ARM Launches AMBA Design Kit

CAMBRIDGE, UK - July 24, 2001 - ARM [(LSE:ARM) (Nasdaq:ARMHY)], the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC processor technology, has announced the release of the AMBA[tm] Design Kit (ADK). The AMBA Design Kit provides a standalone environment for the rapid creation of components and SoC designs using ARM's proven AMBA interconnect solution.

The AMBA Design Kit presents designers with a rich simulation and development environment for AMBA technology-based systems and modules. It includes a number of Example AMBA Systems (EASYs) from which complex system-on-chip (SoC) designs can be built, and which provide SoC designers with working examples of typical, generic AMBA implementations.

The AMBA Design Kit's documentation, configuration and unpacking procedure has been aligned with ARM PrimeCell® peripherals to provide a familiar interface for users. The AMBA Design Kit is supplied with an ARM general purpose I/O PrimeCell peripheral, enabling users to rapidly gain experience of integrating IP blocks into any of the AMBA Design Kit example systems.

"The AMBA Design Kit provides the basic infrastructure, with straightforward source-level design examples for AMBA interconnect," said Jonathan Morris, AMBA product manager, ARM. "This includes new Multi-Layer AHB objects which can significantly enhance the versatility and performance of the AMBA system-on-chip (SoC) by extending the bus bandwidth available for multi-master systems."

LSI Logic has already licensed the new AMBA Design Kit from ARM, and will use it as a key component of its comprehensive open IP infrastructure for SOC designs.

"Our adoption of AMBA as the unified bus standard for all of our processor-based CoreWare® has proved to be very successful in simplifying the integration of multiple IP cores into complex customer SoC designs" said Rafi Kedem, senior director of processor cores at LSI Logic. "As our customers' designs continue to increase in complexity, it is important to develop a good SoC bus strategy. We now look forward to incorporating the new AMBA Design Kit into our SoC design flow to further streamline the implementation of AMBA bus-based system designs."

The AMBA Design Kit contains a wide range of AMBA AHB (Advanced High-performance Bus) components and APB (Advanced Peripheral Bus) peripherals, which provide designers with the basis for any AMBA technology-based design.

In addition to a basic File Reader Bus Master (FRBM) example design, the ADK will include two ARM® core-based system designs - an ARM7TDMI® core-based single master system and an ARM922T[tm] based multi-layer system.

Morris continued: "The AMBA Design Kit reduces time-to-market by providing the common foundations for AMBA technology-based design, and allows engineers to focus on application-specific issues to maximize product performance and obtain the best results from the high-performance capabilities of the AMBA interconnect solution. It will help to reinforce AMBA's position as a de facto industry standard for on-chip bus and the interface to the bus."

The AMBA specification is an established, open standard that serves as a framework for SoC designs, effectively providing the 'digital glue' that binds IP cores together. It is the backbone of ARM's design reuse strategy. Since the AMBA interface is processor and technology independent, it enhances the reusability of peripheral and system macrocells across a wide range of silicon processes.

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 the 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, PrimeCell and ARM7TDMI are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM922T and AMBA 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 Limited; ARM Taiwan.