Companies Extend Relationship to Offer Foundry Customers Sophisticated, Low-Power Design Techniques and High-Speed Connectivity Solutions
"ARM's 90nm IP development of their Artisan low-power platform and high-speed PHY products offers significant advantages for our mutual customers," said Steve Longoria, vice president, Semiconductor Technology Platform for IBM. "The addition of these critical elements to the IBM-Chartered common process platform allows us to deliver advanced, low-power design techniques to the mainstream SoC design community that is primarily focused on application areas such as low-power and high-speed connectivity."
"The availability of the ARM IP is an integral design component within the IBM-Chartered common platform ecosystem for helping mutual customers bring 90nm-based designs to market more quickly," said Kevin Meyer, vice president of Worldwide Marketing at Chartered. "We continue to broaden our relationship with ARM in support of our efforts to deliver integrated, manufacturing-aware, 90nm design solutions for the SoC design community."
Artisan Low-Power Platform
Extending ARM's current library support for the IBM-Chartered 90nm common process platform, the ARM physical IP products include the Artisan Metro low-power standard cells, I/Os and memories that are optimized for low-power designs. All products are characterized for timing and power over an extended range of voltages, enabling designers to perform accurate pre-tapeout simulation of multi-voltage designs. The IP conforms to the Artisan design standard that supports recent releases of leading EDA tools, simplifying power-optimized design and increasing design productivity.
The suite of products enables advanced power management methodologies by providing library components such as voltage level shifters and power gating cells for use with both memories and standard cell blocks. Front-end views for these libraries are immediately available at no charge to customers of IBM and Chartered.
The physical IP products have been designed in close collaboration with industry-leading EDA partners to ensure compatibility with the companies' tools. Delivering advanced low-power design techniques to the mainstream SoC design community is a core area of focus for ARM's participation with Cadence Design Systems, Inc., Magma Design Systems, Inc. and Synopsys, Inc.
Artisan High-Speed PHY Series
Additionally, ARM will offer design kits for its Artisan Velocity PHY (physical layer) series that address high-speed interconnect standards with low-jitter IP solutions. The PHYs meet the stringent requirements for high-speed serial interconnect standards such as PCI Express, Serial ATA and XAUI. The PHYs provide comprehensive support for leading EDA tools and are delivered with extensive documentation.
"Implementing our products on IBM-Chartered's 90nm low-power process brings our users and the industry at-large a proven and unique approach to their SoC design needs," said Neal Carney, vice president of Marketing, Physical IP, ARM. "It is a positive development for SoC designers to have this type of compatibility and flexibility among foundries, third-party IP provider and EDA companies, especially at the leading-edge of process technology."
About ARM
ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM's comprehensive product offering includes 16/32-bit RISC microprocessors, data engines, 3D processors, digital libraries, embedded memories, peripherals, software and development tools, as well as analog functions and high-speed connectivity products. Combined with the company's broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com/.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, features and performance of the ARM Artisan products for IBM, Chartered 90-nanometer process and statements regarding the impact or benefit of such products. These statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, technical or other difficulties that affect the performance of such products and market acceptance of such 90-nanometer library products. More information about potential factors that could affect ARM's business and financial results is included in ARM's Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2003 including (without limitation) under the captions, "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations," which is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") and available at the SEC's website at http://www.sec.gov/.
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