• Yokemate of Keyboards
    Yokemate of Keyboards
    Andreas_Wolf
    Posts: 12079 from 2003/5/22
    From: Germany
    > Another rumor to support this theory is that Intel are gonna start to make ARM chips

    Why "rumor" and why "start"? Intel has been developing and manufacturing its own ARM chips since 1998:

    "The XScale [...] consists of several distinct families: IXP, IXC, IOP, PXA and CE [...]. Intel sold the PXA family to Marvell Technology Group in June 2006. [...] The XScale core is used in a number of microcontroller families manufactured by Intel and Marvell, notably:
    - Application Processors (with the prefix PXA). [...]
    - I/O Processors (with the prefix IOP)
    - Network Processors (with the prefix IXP)
    - Control Plane Processors (with the prefix IXC).
    - Consumer Electronics Processors (with the prefix CE).
    [...] In April 2007, Intel announced an XScale-based processor targeting consumer electronics markets, the Intel CE 2110. [...] On June 27, 2006, the sale of Intel's XScale PXA mobile processor assets was announced. Intel agreed to sell the XScale PXA business to Marvell Technology Group for an estimated $600 million in cash and the assumption of unspecified liabilities. The move was intended to permit Intel to focus its resources on its core x86 and server businesses. [...] The acquisition was completed on November 9, 2006. Intel was expected to continue manufacturing XScale processors until Marvell secures other manufacturing facilities, and would continue manufacturing and selling the IXP and IOP processors, as they were not part of the deal. The XScale effort at Intel was initiated by the purchase of the StrongARM division from Digital Equipment Corporation in 1998. Intel still holds an ARM license even after the sale of XScale; this license is at the architectural level.
    "
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XScale

    In summary, Intel has only sold one single of its four XScale chip families to Marvell in 2006 and moreover, it has developed after that (in 2007) a new one. The IOP, IXP und CE families are listed as active in Intel's product portfolio even today:

    http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/embedded/hwsw/hardware/iop
    http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/embedded/hwsw/hardware/ixp-4xx
    http://www.intel.com/design/celect/2110/

    What's new though (for some months) is that Intel is supposed to start using its fabs to do the manufacturing for fabless ARM chip developers, i.e. to produce ARM chips for other companies beside their very own ARM chips.

    > they are bound to make some pretty famn nice improvements to thier ARM chips aswell.

    That's news to me. Do you have a source for this? And what does "thier ARM chips" mean, their own XScale chips or the ones to be produced for fabless companies?
  • »08.04.13 - 21:35
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