Gauge Newsletter January 2019 | Page 49

instruction set. ARM develops the processor architectures and later licenses those architectures to other companies like Apple, Samsung, and Qualcomm. The companies that buy the licensing might even modify the original designs significantly from its original form. One such chip is the Apple A12 Bionic SoC, which has embedded the ARMv8-A compatible microarchitecture in the processor design. research on the currently popular mobile SoC, there are two top performing SoCs. They are the Snapdragon series by the Qualcomm and the 'A series' of SoCs by the Apple. Cortex-A7x series is ARM’s highest performance series. Cortex- A5x series is its mid-range and Cortex-A3x is ARM’s highest efficiency mobile processor from Cortex-A core series. Smartphones in Modern days One of the factors that customers consider when buying a new smartphone is that they are looking for a faster and quick responsive smartphone. The SoC is one of the main factors that determine whether their new smartphone will be a slow and laggy one or a fast and snappy one. A simple way to discover it is to compare the processors (actually SoCs) with the other existing ones and choose the best smartphone with the SoC that will get the job done for them. However, in practice, it is easier said than done. After doing extensive GAUGE Magazine University of Peradeniya PAGE| 47