Rockchip extends partnership with ARM by subscription license of ARM processor and GPU technologies

CAMBRIDGE, UK & FUZHOU, CHINA: ARM Rockchip Co. Ltd, a Chinese leading fabless semiconductor company and mobile-Internet SoC solution provider, announced that Rockchip has acquired a subscription license of a broad range of ARM advanced technologies.

The agreement gives Rockchip access to ARMv8-A and ARMv7 architecture-based processors including the ARM Cortex A57, Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A12 processors, the ARM Mali GPU family, as well as ARM CoreLink interconnect technology.

This is the first subscription license to ARM in China and the first subscription license of ARM Mali solutions worldwide, enabling next-generation robotics and providing a flexible product roadmap to Rockchip and its customers for the fast-growing mobile internet and smart home markets.

Antonio Viana, executive VP, commercial and global development, ARM, said: "This subscription license of ARM technologies enables us to continue building a comprehensive technology and product roadmap, demonstrating our commitment to enabling the next-generation Smartphone, Tablet, Android Notebook, Phablet and Internet TV products with higher performance and power efficiency for consumers across the globe.

"Rockchip and ARM have a successful long-term strategic partnership that has been proven by Rockchip's ARM Cortex-A9 processor and Mali-400 MP GPU powered RK31 series and RK30 series solutions.

"We are pleased to extend our partnership with Rockchip to a wide range of ARM Cortex processor and ARM Mali GPU solutions. This agreement will help Rockchip to strengthen its industry leadership position in China and worldwide and to address the challenges and opportunities posed by demanding consumers of mobile internet and smart home devices."

"Rockchip is dedicated to bringing cutting-edge CPU and GPU technologies and solutions to our customers and end users to enable a compelling user experience on mobile devices and at home," said Feng Chen, CMO, Rockchip.

"This subscription license of ARM technologies enables us to continue building a comprehensive technology and product roadmap, demonstrating our commitment to enabling the next-generation Smartphone, Tablet, Android Notebook, Phablet and Internet TV products with higher performance and power efficiency for consumers across the globe."

ARM is at the heart of the largest, most influential and innovative ecosystem in today's technology sector with a unique offering of diverse and scalable SoC technologies from processor, visual computing to ARM Artisan physical IP. In the Post-PC era, ARM and its partners are leading advances in performance and energy efficiency with innovations for the mobile market, which is driving change for consumers and businesses.

The ARMv8-A architecture first introduced 64-bit support to the ARM architecture with a focus on power-efficient implementation while maintaining compatibility with the existing 32-bit software. This extends the performance range available yet maintains the low power consumption characteristics of the ARM processors that will power tomorrow's most innovative and efficient devices.

The ARM Mali family has been driving the GPU innovation required by the user experience of increasing resolutions and content complexity, more advanced and natural UIs, as well as next-generation image processing and visual computing. The combination of the ARM processor and GPU technologies alongside physical IP is enabling its partners to design and manufacture solutions and products for consumers in the modern age.