Adobe and ARM accelerate Flash and AIR

In order to address this, the folks at Adobe and ARM have announced a technology collaboration to optimize and enable Adobe Flash Player 10 and Adobe AIR for ARM-powered devices, ranging from mobile phones to set-top boxes, mobile Internet devices, televisions, automotive platforms, personal media players and other mobile computing devices.

The collaboration is expected to accelerate mobile graphics and video capabilities on ARM platforms to bring rich Internet applications and web services to mobile devices and consumer electronics worldwide.

The joint technology optimization is targeted for the ARMv6 and ARMv7architectures used in the ARM11 family and the Cortex-A series of processors and is expected to be available in the second half of 2009. The partnership stems from the Open Screen Project, a broad Adobe sponsored initiative of industry leaders – including ARM – to deliver a consistent runtime environment across multiple devices by taking advantage of Adobe Flash Player and, in the future, Adobe AIR.

The initiative is set to address the challenges of web browsing on a broad range of screens, and remove the barriers to publish content and applications seamlessly across screens (for more information, visit openscreenproject.org).

ARM technology powers billions of electronic devices today, including the vast majority of smartphones, mobile Internet devices, set-top boxes, digital TVs, portable navigation and personal media devices.

The agreement will enable ARM and Adobe to deliver an optimized Adobe Flash Player 10 for the ARM architecture as well as industry-standard API support for GPUs and hardware accelerators. The collaboration is also expected to lower power consumption for mobile devices running Flash Player 10 and AIR content.

Adobe Flash Player 10 for ARMv6 and ARMv7 architecture-based hardware is expected to be available royalty-free to partners in the Open Screen Project. Flash Player 10 for ARM processor-based devices will be made available to OEMs by Adobe.