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Broadcom Licenses ARM Cortex-A9 Multiprocessor TechnologyCAMBRIDGE, England & IRVINE, Calif. --(Business Wire)-- ARM (LSE:ARM) (Nasdaq:ARMH) and Broadcom Corporation (News - Alert) (Nasdaq:BRCM), a global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications, today announced that they have signed a major licensing agreement for the ARM (News - Alert)® 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 advanced, feature-rich multimedia, gaming and compute intensive applications. "This licensing agreement extends our ARM processor portfolio. The flexibility and scalability of the Cortex-A9 processor enable us to optimize development costs by addressing the requirements of wireless applications from a common core platform," said Nambi Seshadri, VP and CTO, Mobile Platforms and Wireless Connectivity Division, Broadcom Corporation. "This latest agreement with a recognized market leader in wireless system integration demonstrates the continued market momentum for the ARM Cortex-A9 processor and ARM multicore technology," said Mike Inglis, EVP and general manager, Processor (News - Alert) Division, ARM. "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." The ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore processor's scalable performance enables developers to exceed the performance of today's high-performance embedded devices while consuming significantly less power. In addition, the Cortex-A9 processor features power management features 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. 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. However, since any complexity is hidden in hardware, the processor can be programmed as easily as a single core processor by utilizing one of the many SMP-aware operating systems. A single core Cortex-A9 processor is capable of delivering 2x the performance of today's smartphone processors and the ARM MPCore technology scales that performance even further. A four-CPU Cortex-A9 processor cluster is capable of delivering an unprecedented 10,000 aggregate DMIPS when clocked at 1GHz. To simplify and broaden the adoption of multicore solutions, the Cortex-A9 processor supports system-level coherence with accelerators and DMA to increase performance and reduce power consumption at the system level. About ARM ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM's comprehensive product offering includes 32-bit RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, video engines, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and 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 http://www.arm.com. About Broadcom Broadcom Corporation is a major technology innovator and global leader in semiconductors for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom® products enable the delivery of voice, video, data and multimedia to and throughout the home, the office and the mobile environment. We provide the industry's broadest portfolio of state-of-the-art, system-on-a-chip and software solutions to manufacturers of computing and networking equipment, digital entertainment and broadband access products, and mobile devices. These solutions support our core mission: Connecting everything®. Broadcom is one of the world's largest fabless semiconductor companies, with 2008 revenue of $4.66 billion, holds over 3,300 U.S. and over 1,300 foreign patents, and has more than 7,500 additional pending patent applications, and one of the broadest intellectual property portfolios addressing both wired and wireless transmission of voice, video, data and multimedia. A FORTUNE 500® company, Broadcom is headquartered in Irvine, Calif., and has offices and research facilities in North America, Asia and Europe. Broadcom may be contacted at +1.949.926.5000 or at www.broadcom.com. Cautions regarding Forward Looking Statements: All statements included or incorporated by reference in this release, other than statements or characterizations of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on ARM's and Broadcom's current expectations, estimates and projections about their respective businesses, respective management's beliefs, and certain assumptions made by ARM and Broadcom, all of which are subject to change. Forward-looking statements can often be identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "intends," "plans," "predicts," "believes," "seeks," "estimates," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "potential," "continue," "ongoing," similar expressions, and variations or negatives of these words. Examples of such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, references to future uses of the technology. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future results and are subject to risks, uncertainties and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those expressed in any forward-looking statement. Important factors that may cause such a difference for Broadcom include, but are not limited to the list that can be found at http://www.broadcom.com/press/additional_risk_factors/Q22009.php. Broadcom's Annual Report on Form 10-K, subsequent Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, recent Current Reports on Form 8-K, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss important risk factors that could contribute to such differences or otherwise affect Broadcom's business, results of operations and financial condition. The forward-looking statements in this release speak only as of this date. Broadcom undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statement, except as required by law. ARM and ARM Powered are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. Cortex, NEON and MPCore are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc; its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM Inc.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Limited.; ARM Taiwan Limited; ARM France SAS (News - Alert); ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; ARM Belgium N.V.; ARM Germany GmbH; ARM Embedded Technologies Pvt. Ltd.; ARM Norway, AS and ARM Sweden AB." Broadcom®, the pulse logo, Connecting everything®, and the Connecting everything logo are among the trademarks of Broadcom Corporation and/or its affiliates in the United States, certain other countries and/or the EU. Any other trademarks or trade names mentioned are the property of their respective owners. |
