Arm unveils Lumex CSS Platform with new Arm C1 CPU cores and Mali G1 GPUs

Arm has unveiled its next-generation mobile platform, the Lumex Compute SubSystem (CSS). The new platform is built around the brand new Arm C1 CPU and Mali-G1 GPU architectures, and it's designed from the ground up to enable powerful, real-time on-device AI for next-generation smartphones and tablets.

The new Lumex platform features the Arm v9.3-based C1 CPU cores, which will be offered in four distinct arrangements to cover the entire mobile market. The flagship is the C1-Ultra, promising a 25% single-thread performance uplift over the Arm Cortex-X925, while the C1-Premium offers the same performance in a smaller, more efficient package. Then there's the C1 Pro, promising a 16% sustained performance increase compared to the Cortex-A725, and lastly, the C1 Nano, which is 26% more efficient than the Cortex-A520.

On the graphics side, we have the new Mali-G1 GPU. Designed for 3nm process nodes, this new architecture is scalable from 10 to 24 cores and offers a 20% uplift in general graphics performance over the previous generation. A significant focus has been placed on ray tracing, with the introduction of a new Ray Tracing Unit v2 (RTUv2) that Arm claims can deliver up to double the performance of its predecessor.

As part of the Lumex platform, these new CPUs will support Scalable Matrix Extension 2 (SME2). Arm claims that this new instruction set can boost AI performance by up to 5 times and dramatically reduce latency for speech-based workloads, such as live translation and voice assistants. Moreover, Arm is ensuring that developers can easily tap into this new AI power via its KleidiAI libraries, which are already integrated into major frameworks, such as PyTorch and Microsoft's ONNX Runtime. This means that many popular apps will be able to leverage the SME2 acceleration without requiring significant code changes from their developers.

We can expect to see the first smartphones and tablets powered by the Arm Lumex platform, featuring its new C1 and Mali-G1 cores, arriving sometime in 2026. Arm also noted that similar processor technology for laptops will be released under the “Arm Niva” branding.

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KitGuru says: Like most chip makers at this stage, Arm is also heavily focused on AI. 

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