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May 29, 2010 Arm Ltd unveiled a new chip technology for mobile devices on Monday, and Taiwanese smartphone maker MediaTek Inc (2454.TW) said it will use it for its next-generation products.
MediaTek, a long-time supplier of low- and mid-range smartphone chips, has been in a legal battle with the once-controlled arm of rival Qualcomm Inc ( QCOM.O ), which has been entering the market to supply chips for premium smartphones. From last year on chip license agreements.
In a blog post announcing the new products, MediaTek said the new chips will help improve the performance of its next-generation smartphones.
ARM sells blueprints that chip designers use to build their own hardware. At the Computex conference in Taiwan, it is showing off the Immortalis-G720, the brains of mobile devices, for video image processing and AI applications, and the Cortex-X4 processor.
ARM claims that both new chips perform 15% better than their previous generation, and the Cortex-X4 consumes 40% less power, which is key for smartphones looking to conserve battery life.
ARM said the Cortex-X4 was “tapered” by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp ( 2330.TW ), meaning it had a chip built in the factory, an expensive process usually done by chip designers who sell the final chip.
Chris Bergey, general manager of ARM’s customer line business, said in a Reuters briefing that Arm is working to sell the chip instead of its long-term business model of offering blueprints to chipmakers. A step sometimes taken to test a new manufacturing technology for customers.
“Arm is not in the business of selling chips. It’s not what we do,” he said.
Last month, the Financial Times reported that Arm was developing its own chip to demonstrate the potential of its designs.
ARM says the Cortex-X4 was patched on TSMC’s N3E process and is an industry first.
Reporting by Jane Lanhy Lee and Stephen Nellis; Editing by Mark Porter
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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