ARM taped out the first TSMC 16FFC test chip incorporating Cortex-A73 POP IP in early May 2016. The chip is enabling ARM partners to move quickly towards the validation of key performance and power metrics for their new products. The Cortex-A73 is part of the latest ARM mobile IP suite and it has been designed to deliver significant increases in sustained performance and efficiency compared with the Cortex-A72.

"When designing mainstream mobile SoCs, design teams are challenged to balance implementation and optimization efforts with cost-efficiencies," said Will Abbey, general manager, physical design group, ARM.

"Our latest physical IP collaboration with TSMC addresses this challenge by providing ARM partners with the best SoC optimization solution available for the Cortex-A73. An optimized Cortex-A73 POP solution will help our partners to accelerate their own core implementation knowledge and enable faster time to tape out."

"Our collaboration with ARM continues to drive advanced technologies across many sectors, including mobile," said Suk Lee, Senior Director, Design Infrastructure Marketing Division, TSMC. "Customers designing their next-generation flagship mobile SoCs will benefit from this new highly efficient solution, enabling them to deliver the highest performance Cortex implementations and bring innovative new products to market quicker."

Mutual ARM and TSMC silicon partners have also benefitted from early access to ARM Artisan physical IP and 16nm FinFET+ tape-outs of the Cortex-A72 processor, the high-performance processor powering many of today's best-selling primary compute devices.