Fremont, California-based semiconductor manufacturer Cirrus Logic Inc has signed a deal with Advanced RISC Machines (ARM) Ltd for and optimized port of eight operating systems to a range of its present and future ARM-based solutions, with internet appliances a prime target in mind. Cirrus’ European marketing manager Chris Russell explained that the agreement will enable a smooth port of the eight systems, bringing the total number of O/S supported on Cirrus’ ARM-based products to 14. He added that this should greatly expand the range of potential clients and markets for these devices, as the O/S supported is clearly a major factor in wining business. Cirrus currently produces semiconductors (via its joint ventures Micrus, with IBM, and Cirent, with Lucent) and sub-contracts fabrication, as well as the ones it buys in from ARM to serve as the core in a range of solutions, including set-top boxes, smartphones, network computers, handheld digital assistants and modems. At this year’s CeBIT it announced that it had become the world’s largest supplier of ARM silicon, having shipped 3 million of the latter’s chips in fiscal 1998. While Cirrus is keeping mum about the specific customers and applications it will be targeting as a result of the agreement, Russell did reveal that, as internet appliances go portable, they will require long battery lives, and ‘ARM has a very high MIPS-per-Watt ratio’, making its chips suitable for this type of device.
