ARM Cortex-A9

ARM Cortex-A9

Many SoCs, including this MediaTek 6575, integrate the Cortex-A9 to serve as their primary CPU
General information
Launched	2007
Designed by	ARM Holdings
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	2 GHz (typical) 3.1 GHz (proof-of-concept)
Physical specifications
Cores	1–4
Cache
L1 cache	32 KB I, 32 KB D
L2 cache	128 KB–8 MB (configurable with L2sr1 cache controller)
Architecture and classification
Instruction set	ARMv7-A
History
Predecessor	ARM Cortex-A8
Successor	ARM Cortex-A12

The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set. It was introduced in 2007.

Features

Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:

• Out-of-order speculative issue superscalar execution 8-stage pipeline giving 8.50 DMIPS/MHz/core.
• NEON SIMD instruction set extension performing up to 16 operations per instruction (optional).
• High performance VFPv3 floating point unit doubling the performance of previous ARM FPUs (optional).
• Thumb-2 instruction set encoding reduces the size of programs with little impact on performance.
• TrustZone security extensions.
• Jazelle DBX support for Java execution.
• Jazelle RCT for JIT compilation.
• Program Trace Macrocell and CoreSight Design Kit for non-intrusive tracing of instruction execution.
• L2 cache controller (0–4 MB).
• Multi-core processing.

ARM states that the TSMC 40G hard macro implementation typically operates at 2 GHz; a single core (excluding caches) occupies less than 1.5 mm² when designed for a 65 nanometer (nm) generic process and can be clocked at speeds over 1 GHz, consuming less than 250 mW per core. Without the limit of power consumption, the A9 can reach 3.1 GHz, on a proof-of-concept 28 nm chip.

Chips

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Several system on a chip (SoC) devices implement the Cortex-A9 core, including:

• Altera SoC FPGA
• AMLogic AML8726-M
• Apple A5, A5X
• Broadcom BCM11311 (Persona ICE)
• Calxeda EnergyCore ECX-1000
• Entropic EN7588, EN7530
• NXP Semiconductors (Formerly Freescale) QorIQ Layerscape LS1024A
• Freescale Semiconductor i.MX6
• HiSilicon K3V2 -Hi3620
• MediaTek MT6575 (single core), MT6577 (dual core)
• Mindspeed Technologies Mindspeed Comcerto 2000
• Nufront NuSmart 2816, 2816M, 115
• Nvidia Tegra 2 (without NEON extensions), Tegra 3 and Tegra 4i
• Trident Microsystems 847x/8x/9x SoC family
• Renesas Electronics RZ/A1H, M, L, LU Family
• Samsung Exynos 4210, 4212, 4412, 4415
• Rockchip RK3066, RK292x, RK31xx
• STMicroelectronics SPEAr1310, SPEAr1340
• ST-Ericsson Nova A9500, NovaThor U8500, NovaThor U9500
• Texas Instruments OMAP4 processors
• Texas Instruments Sitara AM437x
• WonderMedia WM8850, WM8950 and WM8980
• Xilinx Extensible Processing Platform
• ZiiLABS ZMS-20

Systems on a chip

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (January 2012)

Developer	Name	Cores	Process	NEON SIMD	Vector floating point unit	GPU
Altera	SoC FPGA	1–2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Optional, implemented via FPGA
Ambarella Inc.	S3L	1	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	—
AMLogic	AML8726-M	1	65 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
AMLogic	AML8726-MX	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP2
AMLogic	AML8726-M8	4	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-450 MP6
Apple Inc.	A5	2	32 nm 45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX543MP2
Apple Inc.	A5X	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX543MP4
Broadcom	BCM11311 (Persona ICE)	2	40 nm	?	?	Broadcom Videocore IV
Broadcom	BCM21654	1	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Broadcom Videocore IV
Broadcom	BCM21664T	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Broadcom Videocore IV
Calxeda	EnergyCore ECX-1000	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	—
ELVEES Multicore	1892VM14Ya	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-300
Freescale Semiconductor	i.MX6	1–4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3-D32	Vivante Corporation GPU IP cores
HiSilicon	K3V2 (Hi3620)	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Vivante GC4000
Intel	Cyclone V	1–2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	—
LG Corp	LG L9	2	?	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Marvell	ARMADA 38x	1–2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	—
Marvell	PXA986	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX540 / Vivante GC1000 (Galaxy Tab 3 7-inch)
Marvell	PXA988	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Vivante GC1000
MediaTek	MT6575	1	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX531
MediaTek	MT6577	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX531
Mindspeed Technologies	Comcerto 2000	2	?	Yes	?	—
Nufront	NuSmartTM 2816(NS2816)	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Nufront	NuSmartTM 2816M (NS2816M)	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Nufront	NuSmartTM 115 (NS115)	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Nvidia	Tegra 2 series	2	40 nm	No	VFPv3-D16	GeForce ULP
Nvidia	Tegra 3 (Kal-El) series	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	GeForce ULP
Renesas Electronics		?	?	?	?	—
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1H	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 10MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1M	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 5MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1L	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 3MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1LU	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	RZ/A1L plus Ethernet AVB support and a JPEG codec unit, 3MByte RAM SoC
Rockchip	RK2928	1	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400
Rockchip	RK3066	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Rockchip	RK3128	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Rockchip	RK3188	4	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Dual (4210)	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Dual (4212)	2	32 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Quad (4412)	4	32 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Quad (4415)	4	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
STMicroelectronics	SPEAr1310	?	?	No	VFPv3	—
STMicroelectronics	SPEAr1340	2	?	No	VFPv3-D16	ARM Mali-200
ST-Ericsson	Nova A9500	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
ST-Ericsson	NovaThor U8500	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
ST-Ericsson	NovaThor U9500	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Sony	PlayStation Vita	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX543MP4+
Texas Instruments	Sitara AM437x	1	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	SGX530 Graphics Engine
Texas Instruments	OMAP4430 OMAP4460	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX540
Texas Instruments	OMAP4470	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX544
Trident Microsystems	PNX8473	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
Trident Microsystems	PNX8483	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
Trident Microsystems	PNX8491	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
WonderMedia	WM8850	1	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
WonderMedia	WM8880	2	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP2
WonderMedia	WM8950	1	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400
WonderMedia	WM8980	2	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP2
Xilinx	Zynq-7000	2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	—
ZiiLABS	ZMS-20	?	?	Yes	VFPv3	ZiiLABS flexible Stemcell media processing

See also

• ARM architecture
• List of ARM cores
• List of applications of ARM cores
• Comparison of ARMv8-A cores
• JTAG

References

External links

ARM Holdings

• Official website
• ARM Cortex-A9 Technical Reference Manuals

Other

• White paper - The ARM Cortex-A9 Processors
• RISC vs. CISC in the mobile era
• TI OMAP4440 specs^{[link removed]}
• STMicroelectronics SPEAr1310 Data brief
• RM Cortex-A9
• Popular ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore & Multi-core processor videos, YouTube.
• ARM Assembly language