ARM's Cortex-R4 Configured for 3G Mobile Phones
By Richard Wilson -- 5/15/2006
Electronics Weekly
reed-electronics.com
ARM has introduced its latest microprocessor in the Cortex family, a device with new configurability features aimed specifically at 3G mobiles and in-car electronic systems.
The Cortex-R4 processor is based on a microarchitecture with dual instruction issue capability to deliver more than 600Dhrystone MIPS. It is a 90nm device based upon the ARM Artisan Advantage library.
The processor die is less than one square mm in area and the 90nm chip has a power consumption of less than 0.27mW/MHz
ARM has already secured three lead licensees for the Cortex-R4 including Broadcom, and the processor has received support from major EDA, RTOS and tools vendors.
The processor can be configured during synthesis to optimize the processor for different embedded applications through the memory protection unit, caches and tightly coupled memory.
According to the company, there is no compromising of the instruction set compatibility, which will help with software re-use.
“The embedded market is evolving rapidly as systems become more sophisticated and software workloads increase in computational size and complexity.” said John Cornish, marketing VP at ARM. “This latest member of our Cortex processor family gives chip designers unparalleled capabilities for the development of 3G phones, hard-disk drives, imaging and automotive systems.”
The higher performance Thumb-2 instruction set allows the processor to be used in place of the two separate processors that would traditionally be used in 3G baseband modems.
For automotive applications, the Cortex-R4 processor includes fault tolerance for critical safety applications as well as memory protection that supports the latest version of the OSEK real time operating system.
ARM Gets Physical IP to Match Chip Technology
By David Manners -- 4/26/2006
Electronics Weekly
reed-electronics.com
An acceleration of R&D on its physical intellectual property (IP) side has allowed ARM to bring up its physical IP processes to match the state-of-the-art of its microprocessor process technology.
One result is a deal with TSMC for ARM’s 45nm physical IP process. “When we bought Artisan one of our first priorities was to accelerate the technology development so that we would be able to introduce 45nm well in advance of where Artisan would have done it,” Warren East, ARM’s CEO, told Electronics Weekly.
“The idea was to link the ARM base to the Artisan base. Artisan was serving the small fabless design community typically using the older geometries.”
Processor customers, on the other hand, typically use leading edge process technology. Although 45nm is some time away from being used in manufacturing, the TSMC deal demonstrates that ARM has now aligned is processor and physical IP process technologies.
ARM is starting to see revenues from China and expects to get its first Indian license during the next 12 months. “We have sold 20 licenses in China over the last five years and we’re starting to see royalties from them,” said East. “I’d be amazed if, in 12 months time, we haven’t sold a license in India.”
Asked what had changed in India to make him say that, East replied: “We’re seeing the emergence of independent Indian design companies doing their own designs, instead of doing contract design for Western companies.”
Asked why ARM used surplus cash to buy its shares rather than invest in R&D, East replied: “There’s a limit to the rate at which you can sensibly spend money on R&D. If people don’t want to buy the technology you develop, there’s no point developing it. So you spend on R&D only up to the point where you’re developing technology which people actually want to buy.”
Electronics Weekly is the London-based sister publication of Electronic News. |
