Put in the simplest terms, a wireless SoC (system on a chip) consists of a DSP core, a RISC core and a modem.
TXN is the undisputed leader in DSPs, with close to 70% of the current world market. It is facing serious challenges from Lucent/Motorola, ADI/Intel, and many others.
ARMHY is the undisputed leader in RISC cores with over 70% of the current world market. ARMHY is the leading IP shop with revenues coming solely from licensing its IP building blocks.
That's why it's interesting to see ARMHY follow a similar path as Nokia and IDCC, which are actively developing TDD IP building blocks (in the form of VSIA-compliant virtual components) for the modem AND the cutting edge EDA processes to facilitate rapid-fire time to market in an increasingly competitive wireless market.
ARM invests in CoWare
By Peter Clarke
EE Times
(07/19/00, 10:38 a.m. EST)
LONDON — ARM Ltd. has invested $3 million in CoWare Inc. (San Jose, Calif.), taking a minority equity position in the EDA tool developer. ARM is a user of CoWare's N2C hardware-software design tools, and is believed to be the first of several customers to take a position in the company.
The size of ARM's stake in CoWare was not disclosed, but sources said CoWare is choosing to raise capital by selling stakes in itself to its major customers. STMicroelectronics has already committed to using CoWare tools on future high-level designs. ARM intends to use CoWare N2C to enhance its system-on-a-chip (SoC) and PrimeCell Peripheral development flows, and several ARM's silicon and system licensees currently use the CoWare N2C design tools to develop their ARM core-based designs.
"CoWare N2C will enable our partners to cut the development time of systems based on ARM technology by as much as 50 percent," said Tudor Brown, chief technology officer for ARM (Cambridge, England). "By strengthening the relationship between our two companies, we will be able to further accelerate the design process for ARM-powered systems, meeting the market's growing demand for SoC products based on ARM cores."
Guido Arnout, president and chief executive officer of CoWare, said: "Processor IP [intellectual property] and embedded software are in the critical path of getting system-chips into today's consumer products. CoWare N2C allows development and debugging of embedded software on a virtual prototype of the SoC months ahead of what is currently possible. The first IP integrated into CoWare N2C in 1997 was the ARM7TDMI core. Since then, we've seen tremendous demand for ARM's processor technology in embedded applications."
eetimes.com |
