ARM NEON Technology to Help Enable Deployment of Dolby Mobile Technology

Dolby Mobile to provide high-performance audio processing in a highly-efficient manner on smartphones powered by NEON technology

CAMBRIDGE, UK – Feb. 16, 2009 – ARM [(LSE: ARM); (Nasdaq: ARMH)] today announced at the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona, that Dolby® Mobile from Dolby Laboratories, Inc. (NYSE: DLB), which enhances the listening experience on mobile phones and portable media players, is now available with ARM® NEON™ technology. The combination of Dolby Mobile and NEON technologies enables manufacturers to offer a premium-quality listening experience over headphones on mobile devices, while efficiently maximizing battery life.

Consumers demand full functionality and a high-quality multimedia experience on their smartphones. Supported by the ARM Connected Community™, the industry’s largest network of Partners, NEON technology is designed to enable multimedia applications such as Dolby Mobile to be deployed easily across ARM Cortex™ processor-based products, with maximum efficiency, offering a premium-quality multimedia experience on mobile devices.

NEON technology is a 128-bit SIMD (Single Instruction, Multiple Data) architecture extension for the ARM Cortex-A series family of processors. It is becoming widely acknowledged as the leading processor in multimedia applications ranging from smartphones and mobile computing devices to HDTV. It has been designed to simplify software migration across platforms and provide low power and flexible acceleration for intensive multimedia applications such as Dolby Mobile.

Coupled with Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9 processors, NEON technology has been widely adopted by leading companies. A growing set of organizations are actively engaged in engineering their IP with NEON technology, or offering software optimized for NEON technology, forming part of the NEON ecosystem. This ecosystem comprises leading silicon vendors such as Broadcom Corporation, Freescale Semiconductor, Matsushita, NEC, NVIDIA, Panasonic, PMC-Sierra, Samsung Electronics, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Toshiba America Electronic Components, who have all licensed Cortex processors where NEON technology is an option. Additionally, hardware design Partners that create development and evaluation boards based on these ARM processors and multimedia codec vendors continue to optimize their codecs for NEON technology.

“With the advent of powerful processors, larger color displays, greater storage capacity and expanded wireless connectivity, mobile devices are becoming increasingly complex. NEON technology simplifies the implementation of multimedia applications such as Dolby Mobile across ARM Cortex processor-based mobile devices,” said Ian Drew, EVP Marketing, ARM. “NEON technology is having an enormous impact on the enhancement of quality multimedia applications on today’s smartphones.” 

“Today’s consumers are increasingly discerning, demanding premium-quality sound on their mobile devices. Dolby Mobile has been designed to meet this demand, bringing Dolby’s expertise in high-quality audio to the mobile domain,” said Rolf Schmitz, marketing director, Mobile, Dolby Laboratories. “NEON technology and Dolby Mobile represent a compelling package for manufacturers, who can now more easily provide their customers with integrated, high-quality surround sound.”

Demonstration at Mobile World Congress, 16–19 February 2009

Demonstrations of Dolby Mobile on ARM NEON technology will be available at the ARM stand (booth # 1C01). For a comprehensive demonstration of Dolby Mobile and related technologies visit the Dolby stand (booth # 7C51).

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, video engines, 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.