Globalfoundries, ARM agree 20nm FinFet deal

Under the terms of the agreement, ARM will develop a full platform of ARM Artisan Physical IP, including standard cell libraries, memory compilers and POP IP solutions, which it says will enable a new level of system performance and power efficiency for a range of mobile apps, from smartphones to notebooks. "By leveraging our implementation knowledge and applying it to a next generation, energy efficient ARM processor and graphics processing unit, we believe we can jointly offer a compelling differentiation to our mutual customers that will power innovation into the next two generations," said Mike Noonen, executive vice president, worldwide marketing and sales at Globalfoundries. The companies have been collaborating for several years to jointly optimise ARM Cortex-A series processors, including multiple demonstrations of performance and power efficiency benefits on 28nm, as well as a 20nm test chip implementation. The new agreement extends these prior efforts by driving production IP platforms that will enable customer designs on 20nm and promote rapid migration to 3d FinFET transistor technology. The joint development is also aimed at enabling a faster time to delivering SoC solutions for customers using next generation ARM cpus and gpus in mobile devices. "This early engagement promotes the rapid adoption of ARM and Globalfoundries technologies in future SoCs for several important markets," said Simon Segars, pictured, executive vice president and general manager, Processor and Physical IP divisions at ARM. "Customers designing for mobile, tablet and computing applications will benefit extensively from the energy efficient ARM processor and graphics processor included in this collaboration."