big.LITTLE Processors Bring High Performance and Extended Battery Life to Tablets, Smartphones and Automotive Applications

TOYKO — (BUSINESS WIRE) — June 12, 2012 — Renesas Electronics Corporation (TOKYO:6723), a premier provider of advanced semiconductor solutions, and Renesas Mobile Corporation, a leading supplier of advanced cellular semiconductor solutions and platforms have licensed the ARM® Cortex™-A7 MPCore™ and ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore™ processors. Deployed in ARM’s big.LITTLE™ configuration, the processors will enable Renesas Mobile to create a new generation of turbo charged applications processors, communications processors and LTE / HSPA+ multi-mode smartphone platforms with ultra-high performance and extended battery life.

ARM big.LITTLE processing is a flexible approach that redefines the traditional power and performance relationship by enabling applications software to be seamlessly switched between the two processor clusters; one for high performance functions and one that delivers maximum power efficiency. Renesas Mobile customers will gain from the high performance benefits of the ARM Cortex-A15 MPCore processor combined with the energy-efficiency of the Cortex-A7 processor. By selecting the optimum processor cluster for each task big.LITTLE processing can reduce energy consumption of the main processor by up to 70 percent, and can allow a more responsive, faster user experience using less power than current high end smartphones.

Shinichi Yoshioka, senior executive vice president and COO at Renesas Mobile, commented: “The market demands ever increasing performance in low power devices and Renesas Mobile is well placed to deliver world-beating application processors and communications processors. Our skills lie in systems design and the integration and optimization of highly complex, LTE multi-mode cellular System-on-Chips. Our smart design approach and ARM’s leading processors with big.LITTLE processing is a winning combination.”

"Low power processing is at the core of ARM’s heritage. The introduction of big.LITTLE processing builds on this heritage to address the challenge of providing optimum performance as well as the always-on, always connected experience consumers expect,” said Simon Segars, executive vice president and general manager, processor and physical IP divisions, ARM. “We are pleased to extend our long-standing relationship with Renesas and help them develop innovative and differentiated solutions based on the latest ARM technology.”

Renesas Mobile’s long experience with ARM processors has resulted in some of the most efficient implementations on the market today in terms of power and size. A dual-core A9 implementation drives the Renesas Mobile MP5232, the world’s first LTE Cat-4 capable mobile platform. This communications processor combines Renesas Mobile’s world’s fastest triple mode (LTE, DC-HSPA+ and GSM) modem with the application processor on a single die reducing space, power and product cost.

About ARM big.LITTLE

ARM big.LITTLE processing has been designed to deliver the vision of the right processor for the right job. The Cortex-A15 processor is the highest performing, low-power ARM processor ever developed, while the  Cortex-A7 processor is the most energy efficient ARM application processor ever designed. The performance capabilities of the Cortex-A15 processor can be utilized for heavy workloads, while the Cortex-A7 can take over to most efficiently process the majority of smartphone workloads. These include operating system activities, user interface and other always on, always connected tasks.

More information on big.LITTLE can be found here.

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TOKYO:6723), the world’s number one supplier of microcontrollers, is a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions including microcontrollers, SoC solutions and a broad-range of analog and power devices. Business operations began as Renesas Electronics in April 2010 through the integration of NEC Electronics Corporation (TOKYO:6723) and Renesas Technology Corp., with operations spanning research, development, design and manufacturing for a wide range of applications. Headquartered in Japan, Renesas Electronics has subsidiaries in 20 countries worldwide.

More information about Renesas products can be found at www.renesas.com.

About Renesas Mobile Corporation

Renesas Mobile Corporation is a wholly owned subsidiary of Renesas Electronics Corporation and offers advanced and innovative products and services for mobile phones, car infotainment solutions, consumer electronics and industrial applications. Renesas Mobile's mission is to develop, productize and deliver communications centric semiconductor chipsets and complete hardware and software platforms built on these chipsets to meet the needs of our customers in these markets. Renesas Mobile Corporation provides complete cellular chipset platform solutions include powerful applications processors, leadership and industry reference cellular modems, highly integrated radio frequency devices, intelligent power management solutions, and the complete system and software expertise to develop flagship devices more rapidly. More information can be found at www.renesasmobile.com.

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