Arm releases chip design with Armv9 cores for cars

Arm is introducing a number of new chip designs specifically intended for cars. This is an 'Automotive Enhanced' edition of the previous Neoverse V3 architecture. This includes architecture based on Armv9 cores.

It is the first time that Armv9-based technology is available for the automotive industry. This concerns the Cortex A720AE and the A520AE. According to the company, the first is intended for so-called 'software-defined vehicles' or SDVs, cars to which new functionalities are added via the software. The second SoC design is mainly intended for applications that require efficient power consumption.

In addition to the Armv9-based designs, the company is also bringing a server chip architecture to cars for the first time. This is the Neoverse V3AE, a modified version of the third generation of the Neoverse socks that the company released earlier this year. According to the company, these CPUs are mainly intended to control self-driving cars and cars with Advanced Driver Assistance Systems or ADAS.

Arm is also coming with a third, 64-bit CPU design. That is the Cortex-R82AE, about which it provides few details. Finally, the company is also releasing a variant of its fifth-generation Mali GPU from 2023, the Mali-C720AE. This is intended to process images that cars store for self-driving systems.

Arm wants to focus more on hardware for cars in the future. Among other things, the company wants to make the Compute Subsystem or CSS platform, which it previously released for the third generation Neoverse architecture, also available for these new car chips. This allows chip manufacturers to integrate the Neoverse architecture into their own hardware. Arm expects to release that platform in 2025.