ARM has really managed to break ground with its new processor architectures and the next step is to get its graphics circuits out on the market to a greater degree when mobile phones and portables require more punch in the graphics department. ARM has acquired two new licensees for its Mali GPU, which means that no less than 27 different semiconductor manufacturers are prepared to make graphics processors based on the new architecture.
Samsung is the latest company to join ARM as the semiconductor giant was one of the companies that recently decided to acquire a license for the Mali technology that ARM in turn acquired 3.5 years ago. Beside Samsung, ARM also sold licenses to STMicroelectronics, ST-Ericsson and MediaTek.
Several of the licensees have developed niche products with smaller audiences, but great companies like Samsung has the potential to really make ARM’s Mali architecture fly, and it may have to considering the competition from Imagination’s PowerVR architecture that is found in most high-end smartphones of today.
One of the factors that made us want to go into graphics for ourselves was so we could control the roadmap. The need to couple CPU and GPU in a processor environment is another factor, VP Warren East added
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