Date: 24/05/2009

Atmel and ARM sign license agreement to scale up the use of ARM Cortex

Atmel Corporation and ARM have announced an extension to their strategic relationship with a new subscription license agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Atmel gains access to existing and future ARM Cortex processors.

Atmel is extensive user of ARM cores in its 32-bit microcontrollers. Atmel has MCU product line with popular ARM cores such as ARM7TDMI, ARM926EJ-S, and ARM1176JZ-S processors, and the latest Cortex-M3 processor.

"The agreement with Atmel demonstrates the exceptional momentum behind the ARM Cortex family of processors," said Eric Schorn, vice president, marketing, Processor Division, ARM. "We look forward to working closely with Atmel as it introduces new designs and enhancements in products ranging from microcontrollers through to high-end system solutions."

"This new agreement is the next phase in the long-term and highly fruitful working relationship between Atmel and ARM," said Alfredo Vadillo, Atmel's managing director for ARM microcontrollers. "It secures the roadmap for future members of our industry-leading ARM processor-based product family. Our ARM products capitalize on the ease of application development thanks to the code compatibility across the ARM architecture, and to the vast and growing support ecosystem that exists around ARM processor-based microcontrollers and embedded microprocessors. This is a supplement to our strong AVR and AVR32 microcontroller portfolio," he concluded.