Increased availability of larger registers for general purpose and media instructions, a greater addressing range and cryptography instructions enable new categories of applications for superphone and tablet computing, while bringing the ARM benefits of efficient design and low power consumption to applications where 64-bit computing is already established, such as servers and network infrastructure, promising to revolutionize the data center.
The ARMv8 architecture maintains compatibility with the comprehensive software ecosystem for 32-bit components. This enables a wealth of software optimized for existing ARM processors to benefit from the enhanced performance of processors based on the ARMv8 architecture, while the addition of 32-bit cryptographic instructions further enables optimization for emerging requirements.
Developing the software to make best use of the new 64-bit capabilities requires the availability of excellent tools, test platforms and key open source components. While developing the architecture and the processors based on ARMv8-A, ARM has also ensured that the essential tools for development are available to software developers today, enabling the ARM software ecosystem to continue to innovate around the Architecture for the Digital World.
ARM DS-5 Development Studio
A comprehensive suite of development tools for all ARM processors, DS-5 Ultimate Edition features the LLVM-based ARM Compiler 6 and ARMv8 Fixed Virtual Platform for world-class software development on the ARMv8-A architecture.
Linaro
For GNU tools and linux kernel support, pre-built versions are available through the Linaro website www.linaro.org/engineering/ARMv8
ARM Fast Models
Used in conjunction with DS-5 for ARMv8, ARM Fast Models can help developers debug, analyse, and optimize their applications throughout the development cycle, providing a flexible platform for software testing prior to the availability of silicon.
ARMv8 Foundation Model
To enable a broad community of developers, ARM is making available the ARMv8 Foundation Model, based on ARM Fast Model technology. This provides the essentials needed to prove software prior to readily available silicon platforms.
ARM Juno Development Platform
The Juno ARM Development Platform (ADP) is a software development platform for ARMv8-A. It includes the Juno Versatile Express board and an ARMv8-A reference software port available through Linaro. The Juno hardware provides software developers with an open, vendor neutral ARMv8 development platform with Cortex® A57 and A53 MPCore™ for ARMv8 big.LITTLE Mali™-T624 for 3D Graphics Acceleration and GP-GPU compute, and SoC architecture aligned with Level 1 (Server) Base System Architecture.



