ARM, Toshiba seal multiprocessing license deal

ARM and Toshiba Corp. have entered a licensing agreement encompassing the ARM Cortex -A9 processor, Cortex-R4F processor, NEON SIMD technology, PrimeCell peripherals and CoreSight on-chip trace and debugging technology.

The adoption of ARM technology by Toshiba, and its Cortex-M3 processor license last year, will enable the company to provide an ARM Powered SoC portfolio across the full performance spectrum.

The Cortex-A9 MPCore multicore processor is designed for smartphones, mobile internet devices and consumer electronics whereas the Cortex-R4F processor has been designed for embedded use in HDDS, automotive safety systems, mobile baseband, and printer applications.

"This comprehensive licensing agreement adds strategic strength to our ARM Cortex portfolio," said Yasuo Kawahara, general manager of system LSI sales and marketing division, Toshiba's semiconductor company. "We are now positioned to fully respond to market needs by exploiting the total potential of ARM powered system-on-chip solutions. We expect the agreement to make a major contribution to expanding Toshiba's business."

ARM MPCore technology increases performance scalability and control over power consumption, enhancing the functionality of high-performance devices operating within tight power constraints. The Cortex-A9 MPCore multicore processor is ARM's second-generation MPCore processor capable of delivering 2.5 DMIPS/MHz per CPU and has been developed to deliver advanced MPCore technology to a breadth of new application markets. To simplify and broaden the adoption of multicore solutions, the Cortex-A9 processor supports system-level coherence with accelerators and DMA to increase performance and reduce power consumption at the system level. The Cortex-R4F processor is designed for deeply embedded applications and provides greater performance than any other processor with similar die size to meet the diverse needs of the embedded microprocessor market.

In addition to the Cortex processors, the agreement included other ARM technology including ARM NEON technology that provides advanced SIMD technology for advanced multimedia, gaming and compute intensive applications; ARM CoreSight on-chip debug and trace technology; and ARM PrimeCell peripheral IP including cache controllers, interrupt controllers and DMA controllers.

"This licensing agreement signifies Toshiba's firm support for ARM technology," said Graham Budd, EVP and general manager, processor division, ARM. "By leveraging the Cortex family of processors along with the other advanced ARM technology, Toshiba can offer optimized, brand new solutions for every segment of the device market."