ARM has multiple processor designs and it's getting hard to keep them all straight. The Cortex-A8, released in 2009, has one core and powers most of the smartphones in use today. The Cortex-A9, a more powerful design with up to four cores, came out this year and is being used in most new smartphones. The Cortex A-15, due out next year, will be more powerful still, and is aimed at as well as phones and tablets.

ARM showed a sample A-15 processor, with two cores, running Android on a test board here at the event. It wasn't much to look at but was intended to show that ARM is on track with its development.

The A7 emphasizes low power over high performance, which is why ARM went backward with its version numbers, instead of calling it the A-10. It's suitable for tasks such as music playback and casual gaming. The A15 cores will run rich Web applications, high-def games and augmented reality applications, ARM said.

ARM's designs are licensed and manufactured by companies such as Texas Instruments, Broadcom and Freescale, who were all at its event along with Nokia, Samsung, Sprint and others. The chip makers are expected to produce the first A7 parts next year, so smartphone makers should have them in devices soon after that.

It may take chip makers a bit longer to implement the combined A7-A15 design, but that too could appear in smartphones by 2013, ARM said.