SMIC and Brite Semiconductor tape out low leakage 40nm test chip vased on dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor

SHANGHAI, CHINA & CAMBRIDGE, UK: Brite Semiconductor (Shanghai) Corp., a leading IC design and turnkey service provider, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), and ARM have jointly announced the first tape out of a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore test chip using SMIC's 40nm low leakage process technology.

The test chip is an implementation of a dual-core Cortex-A9 processor designed using SMIC's 40nm low leakage process technology. The processor incorporates a 32K I-Cache and 32K D-Cache, 128 TLB entries, NEON technology, as well as debug and trace technology from the CoreSight Design Kit. In addition to high-speed standard cell libraries, high-speed customized memories and cells were adopted in the test chip to enhance performance. The test chip was signed off at 900MHz (WC), with typical silicon results expected to top 1.0GHz when the results become available in Q2 2012.

Dr. Charlie Zhi, president and CEO, Brite Semiconductor, said: "The dual-core chip is designed using SMIC's 40nm low leakage process, which minimizes the time, risks and costs associated with bringing a high-performance Cortex-A9 processor implementation to market. We are delighted that the development work with ARM and SMIC on processor cores and implementation optimization has resulted in this test chip tape out, which demonstrates the close partnership between the three companies. With the support of ARM and SMIC, Brite brings huge value to customers who need high-performance ARM cores."

Chris Chi, chief business officer of SMIC, said: "Working closely with ARM and Brite allows us to deliver an integrated platform that rapidly brings customers' designs to production. We value the partnership with Brite and ARM, and the work they accomplished to achieve this milestone. It is a strong testimonial of our mutual commitment to provide industry-leading technology for advanced-node designs. The combination of SMIC's 40nm technology, the ARM Cortex-A9 processor and Brite's design flow will help meet the increasing demand for high-performance and energy-efficient consumer devices."

"ARM continues to work with partners in China to develop an ecosystem that drives innovation and growth," said Allen Wu, president, ARM China. "This important milestone with Brite and SMIC is a great example of what our partnership can achieve and promises faster time to market for a broad range of high performance and low power devices."