Arm has introduced a new processor for IoT purposes. The addition expands the company’s “Total Solutions for IoT” portfolio.
Arm today introduced a new processor, the Cortex-M85, that can carry out certain computations four times faster than previous-generation silicon. Arm makes semiconductor blueprints that companies use to design chips such as CPU’s. Chips based on the firm’s blueprints power billions of devices ranging from smartphones to servers and industrial robots.
Tim Menasveta, Director, product management for Arm, detailed the new product in a blog post. “Faced with more demanding compute requirements, Cortex-M microcontroller system developers are faced with a choice: optimizing software to squeeze more processing per clock cycle from their current microcontroller, or migrate their code base to a different, higher-performing microprocessor class,” he says.
“The Cortex-M microcontroller offers many benefits, such as determinism, short interrupt latencies, and advanced low-power management modes. The choice of moving to a different microprocessor class, say a Cortex-A based microprocessor, means that some of those wanted Cortex-M benefits are forfeited.”
Delivering “unprecedented performance”
The Cortex-M85 is the first Cortex-M to deliver over 6 CoreMarks/MHz and more than 3 DMIPS/MHz. This level of scalar performance is achieved thanks to many innovative features at the microarchitecture level, Menasveta explains. It includes optimized dual issue and selective triple issue capability, improved branch prediction, and an enhanced memory system including data prefetching, among others.
By integrating Arm Helium technology, Cortex-M85 delivers multiple folds (x4) of DSP and ML processing uplift compared to its predecessor, the Cortex-M7. It also brings approximately 20% vector processing performance uplift compared to the other Helium-enabled processor, Cortex-M55.
“Again, microarchitecture innovations have boosted Cortex-M85 to these unprecedented performance levels,” he adds.
“The unprecedented performance levels offered by the Cortex-M85 offers new possibilities to microcontroller developers to develop and deploy ever more demanding use-cases on the Cortex-M, ” Menasveta says. “Developers benefit from the simple programmer’s model, processing determinism, and low-power schemes, all of which are hallmark characteristics to all Arm Cortex-M processors.”
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