Lucent fabricates ARM10 processor core ICs for wireless applications

Lucent fabricates ARM10 processor core ICs for wireless applications
By Semiconductor Business News
April 12, 2000 (11:11 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000412S0012

ALLENTOWN, Pa. -- Lucent Technologies Inc.'s Microelectronics Group here today announced it has fabricated the first silicon of the ARM10 microprocessor core from ARM Ltd. of Cambridge, England.

Lucent is fabricating the ARM10 cores in the company's COM-1 (0.25-micron, drawn) modular CMOS process, and plans to migrate to the COM-2 (0.16-micron, drawn) process later this year. In 0.16-micron technology, the core's performance is more than 400 MIPS (million instructions per second) at 1.5 volts, while consuming less than 1 watt of power.

Lucent's ARM10 core-based SoCs are targeted at leading-edge communications applications. The core's small die area and low power consumption make it suitable for integration with Lucent's digital signal processors, enabling SoCs that perform real-time audio and video applications at power levels suitable for portable devices, wireless base stations and VoIP gateways, the company said.

The ARM10 family support s operating systems such as Microsoft Windows CE, Epoc32 and Linux. The ARM10 silicon is currently running Windows CE and application code including MP3 audio decompression.

Lucent also announced it is broadening its ARM core-based solution set by licensing the ARM7TDMI-S, ARM946E and ARM966E synthesizable processor cores.

Lucent's lead in getting working ARM10 silicon to customers will benefit them in the marketplace for next-generation network systems and wireless Internet appliances, according to Tony Grewe, director of communications strategy and business development in Lucent's Microelectronics Group. "And by licensing synthesizable versions of the ARM7 and ARM9 processor core families, Lucent brings a new measure of flexibility and efficiency to the design of advanced communications systems-on-a-chip," he said.

Lucent has licensed ARM cores for use in both application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and application-specific standard product (ASSP) ICs across the company's broad line of solutions, including wireless voice and data communications, broadband access and transport -- including DSL -- and computing and mass storage.

"Our initial evaluation of Lucent's ARM10 silicon shows it meeting all of the design's criteria," said Reynette Au, vice president of marketing at ARM.

Lucent is currently sampling reference devices that integrate the cached ARM10 integer unit, VFP10 floating point coprocessor, SDRAM controller, AMBA advanced high-speed bus interface and PLL. These devices will also be available for evaluation using development cards from ARM later this year.