Spreadtrum Selects ARM Artisan Physical IP and POP IP for 28nm SoC Development

CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom & SHANGHAI, Oct 24, 2013 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ARM and Spreadtrum, a leading fabless semiconductor provider in China, today announced a sweeping license agreement providing Spreadtrum with the full range of ARM(R) Artisan(R) physical IP, including POP(TM) IP, for the broad range of IC foundry and process varieties of 28nm that ARM supports to deliver the most flexible manufacturing options. The license agreement gives Spreadtrum access to ARM Artisan standard cells, next-generation memory compilers and POP IP for ARM Cortex(R) processors and Mali(TM) GPUs. ARM Artisan physical IP and POP IP will help provide the foundation to accelerate Spreadtrum's development of their low-power mobile phone SoCs.

By providing comprehensive physical IP platforms for 28nm process technology, ARM supports customers targeting a wide range of applications including mobile phone, enterprise, tablet, DTV, wireless and consumer. "Selecting ARM Artisan physical IP and POP IP for our SoC designs targeting 28nm process technologies was a natural extension of our successful collaboration on 40nm," said Dr. Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum. "It is great to know that no matter which foundry or process we select for our future 28nm SoC development, Spreadtrum can have the confidence of using Artisan physical IP and POP IP for the fastest time-to-market."

"Selecting ARM Artisan physical IP and POP IP for our SoC designs targeting 28nm process technologies was a natural extension of our successful collaboration on 40nm," said Dr. Leo Li, chairman and CEO of Spreadtrum. "It is great to know that no matter which foundry or process we select for our future 28nm SoC development, Spreadtrum can have the confidence of using Artisan physical IP and POP IP for the fastest time-to-market."

"Spreadtrum's strong growth in the mobile phone market over the past several years is testament to the high performance and low power of its SoC products," said Dr. Dipesh Patel, executive vice president and general manager, Physical IP Division, ARM. "ARM is excited about this opportunity to enable Spreadtrum's next-generation of products with market-leading performance and provide a variety of flexible foundry options to bring them to market in the shortest time possible."

ARM's physical IP platform for 28nm includes high-density and high-performance Artisan standard cell libraries, with a power management kit for optimizing dynamic voltage and frequency scaling. The platform also includes a wide range of Artisan next-generation memory compilers with single-port and dual-port SRAM compilers, one- and two-port register file compilers and ROM compilers with high-speed, high-density and ultra-high density options.

POP IP technology comprises three key elements necessary for optimized ARM processor implementation. These include Artisan physical IP logic libraries and memory instances tuned for a given ARM core and process technology, comprehensive benchmarking reports pinpointing conditions and results ARM achieved for core implementation, and detailed POP implementation knowledge and methodologies used to reach positive results that enable end customers to achieve successful implementation quickly with minimized risk. POP IP products are available from 40nm to 28nm, with roadmap down to 16/14nm process technology for a wide range of Cortex-A series CPU and Mali GPU products.