Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 31, 2026

ARM Cortex-X4

The ARM Cortex-X4 is a high-performance CPU core from Arm, released in 2023 as part of Arm's "total compute solution". It serves as the successor of ARM Cortex-X3.

Last revised
May 31, 2026
Read time
≈ 2 min
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546 w
Citations
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Source
Wikipedia ↗
ARM Cortex-X4
General information
Launched2023
Designed byARM Ltd.
Performance
Address width40-bit
Physical specifications
Cores
  • 1–10 (per cluster)
Cache
L1 cache128 KiB
(64 KiB I-cache with parity,
64 KiB D-cache) per core
L2 cache512–2048 KiB per core
L3 cache512 KiB – 32 MiB (optional)
Architecture and classification
MicroarchitectureARM Cortex-X4
Instruction setARMv9.2-A
Products, models, variants
Product code name
  • "Hunter ELP"
Variant
History
PredecessorARM Cortex-X3
SuccessorARM Cortex-X925

The ARM Cortex-X4 is a high-performance CPU core from Arm, released in 20231 as part of Arm's "total compute solution".2 It serves as the successor of ARM Cortex-X3.3

X-series CPU cores generally focus on high performance, and can be grouped with other ARM cores, such as ARM Cortex-A720 or/and ARM Cortex-A520 in a System-on-Chip (SoC).45

Architecture changes in comparison with ARM Cortex-X3

The processor implements the following changes:345

  • ARMv9.2
  • micro-op (MOP) cache removed (previously 1.5k entries)
  • Decode width: 10
  • Rename / Dispatch width: 10 (increased from 8)
  • Reorder buffer (ROB): 384 entries (increased from 320)
  • Execution ports: 21 (increased from 15)
  • Pipeline length: 10 (increased from 9)
  • Up to 2 MiB of private L2 cache (increased from 1 MiB)
  • DSU-120
    • Up to 14 cores (up from 12 cores)
    • Up to 32 MiB of shared L3 cache (increased from 16 MiB)

Performance claims:

  • 15% peak performance improvement over the Cortex-X3 in smartphones (3.4GHz, 2MB L2, 8MB L3).5
  • 13% IPC uplift over the Cortex-X3, when based on the same process, clock speed, and L3 cache (but 2 MiB L2 vs 1 MiB L2) setup (also known as ISO-process).5

Architecture comparison

"Prime" core
uArch Cortex-A78 Cortex-X1 Cortex-X2 Cortex-X3 Cortex-X4 Cortex-X925
Code name Hercules Hera Matterhorn-ELP Makalu-ELP Hunter-ELP Blackhawk
Architecture ARMv8.2 ARMv9 ARMv9.2
Peak clock speed ~3.0 GHz ~3.3 GHz ~3.4 GHz ~3.8 GHz
Decode width 4 5 6 106
Dispatch 6/cycle 8/cycle 10/cycle
Max in-flight 2x 160 2x 224 2x 288 2x 320 2x 384 2x 768
L0 (Mops entries) 15367 30727 1536 06
L1-I + L1-D 32+32 KiB 64+64 KiB
L2 128–512 KiB 0.25–1 MiB 0.5–2 MiB 2–3 MiB
L3 0–8 MiB8 0–16 MiB 0–32 MiB

Usage

See also

See also

References

References

  1. "Arm Total Compute Solution 2023 targets premium smartphones". embedded.com. 2023-06-02. Retrieved 2024-01-17.
  2. "TCS23: The complete platform for consumer computing - Arm Community". community.arm.com. 2023-05-29. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
  3. "Arm introduces the Cortex-X4, its newest flagship performance core". WikiChip Fuse. 2023-05-28. Retrieved 2023-05-30.
  4. "Arm Cortex-X4 advances frontiers of CPU performance - Arm Community". community.arm.com. 2023-05-29. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
  5. "Arm Unveils 2023 Mobile CPU Core Designs: Cortex-X4, A720, and A520 - the Armv9.2 Family". www.anandtech.com. Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-30.
  6. "Arm Cortex-X4, A720, and A520: 2024 smartphone CPUs deep dive". Android Authority. 2023-05-29. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  7. "Arm's New Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1 Microarchitectures: An Efficiency and Performance Divergence". anandtech.com. Archived from the original on May 26, 2020. Retrieved 2023-06-01.
  8. Schor, David (2020-05-26). "Arm Cortex-X1: The First From The Cortex-X Custom Program". WikiChip Fuse. Retrieved 2023-05-30.
  9. "Latest Pixel 9 leak gives us a look at the Tensor G4 specs and benchmarks". Android Authority. 2024-06-01. Retrieved 2024-06-01.
  10. "MediaTek says its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 rival will be a beast (Updated)". Android Authority. 2023-05-29. Retrieved 2023-09-16.
  11. "Qualcomm Snapdragon Tech Summit Live Blog: Compute Spotlight". Android Authority. 2023-05-29. Archived from the original on October 25, 2023. Retrieved 2023-09-16.