PRODUCT BACKGROUNDER As the industry s leading provider of semiconductor intellectual property (IP), ARM Holdings plc [(LSE:ARM); (Nasdaq:ARMHY)] is a major driving force in the global development of embedded electronics technology. ARM s extensive range of system-onchip (SoC) solutions propels the technical advancement of a wide range of end products in some of the hottest technology markets today. With a vision to become The Architecture For The Digital World, ARM microprocessor technology enables leading-edge companies to develop feature-rich, reliable and cost-effective products. Formed in 1990, ARM licenses its high-performance, power-efficient Intellectual Property (IP) designs to an unrivalled global network of Partner companies. These industry-leading providers of semiconductors, systems, software and design tools utilise ARM technology as essential building blocks for the microprocessors, peripherals and SoCs they develop and manufacture. Overview ARM s extensive IP offerings consist of a wide range of microprocessor cores, architectural extensions, development tools, peripheral IP and SoC solutions. All of these solutions are supported by ARM s world-class development and support environment, as well as a global network of design and engineering Partners. ARM s solutions are built to meet the requirements of today s fast-growing business and consumer applications, forming the foundation for digital electronic products that are demanding more performance than ever before. ARM s RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing) technology addresses today s design challenges, providing many advantages over competing architectures. Not only do ARM cores offer an unrivalled combination of advanced logic, robust functionality, energy efficiency and low cost, but their simpler designs enable easy integration a major factor in a climate that requires semiconductor companies to get their products to market as quickly as possible. In addition, their superior code densities allow for reduced memory and consequently, lower system costs. The ARM Architecture The ARM architecture, which provides the basis for the company s technology leadership, is the most widely used 16/32-bit embedded RISC solution in the world. Latest reports show that ARM s market share of the embedded RISC microprocessor market is approximately 75 percent and to date, ARM Partners have shipped more than one billion ARM core-based microprocessors. It has excelled because it is an open 1
architecture that provides unparalleled levels of compatibility and design reusability, combined with superior MIPS per watt and code density. The industry-proven Thumb instruction set is an extension to the ARM architecture. While incorporating the same design characteristics, the Thumb instruction set requires only a 16-bit wide system data bus, thereby using less power, offering a smaller footprint, and reducing overall system cost. The Thumb instruction set features a subset of the most commonly used 32-bit ARM instructions, which have been compressed into 16-bit wide codes to provide excellent code densities. On execution, these 16-bit instructions are decompressed transparently and in real-time to full 32-bit instructions without performance loss. Designers can combine ARM code with Thumb code for maximum flexibility in their applications. ARM Jazelle technology for Java acceleration delivers an unparalleled combination of Java performance and the world s leading 32-bit embedded RISC architecture - giving platform developers the freedom to run Java applications alongside established OS, middleware and application code on a single processor. The single-processor solution offers higher performance, lower system cost and lower power than coprocessors and dual-processor solutions. ARM has enhanced many cores by extending the instruction set to include 16-bit and 32- bit arithmetic capabilities. These DSP-enhanced cores enable products that require a mixture of DSP and control functionality to be implemented with a single core, saving the time, cost and complexity of implementing a dual-core design. Typical applications include mass storage devices, such as hard disk drives, and automotive satellite controllers. The rapid expansion of multi-media products has driven the development of SIMD (Single-Instruction Multiple-Data) technology, which can efficiently operate on large data arrays. ARM cores implementing SIMD extensions are optimised for a broad range of software applications including video and audio codecs, where the extensions increase performance by up to four times, without losing the low-power advantage the ARM architecture offers. ARM Microprocessor Cores ARM offers the industry s broadest range of 16/32-bit embedded RISC cores that are grouped into a range of families: the ARM7, the ARM9, the ARM9E, the ARM10, the SecurCore, the StrongARM, and the Intel XScale families. Each product family consists of high-performance, energy-efficient designs built to handle the performance demands of today s increasingly complex electronics applications. ARM7 Thumb Family: The ARM7 Thumb family is made up of the ARM7TDMI and ARM7TDMI-S processor cores, the ARM720T cached processor macrocell and the ARM7EJ-S core with Jazelle enhancements for Java technology acceleration. These 2
designs incorporate the Thumb 16-bit compressed instruction set and are designed for use within larger SoC designs. They are supported by a wide range of software development tools, boards, simulation models and co-simulation tools, and offer exceptionally compact designs. The ARM7TDMI core, for example, occupies only 0.53mm2 on a 0.18µ CMOS process and power consumption on the same geometry is around 0.25mW/MHz.The ARM720T cached processor macrocell provides a complete highperformance processor with 8KB cache, write buffer and memory management functions. This virtual memory system supports operating systems such as Linux, Symbian OS and Windows CE. All ARM7 family processors feature the Thumb compressed instruction set and EmbeddedICE JTAG-based software debug logic. As the company s most widely deployed core family, the ARM7 solutions are suitable for a wide range of multimedia and embedded applications including Internet appliances, network and modem devices, and a wide range of wireless devices including mobile phones and PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). With the evolution in wireless information devices, the ARM7 family is also targeted at the next generation of smart multimedia wireless devices. Current licensees of the ARM7 Thumb family are: ATMtek, Agilent, AMI Semiconductor, Epson, Ericsson, Fujitsu, Global UniChip, Intel, Kawasaki, Lucent, Micronas, Mitsubishi Electric, Mobilian, Oak Technology, Parthus, Sanyo, Silicon Wave, SiS, ST Microelectronics, Toshiba, Triscend and Yamaha. ARM9 Thumb Family: The ARM9 family of processors consists of the ARM9TDMI processor core, and the ARM920T and ARM940T cached processor macrocells. These designs deliver up to 220MIPS at 200MHz on a 0.18µm process, and 200MHz (220MIPS) on leading-edge 0.13µm processes. Typical die area for the ARM920T core on a 0.13µm process is 2.1mm 2 (with caches), and power consumption on the same process at 1.2V is between 0.2mW/MHz. Designers can consequently take advantage of the ARM9 family of cores to pursue a range of feature-rich applications or to achieve system cost reduction by consolidating multiple functions onto a single high-performance CPU. All ARM9 family processors feature the Thumb compressed instruction set and EmbeddedICE JTAG-based software debug logic. The ARM9 solutions are backward compatible with the ARM7 family to offer additional design flexibility. Key applications include automotive control, instrumentation, safety systems, set-top boxes, high-end printers, PDAs, network computers and smart phones, as well as multimedia formats such as MP3 audio and MPEG4 video. Current licensees of the ARM9 Thumb family are: ADMtek, AMI Semiconductor, Matsushita, OKI, Resonext, TSMC and ZTEIC. ARM9E Thumb Family: The ARM9E family of synthesizable processors consists of the ARM926EJ-S, ARM946E-S and ARM966E-S cached processor macrocells. These solutions are digital signal processor (DSP)-enhanced, making them well suited for applications requiring a mix of DSP and microcontroller performance. The ARM9E family of single-chip solutions offers considerable savings in chip area and complexity, 3
power consumption and time-to-market over multi-core solutions. These cores are enabled with both Thumb technology and DSP extensions to the ARM instruction set. They also build upon the strong industry third-party support for the ARM architecture including Real Time Operating Systems, application software, software development tools, EDA tools, development boards, consulting services and training. The ARM9E solutions include EmbeddedICE-RT logic, which is an enhanced version of ARM s EmbeddedICE JTAG-based software debug facilities, to better meet the needs of realtime system development. The ARM9EJ core is a Jazelle technology-enhanced ARM9E processor core. This core supports a new Java operating state and allows the execution of Java bytecodes in hardware. ARM also offers a floating-point coprocessor, the ARM VFP9-S vector floating-point coprocessor. The ARM VFP9-S coprocessor is a high-performance, low-power and small die area floating-point solution for the ARM9E-S family of synthesizable microprocessor cores. The ARM VFP9-S coprocessor consists of a maximum of approximately 95,000 gates, compared with an ARM9E integer microprocessor core that has around 65,000 gates. In a typical 0.18µm implementation of an ARM966E-S core with 16kb of instruction tightlycoupled memory and 16kb of data tightly-coupled memory, the total die size is around 4mm 2, and the ARM VFP9-S coprocessor would add no more than an additional 1.5mm 2 of die size. The ARM9E family has a wide range of applications including mass storage devices such as hard disk drives and DVD players; speech coders; automotive control solutions such as hands-free interfaces, cruise control, anti-lock braking systems; modems and softmodems; PDAs; point-of-sale terminals; smart phones; MP3 audio decoding; and speech recognition and synthesis. Current licensees of the ARM9E Thumb family are: Agilent, Fujitsu, Intel, Intersil, Lucent, LSI Logic, Marvell, NEC, Oak Technology, Pixim, Philips, PrairieComm, Sanyo, Samsung, ST Microelectronics, Toshiba and TSMC. StrongARM processors and the XScale microarchitecure: ARM s StrongARM processors provide ideal solutions for portable communications and consumer electronics devices. The processors, which were jointly developed by ARM and Digital Equipment Corporation, are now available from Intel and are being utilised in the Compaq ipaq H3600 Pocket PC, the Hewlett Packard Jornada Handheld PC, Java technology-based Palmtop computers and many other popular products. The StrongARM solution is available from Intel as the SA110 general embedded standard processor, the SA1110 processor for palm-sized devices and the SA1111 companion chip. In addition, in autumn 2000, Intel announced the XScale microarchitecture, its next-generation ARM architecture-compliant solution. This new microarchitecture provides a fully-featured, cost-effective, low-power solution with support for both 16-bit Thumb instructions and integrated digital signal processor (DSP) instructions. In February 2002, Intel launched two new XScale microarchitecture-based processors, the Intel PXA250 and the PXA210. The new Intel PXA250 and Intel PXA210 4
applications processors allow makers of wireless communications devices to take the next step in high-performance and low-power wireless handheld computing technology. The Intel PXA 250 applications processor, running at clock speeds up to 400 MHz, delivers advanced integration, leadership multimedia performance and improved power savings required for many full-featured handheld communicators, telematics systems and PDAs. Running at speeds up to 200 MHz, the Intel PXA210 applications processor delivers a highly integrated, low-power solution for cell phones and entry-level handheld and wireless devices. Products using the new processors are expected to be available to consumers by mid-2002. ARM10 Thumb Family: The ARM10 Thumb family comprises the ARM1020E and ARM1022E microprocessor cores and is a series of next-generation, 400+ MIPS processors designed in anticipation of market challenges for multimedia digital consumer applications such as digital set-top boxes and high-performance, handheld devices including organisers and smart phones. These solutions are optimised to reduce system complexity, increase flexibility and provide a low-cost, high-performance processor macrocell for a variety of fabrication processes. The ARM10 processor delivers up to 400 Dhrystone 2.1 MIPS at 300 MHz, and features an optional vector floating-point unit (VFP10 ) capable of delivering 600 MFLOPS. This level of integer and floating point performance is essential for applications that have sophisticated user-interfaces with 2D and 3D graphics rendering, such as video game players and high-performance printers. Current licensees of the ARM10 Thumb family are: Lucent, Philips, Samsung, ST Microelectronics and TSMC. SecurCore Family: The SecurCore family consists of the SC100, the SC110, SC200 and SC210 microprocessor cores and is targeted specifically at the emerging and rapidly growing security market. With a growing list of licensees, SecurCore technology is the most widely available 32-bit RISC architecture designed for smart cards and other secure applications. ARM s SecurCore family provides unique, 32-bit solutions for smart card and secure IC development offering system designers privileged access to ARM processor cores to create fast, secure e-commerce, banking, networking, mobile multimedia, identification and mass transit solutions. The SecurCore family of microprocessors features a new secure processor design and anti-counterfeiting methodology that is unique to ARM. This methodology helps resist invasion at the hardware and software levels, and physical tampering through reverse engineering of the layout, power or timing analysis, or directly probing the processor chip surface. The SC100 is fully code-compatible with the ARM7 and ARM9 processor families, includes a high-end cryptographic accelerator, OS support for Java Card and MULTOS, an RTOS (Real Time Operating System) capability for advanced networking security applications and also provides coprocessor support. The SecurCore SC200 and SC210 cores offer all of the above features plus enhanced core security, ARM Jazelle technology for Java Card acceleration, a Harvard memory interface, and a smart cardoriented cache, for increased efficiency. 5
Current licensees of the SecurCore family are: Atmel, Philips and Samsung. Jazelle technology-enabled cores: Current cores that include Jazelle technology are the ARM926EJ-S core and the ARM7EJ-S core but ARM is working towards including Jazelle technology in all of its core families. The ARM926EJ-S macrocell is a fully synthesizable, 32-bit RISC processor comprising an ARM9EJ-S Java technologyenhanced processor core, instruction and data caches, tightly-coupled memory (TCM) interfaces, memory management unit (MMU), and a dual AMBA AHB (Advanced High-performance Bus) on-chip interface. The size of the instruction and data cache, and instruction and data TCMs can all be independently selected, providing complete flexibility and enabling the ARM926EJ-S core to be tailored exactly to specific application needs. The MMU supports virtual memory-based platform operating systems such as Linux, Windows CE, Palm OS, Symbian OS & Java OS. The ARM7EJ-S core provides all the benefits of the ARM7TDMI core low-power consumption, small size and the Thumb instruction set while also incorporating ARM s Jazelle technology and DSP extensions, offering 130 MIPS on a typical 0.13µm process (Dhrystone2.1). The DSP extensions allow systems that may have conventionally been implemented using a microcontroller and DSP to be implemented in a single core design. Architectural Extensions ARM offers a number of architectural extensions to deliver enhanced application performance. These extensions include: Thumb: compressed instruction set designed for use within larger chip designs that reduces system cost by using a smaller, low-power 16-bit wide data bus Multiplier: enhanced multiplier for improved processing performance. EmbeddedICE-RT: Real-time trace solution for the ARM9 family of processors DSP: Extensions to the ARM processor family to provide enhanced performance in DSP applications. Jazelle: Java acceleration technology SIMD: Single Instruction Multiple Data for enhanced multimedia applications Supporting Development Tools, Technology, Intellectual Property and Partnerships ARM s advanced tools and systems provide fully integrated, easy-to-use development solutions. These include a combination of software development tools and debuggers, as well as systems development and evaluation boards that improve time-to-market. ARM has recently brought all of its development tools under one brand, RealView, and the tools support all the cores in the ARM family for complete forward and backward compatibility. To further enhance ease of development, ARM works with many leading third-party RTOS and tools vendors. 6
RealView tools by ARM provide designers with the best solution for creating and analysing systems based on ARM technology. ARM RealView tools are designed and used by the same creators of the ARM architecture. Because the tools are developed by the designers of the architecture, they enable the highest level of pre-silicon evaluation and development and the broadest range of support for future architecture families and derivatives. ARM RealView tools are fully integrated and provide a complete solution to any design or SoC integration challenge, giving the developer higher confidence in first silicon and a faster time-to-market. Debug ARM offers a full debug solution including In-Circuit Emulation tools the ARM RealView Debugger, Multi-ICE and MultiTrace and on-chip debug facilities EmbeddedICE-RT, Embedded Trace Macrocell (ETM) and Embedded Trace Buffer (ETB). The ARM RealView Debugger is a leading component of ARM s RealView development solution. It delivers multi-core mixed architecture debugging and OS awareness of applications for ARM core-based complex SoC designs. With the RealView Debugger, system developers can simultaneously develop and debug applications on a system with multiple ARM cores or an ARM core plus a DSP core, with the same debug environment. The RealView Debugger enables developers to debug multi-core hardware systems by synchronising the operation of all cores during debug. It enables complex, multi-core systems to be stopped quickly to preserve critical state information, by providing a powerful cross core breakpoint facility that enables a breakpoint on one core to stop all other cores in the system. Real-Time Debug: ARM Real-Time Trace and RealMonitor are key elements of the ARM Real-Time Debug solution. They reduce development cycles and provide functionality specifically designed for debugging software running in highly-integrated system-on-chip (SoC) devices with deeply embedded processor cores. Real-Time Trace and RealMonitor offer significant advantages over traditional tools, greatly reducing overall time-to-market. The hardware and software solutions include a range of development tools to provide the functionality required to efficiently and nonintrusively debug software running at high frequencies. Real-Time Trace is comprised of Embedded Trace Macrocell, Embedded Trace Buffer, Multi-ICE and Multi-ICE interfaces and Trace Debug Tools. RealMonitor is comprised of RMTarget, RMHost and is supplied as an add-on to the ARM Developer Suite (ADS) Multi-ICE: Multi-ICE is an ARM JTAG-based In-Circuit Emulator (ICE). It supports ARM Real-Time Debug, which provides an invaluable historic view of processor activity about a trigger point, while background tasks continue. Memory contents can be changed while the microprocessor is running, ending time-consuming delays due to powerdown/power-up routines. 7
Embedded Trace Macrocell: The ETM connects directly to the processor core, monitoring all bus activity. Dependent on configurable comparators and filters, instruction execution and data transfer activity can be captured and passed out at full core execution speed, through a Trace Port, for collection and later analysis. Embedded Trace Buffer: As an alternative to the Trace Port, which requires device pins to implement, the trace information can be captured to and on-chip circular buffer, the ETB. This can be read later either externally through the JTAG port and Multi-ICE unit or internally through a memory-mapped peripheral device. MultiTrace: MultiTrace is part of ARM s Real-Time Debug solution and enables comprehensive real-time tracing and debugging. The MultiTrace unit passively collects information from ARM core-based system-on-chips (SoC) containing an Embedded Trace Macrocell (ETM). The MultiTrace analyser is used to buffer the collected information before transmission to the Trace Debug Tools. It allows developers to quickly locate difficult bugs, thus reducing time to market and development costs. EmbeddedICE: EmbeddedICE is a JTAG-based debugging environment for ARM microprocessors. EmbeddedICE provides the interface between ARM s source level symbolic debugger, ARMsd, and an ARM microprocessor embedded within any ASIC. The ARMsd debugger is available for PC-compatible and Sun workstation platforms. EmbeddedICE provides real time address and data dependant breakpoints, single stepping, full access and control of the ARM CPU, and full access to the ASIC system - full memory access (read and write) and full IO system access (read and write). EmbeddedICE also allows the embedded microprocessor to access the host system peripherals, for instance screen display, keyboard input and disk drive storage. EmbeddedICE-RT: For real-time systems controlling physical devices such as rotating parts, halting the core completely is likely to cause a loss of control. EmbeddedICE-RT is an enhancement of the original product which allows interrupt routines to continue to execute in the background whilst the foreground task is debugged. As the control algorithms are typically interrupt driven then the system can be kept in control during a debug session. Software ARM Developer Suite: The ARM Developer Suite (ADS) provides a complete software development solution for rapidly and cost-effectively creating applications for the ARM architecture. It offers fully integrated Real-Time Debug support and improved code density and execution speed. It is comprised of Code Generation Tools (C and Embedded C++ compilers, Assembler and Linker for ARM and Thumb instruction sets) an Integrated Development Environment for Windows (CodeWarrior IDE from Metrowerks - PC version only), powerful GUI debugger, instruction set simulators, ROM-based debug tools (ARM Firmware Suite ), support for all ARM cores and processors, sophisticated on-line documentation, ARM Applications Library and Real Time Debug and Trace support. 8
Hardware Integrator family: The Integrator family provides a range of flexible, highperformance development platforms for system-on-chip designers, reducing time to market and overall costs. Integrator platforms enable the integration of software and hardware designs such as ARM s PrimeCell peripherals and associated drivers. Integrator reduces development times and increases confidence in the final silicon by allowing early prototyping in an environment similar to the final system using programmable and standard components. The Integrator family consists of modules and platform boards: Core Modules provide ARM core personality; Logic Modules provide user-programmable logic elements; Platform boards provide the AMBA backbone and systems infrastructure that the modules require. Evaluator-7T (ARM7TDMI Evaluation Kit): Evaluator-7T offers an easy, affordable introduction to the ARM family of processor-related products. It is ideal for new customers and students who want to evaluate an ARM CPU and its software tools. Based on an ARM7TDMI core, the Evaluator-7T evaluation kit supports the full range of ARM7 core instructions including Thumb instructions and can operate at speeds of up to 50 MHz. With an Evaluator-7T evaluation kit, a user can work through all the development stages required to design an embedded system. ARM Developer Kit : To help users develop ARM core-based products easily and cost effectively; ARM has bundled its most popular development tools into the ARM Developer Kit v3.0. The kit includes everything that is needed for evaluation and development in a fully integrated environment. The PC and UNIX kits contains a single user PC floating license of the ARM Developer Suite, an Integrator ASIC Platform Development Board (AP), an ARM7TDMI core module, a Multi-ICE debug interface unit and documentation and installation notes. In Q1, 2002, ARM announced the launch of the ARM Developer Kit for Intel XScale platforms. The ARM Developer Kit offers developers of XScale technology the ability to increase application functionality by providing best-in-class code generation and reduces the costs of development as one set of tools supports all XScale and StrongARM products. The ARM Developer Kit includes a set of XScale compilation tools in C/C++ and associated assemblers and debuggers; AXD debugger; JTAG Interface; and a version of the ARM Firmware suite for Intel developer boards. Also announced in Q1 2002, was the development of the RealView Developer Kit for solutions based on Philips semiconductors. In support of this new product family, the RealView Developer Kit for Philips microprocessor-based solutions provides best-inclass size and performance for the ARM and Thumb instruction sets, resulting in lower system costs and a higher performance for the end equipment. By coupling these tools with the real-time instrumentation provided by the ARM Embedded Trace Macrocell included in the devices, developers will benefit from shortened design cycles and time-tomarket. Firmware 9
ARM Firmware Suite: The ARM Firmware Suite is a package of low-level routines and applications that have been designed to help developers rapidly bring up applications and operating systems on ARM core-based development platforms, such as the Integrator or other ARM core-based systems. The ARM Firmware Suite v1.3 is included both with Integrator systems and the ARM Developer Suite. Modelling Tools ModelGen tool: ModelGen is an advanced modelling tool for developing and supporting protected models of complex semiconductor devices on multiple simulators. This ARM proprietary tool has proved invaluable for ARM Partners that need to support customers wishing to perform sign-off quality timing simulations on a wide variety of simulators and computing platforms. ModelGen is becoming an essential tool for all reusable IP developers by generating user-friendly, sign-off quality models that protect the IP in the design. Design Signoff Models (DSM) - Full Timing Simulation: DSMs are timing accurate simulation models that can be included directly within a range of target HDL simulators. The models accept process specific timing and back annotated timing in a number of formats to facilitate sign-off quality simulations. The core of each model is compiled C code which enables protection of the inherent IP and superior simulation execution speed over pure HDL models. Using the ARM ModelGen modeling tools, DSMs are generated from a single generic model of each device to ensure compliance with the original design. ModelGen builds each model around an event driven simulation kernel, achieving execution performances in the range of 5 to 10 instructions per second, depending on the simulator interface efficiency. ARMulator (Instruction set simulators): ARM produces a range of Instruction Set Simulators (ISS), called ARMulators that are available within the ARM Software Development Toolkit and ARM Developer Suite and may be licensed for use in EDA Tools. CoVerification Simulators are also available that have the functionality of an ISS and include support for the pipelined memory interface of ARM cores, where the control and address signals for one cycle are being emitted while the data from a previous request is being sampled or written. The CoVerification Simulators may be licensed for use in EDA Tools, and are currently incorporated in many of the CoVerification Tools supporting ARM. Bus Interface models - Full timing bus simulation: ARM Bus Interface Models (BIM) run a list of bus transactions to stimulate simulated hardware under test, allowing the designer to concentrate on the hardware design without waiting for the ARM control software to be developed. The BIM is designed to connect an instruction set simulator (ISS) or bus request generator to a hardware simulator so that software being debugged on the ISS can be used to directly simulate the hardware of the design. IP Solutions 10
Drawing upon a comprehensive range of design, development and systems engineering expertise, ARM supplies solutions ranging from simple peripheral IP supply to turn-key SoC design, from a device driver to a full operating system, thereby enabling the development of bespoke ARM core-based software. PrimeCell Peripherals: ARM PrimeCell peripherals are AMBA on-chip interconnectcompliant IP cores developed by ARM specifically for SoC integration. These peripherals are ready to use, proven in implementation and designed for reuse. The ARM PrimeCell range is designed to provide right first time functionality and high system performance. Using ARM PrimeCell peripherals, designers can concentrate their resources on SoC development, rather than dividing their time between designing the peripherals and developing the SoC, thereby saving significant time and cost. PrimeXsys Platforms Extendable Platform Architecture: The ARM PrimeXsys platform comprises a range of licensable integrated IP blocks, including hardware, software and integration tools, designed to provide an extendable solution, with which customers can develop a wide variety of application-focused devices in a time and costeffective manner. A key feature of the ARM PrimeXsys platform is the tools support and methodology that enables the platform to be extended for product differentiation. These state-of-the-art verification and validation testbenches enable customers to focus their resources on extending the platform with additional IP, while continuing to meet the basic functional requirements of the specific application. The ARM PrimeXsys platform can be extended through the integration of additional hardware and software in the form of customer s proprietary IP, ARM PrimeCell peripherals third party IP blocks, or additional processors (including DSPs), to produce a highly-differentiated ASIC while maintaining the core functionality. ARM s PrimeXsys platforms have been designed to support leading consumer operating systems (OS), including Linux, Symbian OS, Palm OS and Windows CE. The first ARM PrimeXsys platform, the PrimeXsys Wireless Platform is based around the ARM926EJ-S microprocessor core, which incorporates ARM Jazelle technology for Java acceleration, a multi-layer AMBA on chip interconnect and PrimeCell peripherals. In addition to the ARM926EJ-S system core, ARM plans to offer further platform solutions based upon other members of its high-performance CPU range. AMBA: The AMBA on-chip interconnect is an established, open specification that serves as a framework for SoC designs and a key enabler for IP reuse by effectively providing the digital glue that binds IP cores together. As increasing numbers of companies adopt AMBA, it is rapidly emerging as the solution of choice for SoC construction and IP library development. To further enable the rapid creation of AMBA technology-based components and SoC designs, ARM supports AMBA users with a number of complementary products that 11
provide example system designs and basic components, resulting in rapid ASIC system integration, improved confidence in the quality of the outcome and faster time-to-market. Multi-Layer AHB represents a significant advance in the capabilities of the ARM AMBA on-chip interconnect strategy by providing a solution that reduces latencies and increases the bus bandwidth available to multi-master systems. Fully compatible with the current AHB specification, Multi-layer AHB increases the choice of architectures available to the AMBA bus-based designer, and is supported by a comprehensive range of products from ARM. AHB-Lite is a subset of the full AHB specification and is intended for use in designs where only a single bus master is used. This may be a simple single master system, or a Multi-layer AHB system where there is only one AHB master on a layer. The AMBA Compliance Testbench (ACT) provides a high quality development environment. ACT enables the developer of an IP component to demonstrate that the testing of the AMBA interface has achieved a pre-defined quality level, and this in turn gives the end customer confidence that the component will integrate seamlessly into an AMBA technology-based SoC design. The AMBA Design Kit (ADK) provides a generic, stand-alone development environment to enable the rapid creation of AMBA interconnect-based components and System-on-Chip (SoC) designs. Containing a rich set of basic components and several example system designs, the ADK reduces time-to-market by providing the common foundations for AMBA technology-based design. Third Party IP Development In addition to its own ongoing IP development programmes, ARM works closely with an increasing number of application software providers, in a broad range of application areas, to ensure that ARM Powered technology products meet the relevant market demands for performance and time-to-market. Using ARM s unique software expertise, highly-optimised implementations of industryaccepted software solutions are constantly being developed, offering minimum MHz, minimum memory footprint and total support for the ARM architecture. Major ARM third-party relationships currently include applications supporting Bluetooth, MP3 audio, MPEG and 3D video and Global Positioning System (GPS) technologies. ARM peripherals and supporting development tools have been packaged with the third-party Partner s hardware and software components, to produce a fullylicensable IP product for incorporation into OEM product applications. Such optimised software implementations provide the opportunity for significant cost and time-to-market savings by OEMs seeking to develop leading-edge, high-performance products. For more information on ARM product and technology offerings, visit the Company web site at www.arm.com 12
ARM, ARM Powered, Thumb, StrongARM, ARM7TDMI, AMBA, PrimeCell, ARMulator and Multi-ICE are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM7, ARM7EJ-S, ARM7TDMI-S, ARM720T, ARM9, ARM9E, ARM9EJ, ARM9TDMI, ARM920T, ARM940T, ARM926EJ-S, ARM946E-S, ARM966E-S, ARM10, ARM1020E, ARM1022E, SC100, SC110, SC200, SC210, VFP9-S, VFP10, Jazelle, PrimeXsys, RealView, SecurCore, EmbeddedICE, EmbeddedICE-RT, MultiTrace, Embedded Trace Buffer, ARM Developer Suite, RealMonitor, ARM Real-Time Trace, RMTarget, RM Host, Integrator, ARM Firmware Suite, ModelGen, ARM Developer Kit and Evaluator-7T are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. ARM is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM, INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan; and ARM France SAS. All other product, service, and company names are trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of their respective owners. 13