Advanced RISC Machines Ltd, Cambridge has won another licensee for its ARM RISC design in the shape of Cirrus Logic Inc, which becomes its fifth silicon partner. The Fremont, California company will take core technology designs based around the ARM 7 family of chips and will use it as the basis of parts for personal digital assistants, higher throughput serial input-output controllers for servers, and embedded multimedia applications. Fabrication be done at eight foundries undisclosed by the firm. The ARM7 technology will give it a route into Apple Computer Inc, Cirrus says. The UK RISC designer’s fabrication partners are VLSI Technology Inc, GEC Plessey Semiconductors Ltd, Sharp Corp and Texas Instruments Inc. Separately, Cirrus and its Pixel Semiconductor subsidiary formed a strategic alliance with ITT Semiconductors, the Friberg, Germany arm of ITT Corp to do innovative low cost multimedia chips next year.
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