ARM Announces Rapid System Prototyping Solution

RealView ESL technology enables rapid time-to-market for ARM11 family-based solutions

CAMBRIDGE, UK – Mar. 7, 2005 - ARM [(LSE:ARM)]; (Nasdaq:ARMHY)], today announced the availability of  RealView® ESL tools support for ARM11™ family-based system prototyping. The RealView ESL tools reduce and improve the full design process by working at the cycle- and transaction-based abstraction level to enable a complete virtual platform for modeling and programming multi-core SoCs before silicon production -- leading to faster time-to-market.

Published reports* state that virtual prototyping reduces system silicon design for applications like HD digital TVs, 3G mobile phones, mobile application processors and other complex devices by up to 40 percent.

The ARM® RealView ESL tools incorporate MaxSim™ technology, which assists software and hardware design teams by enabling architecture exploration and software development to begin before the silicon or RTL of the final product are available. Benchmarking and trade-off analysis is conducted in a readily available environment offering bus, cache and software profiling and analysis functions.  High simulation speed, comprehensive software control and visualization enable early identification and removal of software errors. 

The RealView Model Library, which incorporates MaxLib™ SystemC models, includes cycle accurate models of all ARM11 family uni-processors, as well as models of other configurable system components which use the AMBA™ 3 AXI™ interconnect protocol:   the ARM PrimeCell® AMBA 3 Configurable Interconnect (PL300), the PrimeCell Dynamic Memory Controller (PL340), and the PrimeCell Level 2 Cache Controller (L220), as well as a complete set of bridge components enabling the easy connection of existing peripherals and bus models which use AMBA 3 protocols.

“ARM11 family processors continue to gain momentum in the marketplace; first introduced in 2002, they have been licensed by more than 25 ARM Partners and have an established, and very well-understood implementation flow,” said Noel Hurley, CPU product marketing manager at ARM.  “With the introduction of our new RealView ESL tools, we are able to provide developers with an end-to-end ARM11 system solution, which will reduce system design time and costs for current and future ARM11 processor-based design activity.”

The ARM1176JZ(F)-S™ processor is a member of the ARM11 family which also includes the ARM1136J(F)-S™ processor, the ARM1156T2(F)-S™   processor, and the scalable 1-4 core ARM11 MPCore™ multi-processor. The cores in the ARM11 family can achieve 550 MHz in TSMC 0.13µ technology and depending on configuration, use as little as 2.2 mm2 of silicon area and 0.45 mW/MHz of power. All ARM11 family processors include Thumb® instructions for code compression. The ARM1156T2(F)-S processor includes the Thumb-2 instruction set that provides further improved performance and code compression. The ARM1176JZ(F)-S processor also incorporates Jazelle® technology for Java acceleration and critical new technologies such as TrustZone™ technology for security and Intelligent Energy Manager (IEM) technology for increased power savings. It was also the first processor to use the AMBA 3 AXI protocol high-bandwidth system interface. Both the ARM1156T2(F)-S processor and the ARM11 MPCore multi-processor also use the AMBA 3 AXI protocol.

The ARM1176JZ(F)-S PrimeXsys® Platform extends the TrustZone and IEM technology benefits into the rest of the system and provides a high-performance, configurable platform including high-speed interconnect, an optimized DDR-SDRAM memory controller and level-2 cache control.

In addition to IEM energy management technology, the ARM1176JZF-S processor and the ARM1176JZ-S processor, in common with all IEM technology enabled processors, can be implemented with the low power features of the ARM Artisan® Metro™ Platform. The Artisan Metro low-power platform provides physical IP specifically designed to significantly reduce power while lowering costs through increased density and yield. The Metro Platform incorporates new architectures, circuit designs and low-power features enabling IC designers to implement dynamic voltage scaling and other advanced chip-level power management techniques.

For a demonstration of this advanced prototyping product and the ARM1176JZ(F)-S processor system, visit ARM at the Design, Automation and Test in Europe (DATE) Conference, March 7-11, booth E7100; or at the Embedded Systems Conference (ESC), March 6-10, booth 802. For more information regarding the ARM11 processor family and RealView ESL tools please visit http://www.arm.com

* Samsung’s VIP Design Methodology Reduces SoC Design Time Up to 40 Percent (September 14, 2004)

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 16/32-bit RISC microprocessors, data engines, 3D processors, digital libraries, embedded memories, peripherals, software and development tools, as well as analog functions and high-speed connectivity products.  Combined with 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.

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ARM, RealView, PrimeCell, Jazelle, PrimeXsys and Thumb are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM11, ARM1136J(F)-S, ARM1156T2(F)-S, ARM1176JZ(F)-S,   MPCore, TrustZone, MaxSim, MaxLib, AXI, Metro and AMBA   are trademarks of ARM Limited. Artisan and Artisan Components are trademarks of ARM Physical IP, Inc.  All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. “ARM”‘ is used to represent ARM Holdings plc; its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries ARM INC.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan; ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; ARM Belgium N.V.; AXYS Design Automation Inc.; AXYS GmbH; ARM Embedded Solutions Pvt. Ltd.; and ARM Physical IP, Inc.

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