Analysis: BDTI releases ARM Cortex-A8 benchmarks

May 30, 2007 -- dspdesignline.com

BDTI has released independent benchmark results for the Cortex-A8, ARM's highest-performance processor core, on the BDTI DSP Kernel Benchmarks™ and the BDTI Video Encoder and Decoder Benchmarks™. The results indicate that the Cortex-A8 is significantly faster than its predecessor, the ARM1176, giving it considerable horsepower for its targeted applications. Initially, the Cortex-A8 is being used in chips for high-performance cellular handsets; it also targets set-top boxes, printers, and automotive infotainment applications.

Due to the cost- and energy-sensitive nature of cellular handsets, the Cortex-A8 is intended to be implemented using either the typical logic synthesis methodology (commonly used with licensable processor cores) or a semi-custom design style. Initial licensees creating highly optimized implementations of the Cortex-A8 are using hand-crafted library cells and other physical-level optimizations (as Texas Instruments has done with its OMAP3430 chip) for improvements in both frequency and power over traditional synthesis methodologies. For this reason, BDTI's benchmark results for the ARM Cortex-A8 do not include clock speed, silicon area, and power consumption data based on BDTI's standardized conditions for processor cores, and caution should be used in interpreting the Cortex-A8 benchmark results and in comparing the Cortex-A8 to other BDTI-benchmarked cores. (All other BDTI benchmark results for licensable processor cores assume a TSMC CL013G process with ARM Artisan Sage-X library and worst-case temperature, process, and voltage variations.)

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