Reflecting the emergence of Shanghai as the centre of China’s chip-making industry, Arm Ltd. has set up an office in the city to license its processor core designs and related technologies to Chinese customers, including IC (integrated circuit) design companies, contract chip makers and other hardware makers.
Arm expects to see China become the second-largest market for semiconductors within 10 years.
With the opening of its Shanghai office, Arm announced two partnerships with Chinese companies. Shanghai Huahong Integrated Circuit Co. Ltd. has licensed Arm’s processor core design. In addition, Arm, in Cambridge, England, has signed a deal with Beijing Watertek Information Technology Co. Ltd. to provide training and support for Arm’s RealView development tools.
Processors based on Arm’s core are used in a variety of embedded applications, including personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones. The core is the only processor that is supported by Microsoft’s Pocket PC 2002 software.