Freescale is licensing ARM's Cortex-A7 core, announced only yesterday.
The A7 is a low-power low-performance code, cache and hardware match for the powerful A15 processor.
Instant power scaling in mobile applications is available by wholesale switching of all active programmes from one processor to the other, a process that has been made transparent to the active programmes.
"Freescale plans to incorporate ARM Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A15 processors in single-core and multicore i.MX devices that feature software and pin compatibility, and target embedded, automotive infotainment and smart mobile device applications," said Freescale. "For less performance-demanding tasks, the Cortex-A15 processor can power down, while the Cortex-A7 processor handles lighter-duty processing."
By employing A7-A15 approach, which ARM has branded 'Big.LITTLE processing', adopters can run existing single-processor code rather than re-write it for a multi-processor system-on-chip.
At any one moment, one of the processors will be completely idle, a waste of hardware made acceptable because the processing pair is aimed at sub-30nm chip processes where gate costs are very low - the A7 can occupy as little as 0.5mm2.
Only the power management software needs to be changed.
"A system-on-chip leverages two different, but compatible, processing engines within the same device, allowing the power management software to seamlessly select the right processor for the task," said Freescale.
The A7 is available in both single-core and multicore configurations, as is the A15.
