Separately, MIPS announced it has entered a licensing and co-marketing agreement with United Microelectronics Corp. UMC will license MIPS' highest-performance, 64-bit processor cores: the MIPS64 20Kc core and the company's next-generation core, code-named Amethyst.

EasyPort ICs are network terminal controllers based on a MIPS 64-bit processor core. The devices are said to provide compute power and flexibility in data and voice/data integrated access device systems, suiting them for use in small- and medium-size enterprise gateways, access routers and voice-over-Internet Protocol routers.

System manufacturers using EasyPort in combination with Infineon's broadband access and voice/data chip sets can create platforms with fast Internet access, integrated high-speed media streaming and multichannel voice services through a single uplink.

Meanwhile, MIPS' agreement with UMC for the the Amethyst core is the first such licensing deal MIPS has made with a foundry. UMC has also licensed the MIPS 64-bit MIPS64 20Kc.

The MIPS64 20Kc, currently the industry's highest-performance licensable core, will be ported to UMC's 0.13-micron process. UMC plans to market the 64-bit micropressor cores for those of its customers who wish to create system-on-chips in the networking, multimedia, automotive telematics and office automation markets.

The companies claim that the new cores are fully compatible with MIPS 32-bit architecture, allowing customers who have previously used 32-bit MIPS-based products to transition more easily to the new 64-bit cores.

Visit www.mips.com, www.infineon.com and www.umc.com for more information.

ARM has announced it is collaborating with Seagate to provide embedded, high-performance microprocessor solutions for Seagate's next-generation hard-disk drives.

Seagate's recently introduced Cheetah 15K.3 and Cheetah 10K.6 disk drives are the first ARM-powered products to be generated by this collaboration.

ARM said the joint work represents a new opportunity for the company, since the convergence of digital imaging, media and networking is driving the demand for increased enterprise and personal storage capacity.

The intellectual property provider said that it worked closely with Seagate to develop the embedded "backbone" of the Cheetah disk drives, which use Amba on-chip interconnect technology to incorporate multiple ARM966E-S cores.

The companies said the enhanced level of performance provided by the cores enabled Seagate to create a scalable Cheetah product family of 10k- and 15k-rpm disk drives for data- and I/O-intensive applications.

For more information, visit www.arm.com and www.seagate.com.