TSMC to offer ARM cores for telecommunications SOC devices

TSMC to offer ARM cores for telecommunications SOC devices
By Semiconductor Business News
March 14, 2000 (2:30 p.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20000314S0021

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd. today expanded its relationship with ARM Ltd. to begin offering the ARM7TDMI core, which has been silicon-verified by TSMC.

Foundry customers will now be able to implement ARM IP for advanced system-on-chip solutions, fabricated with TSMC technology, to target emerging, high-growth applications including wired and wireless networking, as well as consumerInternet-enabled solutions. Rival foundry United Microelectronics Corp. recently began offering the ARM7TDMI core in a similarly structured arrangement brokered with ARM last month (See story).

TSMC has offered the ARM architecture from the 0.6-micron generation down to the current 0.18-micron processing, said Mike Pawlik, vice president of corporate marketing for TSMC, Hsinchu, Taiwan. "ARM's Foundry Program further strengthens our relationship, combining TSMC's proven manufacturing excellence with the high-perf ormance, low-power ARM cores to create leading-edge products for a variety of emerging markets," he said.

Reynette Au, vice president of worldwide marketing for ARM in Cambridge, England, said, "Many of our Silicon Partners already work directly with TSMC, the world's largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, to produce ARM-powered devices. By extending this relationship through our new foundry program, ARM and TSMC will continue to drive the ARM architecture's acceptance as the industry's leading 16- and 32-bit RISC embedded-processor core."