ARM Announces New Architecture ARMv8 Finally Enters 64-bit World

Last weekend, ARM finally announced its own 64-bit instruction set processor architecture "ARMv8." When Intel, AMD, VIA, etc. had completely "forgotten" 32-bits, ARM finally caught up.

The ARMv8 architecture is based on 32-bit ARMv7 and retains key technical features such as TrustZone's secure execution environment, virtualization, and NEON (Advanced SIMD). The well-known cores such as Cortex-A9 and Cortex-A15 are derived from the ARMv7 architecture.

The ARMv8 architecture includes two major execution states: AArch64 and AArch32. The former introduces a new set of instructions "A64" dedicated to 64-bit processing, while the latter is designed to be compatible with the existing 32-bit ARM instruction set. The complete architecture specification has been provided to various partners according to the license agreement.

In order to welcome the ARMv8 64-bit architecture, ARM is working with the entire ecosystem to support its 64-bit instruction set. New ARM compilers, Fast Models have been provided to key partners, and a large number of open source operating systems, applications, and third-party tools are also under development.

ARM claims that the new architecture of ARMv8 will bring energy-efficient 64-bit computing to new areas such as high-end servers (which shows that it must challenge Intel in all directions) and provide backward compatibility to facilitate the porting of existing software.

ARM said it will disclose new processors based on the ARMv8 architecture in 2012, but consumer-grade and enterprise-class prototype systems won't be released until 2014. Wait slowly. Hope Wintel don't be so anxious to come up with 128 bits.