ARM Cortex-A7

ARM Cortex-A7
	Mediatek MT6582V
General information
Launched	2011
Designed by	ARM Holdings
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	520 MHz to 2.3 GHz
Cache
L1 cache	8–64 KB/8–64 KB
L2 cache	Optional, up to 1 MB
Architecture and classification
Instruction set	ARMv7-A
Physical specifications
Cores	1–8;
History
Predecessor	ARM Cortex-A5
Successor	ARM Cortex-A53

The ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore is a 32-bit microprocessor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture announced in 2011.^[1]

Overview

The Cortex-A7 is used to power the popular Raspberry Pi 2 micro-computer.

It has two target applications; firstly as a smaller, simpler, and more power-efficient successor to the Cortex-A8. The other use is in the big.LITTLE architecture, combining one or more A7 cores with one or more Cortex-A15 cores into a heterogeneous system.^[2] To do this it is fully feature-compatible with the A15.

Key features of the Cortex-A7 core are:

Partial dual-issue, in-order microarchitecture with an 8-stage pipeline^[3]
NEON SIMD instruction set extension
VFPv4 Floating Point Unit
Thumb-2 instruction set encoding
Jazelle RCT
Hardware virtualization
Large Page Address Extensions (LPAE)
Integrated level 2 Cache (0–1 MB)
1.9 DMIPS / MHz^[3]
Typical clock speed 1.5 GHz^[3]

Chips

Several system-on-chips (SoC) have implemented the Cortex-A7 core, including:

Allwinner A20 (dual-core A7 + Mali-400 MP2 GPU)^[4]
Allwinner A31 (quad-core A7 + PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU)^[5]
Allwinner A83T (octa-core A7 + PowerVR SGX544 GPU)^[6]
Allwinner H3(quad-core A7 + Mali-400 MP2 GPU)^[7]
Broadcom BCM23550 quad-core HSPA+ Multimedia Processor^[8]
Broadcom BCM2836 (quad-core A7 + VideoCore IV GPU), designed specifically for Raspberry Pi 2^[9]
Broadcom BCM6846 (dual-core A7) Broadband SoC^[10]
NXP Semiconductor (Formerly Freescale) QorIQ Layerscape LS1 (dual-core A7)
Freescale i.MX 6 UltraLite
HiSilicon K3V3, big.LITTLE architecture with dual-core Cortex-A7 and dual-core Cortex-A15. Use ARM Mali-T658 GPU.
Marvell PXA1088 (quad-core A7 + Vivante GC1000)^[11]
Mediatek MT6570 (dual-core A7 + ARM Mali-400MP1 GPU)
Mediatek MT6572 (dual-core A7 + ARM Mali-400MP1 GPU)
Mediatek MT6580 (quad-core A7 + ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU)
Mediatek MT6582 (quad-core A7 + ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU)
Mediatek MT6589 (quad-core A7 + Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX544 GPU)
Mediatek MT6592 (octa-core A7 + ARM Mali-450MP4 GPU)
Mstar MSB2531A ARM Cortex A7 32bit 800MHZ
Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 and Snapdragon 400^{[broken anchor]} MSM8212 and MSM8612, MSM8226, MSM8626 and MSM8926 (quad core A7 + Adreno 305 GPU)
Samsung Exynos 5 Octa (5410), big.LITTLE architecture with quad-core Cortex-A7 and quad-core Cortex-A15. Use Imagination Technologies PowerVR SGX544MP3 GPU.
Samsung Exynos 5 Octa (5420), big.LITTLE architecture with quad-core Cortex-A7 and quad-core Cortex-A15. Use ARM Mali-T628MP6 GPU.
STMicroelectronics STM32MP13x (single-core A7)
STMicroelectronics STM32MP15x (dual-core A7 + M4 + Vivante GPU)
ASPEED AST2600 BMC (dual-core A7 + M4)

References

^ ^a ^b Ryan Whitwam (2011-10-21), ARM Cortex-A7 offers a microdot-sized glimpse into the future of mobile processors, ExtremeTech
^ "big.LITTLE Processing". ARM Holdings. Archived from the original on 2012-10-22. Retrieved 2012-10-17.
^ ^a ^b ^c Anand Lal Shimpi (2011-10-19). "ARM's Cortex A7: Bringing Cheaper Dual-Core & More Power Efficient High-End Devices". AnandTech. Retrieved 2012-10-17.
^ "AllWinner Publishes A31 and A20 Processors Details". CNXSoft. December 9, 2012. Archived from the original on December 12, 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-09.
^ "A31". Allwinner Technology. Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
^ "A83T". Allwinner Technology. Archived from the original on 2016-02-10. Retrieved 2016-02-18.
^ "H3". Allwinner. Retrieved 2016-11-04.
^ "BCM23550". Broadcom. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29.
^ Upton, Eben. "Raspberry Pi 2 on sale now at $35". Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original on 11 April 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2015.
^ Zhang, William. "arm: bcmbca: add bcm6846 SoC support".
^ "PXA1088". Marvell Technology Group. Archived from the original on 2013-05-12.

External links

ARM Holdings

Other

Cortex-A7 instruction cycle timings

[pdate-1] Ryan Whitwam (2011-10-21), ARM Cortex-A7 offers a microdot-sized glimpse into the future of mobile processors, ExtremeTech

[biglittle-2] "big.LITTLE Processing". ARM Holdings. Archived from the original on 2012-10-22. Retrieved 2012-10-17.

[anandtech-3] Anand Lal Shimpi (2011-10-19). "ARM's Cortex A7: Bringing Cheaper Dual-Core & More Power Efficient High-End Devices". AnandTech. Retrieved 2012-10-17.

[4] "AllWinner Publishes A31 and A20 Processors Details". CNXSoft. December 9, 2012. Archived from the original on December 12, 2012. Retrieved 2012-12-09.

[5] "A31". Allwinner Technology. Archived from the original on 2016-02-21. Retrieved 2016-02-18.

[6] "A83T". Allwinner Technology. Archived from the original on 2016-02-10. Retrieved 2016-02-18.

[7] "H3". Allwinner. Retrieved 2016-11-04.

[8] "BCM23550". Broadcom. Archived from the original on 2013-10-29.

[9] Upton, Eben. "Raspberry Pi 2 on sale now at $35". Raspberry Pi Foundation. Archived from the original on 11 April 2015. Retrieved 3 February 2015.

[10] Zhang, William. "arm: bcmbca: add bcm6846 SoC support".

[11] "PXA1088". Marvell Technology Group. Archived from the original on 2013-05-12.

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ARM Cortex-A7

Overview

Chips

See also

References

External links