Silan Licences ARM926EJ-S Processor For High-End Portable Entertainment Devices

Rapidly growing IC design company in China selects widely supported ARM architecture for advanced SoC solutions

HANGZHOU, CHINA AND CAMBRIDGE, UK – Aug. 29, 2006 – Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics Co., Ltd [“Silan”], one of China’s top five IC design companies and a member of the ARM® Connected Community, and ARM [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMHY)], today announced that Silan has licensed the ARM926EJ-STM processor through the ARM Foundry Program. The high-performance, low-power ARM926EJ-S processor will enable Silan to develop advanced SoC designs for high-end consumer electronics, such as portable entertainment devices. The first ARM Powered® product by Silan is expected to be available in Q1 2007.

As demand for more advanced consumer electronics devices increases in China, local IC design companies are expanding their SoC design capabilities and offering more advanced ICs to stay ahead of the market. The ARM926EJ-S processor offers flexible functionality, high performance, low-power consumption and low cost, enabling IC designers to pursue new opportunities in emerging markets.

“To build on our success in IC design, we need to provide our customers with SoC solutions that they can further customize and enhance to deliver highly differentiated products across a wide range of market segments,” said Mr Weiquan Song, director of IC Design Institute, Silan. “The ARM926EJ-S processor is widely supported and adopted by the embedded industry and is an ideal choice for our advanced SoC solutions. Additionally, the availability of the ARM926EJ-S processor via the ARM Foundry Program helps us shorten the design cycle and time to market, making our proposition even more competitive.”

“The increasing complexity of SoC hardware is making it more challenging than ever to develop and implement sophisticated embedded software applications. To address this issue, IC design engineers need to select an architecture with comprehensive industry-wide support,” said Dr. Jun Tan, president, ARM China. “By offering industry-leading products and technologies, combined with the comprehensive support available from the ARM Connected Community, ARM is able to offer Partners such as Silan the ability to deliver SoC solutions that deliver immediate value to their customers.”

ARM is now the most widely chosen architecture in the embedded system world, offering comprehensive support through the ARM Connected Community, which enables designers to easily access all of the resources they need for ARM Powered system design. The ARM926EJ-S processor, which features a 16-bit fixed point DSP instruction set and supports ARM Jazelle® Java acceleration technology, provides engineers with significant savings by reducing chip area, design complexity and power consumption, and accelerating time-to-market. 

About Silan Microelectronics

Hangzhou Silan Microelectronics Co., Ltd., a company incorporated in Hangzhou, China (“Silan”), is an integrated circuit design company focused on integrated circuits used in audio/video equipment and other consumer products. In March 2003, Silan had a successful IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange (SSE) as the first IC design company listed on the SSE (stock code 600460).

About ARM

ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from mobile, home and enterprise solutions to embedded and emerging applications. ARM’s comprehensive product offering includes 16/32-bit RISC microprocessors, data engines, 3D processors, digital libraries, embedded memories, peripherals, software and development tools, as well as analog functions and high-speed connectivity products. Combined with the company’s broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at www.arm.com.

About the ARM Connected Community

The ARM Connected Community is a global network of companies aligned to provide a complete solution, from design to manufacture and end use, for products based on the ARM architecture. ARM offers a variety of resources to Community members, including promotional programs and peer-networking opportunities that enable a variety of ARM Partners to come together to provide end-to-end customer solutions. For more information, please visit http://www.arm.com/community.