ST-Ericsson and ARM demonstrate first multi-core chip technology for mobile devices

ST-Ericsson and ARM announced today that they will demonstrate at this GSMA Mobile World Congress 2009, in Barcelona, ​​the first mobile platform Symmetric Multi Processing (SMP), enabling the arrival of chips multi-core on portable devices. They will be ARM's first 32 nanometers for smartphones and netbooks.

The revolution based on ARM's Cortex-A9 multi-core processor, which represents a giant leap from other generations of processor architectures to basebands/ applications, thus providing levels of performance and efficiency from outside never recorded before.

ARM Cortex-A9 MP Core

A demonstration model will be presented at a private event by ST-Ericsson, running, on occasion, the Symbian OS. According to a company representative, the use of processors multi-core improve performance real-time on mobile devices, aiming at a greatly improved user experience.

The big question is that the same Cortex-A9 processor can be used as a CPU in the next generation of the iPhone. We even talked about the possibility of the device coming with a four-core chip; now, it remains to be seen whether ARM will be able to get the processors ready in time, as the initial schedule was for a launch in late 2009, perhaps only early 2010. Apple has been investing heavily in ARM chip design and development since acquired PA Semi.

On the same occasion, ARM spoke about a low-cost processor technology planned for 2011, code-named “Sparrow”. It shares the same set of instructions as the current Cortex-A8, the chip used in the Palm Pre. With a power similar to that of the ARM11 chip (used in the iPhone and other smartphones), its biggest differential can be used in configurations multi-core, to multiply performance.

"When devices like Sparrow start appearing in 2011, the A8 and even the most powerful A9 chips will be widespread," said Laurence Bryant, ARM's mobile marketing manager.