Specifications
The Cortex-A78AE processor combines high performance and power efficiency for safe compute in thermally-constrained designs.
Cortex-A78AE is designed for devices that undertake complex and demanding safety-critical tasks with differing workloads. Cortex-A78AE is well suited to the needs of automated driving and autonomous industrial systems.
Cortex-A78AE supports features to achieve ASIL D/SIL 3 in lock mode. Cortex-A78AE also aids achievement of ASIL B/SIL 2 in hybrid mode, allowing flexibility through its Split-Lock feature operating in second-generation Dual Core Lock-Step (DCLS). Hybrid mode enables the highest safety levels for mission-critical deployments or highest performance for lower safety applications.
Architecture | Armv8.2-A (AArch32 at ELO only) | |
Extensions |
|
|
Microarchitecture |
Pipeline | Out of order |
Superscalar |
Yes | |
Neon / Floating Point Unit | Included with INT8 Dot Product and IEEE FP16 | |
Cryptography Unit |
Optional |
|
Max number of CPUs in cluster |
4 |
|
Physical Addressing (PA) | 48-bit |
|
Memory system and external interfaces |
L1 I-Cache / D-Cache | 32kB to 64kB |
L2 Cache | 256kB to 512kB | |
L3 Cache | Optional, 512kB to 4MB |
|
ECC Support | Yes | |
LPAE | Yes | |
Bus interfaces | AMBA ACE or CHI | |
ACP | Optional | |
Peripheral Port | Optional | |
Functional Safety Support | ASIL D Systematic1 and ASIL D Diagnostic2 | |
Security | TrustZone | |
Interrupts |
External GICv4 |
|
Generic timer | Armv8-A | |
Non-intrusive debug (trace) | Included |
|
1Suitable for up to ASIL D systematic development | ||
2Contributes towards up to ASIL D hardware diagnostic metrics |

Compare the specifications of Cortex-A Armv7-A and Armv8-A processors:
Key benefits
Split-Lock capability with hybrid mode provides end-to-end protection capability and enhanced flexibility to operate in three modes:
- Split mode for performance
- Lock mode for safety
- Hybrid mode to offer a balance of safe compute performance
DCLS provides fault-tolerant operation in lock mode.
Key features compared to Cortex-A76AE
Cortex-A78AE provides 30% improved performance for each core at improved power efficiency, compared to Cortex-A76AE.