In order to target the mid-range smartphone and tablet segment with pricing around $200, ARM has announced its Cortex-A17 processor core on Tuesday.
Cortex-A17, which ARM claims to be 60 percent faster and more power efficient than the company’s own aging Cortex-A9 processor, will make smartphones and tablets work quicker while offering longer battery life. The chips will run at a clock speed of more than 1.5GHz.
The Cortex-A17 will support the 28-nanometer manufacturing process employed by the top two contract chip manufacturers TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.) and GlobalFoundries.
According to ARM Mobile devices running on Cortex-A17 processor will hit the market sometime next year and processor maker expects to ship over 340 million midrange smartphones and over 100 million tablets in the segment.
The first smartphones and tablets equipped with A17 can be expected in the second half of 2015 as processors typically take between 18 and 24 months to reach mobile devices.
ARM Cortex-A9 based processors based on company’s six years old technology can still be found in some of the devices. The Cortex-A15 processor core, introduced three years ago, didn’t garner enough success is being used in only a few devices including Samsung’s Galaxy S4. A17, according to ARM, will fill the void left by the aging A9.
