Arm unveils new AI-optimised chip designs for smartphones
Promises faster speeds and improved efficiency
Chip designer Arm Holdings on Wednesday unveiled new designs for central processing units (CPUs) and graphics processing units (GPUs) specifically optimised for handling AI workloads on smartphones.
The hardware designs are accompanied with software tools designed to simplify the process for developers creating AI applications for Arm-based chips.
Arm says this will make it easier to run chatbots and other AI code on smartphones powered by Arm technology.
In a major shift, Arm is now offering blueprints that are closer to final manufacturing designs. Previously, Arm provided more abstract specifications that required chipmakers to translate them into physical blueprints - a complex and time-consuming process.
By collaborating with industry giants Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Arm has created pre-designed blueprints ready for production, potentially speeding up the time it takes for new AI-enabled smartphones to reach consumers.
Chris Bergey, senior vice president and general manager of Arm's client line of business, said the company is not trying to compete with customers. Instead Arm wants to empower its customers to get their products to market faster by taking care of the groundwork.
Arm's says its newest offerings promise significant performance gains.
The centrepiece of the announcement was the Cortex-X925, Arm's new flagship CPU core. The company claims this design delivers the largest speed increase in their Cortex product line's history.
Benchmarks show the Cortex-X925 running single-threaded applications 36% faster than its predecessor, while AI performance receives a 25% boost. This translates to smoother multitasking, faster app loading times, and enhanced experiences with AI-powered features on mobile devices, according to Arm.
Alongside Cortex-X925, the company has also introduced two lower-tier core designs. The mid-range Cortex-A725 prioritises efficiency, offering a 25% improvement in power consumption compared to the previous generation.
The entry-level Cortex-A520 follows suit, boasting a 15% efficiency gain.
Cortex-X925, Cortex-A725 and Cortex-A520 can be manufactured using a 3nm process.
Another highlight of Arm's announcement is the 14-core Immortalis-G925, Arm's next-generation mobile GPU. This third-generation ray tracing GPU boasts a 52% performance improvement over its predecessor, the Immortalis-G720, according to Arm.
The company highlights the benefits of the Immortalis-G925 for video playback, claiming a 10% improvement in video efficiency on Android platforms like YouTube.
The Immortalis-G925 isn't a standalone product as Arm has also introduced two additional GPU designs alongside it.
The Mali-G725 caters to high-end smartphones, offering a blueprint for GPUs with up to nine cores. For entry-level phones and smartwatches, Arm provides the Mali-G625, which can be configured with up to five cores.
Beyond processors, Arm also announced the Kleidi software libraries, offering chipset manufacturers a toolkit of AI and computer vision tools to integrate with Arm processors.
In addition, Arm is expanding its efforts to bring more Windows applications to its processors natively. This time, popular apps like Spotify, Chrome and Audacity are in the list.