ARM and TSMC team up for tinier 20nm Cortex SOCs
By Sean Hollister 
posted July 21st 2010 5:02AM
posted July 21st 2010 5:02AM
It's no secret that ARM ideas are powering much of the mobile revolution these days, but the company doesn't print its own systems-on-a-chip, that duty gets outsourced to silicon foundries -- like TSMC, who just got all buddy-buddy with the firm to transition future smartphone chips to the 28nm and obscenely tiny 20nm high-k metal gate processes. (We're not sure what this means for GlobalFoundries, who had a similar deal earlier this year.) As per usual with a die size reduction, ARM chips will see higher speed and have decreased power consumption, but since 20nm is (relatively) unexplored territory it could be years before chips hit the market. PR after the break, or hit the more coverage link for further explanation by an ARM VP of Marketing. ARM and TSMC Sign Long-Term Strategic Agreement
Enables broad processor and Physical IP optimization on TSMC's most advanced technology nodes
CAMBRIDGE, U.K. & HSINCHU, Taiwan, R.O.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ARM and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. (TWSE: 2330, NYSE: TSM) today jointly announced a long-term agreement that provides TSMC with access to a broad range of ARM processors and enables the development of ARM physical IP across TSMC technology nodes. This agreement supports the companies' mutual customers to achieve optimized Systems-On-Chip (SoC) based on ARM processors and covers a wide range of process nodes extending down to 20nm.
"We believe this effort will enhance the value of our Open Innovation Platform that efficiently empowers innovation throughout the supply chain"
The agreement provides TSMC access to optimize the implementation of ARM® processors on TSMC process technologies, including ARM Cortex™ processor family and CoreLink™ interconnect fabric for AMBA® protocols. It also establishes a long-term relationship with ARM for the development of physical IP, including memory products and standard cell libraries targeting the most advanced TSMC 28nm and 20nm processes.
"The signing of this agreement is a significant semiconductor industry milestone because it formalizes a forward looking, long-term relationship between two of the industry's leading companies," explained Mike Inglis, executive vice president and general manager, ARM Processor Division. "I am pleased that ARM and TSMC will be working together to enable ARM processor based SoCs leveraging both companies' advanced technologies."
ARM and TSMC will collaborate on creating TSMC technology optimized processor core implementations for benchmarking of optimal power, performance and area. Typical implementations will target consumer-centric market segments including wireless, portable computing, tablet PCs and high performance computing.
"We believe this effort will enhance the value of our Open Innovation Platform that efficiently empowers innovation throughout the supply chain," said Dr. Fu-Chieh Hsu, Vice President of Design and Technology Platform and Deputy Head of R&D at TSMC. "The combination of ARM's industry leading IP and TSMC's world-class technology and manufacturing provides our mutual customers with compelling benefits for advanced semiconductor applications."
"Through our industry leadership in processor and physical IP and our strategic alliances with leading foundries and EDA companies, ARM is enabling faster time to volume production of SoCs," said Simon Segars, executive vice president and general manager, ARM, Physical IP division. "This new agreement assures the industry that ARM and TSMC will collectively provide IP development leadership for advanced process technologies well into the future."
@Sean
"We're not sure what this means for GlobalFoundries"
That ARM are buddies to lots of companies (except Intel)?
It's not really that different to the fact that ARM are friendly to other competing companies (TI with the OMAP, Apple with the A4, Qualcomm with Snapdragon, etc).
More friends == more customers == wider market.. why do you think the big I want a slice of the pie?
pie is a lie.
@Coke
Cake is a lie. There was no cake :(
@Sheldon
What all these have in common is that they're customers of ARM... it's ARM's architecture (Cortex A8) which powers all of these chips.
@Sheldon
Actually ARM is buddy with samsung who's buddy with Apple.
+1 for the future
@xenbomb
+1 = -8nm :-)
Can someone please explain to me how intel allowed themselves to get destroyed so thoroughly in their own industry? i'm surprised they allowed.....anyone to get such a stranglehold on their market(processors) by simply going into a different sector of it(portables)
@jazir5 when i say destroyed, i mean allowing arm to achieve market domination in the mobile market
@jazir5
ARM have been doing things differently for a LONG time (RISC vs CISC, selling designs not chips etc). Sometimes this different approach has paid off for them in performance, power consumption, mindshare of hardware and software companies etc, and sometimes not so much.
You could equally ask the question of why RISC chips have traditionally been a failure on the desktop (As an example of the falilure of RISC on the desktop, remember what happened to PowerPC / RISC macs.)
Sometimes the wind changes and companies are left scrambling to keep up. RISC is the big flavour of the month at the moment, with mobiles, tablets, Cell processors, and energy cost reductions for hosting and cloud installations.
I'm guessing intel were somewhat wrongfooted with the smartphone and tablet rise whilst their existing designs didn't address this newer market sector concerns. It takes a while to change direction and focus in some industries, though I'm sure they will continue to develop the atom stuff to be more competitive
@fubarweb i'm just a techie, my knowledge into intel and ARM and AMD goes about as far as what i glean from articles such as these, but from what i understand, the main thing holding intel's x86 architecture back from the mobile market is the same thing thats causing them problems in laptops/netbooks which is power consumption.
to my understanding ARM was successful because it provided better speed with less power usage compared to intel
@jazir5 It's good though. Nice to see a British company doing so well in the tech industry :o)
@jazir5
ARM has always existed and the ARM architecture is by design and legacy (from it's professional applications) much more suitable than x86 in the mobile market (for now)
Intel just didn't see it coming because they were too busy milking the sh*t out of Desktop users...
@jazir5
same reason they dominate desktop processors - the Intel x86 architecture (and its at-the-hip link to Windows). Intel have been concentrating (and dominating) on that architecture. It isn't suitable for low-power processors.
Or in other words, how many processors do Intel make that can't run Windows? What proportion of their development effort goes on those processors? That's why.
Why put a Barcelona die shot there?
@pgee
Pretty colours.
I want my dual core. Mumble mumble.... cost an ARM and a leg... mumble mumble...
@xdreamer I have some INTEL on the situation.
@FAP FAP FAP They are making some very Advanced Micro Devices
@sudipa24 where do you live so i can mail you a bag full of shit?
Wow, this is going to exorcise all the battery concerns, 45nm pretty much solves most of the battery issues anyway, but this is sweet.
THIS IS OBSCENE!
ARM and TSCM, yet it's AMD Barcelona Quad-Core CPU pictured?
Heh...