Fujitsu to use synthesizable 32-bit ARM cores in ICs for portable products

Fujitsu to use synthesizable 32-bit ARM cores in ICs for portable products
By Semiconductor Business News
November 19, 2001 (9:41 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20011119S0014

TOKYO -- Fujitsu Ltd. today announced it has licensed two synthesizable, 32-bit RISC processor cores for use in integrated circuits inside portable multimedia products, such as digital cameras, personal digital assistants (PDAs), next-generation cell phones, and Internet appliances.

Fujitsu plans to use the ARM926EJ-S core, which contains ARM's Jazelle technology, to address applications for accelerated Java software execution and the ability to run platform operating systems--such as Symbian OS, microITRON, Windows CE, Linux and Palm--in cellular-phone handsets. The ARM946S-A will provide the Japanese chip maker with an optimized core for embedded control applications, such as hard disk drives and other storage devices.

Terms of the licensing pact were not released by ARM, which is based in Cambridge, England.

"With the rapid expansion of the wireless, network and multimedia appliance markets, we are seeing a lot of demand from our customer s for system-on-chip (SoC) solutions integrating the low-power, high-performance ARM9 family of microprocessor cores," said Toshihiko Ono, member of Fujitsu's board and group executive vice president in the company's Electronic Devices Group. He said Fujitsu believes it can provide optimum solutions for a "broad range of customers within a short development time" using its internal development capabilities and the new ARM cores.

"With our license to the ARM926EJ-S and ARM946E-S cores, we will be able to address diverse markets such as mobile phones, PDAs, storage devices, printers and digital still cameras," he added.

Fujitsu plans to offer advanced SoC devices using the ARM926EJ-S core in the second quarter 2002 and the ARM946E-S core in the third quarter 2002.