ARM's current flagship processor, the Cortex A-57, will have a new successor in the year 2016. The chip designing company is currently working on releasing its Cortex-A72 CPU to be incorporated in to smartphones and tablets. From the information that has been gathered so far, the upcoming chip is nothing short of impressive. Starting off, the CPU has been confirmed to be processed on the 16 nm FinFET architecture, resulting in higher energy efficiency and earth shattering performance.
Additionally, ARM has stated that the Cortex-A72 will be three and a half times faster than the Cortex-A15 CPU and in terms of energy efficiency, the processor will display 75 percent better results when stressed under the same processes as the Cortex-A15. However, the biggest perk of having a Cortex-A72 present in a mobile device will be the capability of recording 4K resolution videos at a frame rate of 120 FPS from the smartphone's camera sensor.
The Cortex-A72's peak frequency can reach up to a speed of 2.5 GHz when required, which is sufficient to record videos boasting the resolution of 3840 by 2160 pixels. In addition, ARM's big.LITTLE technology will also be aiding smartphone and tablets users to record high end videos with relative ease. The company's big.LITTLE configuration allows the pairing of one high end processor with a lesser performing one. The higher performing chip will be able to handle the more intensive applications while the lower performing one can address the secondary functions of the platform.
The powerful octa-core processor combo will make it ideal to capture 4K videos as well as balance out performance and energy efficiency inside the chassis of the smartphone. ARM has currently not detailed an exact release date on when the Cortex-A72 will be arriving but it is expected that the first iterations of these processors will be present in smartphones and tablets during the 1<sup>st quarter of 2016.
