ARM and Broadcom have entered into a licensing agreement for the ARM Cortex -A9 MPCore multicore processor. Broadcom intends to target the technology towards next-generation mobile, wireless and other consumer electronics applications.
In addition to the Cortex-A9 processor, the agreement included ARM NEON SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) technology for the ARM Cortex-A series processors, designed to provide acceleration for feature-rich multimedia, gaming and compute intensive applications.
Nambi Seshadri, VP and CTO of mobile platforms and wireless connectivity division of Broadcom, said: “This licensing agreement extends our ARM processor portfolio. The flexibility and scalability of the Cortex-A9 processor enable us to optimise development costs by addressing the requirements of wireless applications from a common core platform.”
Reportedlym, the ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor features power management capabilities including adaptive gating, dynamic voltage and frequency scaling and the ability for each core to go independently into standby, dormant or power-off energy management states, providing control over the dynamic as well as the static energy consumed by both the processor and memories.
ARM said that the Cortex-A9 MPCore processor can contain up to four independently configured, but fully coherent cores carrying out multiple tasks on each one in parallel. A four-CPU Cortex-A9 processor cluster is capable of delivering a 10,000 aggregate DMIPS when clocked at 1GHz. It supports system-level coherence with accelerators and DMA to increase performance and reduce power consumption at the system level.
Mike Inglis, EVP and general manager of processor division at ARM, said: “This latest agreement with a recognised market leader in wireless system integration demonstrates the continued market momentum for the ARM Cortex-A9 processor and ARM multicore technology. By leveraging the performance and power efficiency benefits of the Cortex family of processors along with the other advanced ARM technology, Broadcom can offer feature-rich, future proof solutions for every segment of the wireless market.”
