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Samsung revs 64-bit ARM, licenses Java
Promises 800MHz on a 0.13 micron process
Samsung has expanded its agreement with British chip designer ARM and licensed three more cores. It's a significant win for ARM's Jazelle Java accelerator, in the form of the ARM926-EJ-S core, but the eye catching part of the deal sees Samsung promise to invest in the next-generation 64-bit ARM10.
In today's announcement the Korean giant promised to take ARM10 (represented by the ARM1020E core it licensed today) to 800MHz based on a 0.13 micron process. ARM touts processors up to 700MHz at 0.15 micron on its current roadmaps, so this raises the stakes slightly. Sanyo signed up to the Javafied ARM variant in June.
The 64-bit refers to the instruction and data buses, not to the registers. Whether this suits everyone's definition of 64-bit, we're not sure, but it's good enough for ARM.
The core will find its way into Samsung's smartphone and PDA designs.
Samsung has also licensed the ARM946E-S design, which is targeted at hard disks and static embedded devices. ®
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