ARM Extend RealView Solution With New Versatile Family of Hardware Development Tools

The ARM Versatile family enables ASIC prototyping and application development at real system speed resulting in faster time-to-market

CAMBRIDGE, UK – Oct. 15, 2003 –ARM, [(LSE:ARM);(Nasdaq:ARMHY)], the industry's leading provider of 16/32-bit embedded RISC microprocessor solutions, today announced that it has extended the RealView® hardware development solution with the launch of the Versatile family of hardware development boards. This family includes the first development board to support both the ARM926EJ-S™ PrimeXsys™ Platform and a range of integrated high performance IP, such as Imagination Technologies' PowerVR MBX 3D graphics acceleration technology, implemented in a system on chip.

The RealView Versatile family complements the existing ARM Integrator™ family, offering both high performance and flexibility. The performance-critical parts of a system have been combined into a development chip to enable ASIC emulation and software development at near to real system speed. This solution enables prototyping systems to operate with bus speeds of up to 90MHz. The ARM926EJ-S core can operate in excess of 230MHz. The development chip includes a variety off-chip bus interfaces to maintain flexibility in user defined expansion.

"Until now, system-on-chip developers needed to choose between performance and accuracy of emulation. The RealView Versatile family enables ASIC development with performance equivalent to the final environment," said Mark Snook, product manager, RealView Hardware Solutions, ARM. "The Versatile family, in conjunction with RealView software tools, extends the range of the ARM development solution to address the needs of system and application developers."

The first board in the Versatile family is the RealView Versatile Platform Baseboard. Based on an integrated development chip, this board has been designed specifically for ASIC emulation and prototyping, and supports advanced 3D graphics application development around ARM and PowerVR MBX cores.

This is the first time Imagination Technologies' PowerVR MBX IP has been realized in silicon, enabling developers to prototype applications that will port easily to future consumer devices.

"The ARM RealView Versatile Platform enables manufacturers to short circuit the design cycle for next-generation mobile phones and PDAs," said John Metcalfe, VP Business Development (PowerVR), Imagination Technologies plc. "These products will require PowerVR MBX's advanced graphics performance and capabilities, for the applications needed to draw in new consumers and maintain the phone-replacement market. The Versatile Platform lets manufacturers engage with software and application developers now to enable this vital content."

The RealView Versatile Platform Baseboard provides an AMBA™ Multi-layer AHB prototyping environment. External bus interfaces on the development chip, which enable bus layers inside the chip to be routed to expansion logic, provide access to the multiple bus layers of the PrimeXsys Platform architecture. The development chip integrates high performance IP such as memory and DMA controllers and the ARM VFP9-S™ coprocessor around the ARM926EJ-S core. The vector processing capability of the ARM VFP9-S coprocessor offers increased performance for imaging applications such as scaling, 2D and 3D transforms, font generation, and digital filters.

The development chip also includes an implementation of the ARM MOVE™ coprocessor which significantly improves the motion estimation capability required for applications like MPEG encode through hardware assistance for sum-of-absolute-differences (SAD) calculations.

The RealView Versatile Platform Baseboard for the ARM926EJ-S core will be available from December 2003 for $5000. A range of LCD kits and a PCI expansion backplane will be released early in 2004.

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, handheld computing, multimedia, digital consumer and embedded solutions. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.

ARM and RealView are registered trademarks of ARM Limited. ARM926EJ-S, Integrator, AMBA, VFP9-S, MOVE and PrimeXsys are trademarks of ARM Limited. "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; ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; and ARM Belgium N.V.