New ARM Travis cores — increase in instructions per clock cycle instead of frequency increase

Recently in the database of the Geekbench test package lit up the new MediaTek Dimensity 9500 mobile processor. It was thanks to this leak that we first saw the new high-performance ARM core codenamed Travis in action. The frequency turned out to be 3.23 GHz, not 4 GHz, as some expected. For comparison, the high-performance core in the Dimensity 9400 operates at a frequency of 3.63 GHz. It seems that the race for hertz is fading from the scene, and optimization is taking center stage.

According to the authoritative insider Digital Chat Station, the Travis core will be officially presented in September. And the main thing is not how many hertz there are, but how wisely the processor uses each clock cycle. The key indicator for the new flagship chips is IPC (the number of instructions that the processor executes in one cycle). In simple terms, a processor with twice the IPC can operate at half the frequency and achieve the same result. The reality is, of course, more complicated, but this is enough to get you started.

ARM promises «double-digit» IPC growth (in percentage terms), which will allow the Travis core to run faster and more efficiently without overheating or excessive consumption. After all, with each increase in frequency, the voltage increases, and with it — heat generation, which increases by a factor of two. So even a small reduction in hertz can significantly reduce heat and improve battery life.

Travis also supports ARM SME (Scalable Matrix Extension). This will help improve performance in artificial intelligence tasks and classical signal processing algorithms (such as image and audio processing). The SME is part of ARM’s broader strategy to modernize its computing architecture for increasingly heterogeneous workloads on mobile and edge devices.

What makes the leak even more credible is that Digital Chat Station published an image from what is likely to be an official ARM press conference, which directly confirms the features mentioned above.

In the Dimensity 9500 processor, the new Travis core works in tandem with three Alto cores (of which we still only know the name) and four Gelas cores — the successors to Cortex-A7xx. Graphics are handled by a new ARM GPU codenamed Drage, which will be launched under the Mali-G1 brand.

Even more interestingly, ARM decided to abandon the Cortex brand and split it into several «industry» directions:

• Lumex — for mobile devices;
• Niva — for PC;
• Zena — for cars;
• Neoverse — for servers;
• Orbis — for the Internet of Things.

So, ARM is rebranding itself, although it has not yet made any official statements on this matter. And we are preparing to meet the next generation of chips, which no longer chase frequencies but increase efficiency at every clock cycle.

Source: gizmochina, gsmarena