Today’s world is undergoing rapid change, and the main focus of the change lies in the development of artificial intelligence. The development of artificial intelligence is inseparable from computing power, algorithms and big data, and the development of computing power is inseparable from the progress of chips. Recently, the latest ARM architecture ARMV9 was officially launched. ARM hopes this architecture will form the basis of the next 300 billion chip computing platforms over the next decade, which means ARMv9 will change the current chip landscape and revolutionize the computing power of the age.

It took a decade for ARMv9 to emerge from the previous generation of ARM architecture, ARMv8. This was because ARM wanted it to be able to improve its general specialization, security, and powerful processing requirements based on the economy, design freedom, and accessibility of universal computing.

The evolution of the ARM architecture

With the continuous evolution of ARM architecture, our life is also changing rapidly. Take mobile phones as an example, the evolution from ARM V5 to ARM V6 brings us from the “big phone” era into the world of multimedia mobile phones. After ARM V6 is replaced by ARM V7, it brings the classic Cortex-A8 architecture. The shift from ARM V7 to ARM V8 ushered in the era of touchscreen smartphones, bringing “64-bit computing” to mobile phones for the first time, allowing us to play big mobile games on our phones and take better quality photos, while also paving the way for 5G.

More than 100 billion ARM-based chips have been shipped in the past five years, and ARM reckons its partners will ship more than 300 billion in the next decade. Whether in the terminal, data network or cloud, the vast majority of shared data will be processed on ARM in the future.

And with artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things (IoT), and 5G advancing rapidly around the world, the new features in ARMv9 will accelerate the transition from general-purpose computing to more specialized computing for every application. ARMV9 will not only be found in smartphones, servers, laptops and network devices, but also in self-driving cars, in-car intelligence, and Internet of Things devices.

The advantage of Armv9

First, ARMv9 will enable developers to build and program the trusted computing platforms of the future by bridging the critical gap between hardware and software while meeting the need for more complex AI-based workloads. Overall, it has three major advantages:

Advantage 1: security greatly improved

The ARMv9 roadmap introduces the ARM Secure Computing Architecture (CCA). Secure computing protects parts of code and data from being accessed or modified in use, even by privileged software, by performing calculations in a hardware-based secure environment. ARM CCA will introduce the concept of dynamically creating Realms that can be used by all applications in an area separate from the secure and insecure world. For example, in business applications, Realms can protect commercially sensitive data and code from the rest of the system while it is in use, at rest, and in transit.

Advantage 2: Expansion of AI capabilities

ARM partnered with Fujitsu to create Scalable Vector Extension (SVE) technology, which is at the heart of the world’s fastest supercomputer, Fugaku. Building on this work, ARM has developed SVE2 for ARMv9 to implement enhanced machine learning (ML) and digital signal processing (DSP) capabilities in a wider range of applications.

SVE2 enhances the processing power of 5G systems, virtual and augmented reality, and ML workloads that run natively on the CPU, such as image processing and smart home applications. It is worth mentioning that in the next few years, ARM will not only carry out AI innovation in GPU and NPU, but also further expand the AI ability of its technology and greatly improve the matrix multiplication in CPU.

Advantage 3: Maximize performance through system design

CPU performance is expected to increase by more than 30% in the next two generations of mobile and infrastructure CPUs. However, as the industry moves from general-purpose computing to ubiquitous specialized processing, annual double-digit CPU performance gains are not enough. In addition to enhancing specialized processing power, ARM’s holistic computing design approach will accelerate overall computing performance through centralized system-level hardware and software optimization and enhanced use-case performance.

By applying Total Compute design principles across its entire IP portfolio of vehicles, clients, infrastructure, and IoT solutions, ARMv9 system-level technology will span the entire IP solution and improve individual IPs. In addition, ARM is developing several technologies to maximize the performance of ARMv9-based CPUs by increasing frequency, bandwidth, and cache size, as well as reducing memory latency.

The ARMV9 architecture can be exported to China

With so much information about ARMv9, let’s get back to the most important question, can ARMv9 architecture be used by Chinese people? The answer is yes.

Due to the impact of US sanctions, it was widely rumored that Huawei would be banned from using ARMv8 architecture. This will undoubtedly be a fatal blow to Huawei, as products such as Hischip and Kunpeng processor are all based on ARM architecture design.

Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei reassured everyone by saying that “Huawei had obtained a permanent license for the ARMv8 architecture before the U.S. added it to its list of entities, and that even if ARM terminated its cooperation with Huawei, its chip design would not be significantly affected.”

In response to the question, ARM’s VP of Marketing Ian Smit said in an interview that after a thorough review, ARM determined that its V9 architecture is not subject to the U.S. Export Administration (EAR), which means that less than 25% of the technology comes from the U.S. “ARM has notified the relevant authorities of the US government of this and we will continue to comply with the US Department of Commerce’s guidelines for Huawei and its affiliated company Hys.” “Smythe said.

Below the introduction article on ARM’s official website, we can also see a lot of Chinese manufacturers.

Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Group, said: “Xiaomi’s partnership with ARM has delivered a premium mobile experience worldwide. “The new ARMv9 architecture will help Xiaomi continue to bring innovation to millions of users through superior computing performance, maximum security and advanced machine learning capabilities to create a more intuitive and intelligent mobile experience.”

Shih Yujian, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Vivo: “ARMV9 is a new architecture in the mobile space, which will provide enhanced computing and security functions to our products. We look forward to seeing excellent ARMv9 CPU-based performance, which will enhance our ability to deliver high quality and unique products to better meet our customers’ needs, as always.”

Oppo Vice President and Director of Oppo Research, Wenwen Liu: “Oppo smartphones using ARM technology bring the right level of performance, energy efficiency and security to our users. ARM’s innovative commitment to the new ARM V9 architecture will enable the industry to create new, smarter, and even safer experiences in the future.”

ARMV9 will not be “controlled” by the United States in the future, and Chinese manufacturers will not only be able to use ARMV9 based chips, but also design more chips based on this architecture for a variety of products.

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