ARM Cortex-A9

The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set.^[1] It was introduced in 2007.^[2]

ARM Cortex-A9

MediaTek M6575
General information
Launched	2007
Designed by	ARM Holdings
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	0.8 GHz  to 2 GHz
Cache
L1 cache	32 KB I, 32 KB D
L2 cache	128 KB–8 MB (configurable with L2sr1 cache controller)
Architecture and classification
Instruction set	ARMv7-A
Physical specifications
Cores	1–4
History
Predecessor	ARM Cortex-A8
Successor	ARM Cortex-A12

Features

Main article: Comparison of ARMv7-A cores

Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:^[3]

• Out-of-order speculative issue superscalar execution 8-stage^[4] pipeline giving 8.50 DMIPS/MHz/core.
• NEON SIMD instruction set extension performing up to 16 operations per instruction (optional).
• High performance VFPv3 floating point unit doubling the performance of previous ARM FPUs (optional).
• Thumb-2 instruction set encoding reduces the size of programs with little impact on performance.
• TrustZone security extensions.
• Jazelle DBX support for Java execution.
• Jazelle RCT for JIT compilation.
• Program Trace Macrocell and CoreSight Design Kit for non-intrusive tracing of instruction execution.
• L2 cache controller (0–4 MB).
• Multi-core processing.

ARM states that the TSMC 40G hard macro implementation typically operates at 2 GHz; a single core (excluding caches) occupies less than 1.5 mm² when designed in a TSMC 65 nanometer (nm) generic process^[5] and can be clocked at speeds over 1 GHz, consuming less than 250 mW per core.^[2]

Chips

Several system on a chip (SoC) devices implement the Cortex-A9 core, including:

• Altera SoC FPGA^[6]
• AMLogic AML8726-M^[7]
• Apple A5, A5X
• Broadcom BCM11311 (Persona ICE)^[8]
• Calxeda EnergyCore ECX-1000^[9]
• Entropic EN7588,^[10] EN7530
• NXP Semiconductors (Formerly Freescale) QorIQ Layerscape LS1024A^[11]
• Freescale Semiconductor i.MX6^[12]
• HiSilicon K3V2 -Hi3620^[13]
• Marvell Avastar 88W8787, used in the Sony PlayStation Vita^[14][15]
• MediaTek MT6575^[16] (single core), MT6577^[17] (dual core)
• Mindspeed Technologies Mindspeed Comcerto 2000^[18][19][20]
• Nufront NuSmart 2816, 2816M, 115^[21]
• Nvidia Tegra 2 (without NEON extensions), Tegra 3 and Tegra 4i
• Trident Microsystems 847x/8x/9x SoC family^[22]
• Renesas Electronics RZ/A1H, M, L, LU Family
• Samsung Exynos 4210,^[23] 4212, 4412, 4415
• Rockchip RK3066,^[24] RK292x, RK31xx
• STMicroelectronics SPEAr1310,^[25] SPEAr1340^[26]
• ST-Ericsson Nova A9500, NovaThor U8500,^[27] NovaThor U9500^[28]
• Texas Instruments OMAP4 processors
• Texas Instruments Sitara AM437x^[29]
• WonderMedia WM8850, WM8950 and WM8980^[30]
• Xilinx Extensible Processing Platform^[31]
• ZiiLABS ZMS-20^[32]

Systems on a chip

Developer	Name	Cores	Process	NEON SIMD	Vector floating point unit	GPU
Altera	SoC FPGA	1–2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	optionally implemented in FPGA; TES Electronic Solutions D/AVE HD Archived 14 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine
Ambarella Inc.	S3L	1	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	–
AMLogic	AML8726-M	1	65 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
AMLogic	AML8726-MX	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP2
AMLogic	AML8726-M8	4	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-450 MP6
Apple Inc.	A5	2	32 nm 45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX543MP2
Apple Inc.	A5X	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX543MP4
Broadcom	BCM11311 (Persona ICE)	2	40 nm	?	?	Broadcom Videocore IV
Broadcom	BCM21654	1	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Broadcom Videocore IV
Broadcom	BCM21664T	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Broadcom Videocore IV
Calxeda	EnergyCore ECX-1000[9]	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	–
ELVEES Multicore	1892VM14Ya	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-300
Freescale Semiconductor	i.MX6[33]	1–4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3-D32	Vivante Corporation GPU IP cores[34]
HiSilicon	K3V2 (Hi3620)	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Vivante GC4000
Intel	Cyclone V	1–2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	-
LG Corp	LG L9	2	?	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Marvell	ARMADA 38x	1–2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	-
Marvell	PXA986	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX540 / Vivante GC1000 (Galaxy Tab 3 7-inch)
Marvell	PXA988	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Vivante GC1000
MediaTek	MT6575	1	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX531[16]
MediaTek	MT6577	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX531[17]
Mindspeed Technologies	Comcerto 2000	2	?	Yes	?	–
Nufront	NuSmartTM 2816(NS2816)	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400[35]
Nufront	NuSmartTM 2816M (NS2816M)	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Nufront	NuSmartTM 115 (NS115)	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Nvidia	Tegra 2 series	2	40 nm	No	VFPv3-D16	GeForce ULP
Nvidia	Tegra 3 (Kal-El) series	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	GeForce ULP
Renesas Electronics		?	?	?	?	–
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1H[36]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 10MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1M[36]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 5MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1L[36]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 3MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1LU[36]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	RZ/A1L plus Ethernet AVB support and a JPEG codec unit, 3MByte RAM SoC
Rockchip	RK2928	1	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400
Rockchip	RK3066[24]	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Rockchip	RK3128	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Rockchip	RK3188[37]	4	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Dual (4210)	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Dual (4212)	2	32 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Quad (4412)	4	32 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Quad (4415)	4	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
STMicroelectronics	SPEAr1310	?	?	No	VFPv3	–
STMicroelectronics	SPEAr1340	2	?	No	VFPv3-D16	ARM Mali-200[38]
ST-Ericsson	Nova A9500	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
ST-Ericsson	NovaThor U8500	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
ST-Ericsson	NovaThor U9500	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Sony	PlayStation Vita	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX543MP4+
Texas Instruments	Sitara AM437x	1	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	SGX530 Graphics Engine
Texas Instruments	OMAP4430 OMAP4460	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX540
Texas Instruments	OMAP4470	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX544
Trident Microsystems	PNX8473[39]	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
Trident Microsystems	PNX8483[40]	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
Trident Microsystems	PNX8491[41]	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
WonderMedia	WM8850	1	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
WonderMedia	WM8880	2	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP2
WonderMedia	WM8950	1	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400[30]
WonderMedia	WM8980	2	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP2
Xilinx	Zynq-7000[42]	2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	–
ZiiLABS	ZMS-20	?	?	Yes	VFPv3	ZiiLABS flexible Stemcell media processing

See also

• Electronics portal

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