ARM is shifting the focus of mobile chip design, and the game might never be the same.
The upcoming CPU core codenamed “Travis”-set to debut in September-isn’t chasing raw clock speeds but instead aims for a smarter kind of performance: IPC, or instructions per clock cycle.
This “Travis” core, spotted in MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500 chip on Geekbench, was running at a modest 3.23GHz, not the previously rumored 4GHz. But don’t let the lower number fool you. According to leakster Digital Chat Station, Travis will deliver a “double-digit IPC boost”, likely around 15%, meaning it can do more work with fewer cycles. That translates to less power draw and reduced heat, a key win for sustained performance and battery life.
In mobile CPUs, where thermal headroom is limited, raising clock speed often results in thermal throttling. With Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Elite versions clocking in at 4.3GHz and beyond, heating issues are common. Travis might finally buck that trend with efficiency-first design.
Notably, Travis also supports ARM’s Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), which is crucial for modern AI tasks and traditional workloads like image and audio processing. This will allow the Dimensity 9500 not only to be smarter but also more versatile. Alongside Travis, the 9500 packs three Alto and four Gelas cores, with Gelas likely being the next-gen Cortex-A7xx successor. The GPU-codenamed “Drage”-will debut under the new Mali-G1 branding.
Interestingly, ARM is overhauling more than just chips. It’s also retiring the “Cortex” name. Mobile chips will now fall under the “Lumex” brand, while “Niva” will target PCs, “Zena” for automotive, “Neoverse” for servers, and “Orbis” for IoT. A bold rebrand-but one that’s already confusing to some users.
In a broader sense, this IPC-focused approach marks a turning point. While Qualcomm pursues peak performance with Oryon and Phoenix cores, ARM and MediaTek may be quietly reshaping the future around smart efficiency. And if Travis performs as expected, it might just become the new gold standard for Android CPUs.
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