ARM and semiconductor foundry UMC today announced an agreement to offer the ARM Artisan physical IP platform along with POP IP for UMC's 28nm low-power (HLP) process technology. UMC and ARM will provide their customers an advanced process technology and a comprehensive physical IP platform under this agreement.

The energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A7 processor has seen broad adoption in smartphones, tablets, DTV and other consumer products. The ARM POP IP for the Cortex-A7 processor is targeted for 1.2GHz on UMC's 28HLP platform, and delivery began in December 2013.

UMC's 28HLP process is the foundry's 28nm Poly-SiON technology that provides a balance of size, speed and power leakage. These process characteristics makes the process a choice for a variety of applications that require low power consumption without compromising performance, including portable, wireless LAN, and both wired and handheld consumer products. The foundry is currently in pilot production for products on 28HLP, with volume production expected in early 2014.

The ARM Artisan physical IP platform for UMC's 28nm poly SiON process provides the building blocks to implement SoC designs. ARM's IP platform offers a set of memory compilers, standard cells and logic, and general-purpose interface products that meet the performance and power requirements for mobile communications and computing.

ARM's standard cell libraries and memory compilers incorporate multi-channel and mixed Vt features to enable a wide performance and power spectrum which utilizes the performance and power range of UMC's poly SiON process.