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Future ARM big core CPUs will drop support for 32-bit apps
ARM has announced that future ARM Cortex-A series CPUs will be 64-bit only, starting from 2022, and thus dropping support for 32-bit.
In May 2020, ARM announced its 2020 CPU lineup, consisting of the ARM Cortex-A78 A-series CPU core and the new ARM Cortex-X1 core, the first coming under the Cortex-X custom CPU program. The new cores haven't made their way to any shipping devices yet - users will have to wait for early 2021 to see phones powered by the new IP. That's the way ARM announces its new products: the ARM Cortex-A77 CPU core, announced in May 2019, only made its way to shipping phones in February 2020. The ARM Cortex-A78 and the Cortex-X1 are 64-bit cores like their predecessors, but they also have hardware support for old 32-bit apps. ARM has now confirmed that this will change, though. Future ARM big cores, that includes the Cortex-A as well as the Cortex-X CPU cores, will become 64-bit only starting 2022.
ARM's Cortex-X custom CPU program may finally make Android flagship performance competitive with Apple
ARM has announced the Cortex-X Custom program (CXC). The first high-performance core under the custom program is the ARM Cortex-X1. Read on to know more!
Each year in May, UK-based ARM, owned by Japan-based Softbank, announces its new Mobile IP (intellectual property) for use in mobile devices. This IP consists of new CPU cores as well as new GPUs. ARM's instruction set is used in every smartphone in the world - it's a crucially important company. In terms of CPU core architectures, from 2021, every major mobile chip vendor of note will use ARM's stock CPU IP (as Samsung System LSI has given up on its Exynos M custom cores). That's why, it's doubly important that ARM gets things right. Now for this year, ARM has announced the ARM Cortex-A78 CPU architecture and the Mali-G78 GPU, the successors of the Cortex-A77 CPU, and the Mali-G77 GPU respectively. While these announcements were expected, what was not expected was for ARM to announce another CPU core in the form of the Cortex-X. For years, tech reviewers and users have bemoaned the fact that Apple's CPU architectures are multiple years ahead of ARM's Cortex-A series. With the Cortex-X CPU program and the Cortex-X1, this may finally change in 2021.