ARM launched the Cortex A15, the company's next-generation processor. The release of the 2.5Ghz quad-core A15 comes days after Samsung announced plans for a dual-core Cortex A9.

In its Web site, the company said: "The ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore processor delivers unprecedented processing capability, combined with low power consumption to enable compelling products in a wide range of new and existing ARM markets ranging from mobile computing, high-end digital home, servers and wireless infrastructure."

The company also says that the processor has the same underlying architecture as that used in a lot of smartphones and mobile devices.

"This enables immediate access to an established developer and software ecosystem including Android, Adobe Flash Player, Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE), JavaFX, Linux, Microsoft Windows Embedded, Symbian and Ubuntu, along with more than 700 ARM Connected Community members providing applications software, hardware and software development tools, middleware and SoC design services."

With the Cortex A15 processor, the company aims to introduce new technologies for hardware virtualization, support for up to 1Tb of memory, and capabilities for error correction that allow for improved fault tolerance.

While the quad-core A15 expands the functionality, increases the number of processor cores and boosts the performance of the Cortex processor line, the company maintains the power efficiency required by mobile devices.

Devices built on the Cortex A15 are not expected to become available until late 2012.