ARM's upcoming Cortex-A72 processor is going to be a worthy successor of the company's Cortex-A57. In addition to capturing 4K videos at a steady 120 frames per second, Cortex-A72 possesses other advantages too. Starting off, the processor is going be processed on the 16 nm FinFET architecture, meaning that it will deliver impressive performance in contrast to the total amount of power consumed by it. Furthermore, the upcoming chip is also expected to consume 75 percent less power compared to Cortex-A15 and up to 30 percent less power when pitted against Cortex-A57.
ARM will most likely be pairing Cortex-A72 with Cortex-A53 as part of the company's big.LITTLE architecture in upcoming flagship smartphones and tablets. With a barrier of processing performance unlocked, it is possible that ARM will be targeting the lower ultrabook market, which is currently being dominated by Intel and its Atom lineup of SoCs. The British chip designer will also be fabricating Cortex-A72 on the 28 nm process, and placing it in low cost chipsets such as MediaTek's MT8173, Snapdragon 618 and Snapdragon 620.
As powerful as Cortex-A72 may be, the verdict cannot immediately be given since Samsung is yet to release its custom core codenamed 'Mongoose'. Side by side, Qualcomm will be aiming to recapture the high-end mobile chipset market with its Snapdragon 820, which is said to be processed on Samsung's superior 14 nm FinFET architecture. Qualcomm is not the only firm that has been rumored to partner with the South Korean smartphone giant.
Apple has also tapped Samsung for being its primary chip supplier since TSMC cannot roll out smaller lithographic chips at a faster pace. An added benefit of Cortex-A72's reduced power consumption is that its clock speed can be increased to 2.5 GHz without going over the thermal limits. This perk is a plus point for mobile devices that are plagued with overheating issues, particularly those running Qualcomm's Snapdragon 810.
