Samsung Ships First ARM-Based Application Processor on 45nm

Samsung Electronics, one of the world's leading vendors of consumer electronics and advanced semiconductor solutions, has just announced the latest ARM11-based series of application processors, with the launch of the S5P6440. According to the company, the new chip has been designed using its advanced 45nm low-power CMOS process technology, enabling the solution to deliver lower power requirements, increased performance and better cost for consumer electronic (CE) products such as personal navigation devices (PND).

“Today’s ultra-competitive consumer electronics market demands rapid performance upgrades and effective cost reduction to continue its expansion,” said Dr. Kwang-hyun Kim, Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at Samsung Electronics’ System LSI division. “Our S5P6440 application processor is specifically designed with those objectives in mind to offer substantial improvements in CPU performance at low power, high quality graphics capability, and lower system BOM cost. CE device manufacturers using S5P6440 can offer exciting new products such as next generation PND to the market in a timely manner.”

Designed specifically for devices that run on Windows CE or Linux platforms, the new chips are based on the ARM1176 core, which can run at clock speeds of either 533MHz or 667MHz. Additionally, the chips have been featured with support for OpenVG graphics application programming interface (API) through the integrated 2D acceleration hardware. The chips' integrated DRAM controller can provide CE device builders with support for both mobile DDR and lower-cost DDR2 memory components, offering complete support for cost-effective consumer electronics devices.

According to Samsung, the new chips can deliver increased performance while consuming less power, effectively providing for a more cost-effective solution in consumer electronics hardware. These features have been enabled thanks to the adoption of the 45nm manufacturing process, which is a first for Samsung's application processors based on the ARM11 core.