ARM and Global Foundries Form Strategic Partnership

by Marco Chiappetta — Tuesday, October 06, 2009, 02:04 PM EDT

ARM AND GLOBALFOUNDRIES ESTABLISH A STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TO ENABLE APPLICATION OPTIMIZED SOC PRODUCTS ON 28NM HIGHK METAL GATE (HKMG) PROCESS

Relationship leverages synergies between ARM’s leading low power processor architecture, optimized physical IP and partner Eco-system with GLOBALFOUNDRIES advanced technology, design and manufacturing excellence.

CAMBRIDGE, UK – October 6, 2009 – ARM [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMH)] and GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announces a long-term strategic relationship to provide their mutual customers with an innovative SoC enablement program. To support the long-term relationship, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM have signed a broad agreement on processor implementation and circuit optimization to provide mutual customers with a robust enablement program geared towards next-generation applications.

The SoC enablement program, built around a full suite of ARM Physical IP, Fabric IP and Processor IP, will deliver customers unparalleled design flexibility on GLOBALFOUNDRIES’ most advanced HKMG semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. The collaborative efforts of the partnership will initially focus on enabling SoC products which use the low power and high performance ARM Cortex -A9 processor on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm HKMG process. The characteristics of GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm “Gate First” HKMG technology is optimized for high performance processing with minimal leakage making it an ideal choice for advanced mobile solutions.

“This announcement reflects our business value and strategy of providing best in class processor implementation by marrying our own processor and physical IP with world class manufacturing semiconductor technology,” said Warren East, chief executive officer, ARM. “This collaboration with GLOBALFOUNDRIES and their commitment to delivering leading edge technology makes them an ideal partner to accelerate the adoption of ARM processor based technology at 28nm.”

“This relationship further advances our strong focus to partner with industry leaders in processor design to deliver manufacturing and technology excellence at the leading edge,” said Doug Grose, chief executive officer, GLOBALFOUNDRIES. “This highly complementary partnership leverages ARM’s architectural leadership along with GLOBALFOUNDRIES advanced technology to enable the deployment of 28nm SoC designs with exceptional performance for next-generation consumer devices.”

Tags: manufacturing, GlobalFoundries, global, foundries, process, lithography, 300mm

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com