ARM Cortex-A55

ARM Cortex-A55

General information
Launched	2017
Designed by	ARM Holdings
Performance
Max. CPU clock rate	1.25 GHz[1]  to 2.31 GHz[1]
Cache
L1 cache	32–128 KB (16–64 KB I-cache with parity, 16–64 KB D-cache) per core
L2 cache	64–256 KB
L3 cache	512 KB – 4 MB
Architecture and classification
Application	Mobile
Instruction set	ARMv8.2-A
Physical specifications
Cores	1–8 per cluster, multiple clusters
Products, models, variants
Product code name	Ananke
History
Predecessor	ARM Cortex-A53
Successor	ARM Cortex-A510

The ARM Cortex-A55 is a central processing unit implementing the ARMv8.2-A 64-bit instruction set designed by ARM Holdings' Cambridge design centre. The Cortex-A55 is a 2-wide decode in-order superscalar pipeline.^[2]

Design

The Cortex-A55 serves as the successor of the ARM Cortex-A53, designed to improve performance and energy efficiency over the A53.^[3] ARM has stated the A55 should have 15% improved power efficiency and 18% increased performance relative to the A53. Memory access and branch prediction are also improved relative to the A53.

The Cortex-A75 and Cortex-A55 cores are the first products to support ARM's DynamIQ technology.^[4][5] The successor to big.LITTLE, this technology is designed to be more flexible and scalable when designing multi-core products.

Licensing

The Cortex-A55 is available as SIP core to licensees, and its design makes it suitable for integration with other SIP cores (e.g. GPU, display controller, DSP, image processor, etc.) into one die constituting a system on a chip (SoC).

ARM has also collaborated with Qualcomm for a semi-custom version of the Cortex-A55, used within the Kryo 385 CPU core.^[6] This semi-custom core is also used in some Qualcomm's mid-range SoCs as Kryo 360 Silver and Kryo 460 Silver.

Usage

• The Cortex-A55 is used as Little-core in Intel Agilex D-series SoC FPGA devices.^[7]
• Rockchip RK3566/RK3568, RK3588.
• Amlogic S905X3, S905X4, A113D2, T962X2, T968X2, T962D2.
• Unisoc SC9863A
• Exynos 850
• JLQ JR510
• NXP i.MX93

References

1. Mike Demler (July 3, 2018). SC9863 Is First Cortex-A55 Octa-Core (Report). The Linley Group. Retrieved February 16, 2022.
2. "Cortex-A55". Cortex-A55. ARM Holdings. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
3. Triggs, Robert (31 May 2017). "A closer look at ARM's new Cortex-A75 and Cortex-A55 CPUs". Android Authority. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
4. Humrick, Matt (29 May 2017). "Exploring Dynamiq and ARM's New CPUs". Anandtech. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
5. Savov, Vlad (29 May 2017). "ARM's new processors are designed to power the machine-learning machines". The Verge. Retrieved 10 July 2017.
6. Frumusanu, Andrei (6 December 2017). "Qualcomm Announces Snapdragon 845 Mobile Platform". Anandtech. Retrieved 7 December 2017.
7. Mark van der Zalm. "Intel Agilex D-Series FPGA White Paper". Intel. Retrieved 2022-10-20.