ARM Announces Active Assist Service to Accelerate Partner Deployment of ARM Architecture

ARM Active Assist Offers ARM Partners Targeted Onsite Expert Advice to Help Teams Better Optimize ARM Subsystem Designs

CAMBRIDGE, England, October 7, 2008 -- ARM today announced the availability of its new Active Assist on-site service to meet ARM® IP Partners' demand for rapid IP deployment. Active Assist will help embedded system designers, implementers and programmers of ARM-based platforms to shorten their time to market by quickly gaining the engineering expertise on ARM IP that is most relevant to their design project. The service will offer customers architectural design advice to ensure best practice techniques are adopted, thereby helping achieve optimal ARM subsystem design. In addition, project monitoring and proactive technical feedback during the lifecycle of the customer project will help to reduce time to market and increase design-in confidence for new ARM Partners.

Active Assist helps make engineering teams more effective on ARM IP through a range of customized deployment services, including:

• Tailored training customized to project requirements, delivering the most relevant knowledge in the shortest time possible

• On-site design and flow auditing from dedicated ARM analysts to optimize the team set-up for ARM deployment

• Assistance on delivering high-performance, energy-efficient SoC implementations through the combination of ARM's processor and Fabric IP in conjunction with ARM's Physical IP portfolio of highly optimized, leading-edge cell libraries, memory compilers and interface products

• Regular correspondence through project monitoring to track milestones and ensure constant checking against best-practice ARM design techniques

• Comprehensive technical design reviews before design sign-off to give confidence that the ARM subsystem design is optimal

• Assistance with test chip and debug environment set-up to get the prototyping environment up-and-running as fast as possible when first silicon is returned

"We are helping our Partners help themselves," said Paul Elbro, VP and general manager, ARM Services. "The ARM Active Assist service aids engineering teams coming up to speed on ARM IP to benefit directly from our design expertise. We are in a unique position to offer this high value service to adopters of ARM processor-based technology."

The customized deployment services offered within the ARM Active Assist service can be acquired in distinct service packages tailored to meet different project demands. These packages range from complete front-to-back project assistance from team set-up through architectural specification and design sign-off, to one-off engagements including assessment of project set-up, architectural design review, or on-site help with prototype board bring-up.

"We found the ARM Active Assist program highly valuable to our development program" said Stefano Ravaglia, SoC R&D Director, Computer Systems Division, STMicroelectronics. "Our design team were all new to the Cortex(TM)-A9 processor and the AMBA® 3 AXI(TM) methodology. The ARM Active Assist team delivered targeted in-depth knowledge showing deep experience of complete system design. It enabled us to rapidly get to grips with the technology and have confidence that we were focusing on the most critical parts of the ARM subsystem design."

The Active Assist service is backed by a team with extensive ARM deployment experience across a wide range of design environments, technologies and product requirements. All services are provided with comprehensive documentation of the ARM analysis and recommendations signed off by ARM to ensure high quality results and customer satisfaction.

Availability

Initial rollout in 2008 will be limited to the US and Europe, with rollout to other world regions planned for 2009. Active Assist packages will initially be offered for the ARM7(TM) processor family, ARM9(TM) processor family, ARM11(TM) processor family, MPCore(TM) multicore technology and Cortex family of processors, AMBA interconnect and Fabric IP, CoreSight(TM) on-chip debug and trace technology and the RealView® debugger. Additional information on ARM Active Assist is available at http://www.arm.com/support/activeassist.html

About ARM

ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM's comprehensive product offering includes 32-bit RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and the company's broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.