
HiSilicon Kirin 955

The HiSilicon Kirin 955 is a ARM-based high-end Octa-Core-SoC for Android based smartphones and tablets. It was announced in the beginning of 2016 together with the Huawei P9. It contains 8 processor cores (4x Cortex-A72, 4x Cortex-A53), a ARM Mali T880 MP4 GPU (see for information and benchmarks), a dual-channel LPDDR4 memory controller and a LTE Cat. 5 radio. In the beginning of 2016 it is one of the fastest ARM bases SoCs on the market. Compared to the slightly older Kirin 950, the 955 is a higher clocked version (A72 cores clock at 2.5 versus 2.3 GHz).
The Kirin 955 is one of the first SoCs that use the new Cortex-A72 architecture. Compared to the A57 cores, the A72 ones offer a 15 percent higher per MHz performance and should be more energy efficient. In the Kirin 955, the four Cortex-A72 cores are able to clock up to 2.5 GHz. Furthermore, the processor includes four power saving cores based on the Cortex-A53 architecture that are clocked with 1.8 GHz (max.).
The Kirin 955 is manufactured in 16nm at TSMC (16FF+ process).
| Codename | Cortex-A72/-A53 |
| Clock Rate | 2500 MHz |
| Number of Cores / Threads | 8 / 8 |
| Manufacturing Technology | 16 nm |
| Features | ARM Mali-T880 MP4 GPU, 4x Cortex-A72 (2.5 GHz) + 4x Cortex-A53 (1.8 GHz, big.LITTLE), LTE Cat. 6, 2x 32 Bit LPDDR4-3200 Memory Controller (25.6 GB/s) |
| GPU | ARM Mali-T880 MP4 ( - 900 MHz) |
| 64 Bit | 64 Bit support |
| Architecture | ARM |
| Announcement Date | 04/06/2016 |
Benchmarks
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
Reviews for the HiSilicon Kirin 955 processor


Huawei P9 Smartphone Review
Honor Note 8: ARM Mali-T880 MP4, 6.60", 0.2 kg
External Review » Honor Note 8
Huawei P9: ARM Mali-T880 MP4, 5.20", 0.1 kg
External Review » Huawei P9
Huawei P9 Plus: ARM Mali-T880 MP4, 5.50", 0.2 kg
External Review » Huawei P9 Plus