ARC International

Infobox_Company
company_name = ARC International
company_
company_type = Public: (lse|ARK
foundation = Edgware, England 1998
location = St Albans, England San Jose, CA
key_people = Carl Schlachte "President and CEO"
industry = Digital IP Computer Processor Cores
products = Processor IP
num_employees = 130
homepage = [http://www.arc.com/ http://www.arc.com/]

ARC International plc is a developer of configurable microprocessor technology. ARC develops synthesisable IP and licenses it to semiconductor companies.

The roots of ARC International date back to the early 1990s. The company was founded by Jez San to build upon the 3D accelerator technology previously developed for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System by a division of Argonaut Software. This forerunner to the ARC was originally called the Mario (Mathematical, Argonaut, Rotation & I/O) chip and later dubbed the SuperFX. It went on to sell millions, at the time out selling ARM or any other RISC core [cite web | last = Bolton | first = Syd | authorlink = Syd Bolton | title = Interview with Jez San, OBE | publisher = Armchair Empire | url = http://www.armchairempire.com/Interviews/jez-san-interview.htm | format = | doi = | accessdate = 2007-12-28 ] .

Following the success of the SuperFX, its designers were split from the main company to a department called ATL (Argonaut Technology Limited). The design was renamed ARC (Argonaut RISC Core) and marketed as a general purpose, configurable, microprocessor. In 1998, ATL was rebranded ARC International and spun-off as a separate company.

The configurability of the ARC happens at design time (as opposed to run time) using the ARChitect processor configurator [ [http://www.arc.com/configurablecores/architect/ ARChitect Processor Configurator ] ] . The core was created in such a way that it is extensible. Unlike most embedded microprocessors you can add extra instructions, registers and functionality as if they were made from Lego. Customers look at the task they want to perform, analyse the task, break down the operations, and then choose the appropriate extensions (or create their own) to create their own custom microprocessor. They might optimise for speed, energy efficiency or code density. Extensions can include for example, an MMU, a fast multiplier with accumulate, a USB Host, a viterbi path decoder, etc. etc.

Semiconductor company licensees of ARC products ship approximately 300 million chips containing ARC processor cores every year. ARC has over 140 customers. ARC hosts the ConfigCon series of seminars that occur around the world 3-4 times per year.

On September 21, 2000, ARC listed on the London Stock Exchange as ARK. [ [http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ARK.L&t=my ARC INTERNATIONAL Share Price Chart | ARK.L | GB0009645481 | Yahoo! Finance UK ] ]

On June 17, 2002, ARC took over three companies, MetaWare, VAutomation, and Precise Software Technologies [http://www.us.design-reuse.com/news/3409/arc-international-integration-subsidiaries-into-one-company.html] but later parts were sold off to other companies. On Apri1, 2007, ARC acquired Teja Technology of San Jose, California, a specialist in heterogeneous multiprocessor software. [ [http://www.dspdesignline.com/news/198701878 ARC buys Teja to speed multicore development | DSP DesignLine ] ] [ [http://www.embedded-computing.com/news/db/?5943&cid=1115017546&ei=ZSsRRv2PJ5mQrQPEtvTkAw ARC Acquires Teja Technologies to Create Software Platforms and Development Environments for the VRaptor Multicore Architecture ] ]

On June 14, 2007, ARC acquired Tenison Design Automation of Cambridge, UK, a provider of software tools used to help develop system-on-chip (SoC) designs. [ [http://www.thechillired.com/articles/corptakes/007_ARCtenison.aspx thechilli RED - Corp. Takes: Tenison EDA acquisition by ARC – The Chilli perspective ] ] [ [http://eetimes.eu/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199904684 ARC buys Tenison for simulation capability ] ]

On September 23, 2007, ARC acquired Alarity Corporation of St, Petersburg, Russia, that specializes in codec software, firmware, and advanced multimedia architectures. [ [http://www.electronicsweekly.com/Articles/2007/09/24/42236/arc-gets-russian-r.htm ARC gets Russian R&D team with Alarity ] ] [ [http://www.newelectronics.co.uk/article/11466/ARC-buys-multimedia-specialist.aspx Asics And Gate Arrays news item relating to Arc International Ltd ] ] [ [http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800481181_1034362_NT_b5396005.HTM EE Times-Asia ] ]

On February 11, 2008, ARC acquired Sonic Focus, a specialist developer of audio enhancement technology for digital sound [ [http://www.channelweb.co.uk/crn/news/2210242/arc-international-super-sonic-3835122 Arc International's super Sonic buy - 21 Feb 2008 - CRN ] ] .

White Papers on Configurability

* [http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=ZPBWD40T2SV3MQSNDLRSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=187203293 Toshiba, ARC in configurable processor collaboration, May 15, 2006]
* [http://neasia.nikkeibp.com/neasia/004524 SPF: All About Power, Performance, June 30, 2006]
* [http://www.eetimes.com/issue/fp/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=44BBMZ3LCIBEWQSNDLPSKHSCJUNN2JVN?articleID=193006319&_requestid=31140 ARCHITECTURES: Programmable ARC platform targets low-cost multimedia, October 2, 2006]
* [http://www.eet.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193105410 ARC adopts clustered parallelism in media multiprocessing, October 9, 2006]

References

External links

* [http://www.arc.com/ Official site]
* [http://www.arc.com/configurablecores/arc600/index.html ARC 600 Processor Family]
* [http://www.arc.com/configurablecores/arc700/index.html ARC 700 Processor Family]
* [http://www.arc.com/subsystems/vraptor.html ARC VRaptor Multicore Architecture]
* [http://www.arc.com/subsystems/sound.html ARC Sound - Simple Audio Processor]
* [http://www.arc.com/subsystems/sound_adv.html ARC Sound Advanced - Complex Audio Processor]
* [http://www.arc.com/subsystems/video.html ARC Video - D1 Video Decoder]
* [http://www.arc.com/subsystems/arc_player/index.html ARC Player - Video nano Clone]
* [http://arc-linux.org/Main_Page ARC Linux] .