ARM has been hyperactive in defending its dominance of mobile devices from the onslaught of Intel’s Atom. It has worked closely with the many licensees of its processor architecture to extend its reach into embedded wireless and smartbooks and has made friends with key software players like Android and Adobe. Now it is engaged in a different kind of partnership, with chip manufacturer GlobalFoundries, in order to keep two steps ahead of Atom in the low power, low cost device market. The alliance is working to enable the design of smaller chips for phones and other gadgets, as well as ultra-low cost notebooks and netbooks.
Under the new agreement, mutual customers will be offered tools to design smaller ARM-based chips optimized for GlobalFoundries’ 28 nanometer manufacturing technology. ARM CEO Warren East said in a statement that the collaboration could accelerate the adoption of 28nm ARM-based chips. The current ARM flagship, the Cortex-A9 processor core, is based on 32nm processes.
GlobalFoundries, a joint venture between AMD and Abu Dhabi-based Advanced Technology Investment Company, says it is one of the first contract manufacturers to work with ARM to enable systems-on-chip (SOCs) based on 28nm, which should reduce cost, size and power consumption. SoC designers using ARM processors include Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Broadcom.
Over at Intel, which traditionally manufactured its chips itself, there is also deepening collaboration with advanced contract manufacturers, notably Taiwan’s TSMC. This change of strategy is chiefly focused on low power future iterations of Atom, drawing on TSMC’s expertise and advanced processes in the embedded world. TSMC, which also works with ARM, is thought to be working on a 32nm/28nm shrink of Atom, to help Intel achieve its goal of an Atom-based SoC for mobile and embedded devices, sampling about a year from now. Intel also plans 22nm chips in 2011.