真乄科技業的頂尖投資團隊

受惠於智慧手機與平板電腦需求熱烈，英國晶片設計大廠安謀國際公司（ARM）上季淨利翻漲逾一倍，表現亮眼，並預期今年度營收將躍增21%。

飛思卡爾半導體宣佈將採用新款的超經濟ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore處理器、加上先前已經採用的Cortex-A15處理器。飛思卡爾將運用這兩種ARM核心的能源效益及性能，研製快速擴展的新一代i.MX應用處理器。

基於雙核心A7和A15處理器的系統架構示意圖。

LONDON – Processor IP licensor ARM and foundry TSMC have announced the competion of the design of an A15 processor test chip targeting implementation in a 20-nm manufacturing process technology. 

The companies said they moved the test chip design from RTL to "tape-out" in six months, usuing a design flow co-ordinated by TSMC. The companies did not state how long the design would take to be instantiated successfully in 20-nm silicon, which at TSMC is a planar process.  Nor did the companies indicate whether the design is single-core, without peripherals, or whether it is a full working multi-core processor suitable for use in applications.

ARM said it would now optimize its physical IP to the TSMC 20-nm process for power, performance and area and produce a specification for a Cortex-A15 processor optimization pack (POP). It did not say how soon this would be completed.

"This first 20-nm ARM Cortex-A15 tape out paves the way for the next generation of SoC integration and performance," said Mike Inglis, general manager of ARM's processor division, in a statement. These SoCs will be suitable for smartphones, tablet computers, digital home systems, servers and wireless infrastructure, ARM said.

資料來源:http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4229820/ARM-TSMC-design-20-nm-A15-processor

英商ARM公司與台積公司昨（18）日共同宣佈，已順利完成首件採用20奈米製程技術生產的ARM Cortex-A15 處理器設計定案(Tape Out)。藉由台積公司在開放創新平台上建構完成的20奈米設計生態環境，雙方花費六個月的時間即完成從暫存器轉換階層(RTL)到產品設計定案的整個設計過程。

CubeStormer I was pretty cool, we guess, but that was way back in 2010. Now we're all about CubeStormer II. Built by Mike Dobson and David Gilday, the puzzle-cracking robot is capable of solving Rubik's Cubes at blazing fast speeds, shaving precious fractions of seconds off of human world records. The 'bot was constructed from four Lego Mindstorms NXT kits, with our old pal the Samsung Galaxy S II serving as the its "brain." CubeStormer will be making a public appearance at ARM TechCon 2011 in California, later this month (and really, the whole thing seems like a bit of an ad for ARM -- albeit a really awesome one). In the meantime, check out some video of it in action after the break.

半導體產值預估

LONDON – Embedded and mobile software company Wind River Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of chip giant Intel Corp., has teamed up with China's Leadcore Technology Co. Ltd. to develop an ARM-based system-on-chip platform for Android smartphones.

Leadcore, has supplied its ARM9-based SoC to the partnership and will launch its Cortex-A9 based SoC later this year. Wind River (Alameda, Calif.) worked with Leadcore to get Android running on Leadcore’s SoC platform, including performance optimization customization of Android to take advantage of specific Leadcore SoC capabilities. 

As part of the development Leadcore (Shanghai, China) has implemented Wind River’s test software to test the smartphone platform for compliance with the Android Compatibility Test Suite (CTS).

"Wind River can help customers enter desirable regional markets quickly with high-quality Android devices certified on local operator networks," said Jerry Ashford, vice president and general manager of mobile solutions at Wind River, in a statement. 

"We were in search of a trusted partner with Android experience who could help us navigate through the complexities of Android development and testing, including Android compliance," said Sun Yuwang, president of Leadcore, in the same statement. "Wind River has the proven Android expertise and deep knowledge of Chinese operator requirements. Being able to leverage the combination of both was essential for our success."

A hardware abstraction layer test suite within the Framework for Automated Software Testing (FAST) enables engineering teams to determine how to test a system before it becomes functional, Wind River said. FAST executes automated application-driven stress tests and performance tests which freed up Leadcore engineers to focus on low-level software development and board support package hardening, Wind River claimed.

Leadcore is one of the companies included in the EE Times Confidential China Fabless Profile & Database report that can be ordered fromhttps://subscriptions.eetimes.com/chinafabless

Ars Technica points us to source code from the latest version of the LLVM-based default compiler within Xcode showing what appears to be support for Marvell’s ARM compliant Armada XP processor. Of course this has lead to speculation that Apple is potentially considering the processors for next-gen iOS devices, but as Ars points out, even the least exciting scenario would mean good things to come:

行動及消費娛樂應用設備繪圖及視覺技術供應商圖芯晶片公司（Vivante Corporation）宣布，中國的一流高科技公司新岸線獲得授權，取得其引領市場的展示及畫素組成圖形使用者介面引擎。新岸線會將此關鍵的視覺描繪智慧財產權納入其下一世代搭載系統單晶片的行動、嵌入式及消費性電子平台中，包括智慧型手機及多媒體平板電腦。

IC設計服務業者虹晶科技(Socle Technology)今年將以「完美風暴」為主題，參與晶圓代工大廠GLOBALFOUNDRIES於八月底展開的全球技術論壇(Global Technology Conference，GTC)，強調虹晶科技展現高階設計能力，並結合投資最大法人股東GLOBALFOUNDRIES的高階製程，為全球客戶提供具差異化價值的 SoC設計服務、晶片製作開發設計以及系統應用等解決方案。

IC設計服務越來越強調低功耗、高效能以及前瞻製程，虹晶科技的開發平台，包含多媒體開發應用平台MDK、高畫質開發應用平台FHD及低功耗平板應用等，除了有領先業界效能的ARM9、ARM11外，平台服務更已經通過應用驗證，可以協助客戶，進行客製化修正，加速客戶進入市場時間。

Segars：EUV的延遲將對發展14nm節點構成威脅。

張忠謀7/29特別針對旗下包括28奈米、14奈米、立體堆疊封裝技術、ARM（安謀）處理器架構、矽中介板及銅柱導線直連等多項技術說明進展。 

ARM和ASIC設計的創意電子(Global Unichip)宣布創意電子已取得完整的ARM矽智財(IP)授權，包含高效能和低耗電的ARM Cortex處理器、ARM Mali繪圖處理器、ARM CoreLink互連和系統IP以及ARM Artisan實體IP。透過廣泛ARM矽智財的使用授權，創意電子得以提供從新興市場的入門級智慧型手機、低價平板電腦，到高效能平板電腦和智慧型電視等不同市場所需的解決方案。

ARM平台與x86平台在NB市場的勢力消長預測

SoC設計平台服務廠商，虹晶科技 (Socle Technology Corporation)宣佈，與安謀簽訂多項Cortex A系列產品授權協議，包含Cortex A9、Cortex A8、Cortex A5多核心處理器等項目，持續強化目前開發工具組合。虹晶科技目前提供領先業界效能的ARM 9與ARM11平台設計服務，簽訂Cortex A9等前瞻技術授權後，虹晶科技將進一步強化設計平台的核心能力，為客戶帶來下世代的平台設計服務解決方案。

低功耗微控制器公司Energy Micro日前公佈了其QFP64封裝的EFM32 Gecko和Tiny Gecko產品線。全新64引腳器件在不斷發展的智慧型儀器表市場特別受歡迎，此外還適用於其他對功耗敏感的應用，如樓宇自動化、安防系統和可擕式健康醫療及健身設備。

英國有一項研究計畫，打算將上百萬顆 ARM 處理器連結在一起，以模擬人腦的運作；該計畫所需晶片是由曼徹斯特大學(Manchester University)設計、已在台灣完成製造，將組裝成一部命名為SpiNNaker (Spiking Neural Network architecture，棘波神經網路架構)之大規模平行運算電腦。據了解，那些特製晶片是採用舊款的ARM指令集架構，在上個月已經送抵曼徹斯特大學，並已經通過功能性測試。

相較於AMD與Intel，ARM顯然對多數的消費者還是很陌生的名詞，而多數人也會好奇，ARM架構生產的應用處理器到底跟Intel、AMD又有什麼不同，又跟智慧手機與平板廠商提到的TI OMAP、Qualcomm Snapdragon、三星的蜂鳥（Hummingbird）、獵戶座（Orion）、飛思卡爾（Freescale）的i.MX，或是ST-Ericsson的應用處理器等有什麼關係。