26 February 2009

NXP Licenses ARM Cortex-M0

NXP, a member of the ARM Connected Community, has licensed the ARM Cortex-M0 processor - the smallest, lowest power and most energy efficient processor available from the ARM stable.

NXP plans to use the ARM Cortex-M0 processor for a wide range of applications. Its compact size, energy efficiency and performance make it ideal for power management tasks in SoCs, ASSPs, and stand-alone microcontrollers. Potential applications include battery-powered consumer devices, advanced utility metering, lighting, intelligent power and motor control, the company said.

“This licensing agreement enables NXP to continue to lead in the MCU market place and provide a continuum of ARM technology-based processors to meet various performance, power, and price needs” said Geoff Lees, vice president and general manager, Microcontroller Division, NXP Semiconductors. “The Cortex-M0 processor is the new entry level solution offering customers ease of use through its very small Thumb compatible instruction set, and low cost industry standard development tools.”

NXP’s ARM microcontroller portfolio is based around the already well established cores from the ARM7TDMI, the ARM968, the ARM926, to the Cortex-M3 processors.