Alongside its Mali G71 GPU design, ARM is also introducing the ARM Cortex A73, a new CPU core design to be used for premium SoC designs in 2017. At the core of this new design is the continuous drive to obtain higher performance per Watt, and a higher absolute peak performance.
With frequencies reaching 2.8GHz, ARM claims that it can add ~30% higher performance*, and sustain that performance better, given the same thermal constraints. That’s because the Cortex A73 has a 30% better power efficiency* (performance per watt) as well. ARM’s customers should build the A73 using a 10nm semiconductor process which yields a tiny 0.65 square millimeter per core. (* compared to a Cortex A72 in 16nm.)
Sustained performance has been a design goal for the Cortex A73. ARM says that there is now virtually no difference between sustained performance and peak performance. Typically, performance can reach a peak, but when the chip gets hot, it needs to be reduced to sustain the activity without overheating. In the past, a core design such as the Cortex A57 could see a difference of ~20% between the two. A72 reduced that a little but A73 nearly eliminates it.
Cortex 73 based designs will most likely also feature the ARM Mali G71 GPU with which it will share some high-speed memory buffers to increase performance during data exchanges between the two.
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