions are executed as part of the ARM or Thumb
instruction stream.
This simplifies software development, debugging, and integration
compared to using an external accelerator.
Traditional ARM or Thumb instructions manage all program flow and
synchronization.
The NEON instructions perform:
• memory accesses
• data copying between NEON and general purpose registers
• data type conversion
• data processing.
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10. EXAMPLE
INSTRUCTION :-
VADD.I16 Q0, Q1, Q2
VADD.I16 Q0, Q1, Q2 instruction performs a parallel addition of eight
lanes of 16-bit elements from vectors in Q1 and Q2, storing the result in Q0.
The NEON instructions support 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, and 64-bit signed and
unsigned integers.
8-way 16-bit integer add operation.
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11. TrustZone security
It enbles system-wide security by integrating protective measures into
the ARM processor and system peripheral IP.
This ensure that the sensitive data remains safe.
ARM Jazelle Technology
Jazelle technology accelerates mobile phone Java applications and increases
battery life.
NewJazelle technology to dramatically reduce application memory footprint
Increases performance and power saving in a wide range of applications
including
• Mobile phones
• Consumer devices.
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12. APPLICATIONS
Smartphone and Computing
Usage range:
•1 GHz – 1.5 GHz single or dual-core configurations
Device characteristics:
•Elastic performance:
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Instant web-browsing, high-bandwidth operation
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Increasing media and floating-point performance
•Optimum power:
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Extended low-power range and better battery life
•Richer experience:
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Console-quality gaming, navigation applications
Digital Home Entertainment
Usage range:
•1 GHz – 2 GHz dual-core or quad-core configurations
Device characteristics:
• High-end performance:
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General-purpose and media performance .
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Intensive streaming,
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Media and graphics and compute workloads.
•Larger physical memory:
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Larger than 4GB of memory attached
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13. Samsung outs a dual-core ARM Cortex A15 chip with
2560x1600 display support
The block diagram for Samsung's new Exynos 5 Dual SoC
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14. SUMMARY
The Cortex-A15 extends the application processor family with Dramatic
increase in single-thread and overall performance.Compelling new features,
functionality enable exciting OEM products Scalability for large-scale computing
and system-on-chip integration Cortex-A15 has strong momentum in mobile
market.
ARM Cortex-A family provides broadest range of processors .utra-low cost
smartphonesthrough to tablets and beyondFull upward software and feature-set
compatibility Address cloud computing challenges from end to end.
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15. REFERENCES
RESEARCH PAPERS
[1] Cortex™-A15 Revision: r2p0 Technical Reference Manual.
[2] W H I T E P A P E R Brian Carlson OMAP 5 Product Line Manager
Member of Group Technical Staff (MGTS) Wireless business unit. © 2011
Texas Instruments Incorporated.
[3] W H I T E P A P E R ‘ARM NEON support in the ARM’
REFERENCE BOOKS
[4] Embedded Real Time System: Concepts , Design & Programming,
Dr.K.VK.K.Prasad,Dreamtech Publication.
WEBSITE
[5] WWW.ARM.COM
[6]www.google.com
[7] www.wikipedia.com
[8] New Samsung Cortex A15-based chip opens door to “Retina” Android
tablets _ Ars Technica.htm
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