Cambridge UK innovator ARM Holdings has produced arguably the most significant new technology in its 25-year history with a double play set to revolutionise the look and power of next generation smartphones and other devices.

A suite of new technologies available from 2017 will improve graphics and power on smartphones while using less energy consumption – and will also redefine virtual reality and augmented reality experiences on mobiles and boost the performance of virtual reality headsets.

ARM’s innovation has been hailed as a gamechanger for the future by global ICT giants such as Huawei and Samsung among many other international heavyweights that queued today to pay homage.

ARM said its transformative Cortex-A73 processor and Mali-G71 graphics processor offer sustained performance and efficiency gains that will lead to new products with enhanced contextual and visual capabilities.

The move will allow devices to run high resolution content for longer periods while staying within strict mobile power budgets.

Pete Hutton, executive vice-president and president of ARM’s product groups, said: “The smartphone is the world’s most ubiquitous compute device, offering experiences that improve with each new product generation.

“In 2017, we will see devices with the Cortex-A73 and Mali-G71 processors that stand out thanks to their impressive and sustained performance, and even more stunning visuals. “This technology can make engaging with 4K video, virtual reality and augmented reality an everyday experience on a mobile device.”

The Mali-G71 GPU increases the momentum for ARM Mali products – officially the industry’s number one shipping graphics processor technology. The new core enables a 50 per cent increase in graphics performance, a 20 per cent increase in power-efficiency and 40 per cent more performance per mm2. The Mali-G71 scales efficiently up to 32 shader cores, twice as many as the previous generation premium IP GPU – the Mali-T880.

The uplift means the Mali-G71 surpasses the performance of many discrete GPUs found in today’s mid-range laptops. The product is also fully coherent, helping to simplify software development and efficiency.

ARM says it is ideally suited to power immersive VR and AR experiences on mobile devices and leading silicon providers including HiSilicon, MediaTek and Samsung Electronics have already taken licences.

Bifrost, the third-generation ARM GPU architecture, is the foundation of the Mali-G71. The architecture is optimized for Vulkan and other industry-standard APIs, building on innovations from the previous Utgard and Midgard architectures.

The new Cortex-A73 is the smallest and most efficient ‘big’ ARMv8-A core, according to the company. Its advanced mobile microarchitecture enables a 30 per cent uplift in sustained performance and power efficiency over the Cortex-A72.

Improvements create further opportunities for designers to scale big cores along with the GPU and other IP in a single SoC. Ten partners have licensed the Cortex-A73 so far, including HiSilicon, Marvell and Mediatek.

Kevin Ho, president of the handset business in the Huawei consumer business group, was among the first to throw a bouquet. He said: “In order to deliver more quality and excellent smartphone experiences to consumers, Huawei will continue enhancing the integrated performance of our premium smartphones. “The system-level approach that ARM takes in developing its IP is a vital element in ensuring our design teams are able to maximise efficiency and performance across the entire device.”

In addition to smartphones, ARM’s latest premium IP suite offers the increased performance density and throughput required for other consumer electronics applications such as large-screen compute devices, industrial gateways, in vehicle infotainment and smart TVs. Jae Cheol Son, senior vice-president in the processor development team at Samsung Electronics, added: “Next-generation premium experiences will be defined by pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with mobile VR and AR.

“A scalable GPU like the Mali-G71 will help Samsung design teams address increasingly complex mobile VR and AR use cases.”