ARM and GLOBALFOUNDRIES today announces a long-term strategic relationship to provide their mutual customers with an innovative SoC enablement program. To support the long-term relationship, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM have signed a broad agreement on processor implementation and circuit optimization to provide mutual customers with a robust enablement program geared towards next-generation applications.

The SoC enablement program, built around a full suite of ARM Physical IP, Fabric IP and Processor IP, will deliver customers unparalleled design flexibility on GLOBALFOUNDRIES' most advanced HKMG semiconductor manufacturing capabilities. The collaborative efforts of the partnership will initially focus on enabling SoC products which use the low power and high performance ARM Cortex -A9 processor on GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm HKMG process. The characteristics of GLOBALFOUNDRIES 28nm "Gate First" HKMG technology is optimized for high performance processing with minimal leakage making it an ideal choice for advanced mobile solutions.

Marvell Semiconductor has come up with a marvel: the SheevaPlug computer software/hardware development kit (SHDK). The initiative puts to use the company's Sheeva ARM processor in a compact unit the size and form of a retro wall-mount AC-DC adapter. Consuming no more than 5 W of power, the unit can function as a full-featured PC, driving Linux. It packs a 1.2 GHz Sheeva ARM processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 512 MB of flash-based fixed storage.

Throwing open the development kit would mean companies wanting to build similar devices based on Marvell hardware. The SheevaPlug is built around the Marvell 88F6000 Kirkwood SoC design that makes use of Feroceon and XScale architectures, both of which are derivatives of ARM. Gigabit Ethernet and USB ports add to the connectivity. With several industry heavyweights such as Microsoft and Google predicting a bright future for cloud-computing, companies such as Marvell can only help but gain interest in developing inexpensive devices that drive the client-side machinery for it. Take a guess on how much SheevaPlug costs: US $100 in single unit retail quantities. What's more, it could be bought in bulk for as low as $50 a piece!

Samsung Electronics, a worldwide leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced a new wireless universal serial bus (W-USB) System-On-Chip (SoC) designed specifically for the upcoming ultra-wideband (UWB) market. The latest in a growing portfolio of mobile technology solutions, Samsung's new W-USB SoC combines the convenience of wireless connectivity, the security level of wired USB, and the high speed performance of UWB to instantly transfer mass storage data such as digital photos, movie videos or MP3 music files between electronic devices. For example, the new W-USB SoC can download a 700MB movie in approximately one minute.

Tegra is NVIDIA's System on a Chip (SoC) platform. It takes NVIDIA's supreme expertise in the field of visual computing and architectural finesse to SoC that is projected to have a large market in the near future in several industries, mainly consumer electronics and automobiles. Heavyweights in the automobile industry such as Daimler AG (Mercedes Benz), FIAT Group (Alfa Romeo, Ferrari, Fiat, Lancia, Maserati), V.A.G. group (Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, Seat, Skoda, VW) have lobbied around the Terga technology to be used to enhance their products.

As automobiles manufacturers venturing into a realm of new technology of compact computing, they would prefer proven and stable technologies from NVIDIA over future tech. For this matter, NVIDIA has derived some versions of the graphics processor part of Tegra on the GeForce 6 series. It makes it fully DirectX 9.0c compatible and capable of running up to three or more displays. Some variants NVIDIA plans to sell V.A.G. group includes a GPU derived from GeForce 9600 GT albeit much lower speeds (since it's not required to work to its potential). Futuremark has already showcased its 3D dashboard software for Audi which could harness the power of Tegra to display a futuristic dashboard panel that provides drivers with information on the car's operation along with maps and guidance in 3D.

Team R21 of FiringSquad studied the credibility of a rumor on NVIDIA materializing its long-term processor plans. They said they would be surprised if NVIDIA didn't have an x86 plan chalked out at least at a very interior level. The Inquirer speculated earlier that NVIDIA could lift the covers from its x86 plans as early as some time this week, during the ongoing NVISION event. The credibility of this rumor is based purely on who's breeding it. Many point it to have been doing rounds during IDF.

Reality bites: NVIDIA lacks a regularized x86 license which has to be issued by Intel to be able to use x86 in their products. Any mass announcement at this point could cost them. NVISION however looks to be an ideal substrate for discussions on CUDA and NVIDIA's SoC (System on a Chip) plans.

With wide-spread news about AMD integrating a graphics controller on a CPU, the AMD Fusion, the concept of "Small is Big" is being redefined. Fusion may look like a step in the right direction but is merely prelude to another computing methodology, the SoC (system on a chip). Fusion could be confined to consumer desktop/notebook central processing with graphics thrown in, but a concrete step taken by Intel into this which is more of targeted to the enterprise, embedded systems and consumer electronics is the EP80579 integrated processor. HotHardware spoke with Gadi Singer, Vice President of Intel's Mobility Group, and Doug Davis, Vice President of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group. Intel's brand new product line targeted at security, storage, communications, and industrial applications, basically embedded computing were discussed. The EP80579 integrated processor was central to this conversation. The need for this product came about by Intel as a preparation of the company for the impending onslaught of smart, Internet-connected devices and appliances predicted to arrive over the next few years.