ARM and TSMC Unveil Roadmap for 64-bit ARM-based Processors on 10FinFET Process Technology

By Nathan Kirsch October 2, 2014

Hsinchu, Taiwan and ARM TechCon, Santa Clara, Calif., Oct. 2, 2014 – ARM and TSMC today announced a new multi-year agreement that will deliver ARMv8-A processor IP optimized for TSMC 10FinFET process technology. Because of the success in scaling from 20SoC to 16FinFET, ARM and TSMC have decided to collaborate again for 10FinFET. This early pathfinding work will provide valuable learning to enable physical design IP and methodologies in support of customers to tape-out 10FinFET designs as early as Q4 2015.

ARM and TSMC are industry leaders in our respective fields and collectively ensure the availability of leading-edge solutions for ARM-based SoCs through our deep and long-term collaboration, said Pete Hutton, executive vice president and president, product groups, ARM. Our mutual commitment to providing industry leading solutions drives us to work together early in the development cycle to optimize both the processor and the process node. This joint optimization enables ARM silicon partners to design, tape-out and bring their products to market faster.

TSMC will be applying the learnings from prior generations of 20SoC and 16FinFET in the ARM ecosystem to offer performance and power improvements at 10FinFET that will be better than previous nodes. The ARM ecosystem can also take advantage of TSMCs Open Innovation Platform (OIP) which includes a set of ecosystem interfaces and collaborative components initiated and supported by TSMC.

TSMC has continuously been the lead foundry to introduce advanced process technology for ARM-based SoCs, said Dr. Cliff Hou, TSMC vice president of R&D. Together with ARM, we proved out in silicon the high performance and low power of the big.LITTLE architecture as implemented in 16FinFET. Given the successful adoption of our previous collaborative efforts, it makes sense that we continue this fruitful partnership with ARM in future 64-bit cores and 10FinFET.

The joint innovations from previous TSMC and ARM collaborations have enabled customers to accelerate their product development cycles and take advantage of leading-edge processes and IP. Recent benefits have included early access to ARM Artisan Physical IP and tape-outs of ARM Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A57 processors on 16FinFET.

About ARM

ARM is at the heart of the world’s most advanced digital products. Our technology enables the creation of new markets and transformation of industries and society. We design scalable, energy efficient-processors and related technologies to deliver the intelligence in applications ranging from sensors to servers, including smartphones, tablets, enterprise infrastructure and the Internet of Things.

Our innovative technology is licensed by ARM Partners who have shipped more than 50 billion System on Chip (SoCs) containing our intellectual property since the company began in 1990. Together with our Connected Community, we are breaking down barriers to innovation for developers, designers and engineers, ensuring a fast, reliable route to market for leading electronics companies. Learn more and join the conversation at http://community.arm.com.

About TSMC

TSMC is the worlds largest dedicated semiconductor foundry, providing the industrys leading process technology and the foundry segments largest portfolio of process-proven libraries, IPs, design tools and reference flows. The Companys owned capacity in 2014 is expected to be about 8 million (12-inch equivalent) wafers, including capacity from three advanced 12-inch GIGAFAB facilities, four eight-inch fabs, one six-inch fab, as well as TSMCs wholly owned subsidiaries, WaferTech and TSMC China. TSMC is the first foundry to provide 28nm and 20nm production capabilities. TSMCs corporate headquarters are in Hsinchu, Taiwan. For more information about TSMC please visit http://www.tsmc.com.

ARM, Cortex and Artisan are registered trademarks of ARM Limited (or its subsidiaries) in the EU and/or elsewhere. All rights reserved. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. “ARM” refers to ARM Holdings plc (LSE: ARM and NASDAQ: ARMH) and members of its corporate group as constituted from time to time.