big.LITTLE Processing

big.LITTLE processing addresses one of today’s industry challenges: how to create a System on Chip (SoC) that provides both high performance as well as extreme power efficiency to extend battery life. big.LITTLE connects the performance of the ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore™ processor with the energy efficiency of the Cortex-A7 processor, and enables the same application software to be seamlessly switched between them. By selecting the optimum processor for each task big.LITTLE can extend battery life by up to 70%.

big.LITTLE

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big.LITTLE processing has been designed to deliver the vision of the right processor for the right job. The Cortex-A15 processor is the highest performing, low-power ARM processor ever developed, while the Cortex-A7 processor is the most energy efficient ARM application processor ever designed. The performance capabilities of the Cortex-A15 processor can be utilized for heavy workloads, while the Cortex-A7 can take over to most efficiently process the majority of smartphone workloads. These include operating system activities, user interface and other always on, always connected tasks.

The efficient and seamless switching of workloads between the two processors in a Big.Little system is achieved as a result of the development of advanced ARM System IP which ensures full cache, I/O and processor to processor coherency between the Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 processors.

The AMBA® 4 ACE™ Coherency Extensions, Cache Coherent Interconnect and interrupt controllers provide full coherency across the complete system, enabling software and applications to continue running unhindered, and unnoticed by the user, as the tasks are rebalanced to provide the optimum big.LITTLE user experience.