ARM to Extend Family with ARM8 High Performance Architecture; ARM processors compatible across a large performance/price range.

CAMBRIDGE, UK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 28, 1995--Coinciding with its fifth birthday, Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. (ARM) announced that it is making a powerful extension to the ARM family. The ARM8 architecture will extend ARM's product portfolio by filling the gap between the elegantly minimal, embeddable ARM7 RISC cores and the very high performance StrongARM processor.

As a result ARM offers a completely software compatible solution across the entire performance range. Through ARM's unique partnership model, designers now have access to a broad spectrum of application knowledge and experience at each performance level.

The new ARM8 architecture is aimed at systems which will benefit from a high performance cached processor, but are still sensitive to system power consumption and cost. Target applications include: high-end mobile-computing, digital TV, second generation PDAs and multimedia applications.

Most high integration, real time, applications are best addressed by the ARM7TDMI, which, with the 'Thumb' code compression extension, is class leading in terms of cost, performance and area efficiency. ARM8 will step in where even greater performance is required.

The most significant change in ARM8 is extending the core pipeline to five stages, from three in the ARM7. This results in execution being spread over more cycles, reducing the amount of work done at each stage and thus allowing higher clock rates. The increased speed comes at the expense of increased die size and power consumption, but with twice the performance, ARM8 will maintain ARM's excellent MIPS/Watt and MIPS/mm2 ratios.

ARM's CEO, Robin Saxby, commented "ARM8 further strengthens our high end coverage for the growing body of OEMs standardizing on the ARM family. ARM7, ARM8 and StrongARM are different implementations for different jobs and complement each other well in fleshing out ARM's ability to satisfy a wide range of customer performance needs. Consequently we will continue to develop and sell all three architectures for a long time to come."

Available in 2H96 from ARM's licensed partners, the ARM810 will be the first product to implement the ARM8 architecture. Designed to a process portable 0.5 micron rule-set, the fully static ARM810 can be implemented as an embedded core within an application specific design or as a stand-alone microprocessor. The ARM810 will be capable of 80 MIPS at 3.3 V and so fits nicely between the 40 MIPS ARM710 and upcoming StrongARM that will better 160 MIPS.

Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. (ARM)

ARM designs, licenses and markets high-performance, low-cost, low-power consumption 32-bit RISC processors, peripherals and development tools for embedded control, consumer multi-media, DSP and portable applications. ARM also provides consulting and training. ARM licenses its technology to semiconductor partner companies, who focus on manufacturing, applications and marketing. The unparalleled breadth of the partnership's expertise ensures that ARM-based solutions are available to meet almost every customer's processor needs. Partners with ARM products in production are: GEC Plessey Semiconductors, Sharp Corporation, Texas Instruments and VLSI Technology. Partners with ARM products in development are: Asahi Kasei Microsystems, Cirrus Logic, Digital Semiconductor, ES2, LG Semicon, NEC, Samsung and Symbios Logic. Together they make ARM the world volume RISC standard.

To learn more about Advanced RISC Machines and its semiconductor partners, you can now access ARM through the World Wide Web at http://www.arm.com. -0-

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