Samsung claims first ARM design to exceed 1-GHz

Samsung claims first ARM design to exceed 1-GHz
By Darrell Dunn, EBN
October 17, 2002 (10:00 a.m. EST)
URL: http://www.eetimes.com/story/OEG20021017S0021

SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Samsung Electronics Corp. at the Microprocessor Forum here today revealed details of what the company claims is the first 1.2-GHz implementation of an ARM processor core.

Jin Cheon Kim, director of the processor architecture lab at Samsung, said the core, code named Halla after the highest mountain in South Korea, is pin compatible with the ARM1020E, but provides significant performance advancement beyond that core or the ARM-based XScale from Intel Corp.

Kim said the company, which has design experience from making Alpha processors, "is applying our expertise in high speed processors to the ARM design. We have achieved this mostly by circuit level speed-up."

The ARM architecture is one of the most widely licensed and implemented embedded processor solutions in the world. Kim said Samsung plans to use Halla system-on-a-chip implementations for its Pocket-PC and digital televisions. Halla is expected to be sampling in t he third quarter of 2003, he said.

Improvements included full-custom circuit design and layout, Kim said. Samsung is using dynamic circuits in timing-critical paths, employing dual-rail low-swing buses, and has completely redesigned the control logic, he said. Manufactured in a 0.13-micron process, Kim said the core has 1.8 watts power dissipation at 1.2-GHz, or 550 milliwatts at 800-MHz.