ARM Cortex-A15

The ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture. It is a multicore processor with out-of-order superscalar pipeline running at up to 2.5 GHz.^[6]

ARM Cortex-A15

General information
Launched	In production late 2011,[1] to market late 2012[2]
Designed by	ARM Holdings
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	1.0 GHz  to 2.5 GHz
Cache
L1 cache	64 KB (32 KB I-cache, 32 KB D-cache) per core
L2 cache	Up to 4 MB[3] per cluster
L3 cache	none
Architecture and classification
Technology node	32 nm/28 nm initially[4] to 22 nm roadmap[4]
Instruction set	ARMv7-A
Physical specifications
Cores	1–4 per cluster, 1–2 clusters per physical chip[5]

Overview

Main article: Comparison of ARMv7-A cores

ARM has claimed that the Cortex-A15 core is 40 percent more powerful than the Cortex-A9 core with the same number of cores at the same speed.^[7] The first A15 designs came out in the autumn of 2011, but products based on the chip did not reach the market until 2012.^[1]

Key features of the Cortex-A15 core are:

• 40-bit Large Physical Address Extensions (LPAE) addressing up to 1 TB of RAM with a 32-bit virtual address space.^[8][9][10]
• 15 stage integer/17–25 stage floating point pipeline, with out-of-order speculative issue 3-way superscalar execution pipeline^[11]
• 4 cores per cluster, up to 2 clusters per chip with CoreLink 400 (CCI-400, an AMBA-4 coherent interconnect) and 4 clusters per chip with CCN-504.^[12] ARM provides specifications but the licensees individually design ARM chips, and AMBA-4 scales beyond 2 clusters. The theoretical limit is 16 clusters; 4 bits are used to code the CLUSTERID number in the CP15 register (bits 8 to 11).^[13]
• DSP and NEON SIMD extensions onboard (per core)
• VFPv4 Floating Point Unit onboard (per core)
• Hardware virtualization support
• Thumb-2 instruction set encoding to reduce the size of programs with little impact on performance
• TrustZone security extensions
• Jazelle RCT for JIT compilation
• Program Trace Macrocell and CoreSight Design Kit for unobtrusive tracing of instruction execution
• 32 KB data + 32 KB instruction L1 cache per core
• Integrated low-latency level-2 cache controller, up to 4 MB per cluster

Chips

First implementation came from Samsung in 2012 with the Exynos 5 Dual, which shipped in October 2012 with the Samsung Chromebook Series 3 (ARM version), followed in November by the Google Nexus 10.

Press announcements of current implementations:

• Broadcom SoC^[14]
• HiSilicon K3V3^[15]
• Nvidia Tegra 4 (Wayne)^[16] and Tegra K1.
• Samsung Exynos 5 Dual, Quad and Octa^[17]
• ST-Ericsson Nova A9600 (cancelled) (dual-core @ 2.5 GHz over 20k DMIPS)^[18][19]
• Texas Instruments OMAP 5 SoCs^[20] and Sitara AM57x family^[21]

Other licensees, such as LG,^[22][23] are expected to produce an A15 based design at some point.

Systems on a chip

Model Number	Semiconductor technology	CPU	GPU	Memory interface	Wireless radio technologies	Availability	Utilizing devices
HiSilicon K3V3	28 nm HPL	big.LITTLE architecture using 1.8 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 + dual-core ARM Cortex-A7	Mali-T628			H2 2014
Nvidia Tegra 4 T40	28 nm HPL	1.9 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15[24] + 1 low power core	Nvidia GeForce @ 72 core, 672 MHz, 96.8 GFLOPS = 48 PS + 24 VU × 0.672 × 2 (96.8 GFLOPS)[25](support DirectX 11+, OpenGL 4.X, and PhysX)	32-bit dual-channel DDR3L or LPDDR3 up to 933 MHz (1866 MT/s data rate)[24]	Category 3 (100 Mbit/s) LTE	Q2 2013	Nvidia Shield Tegra Note 7
Nvidia Tegra 4 AP40	28 nm HPL	1.2-1.8 GHz quad-core + low power core	Nvidia GPU 60 [24] cores (support DirectX 11+, OpenGL 4.X, and PhysX)	32-bit dual-channel 800 MHz LPDDR3	Category 3 (100 Mbit/s) LTE	Q3 2013
Nvidia Tegra K1	28 nm HPm	2.3 GHz quad-core + battery saver core	Kepler SMX (192 CUDA cores, 8 TMUs, 4 ROPs)	32-bit dual-channel DDR3L, LPDDR3 or LPDDR2		Q2 2014	Jetson TK1 development board,[26] Lenovo ThinkVision 28, Xiaomi MiPad, Shield Tablet
Texas Instruments OMAP5430	28 nm	1.7 GHz dual-core	PowerVR SGX544MP2 @ 532 MHz + dedicated 2D graphics accelerator	32-bit dual-channel 532 MHz LPDDR2		Q2 2013	phyCore-OMAP5430[27]
Texas Instruments OMAP5432	28 nm	1.5 GHz dual-core	PowerVR SGX544MP2 @ 532 MHz + dedicated 2D graphics accelerator	32-bit dual-channel 532 MHz DDR3		Q2 2013	DragonBox Pyra, SVTronics EVM,[28] Compulab SBC-T54[29]
Texas Instruments AM57x	28 nm	1.5 GHz single or dual-core	PowerVR SGX544MP2 @ 532 MHz + dedicated 2D graphics accelerator	32-bit dual-channel 532 MHz DDR3		Q4 2015	BeagleBoard-X15,[30] BeagleBone AI,[31] Elesar Titanium[32]
Texas Instruments 66AK2x	28 nm	1.5 GHz single, dual, and quad core devices	1-8 C66x DSP cores, radio acceleration, and many other application specific accelerators			Q4 2015
Exynos 5 Dual[33] (previously Exynos 5250)[34]	32 nm HKMG	1.7 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A15	ARM Mali-T604[35] (quad-core) @ 533 MHz; 68.224 GFLOPS [citation needed]	32-bit dual-channel 800 MHz LPDDR3/DDR3 (12.8 GB/sec) or 533 MHz LPDDR2 (8.5 GB/sec)		Q3 2012[34]	Samsung Chromebook XE303C12,[36] Google Nexus 10, Arndale Board,[37] Huins ACHRO 5250 Exynos,[38] Freelander PD800 HD,[39] Voyo A15, HP Chromebook 11, Samsung Homesync
Exynos 5 Octa[40][41][42] (internally Exynos 5410)	28 nm HKMG	1.6 GHz[43] quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 and 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 (ARM big.LITTLE)[44]	IT PowerVR SGX544MP3 (tri-core) @ 480 MHz 49 GFLOPS (532 MHz in some full-screen apps)[45]	32-bit dual-channel 800 MHz LPDDR3 (12.8 GB/sec)		Q2 2013	Samsung Galaxy S4 I9500,[46][47] Hardkernel ODROID-XU,[48] Meizu MX3, ZTE Grand S II TD[49] ODROID-XU
Exynos 5 Octa[50] (internally Exynos 5420)	28 nm HKMG	1.8-1.9 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 and 1.3 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 (ARM big.LITTLE with GTS)	ARM Mali-T628 MP6 @ 533 MHz; 109 GFLOPS	32-bit dual-channel 933 MHz LPDDR3e (14.9 GB/sec)		Q3 2013	Samsung Chromebook 2 11.6",[51] Samsung Galaxy Note 3,[52] Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition), Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2, Samsung Galaxy Tab Pro (12.2 & 10.1), Arndale Octa Board, Galaxy S5 SM-G900H [53]
Exynos 5 Octa[54] (internally Exynos 5422)	28 nm HKMG	2.1 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 and 1.5 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 (ARM big.LITTLE with GTS)	ARM Mali-T628 MP6 @ 695 MHz (142 Gflops)	32-bit dual-channel 933 MHz LPDDR3/DDR3 (14.9 GB/sec)		Q2 2014	Galaxy S5 SM-G900, Hardkernel ODROID-XU3 & ODROID-XU4[55]
Exynos 5 Octa[56] (internally Exynos 5800)	28 nm HKMG	2.1 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 and 1.3 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 (ARM big.LITTLE with GTS)	ARM Mali-T628 MP6 @ 695 MHz (142 Gflops)	32-bit dual-channel 933 MHz LPDDR3/DDR3 (14.9 GB/sec)		Q2 2014	Samsung Chromebook 2 13,3"[57]
Exynos 5 Hexa[58] (internally Exynos 5260)	28 nm HKMG	1.7 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A15 and 1.3 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 (ARM big.LITTLE with GTS)	ARM Mali-T624	32-bit dual-channel 800 MHz LPDDR3 (12.8 GB/sec)		Q2 2014	Galaxy Note 3 Neo (announced January 31, 2014), Samsung Galaxy K zoom[59]
Allwinner A80 Octa[60]	28 nm HPm	Quad-core ARM Cortex-A15 and Quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 (ARM big.LITTLE with GTS)	PowerVR G6230 (Rogue)	32-bit dual-channel DDR3/DDR3L/LPDDR3 or LPDDR2[61]

See also

• Electronics portal

• ARM architecture
• Comparison of ARMv7-A cores
• Comparison of ARMv8-A cores
• JTAG
• List of applications of ARM cores
• List of ARM cores