arm holdings plc (ARM) Snapshot

ARM Holdings announced the appointment of Eric Meurice as an independent non-executive director. He will join the board on 1 July 2013. Eric Meurice has been President and Chief Executive Officer of ASML Holding NV (a leading provider of manufacturing equipment and technology to the semiconductor industry) since 1 October 2004. He will step down as of 30 June 2013 and will remain as Chairman of ASML Holding NV until 31 March 2014.

In conjunction with the launch of the ARM(R) Cortex(R)-A12 processor, ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES announced new power, performance and cost-optimized POP(TM) technology offerings for the ARM Cortex-A12 and Cortex-A7 processors for GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology. The Cortex-A12 processor was introduced by ARM as part of a suite of IP targeting the rapidly growing market for mid-range mobile devices. The companies will combine ARM's next-generation mobile processor and POP IP with GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP HKMG process solution, enabling a new level of system performance and power efficiency with the optimum economics necessary to serve the mid-range mobile device market. The new initiative builds on the existing robust ARM Artisan(R) physical IP platform and POP IP for the Cortex-A9 processor already available on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP, signifying another milestone in the multi-year collaboration between ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES. Central to this increase in functionality for mid-range mobile devices is the new ARM Cortex-A12 processor. The Cortex-A12 processor provides a 40% performance uplift and direct upgrade path from the incredibly successful Cortex-A9 processor, while matching the energy efficiency of its predecessor. The Cortex-A12 processor provides best-in-class efficiency as a standalone solution, but additionally supports the innovative big.LITTLE(TM) processing technology with the Cortex-A7 processor, bringing this energy-efficient technology to the mid-range. GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP process technology and associated ARM POP IP for the Cortex-A12 processor enables up to 70% higher performance (measured single-thread performance) and up to 2x better power efficiency in comparison to a Cortex-A9 processor using 40nm process technology. Designers can achieve even higher performance by trading off for lower power efficiency, depending on their application needs. Click here for more information on the Cortex-A12 processor. The newest POP technology enables customers to accelerate core-hardening of Cortex-A12 and Cortex-A7 processors on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP HKMG process. POP IP for Cortex processors has successfully enabled ARM-based SoCs with more than 30 different licenses since being introduced over three years ago. POP IP is composed of three elements necessary to achieve an optimized ARM processor implementation: core-specific tuned Artisan physical IP logic libraries and memory instances, comprehensive benchmarking reports, and implementation knowledge that detail the methodology used to achieve the result, to enable the end customer to achieve the same implementation quickly and at low risk. GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm-SLP technology is ideally suited for the next generation of smart mobile devices, enabling designs with faster processing speeds, smaller feature sizes, lower standby power and longer battery life. The technology is based on GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 'Gate First' approach to High-K Metal Gate (HKMG), which has been in volume production for more than two years. The technology offers a combination of performance, power efficiency and cost that is ideally suited for the mid-range mobile market. GLOBALFOUNDRIES' next-generation 14nm-XM FinFET technology is expected to bring another dimension of enhanced power, performance and area for ARM mobile processors. A Cortex-A9 processor implemented on 14nm-XM technology, using 9-track libraries, is projected to enable a greater than 60% increase in frequency at constant power, or a decrease of more than 60% in power consumption at constant performance, when compared to implementation on 28nm-SLP technology using 12-track libraries. Similar results are expected for Cortex-A12 processor implementations. Click here for more details on GLOBALFOUNDRIES' 14nm-XM FinFET technology.

ARM announced that LG Electronics has licensed the next generation of ARM(R) Cortex(R)-A50 series of central processing unit (CPU) solutions and the next generation of ARM Mali(TM) graphics processing units (GPUs). This agreement means that LG Electronics will have access to ARM's CPU and GPU solutions to create market-leading technology. This agreement will enable LG Electronics to offer a wider range of high-performance SoCs. Launched in October, the Cortex-A50 family bridges the performance requirements of next-generation 32-bit and 64-bit applications. The next generation of the Mali GPUs licensed by LG Electronics will extend the performance capabilities beyond that offered by the Mali-T678 GPU, taking graphics and GPU computing to new levels.