Arm And Mindspeed Extend Relationship With Cortex-A9 Processor Agreement

The widely-adopted ARM MPCore (multicore) technology increases performance scalability and control over power consumption to exceed the performance of today’s comparable high-performance devices while remaining within tight power constraints. The Cortex-A9 MPCore processor was developed to deliver the next generation of MPCore technology to a breadth of new application markets by further optimizing and extending this technology.

The agreement builds on an existing collaboration between the two companies which has already resulted in the successful development and launch of the Mindspeed® Comcerto® 100 and 1000 series of broadband gateway processors based on the ARM1136J-S™ processor (28 April 2008- ARM and Mindspeed Address Next Generation Home Gateways with Multiprocessing Technology).

ARM also provided Mindspeed with comprehensive on-site hardware training on the Cortex-A9 processor deliverables to ensure they were able to start designing with the technology as quickly and efficiently as possible.

“The proposition of multiservice networking, combining all types of communications, including data, voice and video over a single packet cell-based infrastructure, is emerging as a strategically important issue for enterprise and public service provider infrastructures alike,” said Tom Medrek, Mindspeed’s senior vice president and general manager, multiservice access. “Enabling this technology within tight power constraints is only possible with high-performance, embedded multiprocessing technology. ARM has proven expertise and experience in this area, as demonstrated with our Comcerto 100 series, and was our logical partner for future development.”

“The ARM architecture is the optimal solution to enable best-in-class quality of service (QoS) for the networking platforms that are emerging as broadband gateways evolve into intelligent multiservice access points,” said Ian Ferguson, director Enterprise Solutions, ARM. “The Cortex-A9 MPCore processor provides the flexibility to extend peak performance to unprecedented levels while reducing power consumption, a combination which makes it ideal for high-performance networking applications.”