The smartphone you buy this fall is going to be way better than the one in your pocket now — and it might even be cheaper, too. ARM, the company behind the chip technology in virtually every smartphone and tablet today, is launching a new kind of processor that brings today's high-end features to more affordable devices.
The new ARM Cortex-A17 design is kind of the 2014 version of the Cortex-A9 that's in chips like Nvidia's Tegra 3 (which powers devices such as the original Nexus 7 and Microsoft Surface) and Apple's A5 (which was in the iPhone 4S). ARM said the A17 is 60% more energy-efficient than the A9, meaning manufacturers who use it will be able to coax more features out of chips based on the A17 design.