ARM planning to release Deimos and Hercules laptop ULV CPUs in 2019-2020
ARM is prominently known for its mobile CPU cores that are integrated in many mainstream SoCs like the Qualcomm Snapdragon, Huawei Kirin, Samsung Exynos, and Apple A(xx). More recently, the ARM CPU cores were introduced to mobile PCs running Windows, but the initial performance assessment was not flattering at all. This determined ARM to concentrate more on the mobile PC side of things, as the company now intends to release PC-specific CPUs to rival AMD and Intel in the next few years.
The current ARM Cortex-A76 core clocked at 3 GHz is said to be comparable to Intel’s Core i5-7300U clocked at 2.6 GHz; however, the ARM chip consumes only 5 W, while Intel’s processor has a max TDP of 15 W. These processors are mostly dedicated to low power ultrabooks for now, but ARM plans to launch improved versions with the Deimos 7 nm architecture in 2019, and, later on, in 2020, the Hercules 7-5 nm architecture.
ARM did not reveal any specific specs for the Deimos and Hercules chips for the time being. Still, judging by the manufacturing process stepping used for each architecture, it is safe to assume that the Deimos chip should get a 15% performance boost and the Hercules one may get an additional 10% boost, both having TDPs of around 5 W.
With Intel and AMD fighting over the desktop, HEDT and server sectors, ARM may very well pose a threat on the mobility side, provided the company manages to keep low TDPs and offer better performance than Intel’s ULV chips.