Fremont, California-based Cirrus Logic Inc, a long time supporter of chips from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, now claims to be the world’s largest supplier of ARM silicon. The company says it will have shipped more than 3 million ARM-based products during its fiscal year ending March 31. It also says that its combination of the ARM core with its own intellectual property has won over 50 design wins. So far, the parts have appeared in devices such as set-top boxes, smartphones, network computers, handheld digital assistants and modems. Cirrus customers include RCA Thomson, Psion Plc, Philips Electronics, Zenith Data Systems Inc, Samsung Electric Co, Aiwa Co Ltd, Funai Electric Co Ltd, Acer Inc, Elsa, Siemens AG, Jaton and ActionTec. We intend to aggressively pursue additional ARM-based opportunities in the communications, multimedia and mass storage markets, said George Alexy, Cirrus Logic’s senior vice president of marketing. ARM chips are most suited to applications requiring low power consumption and a low footprint. Cirrus recently launched its first serial input/output communications controller, the CD4400, using an embedded ARM controller and PCI interface, and the PS7111 low-power wireless voice and data communications system-on-a -chip with power management technology. It also has a new 56MHz PS7500FE-56 system-on-a-chip for Internet appliances, a chip which has been used in 25 designs for ISP neutral devices. But the highest volume ARM chip products are the V.22 and V.34 modem chipsets, currently being updated to V.90 ITU chipsets. Cirrus says it expects to be one of the earliest to offer a modem chipset compatible with the new 56Kbps standard.
