ARM Cortex A15 powered hybrid phone tablet likely in 2012

A HYBRID TABLET HANDSET could be on sale in 2012 powered by a 32nm scale ARM Cortex A15 processor if the chip designer's plans pan out.

ARM's A15 has a development roadmap that will see a 32nm dual core product available for that 2012 handset with a quad core version that will be available "soon after" for home entertainment devices such as connected televisions and set top boxes.

With ARM's customers emphasising rich visual content from High Definition to 3D video for the devices Cortex A15 will power, the company expects the A15, a general purpose processor, to be complemented with improvements in GPU coprocessing. "We aren't making a graphics announcement today but it is a clear industry trend there is a rationale, we want technology that works together better," said ARM VP of processor marketing Eric Schorn. To do this the A15 will use an on-chip bus standard, AMBA 4, to improve CPU and GPU cooperation.

These home entertainment devices and hybrid tablet handset are expected by ARM to operate seamlessly as a home network allowing the transfer of content from one device to another. To aid this the Cortex A15 powered hybrid tablet handset Schorn envisgages will have OS virtualisation to run business and personal software at the same time. µ