Processing Architecture for Power Efficiency and Performance


Arm big.LITTLE technology is a heterogeneous processing architecture that uses up to three types of processors. ”LITTLE” processors are designed for maximum power efficiency, while “big” processors are designed to provide efficient, sustained compute performance.

Arm Cortex-X Custom (CXC) Processors with big.LITTLE for Peak Performance

Adjusts to Dynamic Usage Patterns

With three dedicated processors and an expanded envelope for power and area, the big.LITTLE solution can adjust to dynamic usage patterns for smartphones, tablets, and other devices.

Alternates Processing Intensity

big.LITTLE adjusts to periods of high-processing intensity like mobile gaming and web browsing. It can also alternate with longer periods of low-processing intensity tasks, such as texting, email and audio, and with quiescent periods for complex apps.

The performance demanded from users of current smartphones and tablets is increasing at a much faster rate than the capacity of batteries or power savings from advances in semiconductor processes. At the same time, users are demanding longer battery life within roughly the same form factor. This conflicting set of demands requires innovations in mobile SoC design beyond those that process technology and traditional power management techniques can deliver.



Arm DynamIQ

Combines big and LITTLE CPUs into a single, fully integrated cluster, bringing benefits in advanced power management and performance for everything from mobile devices to infrastructure.

Learn More

Typical Processor Combinations

The Arm Cortex-A series processor combinations that meet big.LITTLE requirements are shown below:

Armv9.2 - DynamIQ big.LITTLE - DynamIQ Shared Unit-120


Armv9.0 - DynamIQ big.LITTLE - DynamIQ Shared Unit-110


Armv8.2 - DynamIQ big.LITTLE - DynamIQ Shared Unit


Armv8.0 - big.LITTLE

Features and Benefits

Heterogenous Solution

Arm big.LITTLE processing takes advantage of the performance variation smart devices require by combining two very different processors in a single SoC.

Maximum Performance

The big processor is designed for maximum performance within the mobile power budget.

Optimal Energy Efficiency

The small processor is designed for optimal efficiency and can address all but the most intense periods of work.

On-Demand Task Allocation

big.LITTLE software automatically manages task allocation to the appropriate CPU cores. The operating system is directly aware of the high-performance and high-efficiency cores in the system and can dynamically allocate each task based on required performance.

Broad Ecosystem Support

DynamIQ includes operating system software to run on big.LITTLE hardware and full support from the broader Arm ecosystem.

Talk with an Expert

Interested in designing a next-generation mobile device? Talk to an Arm expert about how big.LITTLE technology can help you.

Contact Us