License grants access to ARM Cortex processor IP

Under the terms of the agreement, Atmel gains access to a number of existing and future ARM Cortex processors for use in products aimed at range of applications. The subscription license agreement is an extension of a long term relationship between the two companies and complements its existing licenses for the ARM7TDMI, ARM926EJ-S, ARM1176JZ-S and the Cortex-M3 processor. Alfredo Vadillo, Atmel's managing director for ARM microcontrollers, said: "This new agreement is the next phase in the long term and highly fruitful working relationship between Atmel and ARM. It secures the roadmap for future members of our industry leading ARM processor based product family. Our ARM products capitalise on the ease of application development thanks to the code compatibility across the ARM architecture, and to the vast and growing support ecosystem that exists around ARM processor-based microcontrollers and embedded microprocessors. This is a supplement to our strong AVR® and AVR®32 microcontroller portfolio."