ARM releases Cortex A-15 designs to woo chip makers

Mobile and embedded chip specialist ARM has released a hard macro design for its Cortex A-15 quad core processor.

The macro provides the complete design for manufacturers looking to fabricate the A-15 chip, including specifications for the ARM Cortex processor, Artisan physical IP and CoreLink interconnect platforms.

ARM said that the design would call for a 2Ghz quad-core processor which would retain the energy efficiency of the Cortex A9 processor. The company plans to provide further details on the macro in the coming days.

The company hopes that the macro release will further development of the platform by licensees and hardware vendors looking to to build quad-core chips.

"For SoC designers looking to make a trade-off between the flexibility offered by the traditional RTL-based SoC development strategy and a rapid time to market, with ensured, benchmarked power, performance and area, an ARM hard macro implementation is an ideal, cost-effective solution," said ARM processor division vice president of marketing Jim Nicholas.

"This new Cortex-A15 hard macro is an important addition to our portfolio and will enable a wider array of partners to leverage the outstanding capabilities of the Cortex-A15 processor."

The Cortex-A15 has been seen by many as a turning point for ARM, marking the company's first venture from the embedded and mobile spaces into the larger computing markets. Applications for the chip have included lightweight and many-core server systems.

The release also comes as Microsoft is preparing to port Windows to the ARM architecture for the first time.

The Windows 8 RT build will feature special management and security components for mobile devices as well as a special edition of Office bundled into the operating system.