ARM Cortex-A9

ARM Cortex-A9

Designed by	ARM Holdings
Max. CPU clock rate	0.8 GHz  to 2 GHz
Microarchitecture	ARMv7-A
Cores	1–4
L1 cache	32 KB I, 32 KB D
L2 cache	128 KB–8 MB (configurable with L2 cache controller)

The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit processor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture. It is a multicore processor providing up to 4 cache-coherent cores.^[1]

Overview

Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:^[2]

• Out-of-order speculative issue superscalar execution 8-stage^[3] pipeline giving 2.50 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 operating at 2 GHz; a single core (excluding caches) occupies less than 1.5 mm² when designed in a TSMC 65 nanometer (nm) generic process^[4] and can be clocked at speeds over 1 GHz, consuming less than 250 mW per core.^[5]

Chips

MediaTek M6575

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]
• Freescale Semiconductor i.MX6^[11]
• HiSilicon^[12] 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
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	–
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
LG Corp	LG L9	2	?	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP4
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[37]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 5MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1L[38]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 3MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1LU[39]	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[40]	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[41]
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[42]	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
Trident Microsystems	PNX8483[43]	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
Trident Microsystems	PNX8491[44]	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
WonderMedia	WM8850	1	?	Yes	?	ARM Mali-400
WonderMedia	WM8880	2	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP2
WonderMedia	WM8950	1	?	?	?	ARM Mali-400[30]
WonderMedia	WM8980	2	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP2
Xilinx	Zynq-7000[45]	2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	–
ZiiLABS	ZMS-20	?	?	Yes	VFPv3	ZiiLABS flexible Stemcell media processing

Development platforms

Developer	Name	SoC	RAM	Flash	SD	SATA	USB	Ethernet	Wi-Fi	Bluetooth	Other
Boardcon	EM4418 MINI4418	Samsung S5P4418	1GB DDR3	4GB eMMC	1 SD/MMC		2 x USB 2.0 Host + 1 x USB 2.0 OTG	10/100/1000M-bit Ethernet MAC(RTL8211E-VB-CG)	802.11b/g/n	Bluetooth4.0	GPS,3G
FriendlyARM	NanoPi-2[46] NanoPi-2 Fire[47] NanoPi M2[48] NanoPC-T2[49]	Samsung Exynos 4210	32bit 1GB DDR3	8GB on PC-T2	2 microSD ports		2.0 USB port/s	RTL8211E on NanoPi-2 Fire, M2, PC-T2.	802.11b/g/n	BT 4.0 Dual mode	40 RasberryPi compatible GPIO pins, UART, very small size and cost.
Origenboard	Origenboard[50]	Samsung Exynos 4210	1 GiB DDR3		2 port SD/MMC		embedded		SWB-A31	SWB-A31
Odroid	Odroid-X[51]	Samsung Exynos 4412	2 GiB LPDDR2-800		SDHC + eMMC module socket (non-standard)		6×USB 2.0 host + micro-USB 2.0 device	10/100 Mbit/s
Odroid	Odroid-U3[52]	Samsung Exynos 4412	2 GB		eMMC module socket (non-standard), microSD		3×USB 2.0 host + micro-USB 2.0 device/host	10/100 Mbit/s			Hardkernel has other product variants using the 4412. USB supports external Notebook harddrive with no external power. Preloaded emmc with Android and LUbuntu available.[53]
PandaBoard	PandaBoard	TI OMAP4430[54]	1 GiB LPDDR2		SD/MMC		LAN9514-JZX	LAN9514-JZX	LS240-WI-01-A20	LS240-WI-01-A20
Calao systems	Snowball[55]	ST-Ericsson Nova A9500[56]	1 GiB LPDDR2	4/8 GB eMMC	microSD		FT232R	LAN9221	AW-NH580	AW-NH580	GPS, accelerometer, magnetometer, gyroscope, barometer
Trim-Slice	Trim-Slice[57]	Tegra 2 series	1 GiB DDR2-667		SDHC + microSDHC	GL830	embedded	RTL8111DL	RT3070
Radxa	Radxa Rock[58]	Rockchip RK3188	2 GiB DDR3-800	8 GB	microSDXC		2×USB 2.0 host + micro-USB 2.0 device	10/100 Mbit/s	150 Mbit/s 802.11b/g/n	Bluetooth 4.0
TOPIC	Miami/Florida[59]	Xilinx xc7z030	1 GiB DDR3L	256Mb NOR 1Gb NAND	microSD	2x (FPGA)	USB 2.0 OTG	10/100/1000 Mbit/s	802.11b/g/n		Single chip CPU/FPGA module. HDMI-in/out, PMOD, 4x serial.

See also

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

References

1. "ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore". Arm.com. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
2. "Cortex-A9 Processor Specifications". ARM.
3. "White paper: The ARM Cortex-A9 Processors" (PDF). ARM.
4. "Cortex-A9 Single Core Processor". Arm.com. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
5. "ARM spins multicore-enabled Cortex core - News - Linux for Devices".
6. SoC FPGA overview, Altera
7. Mobile Internet Devices, Amlogic, archived from the original on 4 May 2014
8. "BCM11311 - Persona ICE Application Processor". Broadcom.
9. "EnergyCore™ ECX-1000: Technical Specifications". Calxeda. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
10. "High Performance, Dual-Core IP Set-top Box SoC". Entropic.
11. "Introducing the i.MX 6 Series". Freescale Semiconductor.
12. http://www.hisilicon.com
13. "HiSilicon Unveils Quad-Core Cortex A9 K3V2 Processor (Hi3620)".
14. Johnny Cullen (24 January 2011). "Sony outs tech specs for NGP". VG247. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
15. "Sony Playstation Vita Teardown & Product Analysis". TechInsights. Retrieved 2013-10-15.
16. "MediaTek - MT6575". MediaTek.
17. "MediaTek - MT6577". MediaTek.
18. Roy Rubenstein (9 October 2012). "An ARM based programmable processor is set to enable new communications products".
19. Kevin Trosian (8 January 2013). "Mindspeed to Showcase the Industry's First ARM Cortex A9-based Communications Processor with Integrated DPI at 2013 CES".
20. "MACOM to Showcase Newly Acquired Mindspeed Comcerto 2000 System-on-Chip (SoC) Processors at the 2014 International CES". 7 January 2014.
21. "Computer System Chip". Nufront.
22. NXP to show the first fully integrated 45nm set top box soc based on ARM cortex - A9 processors
23. "Exynos 4210". samsung.com. 2012-01-20. Retrieved 2012-02-02.
24. RK3066 Dual-Core Era is coming
25. SPEAr1310 Dual-core Cortex A9 embedded MPU for communications
26. SPEAr1340 Dual-core Cortex A9 embedded MPU for communications
27. ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500, ST-Ericsson, retrieved 19 February 2011
28. ST-Ericsson NovaThor U9500, ST-Ericsson, retrieved 25 September 2011
29. "AM437x Sitara Processors".
30. "WonderMedia Announces PRIZM WM8950 with Android 4.0 Support". 19 May 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-17.
31. White Paper: Extensible Processing Platform (PDF)
32. ZiiLABS ZMS-20 Dual ARM Cortex A9 Media Processor
33. Introducing the i.MX 6 Series of Applications Processors (PDF)
34. Vivante GPU IP Cores Power the Latest Freescale i.MX 6 Series of Application Processors
35. Nufront 2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 for Desktop, Laptop and Netbook – NuSmart 2816
36. RZ A1H Home
37. RZ A1M Home
38. RZ A1L Home
39. RZ A1L, Home
40. http://www.gizmochina.com/2012/12/05/review-of-rockchip-rk3166-quad-core-chipset/
41. SPEAr family of embedded microprocessors (PDF)
42. PNX8473
43. PNX8483
44. PNX849x
45. http://www.xilinx.com/products/silicon-devices/epp/zynq-7000/index.htm
46. NanoPi-2 wiki
47. NanoPi-2 Fire wiki
48. NanoPi M2 wiki
49. NanoPC-T2 wiki
50. OriginBoard Documents
51. Open Exynos4 Quad Mobile Development Platform
52. Odroid U3 Platform
53. Odroid Store
54. OMAP 4 Platform: OMAP4430/OMAP4460
56. Changing the game: ST-Ericsson Unveils NovaThor Family of Smartphone Platforms Combining its Most Advanced Application Processors with the Latest Generation of Modems
57. Trim-Slice Models
58. Radxa Rock specification
59. Topic Embedded Products Boards

External links

ARM Holdings

• Official website
• ARM Cortex-A9 Technical Reference Manuals

Other

• White paper - The ARM Cortex-A9 Processors
• RISC vs. CISC in the mobile era
• TI OMAP4440 specs
• STMicroelectronics SPEAr1310 Data brief
• ARM Cortex-A9 lacks an integer hardware division instruction
• RM Cortex-A9
• Popular ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore & Multi-core processor videos, YouTube.
• ARM Assembly language