ARM ATAP Program Grows to 29 Members and More Than 2,900 Engineers

Three New Partners and Two Contract Extensions Add To The Expanding Global Membership of the ATAP Program
(Additional supporting quotes can be found at the end of this press release)
 

CAMBRIDGE, England, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- ARM [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMHY - news)], the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC processor solutions, today announced the latest expansion of ATAP(TM), the ARM technology access program, with the addition of three new Partners. Comit Systems (U.S.), Infinite Technology Corporation (U.S.) and MAZ Brandenburg GmbH (Germany) have joined the program, bringing the total number of ATAP Partners to 29. In addition, two current members of the ATAP program, Synopsys (U.S.), and Barco-Silex (Belgium), have extended their membership of the program to include design centers in the United States and France. Together, these developments have extended the combined pool of engineers in the ATAP program to more than 2,900.

ATAP provides a framework for selecting and enabling competent design centers with the ARM® technology necessary for system-on-chip (SoC) designs. ARM core-based SoC developers are able to use ATAP Partner services to aid with some of the more complex tasks associated with SoC design, 'bridging the gap' with any skill shortfall the developer may have.

"The ever-increasing global reach that the ATAP program offers to developers of ARM Powered® solutions demonstrates once again the strong support for ARM's technology around the world," said David Lewis, ATAP program manager, ARM. "To have a program which can draw on the experience and expertise of almost 3,000 engineers is a phenomenal resource, and shows why we believe that the ATAP program is one of the strongest support networks in the industry."

Comit Systems is a contract engineering company with extensive experience in chips, boards, embedded software and systems, with specific expertise with large SoC designs incorporating ARM processors. In joining the ATAP program, Comit will be able to augment its offering to include core hardening capability for the ARM processor core, while significantly shortening customer design cycles through access to ARM PrimeCell® peripherals.

Infinite Technology Corporation (ITC), established in 1991, is a SoC design services and technology firm based in the Telecom Corridor of Richardson, Texas. ITC offers solutions and SoC design capabilities for the design of deep submicron multi-million gate circuits deployed in the wireless, communication, networking and consumer electronics markets. Many ITC customers are now ranked among the top ten (10) semiconductor companies, all of which are licensees of ARM technology. ITC provides a complete concept-to- foundry design service consisting of Architectural Design, RTL and Logic Design, Validation and Verification, Simulation, Synthesis and Physical Design. In conjunction with its design services, ITC offers its own patented intellectual property IP and offers third-party IP to substantially reduce time-to-market. By joining the ATAP program, ITC now incorporates ARM's leading RISC technology into its portfolio and offers design resource expertise for ARM developers.

MAZ Brandenburg, based in the commuter belt of Berlin, is a full-service ASIC and SoC supplier that specializes in telecommunications, industry automation, networking and multimedia systems. Its design services include designing mixed signal (A/D) CMOS circuits and high-performance/low-power ICs, ASICs and SoC solutions. As its SoC products are already primarily based on ARM's industry-leading embedded 32-bit RISC architecture, MAZ Brandenburg is ideally placed to extend its expertise to other ATAP Partners.

Synopsys, Inc., headquartered in California and with offices worldwide, is a leading provider of electronic design automation (EDA) tools, intellectual property and design services to the global electronics market. Using a reference methodology jointly developed by Synopsys and ARM, Synopsys Professional Services offers "core-hardening" services to optimize ARM soft IP core implementations based on customers' specific requirements. Synopsys Professional Services is already an ATAP Partner, and is extending this arrangement to encompass its design centers based in Orlando, Florida and Austin, Texas, in addition to previously announced design centers in the UK, Finland and Taiwan.

Barco Silex, a member of the Barco Group, offers a complete portfolio of high-end design services, from traditional ASIC/FPGA design to advanced SOC/SOPC-based system development and IP integration or design, in the field of image processing, communications, consumer or industrial electronics. Barco Silex is an existing ATAP Partner and is extending its membership to include its new design center in France.

About the ATAP Program

There are currently 29 Partners in the ATAP program, with a resource of more than 2,900 engineers available to work on ARM core-based SoC designs. ATAP design Partners must go through a strict qualification process to become an ARM Approved Design Center. This includes a design flow audit, training on implementing designs with ARM cores, tools, AMBA® interface peripherals and development techniques. Each Design Center must demonstrate its own unique skills in specific technology domains, as well as end-market expertise. The ATAP program also provides additional benefits such as geographic and time- zone locality and local language support. For more information on the ATAP program, please email info@arm.com or visit the ARM Web site.

About ARM

ARM is the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions. The company licenses its high-performance, low-cost, power-efficient RISC processors, peripherals and system-on-chip designs to leading international electronics companies. ARM also provides comprehensive support required in developing a complete system. ARM's microprocessor cores are rapidly becoming a volume RISC standard in such markets as portable communications, hand-held computing, multimedia digital consumer and embedded solutions. More information on ARM is available at www.arm.com .

ARM, ARM Powered, PrimeCell and AMBA are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM7, ARM9 and ATAP are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. 'ARM' is used to represent ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and Nasdaq: ARMHY); its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM, INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan; and ARM France SAS.
    EDITOR'S NOTES

    The ATAP program is enjoying considerable plaudits from its members:



"Comit offers full-service, turnkey ASIC design services from specs to GDS-II in geometries up to 0.13micron and has executed several ARM core-based SoC designs, including both processor integration and embedded software development. The ATAP Partnership allows Comit to augment its offering to include ARM processor core hardening capability as well," said Niladri Roy, director of Strategic Marketing for Comit. "Access to the ARM PrimeCell peripherals, coupled with Comit's proven methodologies for SoC design and verification, will result in significantly faster design cycles for our customers."

"This is another important milestone for the company," stated Tim Smith, ITC president. "ARM is the number one semiconductor IP provider in the world. Having access to their IP will allow ITC to offer our customers access to technologies that will significantly reduce their time-to-market. The signing of this agreement also signifies ARM's support of our ability to perform highly sophisticated ASIC and SoC design work for ARM core-based developers."

"Our decision to join the ATAP program is a logical consequence of MAZ's success with the ARM7(TM) and the ARM9(TM) core family-based SoC projects in the past," said Prof. Otto Manck, founder and CEO of MAZ Brandenburg. "The ATAP membership ideally harmonizes with MAZ's Shared Design Concept, which offers medium-sized companies with only medium volume products in particular, access to integrated, ARM core-based system-on-chip solutions."

"The extension of our ATAP agreement to include our new design center in Rousset in the south of France is not only clear recognition of the skills and experience of our French design team when working with ARM products, but also acknowledgement of our commitment to bring our advanced SoC design resources closer to our French customers," said Thierry Watteyne, general manager of Barco Silex.

For further information please contact: Michelle Spencer of ARM, +44-1628-427780, michelle.spencer@arm.com; or Kelly Foster of The Townsend Agency, +1-858-457-4888 ext. 143, kfoster@townsendagency.com, for ARM