ARM reinforces its commitment to become a major player in the world of autonomous vehicles with the introduction of its new ARM Cortex-A65AE microprocessor, designed to process multiple data streams.
ARM Cortex-A65AE, the new core at 7 nm for autonomous driving
The new ARM Cortex-A65AE chip will be available in 2020. The idea with the new chip is to process the many separate data streams that automated vehicles are supposed to produce more efficiently and to help them navigate the roads more safely.
ARM Cortex-A65AE is based on ARM’s “split-lock” technology that adds multithreading functionality to distribute workloads to the processing cores on the chip. Alternatively, if security is a primary concern, the chip can block the cores to perform the same operations simultaneously and re-check the work of the chip, minimizing the possibility of errors.
ARM says that the Cortex-A65AE will help connected vehicles to manage a large number of sensors more efficiently that need to drive autonomously. Numerous sensors will be needed to help these vehicles to monitor their environment, including cameras, LiDAR and radar, significantly increasing the performance and computing requirements required to safely process this data.
ARM said the Cortex-A65AE will also be able to monitor human drivers in non-autonomous vehicles. The chip can be used to process data from sensors in the car that monitor driver eyelid movement to detect fatigue. Sensors can also be used to monitor the driver’s body temperature, vital signs and behavioral patterns, which help personalize his driving experience in the vehicle.
In addition to multi-processing and security features, the Cortex-A65AE can also be connected to enterprise graphics processing units such as Nvidia, which offer even higher processing power. ARM did not provide a performance description for the Cortex A65AE except to say that it has 3.5 times the performance of its previous generation Cortex A53 chip.