In separate agreements Sony Corp and Hyundai Electronics Industries Co Ltd have licensed RISC technology from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. Both companies have licensed the ARM7TMI Thumb processor, which they will add their own intellectual property to. The technology will enable Sony to incorporate ARM’s 32-bit RISC central processing unit cores into its range of consumer and professional electronics products and recording media, aimed at the multimedia market. Hyundai plans to invest several million dollars over the next few years into the non-memory semiconductor industry and the licensed technology will enable it to extend its development of non-memory and memory logic products. Its first ARM-based products will be targeted at applications containing the US cellular telephone standard Code Division Multiple Access- Personal Communications Service. Both companies have worked with ARM in the past, Sony via ARM’s partner company Fujitsu LSI Technology Ltd, from whom it licensed LSI chip technology, and Hyundai through its subsidiary company US-based Symbios Logic Inc.
