ARM Cortex-A9

32-bit multicore processor developed by SR1

1–4

HistoryPredecessor(s)ARM Cortex-A8Successor(s)ARM Cortex-A12

The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore is a 32-bit multi-core processor that provides up to 4 cache-coherent cores, each implementing the ARM v7 architecture instruction set.^[1] It was introduced in 2007.^[2]

Features

Key features of the Cortex-A9 core are:^[3]

Out-of-order speculative issue superscalar execution 8-stage^[4] pipeline giving 2.50 DMIPS/MHz/core.
NEON SIMD instruction set extension performing up to 16 operations per instruction (optional).
High performance VFPv3 floating point unit doubling the performance of previous ARM FPUs (optional).
Thumb-2 instruction set encoding reduces the size of programs with little impact on performance.
TrustZone security extensions.
Jazelle DBX support for Java execution.
Jazelle RCT for JIT compilation.
Program Trace Macrocell and CoreSight Design Kit for non-intrusive tracing of instruction execution.
L2 cache controller (0–4 MB).
Multi-core processing.

ARM states that the TSMC 40G hard macro implementation typically operates at 2 GHz; a single core (excluding caches) occupies less than 1.5 mm² when designed in a TSMC 65 nanometer (nm) generic process^[5] and can be clocked at speeds over 1 GHz, consuming less than 250 mW per core.^[2]

Chips

Several system on a chip (SoC) devices implement the Cortex-A9 core, including:

Altera SoC FPGA^[6]
AMLogic AML8726-M^[7]
Apple A5, A5X
Broadcom BCM11311 (Persona ICE)^[8]
Calxeda EnergyCore ECX-1000^[9]
Entropic EN7588,^[10] EN7530
NXP Semiconductors (Formerly Freescale) QorIQ Layerscape LS1024A^[11]
Freescale Semiconductor i.MX6^[12]
HiSilicon K3V2 -Hi3620^[13]
Marvell Avastar 88W8787, used in the Sony PlayStation Vita^[14]^[15]
MediaTek MT6575^[16] (single core), MT6577^[17] (dual core)
Mindspeed Technologies Mindspeed Comcerto 2000^[18]^[19]^[20]
Nufront NuSmart 2816, 2816M, 115^[21]
Nvidia Tegra 2 (without NEON extensions), Tegra 3 and Tegra 4i
Trident Microsystems 847x/8x/9x SoC family^[22]
Renesas Electronics RZ/A1H, M, L, LU Family
Samsung Exynos 4210,^[23] 4212, 4412, 4415
Rockchip RK3066,^[24] RK292x, RK31xx
STMicroelectronics SPEAr1310,^[25] SPEAr1340^[26]
ST-Ericsson Nova A9500, NovaThor U8500,^[27] NovaThor U9500^[28]
Texas Instruments OMAP4 processors
Texas Instruments Sitara AM437x^[29]
WonderMedia WM8850, WM8950 and WM8980^[30]
Xilinx Extensible Processing Platform^[31]
ZiiLABS ZMS-20^[32]

Systems on a chip

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (January 2012)

Developer	Name	Cores	Process	NEON SIMD	Vector floating point unit	GPU
Altera	SoC FPGA	1–2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	optionally implemented in FPGA; TES Electronic Solutions D/AVE HD Archived 14 November 2017 at the Wayback Machine
Ambarella Inc.	S3L	1	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	–
AMLogic	AML8726-M	1	65 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
AMLogic	AML8726-MX	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP2
AMLogic	AML8726-M8	4	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-450 MP6
Apple Inc.	A5	2	32 nm 45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX543MP2
Apple Inc.	A5X	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX543MP4
Broadcom	BCM11311 (Persona ICE)	2	40 nm	?	?	Broadcom Videocore IV
Broadcom	BCM21654	1	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Broadcom Videocore IV
Broadcom	BCM21664T	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Broadcom Videocore IV
Calxeda	EnergyCore ECX-1000^[9]	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	–
ELVEES Multicore	1892VM14Ya	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-300
Freescale Semiconductor	i.MX6^[33]	1–4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3-D32	Vivante Corporation GPU IP cores^[34]
HiSilicon	K3V2 (Hi3620)	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Vivante GC4000
Intel	Cyclone V	1–2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	-
LG Corp	LG L9	2	?	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Marvell	ARMADA 38x	1–2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	-
Marvell	PXA986	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX540 / Vivante GC1000 (Galaxy Tab 3 7-inch)
Marvell	PXA988	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	Vivante GC1000
MediaTek	MT6575	1	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX531^[16]
MediaTek	MT6577	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX531^[17]
Mindspeed Technologies	Comcerto 2000	2	?	Yes	?	–
Nufront	NuSmartTM 2816(NS2816)	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400^[35]
Nufront	NuSmartTM 2816M (NS2816M)	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Nufront	NuSmartTM 115 (NS115)	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Nvidia	Tegra 2 series	2	40 nm	No	VFPv3-D16	GeForce ULP
Nvidia	Tegra 3 (Kal-El) series	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	GeForce ULP
Renesas Electronics	[1]	?	?	?	?	–
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1H^[36]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 10MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1M^[36]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 5MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1L^[36]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	WXGA 2D graphics 3MByte RAM SoC
Renesas Electronics	RZ/A1LU^[36]	1	various	Yes	VFPv3	RZ/A1L plus Ethernet AVB support and a JPEG codec unit, 3MByte RAM SoC
Rockchip	RK2928	1	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400
Rockchip	RK3066^[24]	2	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Rockchip	RK3128	2	?	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Rockchip	RK3188^[37]	4	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Dual (4210)	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Dual (4212)	2	32 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Quad (4412)	4	32 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
Samsung	Exynos 4 Quad (4415)	4	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400 MP4
STMicroelectronics	SPEAr1310	?	?	No	VFPv3	–
STMicroelectronics	SPEAr1340	2	?	No	VFPv3-D16	ARM Mali-200^[38]
ST-Ericsson	Nova A9500	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
ST-Ericsson	NovaThor U8500	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
ST-Ericsson	NovaThor U9500	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
Sony	PlayStation Vita	4	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX543MP4+
Texas Instruments	Sitara AM437x	1	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	SGX530 Graphics Engine
Texas Instruments	OMAP4430 OMAP4460	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX540
Texas Instruments	OMAP4470	2	45 nm	Yes	VFPv3	PowerVR SGX544
Trident Microsystems	PNX8473^[39]	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
Trident Microsystems	PNX8483^[40]	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
Trident Microsystems	PNX8491^[41]	1	?	?	?	PowerVR SGX531
WonderMedia	WM8850	1	40 nm	Yes	VFPv3	ARM Mali-400
WonderMedia	WM8880	2	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP2
WonderMedia	WM8950	1	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400^[30]
WonderMedia	WM8980	2	40 nm	?	?	ARM Mali-400 MP2
Xilinx	Zynq-7000^[42]	2	28 nm	Yes	VFPv3	–
ZiiLABS	ZMS-20	?	?	Yes	VFPv3	ZiiLABS flexible Stemcell media processing

References

^ "ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore". Arm.com. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
^ ^a ^b "ARM spins multicore-enabled Cortex core - News - Linux for Devices". Archived from the original on 6 September 2012. Retrieved 7 January 2010.
^ "Cortex-A9 Processor Specifications". ARM.
^ "White paper: The ARM Cortex-A9 Processors" (PDF). ARM. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 November 2014.
^ "Cortex-A9 Single Core Processor". Arm.com. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
^ SoC FPGA overview, Altera
^ IbhMobile Internet Devices, Amlogic, archived from the original on 4 May 2014
^ "BCM11311 - Persona ICE Application Processor". Broadcom.
^ ^a ^b "EnergyCore ECX-1000: Technical Specifications". Calxeda. Archived from the original on 25 April 2012. Retrieved 8 May 2012.
^ "High Performance, Dual-Core IP Set-top Box SoC". Entropic. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2013.
^ QorIQ® Layerscape 1024A Dual-Core Communications Processor, NXP Semiconductors
^ "Introducing the i.MX 6 Series". Freescale Semiconductor.
^ "HiSilicon Unveils Quad-Core Cortex A9 K3V2 Processor (Hi3620)". 27 February 2012.
^ Johnny Cullen (24 January 2011). "Sony outs tech specs for NGP". VG247. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
^ "Sony Playstation Vita Teardown & Product Analysis". TechInsights. Archived from the original on 18 August 2013. Retrieved 15 October 2013.
^ ^a ^b "MediaTek - MT6575". MediaTek. Archived from the original on 15 January 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
^ ^a ^b "MediaTek - MT6577". MediaTek. Archived from the original on 13 January 2013. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
^ Roy Rubenstein (9 October 2012). "An ARM based programmable processor is set to enable new communications products".
^ Kevin Trosian (8 January 2013). "Mindspeed to Showcase the Industry's First ARM Cortex A9-based Communications Processor with Integrated DPI at 2013 CES".
^ "MACOM to Showcase Newly Acquired Mindspeed Comcerto 2000 System-on-Chip (SoC) Processors at the 2014 International CES". 7 January 2014.
^ "Computer System Chip". Nufront. Archived from the original on 30 August 2011. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
^ NXP to show the first fully integrated 45nm set top box soc based on ARM cortex - A9 processors
^ "Exynos 4210". samsung.com. 20 January 2012. Retrieved 2 February 2012.
^ ^a ^b RK3066 Dual-Core Era is coming
^ SPEAr1310 Dual-core Cortex A9 embedded MPU for communications
^ SPEAr1340 Dual-core Cortex A9 embedded MPU for communications, archived from the original on 2 May 2012, retrieved 3 March 2012
^ ST-Ericsson NovaThor U8500, ST-Ericsson, archived from the original on 22 July 2013, retrieved 19 February 2011
^ ST-Ericsson NovaThor U9500, ST-Ericsson, archived from the original on 2 October 2011, retrieved 25 September 2011
^ "AM437x Sitara Processors".
^ ^a ^b "WonderMedia Announces PRIZM WM8950 with Android 4.0 Support". 19 May 2013. Archived from the original on 15 August 2013. Retrieved 17 June 2013.
^ White Paper: Extensible Processing Platform (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 2 September 2011, retrieved 25 September 2011
^ ZiiLABS ZMS-20 Dual ARM Cortex A9 Media Processor, archived from the original on 25 September 2011, retrieved 26 September 2011
^ Introducing the i.MX 6 Series of Applications Processors (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 11 August 2013, retrieved 25 September 2011
^ Vivante GPU IP Cores Power the Latest Freescale i.MX 6 Series of Application Processors, archived from the original on 20 November 2011, retrieved 25 September 2011
^ Nufront 2GHz ARM Cortex-A9 for Desktop, Laptop and Netbook – NuSmart 2816
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d RZ A1H Home, archived from the original on 22 December 2015, retrieved 21 December 2015
^ "Review of Rockchip RK3188 Quad-core chipset". 6 December 2012.
^ SPEAr family of embedded microprocessors (PDF), archived from the original (PDF) on 28 June 2011, retrieved 25 September 2011
^ PNX8473, archived from the original on 29 October 2013, retrieved 26 June 2013
^ PNX8483, archived from the original on 29 October 2013, retrieved 26 June 2013
^ Samsung Galaxy A9 sale in India today: Price in India, offers and features (2018), November 2018^{[permanent dead link]}
^ "Xilinx Zynq-7000 Extensible Processing Platform". Archived from the original on 7 April 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2012.

External links

ARM Holdings

Official website
ARM Cortex-A9 Technical Reference Manuals

Other

White paper - The ARM Cortex-A9 Processors
RISC vs. CISC in the mobile era
TI OMAP4440 specs
STMicroelectronics SPEAr1310 Data brief
RM Cortex-A9
Popular ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore & Multi-core processor videos, YouTube.
ARM Assembly language

Application ARM-based chips

Application
processors
(32-bit)

ARMv7-A

Cortex-A5	Actions ATM702x Amlogic M805/S805, T82x Atmel SAMA5D3 InfoTM iMAPx820, iMAPx15 Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Play, 200 RDA RDA8810PL Telechips TCC892x
Cortex-A7	Allwinner A2x, A3x, A83T, H3, H8 NXP i.MX7, QorIQ LS10xx, NXP i.MX6UL Broadcom VideoCore BCM2836, BCM23550 Leadcore LC1813, LC1860/C, LC1913, LC1960 Marvell Armada PXA1920, 1500 mini plus MediaTek MT65xx Qualcomm Snapdragon 200, 400
Cortex-A8	Allwinner A1x Apple A4 Freescale i.MX5 Rockchip RK291x Samsung Exynos 3110(S5PC110), S5PV210 Texas Instruments OMAP 3 Texas Instruments Sitara AM3xxx Texas Instruments DM38x ZiiLABS ZMS-08
Cortex-A9	Actions ATM702x, ATM703x Altera Cyclone V, Arria V/10 Amlogic AML8726, MX, M6x, M801, M802/S802, S812, T86x Apple A5, A5X Broadcom VideoCore BCM21xxx, BCM28xxx Freescale i.MX6 HiSilicon K3V2, 910's InfoTM iMAPx912 Leadcore LC1810, LC1811 Marvell Armada 1500 mini MediaTek MT65xx Nvidia Tegra, 2, 3, 4i Nufront NuSmart 2816M, NS115, NS115M Renesas EMMA EV2, R-Car H1, RZ/A Rockchip RK292x, RK30xx, RK31xx Samsung Exynos 4 421x, 441x ST-Ericsson NovaThor Telechips TCC8803 Texas Instruments OMAP 4 Texas Instruments Sitara AM4xxx VIA WonderMedia WM88x0, 89x0 Xilinx Zynq-7000 ZiiLABS ZMS-20, ZMS-40
Cortex-A15	Allwinner A80 HiSilicon K3V3 MediaTek MT8135/V Nvidia Tegra 4, K1 Renesas R-Car H2 Samsung Exynos 5 52xx, 54xx Texas Instruments OMAP 5, DRA7xx, AM57xx Texas Instruments Sitara AM5xxx
Cortex-A17	MediaTek MT6595, MT5595 MStar 6A928 Rockchip RK3288
Others	Cortex-A12
ARMv7-A compatible	Apple A6, A6X, S1, S1P, S2, S3 Broadcom Brahma-B15 Marvell P4J Qualcomm Snapdragon S1, S2, S3, S4 Plus, S4 Pro, 600, 800 (Scorpion, Krait)

ARMv8-A

Others	Cortex-A32

Application
processors
(64-bit)

ARMv8-A

Cortex-A35	NXP i.MX8X MediaTek MT6799, MT8516 Rockchip RK3308
Cortex-A53	Actions GT7, S900, V700 Allwinner A64, H5, H64, R18 Altera Stratix 10 Amlogic S9 Family, T96x Broadcom BCM2837 EZchip TILE-Mx100 HiSilicon Kirin 620, 650, 655, 658, 659, 930, 935 Marvell Armada PXA1928, Mobile PXA1908/PXA1936 MediaTek MT673x, MT675x, MT6761V, MT6762/V, MT6763T, MT6765/G/H, MT6795, MT8161, MT8163, MT8165, MT8732, MT8735, MT8752 NXP ARM S32, QorIQ LS1088, LS1043, i.MX8M Qualcomm Snapdragon 215, 410, 412, 415, 425, 427, 430, 435, 429, 439, 450, 610, 615, 616, 617, 625, 626, 630 Renesas RZ/V2M Rockchip RK3328, RK3368 Samsung Exynos 7570, 7578, 7580, 7870, 7880 Texas Instruments Sitara AM6xxx UNISOC SC9820E, SC9832E, SC9860/GV Xilinx ZynqMP
Cortex-A57	AMD Opteron A1100-series NXP QorIQ LS20xx Nvidia Tegra X1 and Tegra X2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 and 810 Samsung Exynos 7 5433, 7420 HiSilicon Kirin Hi1610 and Hi1612
Cortex-A72	AWS Graviton Broadcom BCM2711 HiSilicon Kirin 950, 955, Kunpeng 916 MediaTek MT6797/D/T/X, MT8173, MT8176, MT8693 MStar 6A938 Qualcomm Snapdragon 650, 652, 653 Rockchip RK3399 NXP QorIQ LS2088, QorIQ LS1046A, QorIQ LX2160A, QorIQ LS1028A, i.MX8
Cortex-A73	Qualcomm Snapdragon 460, 636, 660, 632, 662, 665, 680, 685, 835 Samsung Exynos 7872, 7884, 7885, 7904, 9609, 9610, 9611 HiSilicon Kirin 710, 960, 970 MediaTek MT6771/V, MT6799, MT8183, MT8788 Amlogic S922X
Others	Cortex-A34
ARMv8-A compatible	Ampere eMAG Apple A7, A8, A8X, A9, A9X, A10, A10X Applied Micro X-Gene Cavium ThunderX Nvidia Tegra K1 (Denver), Tegra X2 (Denver2) Qualcomm Kryo, Falkor Samsung Exynos M1 (Mongoose), M2 (Mongoose)

ARMv8.1-A

ARMv8.1-A compatible	Cavium ThunderX2

ARMv8.2-A

Cortex-A55	Samsung Exynos 850 UNISOC SC9863/A, T603
Cortex-A75	Qualcomm Snapdragon 670, 710, 712, 845, 850 Samsung Exynos 9820, 9825 MediaTek MT6769H/T/V/Z, MT6768, MT6779V UNISOC T310, T606, T610, T616, T618, T619, T700, T710, T740
Cortex-A76	Google Tensor HiSilicon Kirin 810, 820, 980, 985, 990 Qualcomm Snapdragon 480(+), 675, 678, 720G, 730(G), 732G, 765(G), 768G, 855(+) and 860, 7c, 7c Gen 2, 8c, 8cx and 8cx Gen 2 Microsoft SQ1 and SQ2 MediaTek MT6781, MT6785V, MT6789, MT6833V/P, MT6853V/T, MT6873, MT6875, Dimensity 6020, 6080, 6100+, 6300, MT8192 Samsung Exynos 990 UNISOC T760, T770, T820
Cortex-A77	MediaTek Dimensity 1000(+) Qualcomm Snapdragon 690, 750G, 865(+) and 870 HiSilicon Kirin 9000 Samsung Exynos 880, 980
Cortex-A78	Google Tensor G2 MediaTek MT6877, MT6878, MT6879, MT6891, MT6893, Dimensity 7020, 7025, 7030, 7050, 8000, 8020, 8050, 8100, 8200, Kompanio 900T, 1200, 1380, 1300T Qualcomm Snapdragon 4 Gen 1, 4 Gen 2, 695, 6 Gen 1, 778G(+), 780G, 782G, 888(+) Samsung Exynos 1080, 1280, 1330, 1380, 2100
Cortex-X1	Google Tensor, Tensor G2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 888(+) Samsung Exynos 2100
Neoverse N1	Ampere Altra, Altra Max AWS Graviton2
Others	Cortex-A65, Cortex-A65AE, Cortex-A76AE, Cortex-A78C, Cortex-X1C, Neoverse E1
ARMv8.2-A compatible	Apple A11 Fujitsu A64FX HiSilicon TaiShan v110 Nvidia Tegra Xavier (Carmel) Samsung Exynos M3 (Meerkat), M4 (Cheetah), M5 (Lion)

ARMv8.3-A

ARMv8.3-A compatible	Apple A12, A12X/A12Z, S4, S5 Marvell ThunderX3

ARMv8.4-A

Neoverse V1	AWS Graviton3
ARMv8.4-A compatible	Apple A13, S6, S7, S8

ARMv8.5-A

ARMv8.5-A compatible	Apple A14, M1

ARMv8.6-A

ARMv8.6-A compatible	Apple A15, A16, A17, M2, M3

ARMv9.0-A

Cortex-A510	MediaTek Dimensity 7200 (Pro/Ultra), 8300 (Ultra), 9000/9000+, 9200 Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, 7s/7+ Gen 2, 7 Gen 3, 8(+) Gen 1, 8 Gen 2 Samsung Exynos 2200
Cortex-A710	MediaTek Dimensity 9000/9000+ Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 1, 7s/7+ Gen 2, 8(+) Gen 1, 8 Gen 2 Samsung Exynos 2200
Cortex-A715	MediaTek Dimensity 7200 (Pro/Ultra), 8300 (Ultra), 9200 Qualcomm Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, 8 Gen 2
Cortex-X2	MediaTek Dimensity 9000/9000+ Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s/7+ Gen 2, 8(+) Gen 1 Samsung Exynos 2200
Cortex-X3	Google Tensor G3 MediaTek Dimensity 9200/9200+ Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Neoverse N2	Alibaba YiTian 710 Microsoft Azure Cobalt 100
Neoverse V2	AWS Graviton4 Nvidia Grace Google Axion

ARMv9.2-A

Cortex-A520	Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3, Snapdragon 8(s) Gen 3 Samsung Exynos 2400
Cortex-A720	MediaTek Dimensity 9300 Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3, Snapdragon 8(s) Gen 3 Samsung Exynos 2400
Cortex-X4	MediaTek Dimensity 9300 Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3, Snapdragon 8(s) Gen 3 Samsung Exynos 2400
Neoverse N3	-
Neoverse V3	-