Posted: 3:00 p.m. EST, 2/23/98

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Under an architectural license signed with Advanced RISC Machines Ltd., here, Intel Corp. has decided to manufacture, sell and develop the StrongARM 32-bit RISC microprocessor architecture originally developed by Digital Equipment Corp.

The deal includes the Digital SA-110, SA-1100 and SA-1500 processors, as well as companion chips now being designed by Advanced RISC Machines (ARM), such as the SA-1101 and SA-1501. The microprocessors offer clock speeds of up to 200 MHz and performance in excess of 200 Dhrystone Mips while consuming less than 250 mW of power. They have already been designed into a number of handheld devices and Interne t appliances.

Final agreement of the deal depends on Intel's receipt of approval from the Federal Trade Commission for its takeover of parts of Digital Equipment's semiconductor operations.

"We believe the StrongARM processors have tremendous potential in the market," said Ron Smith, vice president and general manager of Intel's Computer Enhancement Group. "High performance, low-power microprocessors are essential to the future of a variety of portable devices and other consumer-electronics applications and embedded applications. Once we obtain regulatory approval, our plan is to continue to enhance and improve the product. We also plan to grow the customer base as well as provide support for existing customers."

Tim O'Donnell, president of ARM's North American operations said: "Intel's continued support of the StrongARM-based microprocessors will give designers a clear path to developing even more advanced devices based on ARM's high-performance cores. The value of our StrongARM techn ology is important for the future of emerging markets. We are committed to ensuring that this technology will continue to be made available to customers worldwide."

Intel's plan to manufacture and continue the development of the StrongARM architecture will plug a gap in its own portfolio, and should come as a relief to some systems companies that had designed StrongARM chips into their equipment. To others, who were promoting a StrongARM-based network computer in opposition to full-featured Pentium-based Personal Computers, the news may be less welcome.

Intel gained access to the StrongARM architecture in October as part of its acquisition of all of Digital Equipment's semiconductor operations. Digital's Alpha processor design team was not a part of that acquisition. The StrongARM license needed to be arranged with ARM.

Intel dominates the desktop PC market with its family of Pentium microprocessors but these devices consume a great deal of power and are unsuitable for the handheld and mobile computing market. RISC cores based on the MIPS architecture from numerous chip makers and the Super-H architecture from Hitachi dominated that market in 1997.

Intel will have to learn the details of the architecture without three-fifths of the 20-person StrongARM design team that had been based in Austin, Texas. Twelve members of that team have left ARM and moved to Cadence Design System Inc. Others have gone to clone makers or elsewhere. Intel will also have to work without another StrongARM team based at Digital's Western Design Center (Palo Alto, Calif), who were reassigned to the Alpha program.

The simplicity of the StrongARM RISC design should make it possible for Intel to pick up the design and run with it, according to engineers at Digital.

"While Intel will have to get up to speed on ARM technology, they are clearly a very capable company with resources to deploy," said Reynette Au, vice president of marketing at ARM.

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