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Arm is the leading force in microprocessor technology for mobile phones, providing a wide variety of cores to meet the performance, power, and cost requirements of many application areas. It has just announced the latest TCS23 mobile computing with Cortex-X4, A720, and A520 clusters at the ongoing Computex 2023.

Arm TCS23 Compute Clusters

It’s essential to understand the latest Cortex-X4, A720, and A520’s lineage in order to fully comprehend its features and capabilities. Each successive Cortex-X family member has further improved CPU efficiency and performance while working in a low-power range. The latest Cortex cores also continue this pattern. The Cortex-X4 is the high-performance core, the Cortex-A720 is responsible for mid-range operations, and the Cortex-A520 is responsible for power efficiency.

Cortex-X4

The Cortex-X4, ARM’s fastest CPU core, provides an impressive performance boost over last year’s Cortex X3. It outperforms the competition by 15% while using the same amount of energy. Added to that, the Cortex-X4 offers a significant 40% reduction in power utilization for the same level of performance. It has a clock frequency of 3.4 GHz.

Cortex-A720

The Cortex-A720 aims to be even more efficient than its predecessors, the A715 and A710 cores. It improves efficiency by 20% over the A715, which was already 20% more efficient than the A710. They can efficiently address complicated tasks which require processing numerous threads simultaneously while using five A720 cores. The A720 has a clock speed that ranges from 2.5 to 3 GHz.

Cortex-A520

The Cortex-A520 saves space in the die by allowing two cores to share execution units. A further important objective was to reduce power usage, ultimately resulting in the A520 being 22% more efficient than the A510. This core is not meant for resource-heavy tasks but for routine background tasks. They have clock speeds ranging from 1.5 GHz to 2.0 GHz.

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In actual usage, the Cortex-A520 is unable to show the same significant advancement over prior generations as the A720 and X4. Its capabilities at lower power levels are comparable to the A510.

Arm designed TCS23 to interact with the Android Virtualization Framework (AVF), which was introduced with Android 13. This framework enables the isolation of Android applications in separate sandboxes. It’s worth noting that Arm doesn’t make its own chips, instead, future silicon (produced by Arm’s licensees) will include TCS23. According to Rosinger, Arm expects some TCS23-enabled products to be ready in the market shortly afterward.

Performance and Efficiency of Cortex

Arm clients can modify the chipsets to meet their individual needs and power requirements. While the standard configuration consists of one Cortex-X4, three A720s, and four A520s cores, some may choose a different arrangement, such as 1+5+2. This decision is influenced by expected workloads and power limits. A new chipset with Cortex-X4, A720, and A520 cores in a 1+5+2 configuration achieves a 27% performance gain on Geekbench 6’s multi-threaded test. This is an improvement over the present combination of Cortex-X3, A716, and A510 CPUs (1+3+4) running at the same frequency and storage. It’s worth noting that these performance gains are achieved before taking into account the benefits of a new chip’s technological advancements.

It is crucial to note that the Cortex-X4, A720, and A520 cores do not support the prior 32-bit ARM instruction set. ARM specifically designs them for the ARMv9 instruction set. However, the Cortex-A710 core is available for firms that still require a 32-bit function.

• Meanwhile, check out our comparison between Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, A16 Bionic and Dimensity 9200.

Along with the release of new generation processor cores, Cortex-X4, A720, and A520, Arm has also unveiled its 5th generation GPUs namely, Immortalis G720, Mali G720, and Mali G620 – as its most awaited computing solutions for 2023.  This time around, Arm has brought up Deferred Vertex Shading, or DVS for the enhancement in bandwidth and power efficiency of GPU, complementing its already achieved features such as Variable Rate Shading and ray tracing.

Differences in Immortalis and Mali GPUs

At present, there are minimal distinctions between Immortalis and Mali. GPUs marketed as Immortalis in Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) chipsets must include a ray-tracing unit, whereas the Mali GPU has the option to include or exclude it.

Also, Immortalis G720 can be configured with up to 16 cores with 10 being the minimum, while the Mali G720 can have between 6 and 9 cores. The more budget-friendly Mali G620 has more limited cores support of only 5.

Improvements in Immortalis G720 GPU

The Immortalis G720 stands out as the best GPU from Arm to date, offering exceptional performance, advanced features, and an efficient design.

It features new technology, as mentioned before, Deferred Vertex Shading, that effectively reduces memory access. Arm emphasizes that memory access accounts for approximately one-third of power consumption in high-end gaming. By minimizing the need for memory access, DVS achieves energy savings, prevents chip overheating, eliminates thermal limitations, and ultimately enhances performance.

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The Deferred Vertex Shading Technology

This feature allows the GPU to prioritize and process the shading of vertices at a later stage called fragment shading. It allows significant advantages in terms of performance and efficiency. Using deferring vertex shading, the rendering pipeline avoids storing intermediate data in memory, reducing bandwidth usage and improving overall performance.

The DVS technology is built directly into the new Arm GPU, meaning developers do not need to make any specific adjustments to incorporate its usage. It also provides a greater advantage in ray tracing capabilities of the GPU.

While there is no idea which chipmakers will adopt the Immortalis G720 architecture, it sure is made for flagship devices. Owing to last year’s Immortalis G715 performance, the new generation GPU that has more improved technology is sure to give a bang.

Other Improvements

In addition to its optimized memory access, the Immortalis G720 showcases a 15% improvement in performance per watt, an equal rate of improvement in peak performance, and a boost in frame rate.

Arm has also added a 2x MSAA module, refining the GPU’s ability to handle the anti-aliasing of graphics. The command stream front-end (CSF), responsible for scheduling, has received enhancements with extra working registers for streaming processing.

• Meanwhile, check out our comparison between Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, A16 Bionic, and Dimensity 9200.