Fujitsu Semiconductor to broaden its ARM-based chip portfolio

Fujitsu and ARM have signed an agreement that gives Fujitsu a broader access to ARM’s intellectual property (IP) portfolio. Fujitsu semiconductors is quick to point out that it has been making ARM-based products for a while, but for industrial purposes (robots, healthcare…). Today, Fujitsu Semiconductor has licensed enough IP to produce a SoC (system on a chip) that could be used in a Tablet or a Smartphone.

Fujitsu Semiconductor can now access the Cortex A15 CPU design (the successor of the Cortex A9 really, don’t let the numbers fool you) along with the MALI graphics processor IP and all the bus and intra-chip connectivity needed to build a high-performance SoC. Where can we expect to see these chips? It’s not clear yet. Possibly in Fujitsu’s own product, but we’re sure that Fujitsu Semiconductor would like nothing more than selling its chips to leading OEMs. We’ll see what happens… in 12-18 months or so, which is the typical chip cycle.