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| A64 | |
|---|---|
| Name | A64 |
| Designer | ARM Holdings / ARM Ltd. |
| Manufacturer | Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, Apple Inc., Broadcom, MediaTek |
| Introduced | 2011 |
| Produced | 2011–present |
| Slowest | 500 MHz |
| Fastest | 3.2 GHz |
| Size from | 28 nm |
| Size to | 5 nm |
| Architecture | ARM architecture |
| Extensions | NEON SIMD, TrustZone, Floating-point unit, Thumb-2 |
| Instruction set | AArch64 |
| Cores | 1–64+ |
| Cache | L1, L2, L3 |
| Predecessor | ARMv7-A |
| Successor | ARMv9-A |
A64 is a 64-bit processor profile within the ARM architecture family introduced by ARM Holdings in the early 2010s to extend the 32-bit ARMv7-A lineage into 64-bit computing. It specifies the AArch64 execution state, a 64-bit register file, a revised exception model, and updated privilege levels used across mobile, embedded, server, and desktop markets. Major semiconductor vendors and original equipment manufacturers such as Apple Inc., Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Broadcom have produced implementations and system-on-chip products based on this profile.
The profile defines a 64-bit execution state for cores compliant with the ARM architecture family and complements the 32-bit AArch32 state. It introduced a larger general-purpose register set, revised program status registers, and an updated exception model shared with platforms like Linux, Windows 10 on ARM, and Android. The profile enabled vendors such as Apple Inc. to target high-performance notebooks and tablets, and vendors like Qualcomm and MediaTek to scale across smartphones, tablets, networking appliances, and small servers. Industry ecosystems including Linaro, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora Project, and Canonical integrated toolchains and kernels to support the new execution state.
The profile specifies the AArch64 instruction set architecture, which introduced 31 64-bit general-purpose registers, a dedicated zero register concept, and a 64-bit program counter. It added the Floating-point unit and NEON SIMD support unified under the Advanced SIMD extension and mandated certain exception levels modeled after ARM TrustZone concepts. The instruction encoding is fixed-length 32-bit for most operations, with a revised branch, load/store, and arithmetic instruction set. Privilege and exception handling align with firmware models used by UEFI and boot firmware from vendors like Microsoft and Apple Inc. in devices running Windows 10 on ARM and macOS.
Silicon implementations range from in-order microcontrollers by NXP Semiconductors to high-performance out-of-order cores by Apple Inc. and Qualcomm. Notable series include designs from ARM Holdings such as the Cortex-A53, Cortex-A57, Cortex-A72, Cortex-A76, and Cortex-A78, as well as custom cores like Apple M1 and Apple M2 families. Server-oriented designs by Ampere Computing and Marvell Technology Group use variants optimized for datacenter workloads. SoC integrators like Samsung Electronics and MediaTek combine multi-core clusters, heterogeneous configurations, and accelerators for graphics from ARM Mali or compute from NVIDIA GPUs.
Benchmarks for the profile span integer and floating-point suites such as SPEC CPU2017, Geekbench, and Linpack. High-end custom implementations (e.g., Apple M1) demonstrate strong single-thread and multi-thread scaling, often outperforming contemporaneous x86 designs from Intel and AMD in power efficiency metrics. Mobile-oriented cores from Qualcomm and Samsung balance thermal constraints with sustained throughput validated by workloads from 3DMark, GFXBench, and real-world benchmarks like AnTuTu. Server-optimized chips from Ampere Computing and Marvell target throughput and memory bandwidth, measured with tooling by SPECvirt and TPC-style workloads.
Ecosystem support includes ports of major operating systems such as Linux, Android, Windows 10 on ARM, macOS (on ARM-based Apple silicon), and BSD variants like FreeBSD. Compiler toolchains from GNU Compiler Collection, LLVM Project/Clang, and commercial toolchains from ARM Ltd. and Green Hills Software provide code generation for the profile. Debugging and profiling tools from GDB, perf, Valgrind, and vendor tools from Arm Development Studio or Apple Xcode support optimization, while virtualization stacks such as KVM and Xen have been adapted for the exception model.
Adoption spans smartphones by Samsung Electronics and Xiaomi, tablets by Apple Inc. and Microsoft Surface, laptops and desktops via Apple MacBook Air and thin clients from HP and Dell, networking equipment by Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks, and cloud instances from providers like Amazon Web Services offering ARM-based instances. Specialized deployments include embedded appliances from Siemens and Bosch, automotive platforms integrated by Tesla and General Motors for infotainment, and high-performance computing clusters evaluated by research institutions such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Conceived by ARM Holdings to address 64-bit addressing and modern software demands, the profile was announced alongside the transition technologies supporting the AArch32 and AArch64 states. Early silicon and software work were performed with collaborators including Linaro and major vendors such as Qualcomm and Samsung Electronics. Over time, the profile evolved through successive microarchitectures and ecosystem work from distributors like Silicon Labs and foundry partners including TSMC and Samsung Foundry, leading to widespread adoption across consumer, enterprise, and cloud markets.
Category:ARM microarchitectures