ARM announced today the Cortex A17 processor flavour and Mediatek already rushed to debut a new octa core CPU based on this technology, as we’ve written here. But let’s discuss more about this future ARM endeavour and when exactly it will turn into a commercial product.
The new Cortex-A17 is destined for mobile devices in the midrange to high end market, including tablets and smartphones, but it’s also meant for Smart TVs and other machines. This is a 28 nm A17 chip with big.LITTLE architecture, the one that Samsung employs for its latest octa core processors from the Exynos series.
The A17 brings a 60% boost in performance compared to the Cortex A9, that was so used on modern slates and phones. It’s also paired with a Mali-T720 GPU, offering OpenGL ES 3.0 support and optimizations for lower end Android devices. ARM didn’t mention a time frame for the release, but expects a big push of the new product in 2015. Meanwhile MediaTek sees the first tablets and phones with this CPU launched in the second half of the year.
