As we know, processors of smartphones and tablets are getting more exposure than computer processors. I mean, people buy and own computers but more than half of them don’t even know what a dual-core processor and Hyper Threading means. All they know is that it’s Intel and that’s it. They’ll probably took notice if there’s any Nvidia or Radeon on their computer or not, but that’s extra for those teenagers going to universities.

Now all the attention is given to smartphones and tablets, because more people seek out these instead of computers. What’s more, the popularity of them is raising sky high due to Apple and Android. The processor used by these electronic devices are all running on ARM processor designs that put heat and power consumption and size ahead of processing power. Now that ARM processors are growing rapidly, the company has a better roadmap up ahead to cater for its demand.

The next generation of ARM system-on-chip has been dubbed Cortex-A15 and was expected to ship in 2013, but that’s now been accelerated slightly towards late 2012, which is when we’re told to expect actual devices on sale with A15 silicon on board.

Faster single- and dual-core variants will get us started, before quad-core options start filtering through in 2013. ARM promises a stunning fivefold improvement in performance over current Cortex-A9 SOCs and already has NVIDIA, Samsung, ST-Ericsson, and Texas Instruments signed up as licensees for that new hotness.

Get ready to embrace a future of compact yet powerful portable devices. I won’t be surprised if future low-powered notebooks are also running on ARM processors.

SOURCE via PC World