Building your own SoC makes sense for various reasons. It can be to increase margins by reducing cost, complexity, size, or to enhance existing designs for greater efficiency, reliability, thus leading to further product differentiation.
One of the first roadblocks is the availability of proven IP that is ready to be used to reduce risk for companies wanting to create their own chips. Arm has aimed to help this market with it’s enhanced DesignStart offering, by providing the availability of its industry-leading Cortex-M3 processor, with subsystem for a $0 license and a success-based royalty model. Companies will only pay Arm once they are actually shipping chips that will power the future’s smart embedded devices.
From smart embedded to IoT with Arm Cordio
There’s an easy step for a smart embedded device to become an IoT device, and that is connectivity! While DesignStart provides the foundation for the embedded devices, Arm also offers low power connectivity solutions from RF to application with its Cordio-C50 radio IP with Bluetooth 5 and 802.15.4. The Cordio solution enables further integration with power and cost savings for SoC designers.
Cordio radio IP consists of a hardware core, software stacks and profiles that are low-voltage (sub 1Volt) and are specifically designed for the Cortex-M processor family to provide optimal efficiency. The Cordio architecture brings extensive choice and flexibility to SoC designers and provides foundry/process support, radio standards, and software stacks for easy integration to SoC, as well as expanded support through third parties.
Cordio IP reduces development time and costs to allow design teams to focus their ability on developing differentiated and application specific platforms instead of losing time worrying about the radio. This enables designers to effectively keep up with evolving standards and processes in a cost-effective, risk-free manner.
Learn more about Cordio Radio IP and how it can be coupled with DesignStart to provide multiple connectivity options with Bluetooth 5 or 802.15.4 technology.