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→Confusing Numbering Schemes
* Early ARM chips had numbers that were different from the corresponding architecture levels. For example, the ARM11 processor is an ARMv6 chip, which is much lower-performing than other parts with lower numbers, including the ARMv7-level Cortex-A5, -A7, -A8, and -A9 devices.
* Cortex designations are not in order of release date, features, or power consumption, and are only loosely in order by performance. Cortex-A8 (single-core only) and Cortex-A9 (available in single- and multi-core) are some of the older designs in the series; Cortex-A15 chips add hardware virtualization support. Cortex-A12, Cortex-A7, and Cortex-A5 designs followed, with varying power/performance profiles. Cortex-A35, -A53, -A57, -A72, and -A72 A73 chips are ARMv8.
* Other companies have introduced chips with confusingly similar designations. The Apple A7 chip is not an ARM design and has nothing to do with the Cortex-A7 (or any other Cortex core); it is roughly in the same performance category as a dual-core Cortex-A53. Allwinner and AMD have also used chip designations starting with A (Allwinner A10, A20, and A80, and AMD A1100, for example); these are unrelated to the Apple A-series chips and to the Cortex A designations. Likewise, the Nvidia K1 is unrelated to the AMD K12.
