ARM Licenses Latest Chip Designs to Intel, TI

ARM Holdings has licensed to Intel and Texas Instruments its ARMv6 architecture, its next-generation of designs for high-performance, low-power microprocessor cores. ARM didn't release many details on the new design but did say that it offers improved support for multi-processor handhelds and better performance all around.

Last week, Palm announced that Intel and TI would be taking part in its Palm OS Ready program, in which ARM-based chips by these companies would be made ready to to run OS 5.0. Motorola is also part of this.

ARM Holdings doesn't actually make any microprocessors itself. They design processor cores and license the designs to other companies.

Motorola recently announced its first processor with an ARM core: the Dragonball MX1. It offers speeds up to 200 MHz. Also, it provides an on-chip Bluetooth-ready applications processor, MMC/SD and MemoryStick host controllers, embedded SRAM, and an USB device controller.

Intel is developing a line of ARM-based microprocessors called XScale. It is currently planning on releasing the first XScale chip in September, which will operate at between 300-400 MHz. The chip is manufactured on Intel's 0.18-micron process technology.

Naturally, as they have only recently licenced ARMv6, neither of these chips will have it included in its designs. It will be several years before ARMv6-based processes see the light of day. ARM Holdings plans to offer more details on the new architecture at Instat/MDR's Microprocessor Forum in October.

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