ARM’s Next Gen 64-bit Processors Will Be Called Atlas and Apollo

Processors licensor ARM Holdings, has recently disclosed the code names of its upcoming CPUs based on the company’s v8 architecture which are the first ARM cores to bring support for the 64-bit instruction set.

ARM has chosen to go with a pair of classical names from the Greek mythology for its next-generation high-end processing cores, which will be dubbed Atlas and Apollo, according to EETimes.

From the info that was made available by ARM at this point in time, we know that both chips are being designed for likely implementation in 20-nm manufacturing process technology, while addressing applications from servers down to smartphones.

"We expect Atlas, Apollo to come into volume in 2014 and at that time it will be a 20-nm world out there," said Warren East, ARM’s chief executive officer.

As the company previously revealed, the ARM v8 architecture will consist of two main execution states, AArch64 and Aarch32, the former enabling its chips to run 64-bit instructions.

This approach will also allow chips based on the ARM v8 architecture to fully support software developed for 32-bit ARM v7a processors.

The move to 64-bit should enable ARM to bring the advantages of energy-efficient 64-bit computing to new applications such as high-end servers and computing.

So far, ARM has four licensees for this new architecture, including AppliedMicro and Nvidia, although the latter also plans to release its own 64-bit ARM processor design with the introduction of Project Denver.

The first 64-bit ARM processors are expected to make their appearance later this year, while the actual server prototypes running on the new architecture are scheduled to arrive in 2014.

In addition to Atlas and Apollo, ARM will also release a pair of next-generation graphics cores code named Skrymir and Tyr as well as an ultra-low power ARM processor core dubbed Flycatcher.