Smartphones

ARM is the world’s leading provider of physical semiconductor intellectual property (IP) for the design of complex System on Chip (SoC) integrated circuits. ARM is at the heart of the Smartphone in your pocket today with over three ARM powered chips in a typical device. ARM's applications processors and Physical IP platforms, which consist of Logic IP, Embedded Memory IP and Interface IP that are optimized for a specific foundry process, combine to deliver the performance you need for the internet with great battery life that enables multi-day use.

Optimized ARM Smartphone Block Diagram

Smartphone Overview

ARM Value Proposition

Relevant ARM Products

Connected Community

Resources

Today the Smartphone is no longer a device for the road warrior, but rather the must have consumer device that is the most personal electronic device that they own, allowing them to manage their online and offline lives. Consumers are using their Smartphone for a wide range of tasks including:

Accessing the full Internet including social networking including Facebook, YouTube and MySpace
Creating and consuming multimedia including HD video , and accessing full online content using Adobe’s Flash Player 10.1
GPS navigation and location based services
Gaming including using the latest OpenGL ES 2.0 technology
Messaging from SMS to Email
And of course a phone, as many consumers “cut the cord” and use their Smartphone as their only point of communication

This trend to do more and more things at once on the Smartphone, while ensuring that consumers do not have to wait for the “hourglass” and have all day usage on a battery that is almost 15 times smaller than a typical laptop. This challenge is being addressed by the latest Cortex-A8 and multicore Cortex-A9 processors. Today, high-end smartphones such as the Nokia N900 and Palm Pre are shipping with the Cortex-A8 processor, and in 2010 handsets with the multicore Cortex-A9 will be launched.

In addition to the embedded and applications processors ARM supplies a range of market-leading Mali graphics and video technology that enables the emotional interface to the device, great gaming performance, streaming multi-media and DVC functionality.

Also, given that the Smartphone is the most personal device, the wide availability of SoCs and software platforms from multiple ARM Partners allows for diversity and differentiation. This allows consumers to choose a Smartphone that meets their needs and personality.

ARM Cortex-A5, Cortex-A8 or Cortex-A9 processors provide the power to enable the mobile internet with access to all your favorite sites, support for Adobe Flash and more…
ARM NEON technology accelerates software audio and video CODECs downloaded from the mobile internet.
ARM TrustZone technology provides the underlying foundation for strong handset security enabling SIM-lock, DRM and payment services.
ARM Mali GPUs enable the latest sophisticated, intuitive and responsive user interfaces.
ARM Mali-VE video engine enables high-quality video record and playback at low enough power to maintain the hours of battery-life users expect.
ARM Cortex-R4 real-time processor provides class-leading power efficiency for the increasingly complex modem control code used implement HSDPA & HSUPA UMTS and GSM/GPRS modems.
ARM CoreSight technology eases SoC and board bring-up and speeds time-to-market by enabling real-time high-speed trace of the multiple on-chip processors within a SoC.
ARM Cortex-M0 processor, ARM's smallest processor, is an ideal controller for system-wide power management and environmental sensors like touch-screen, accelerometers for haptic sensing and electronic compass sensors.
ARM AMBA Interconnect maximizes the ARM CPU performance by providing a low-latency path to memory whilst its QoS (quality-of-service) feature guarantees operation of real-time blocks like the modem and LCD controller.
PrimeCell M-DDR and LP-DDR2 memory controllers provide the bandwidth for sophisticated graphics and video and the performance for today’s high-performance CPUs at low-enough power to enable days of battery-life.
Physical Logical IP, including Standard Cell Libraries and Power Management Kits at 28 nm to 65 nm, reduces cost and power usage by minimizing silicon area and leakage, while optimizing performance.
Physical IP Embedded Memory at 28 nm to 65 nm creates the high-density on-chip memories on a SoC that can exceed 1 MByte today. The resultant memories, optimized for both performance and power, offer fault tolerance to increase manufacturing yields.
Physical IP DDR PHY enables robust off-chip memory interface performance at high clock-speed and low power.