Arm Cortex-A Presentation Series

History · Architecture · Memory · Vectors · Security · Microarchitecture

Interactive slide decks covering the Arm Cortex-A application-profile family end-to-end — from the ARM11 classic cores through the AArch64 transition of Cortex-A57, into the Armv9-A flagship Cortex-X925. Designed for SoC, microarchitecture, and kernel engineers working on Arm application processors. Click any presentation below to launch it.

01

History & the Cortex-A Family

ARM11 · Cortex-A8 · A9 · A15 & big.LITTLE · A53/A57 AArch64 pivot · A72 – A78 · Cortex-X1 – X925 · A510/A520/A715/A720/A725 · DynamIQ

18 slides ▶ Launch
02

Armv8-A / Armv9-A Architecture

Exception Levels EL0 – EL3 · AArch64 & AArch32 states · A64 ISA · SPSR/ELR/VBAR · Synchronous vs async exceptions · Armv9-A additions

18 slides ▶ Launch
03

Memory System — VMSA, Caches & Ordering

VMSAv8-64 · 4K/16K/64K granules · Stage 1 & Stage 2 · TLB with ASID/VMID · L1–L3–SLC · PoU vs PoC · DMB/DSB/ISB · LDAR/STLR · LSE atomics

18 slides ▶ Launch
04

Vector Extensions — NEON, SVE, SVE2, SME

NEON (128-bit fixed) · SVE (vector-length agnostic, 128–2048 bit) · SVE2 mandatory in Armv9-A · SME matrix tiles & streaming mode · Fujitsu A64FX

16 slides ▶ Launch
05

Security & Virtualization

EL2 hypervisor · VHE · EL3 & TrustZone-A · PAC (QARMA) · BTI · MTE colour tags · RME / CCA · Realms · GPT · Four-world model

17 slides ▶ Launch
06

Microarchitecture & DynamIQ

OoO pipelines · Branch prediction · big.LITTLE → DynamIQ Shared Unit · 1+3+4 layout · PMU · SPE · ETE / TRBE · Speculative side-channel mitigations

17 slides ▶ Launch