ARM has introduced a new addition to its Cortex CPU lineup. Dubbed the Cortex-A32, the CPU is mainly aimed at low-power portable devices such as smartwatches and even the Raspberry Pi.
Interestingly, the Cortex-A32 would be ARM’s first CPU with ARMv8 instruction to not feature 64-bit support. Instead, the Cortex-A32 would only have 32-bit support; hence, the “32” suffix. In addition to that, the Cortex-A32 boasts a 25% increase in terms of efficiency when compared against the already ageing Cortex-A7 CPU.
Despite this, the Cortex-A32 is still only a 32-bit CPU, which means that it cannot handle complicated instructions that 64-bit CPUs are capable of. This means that the Cortex-A32 would instead be suitable for smartwatches and the Internet of Things…things, since they usually do not require the need to perform complex instructions.
The ARM Cortex-A32 is so power efficient that according to the company, the single-core version of the Cortex-A32 CPU is said to consume merely 4mW of power, while the quad-core variant consumes around 300mW of power instead.
These kinds of improvements may benefit consumers in terms of longer battery life without sacrificing performance. In fact, there are rumours floating around saying that upcoming Android Wear devices could feature this Cortex-A32 CPU architecture to allow for better battery life and features.
(Source: Ars Technica , PCWorld)
