Taiwanese firm Winbond Electronics has turned to Cambridge-based chip designer ARM to provide the microprocessor core for a range of home networking applications. 'More and more people using technology in the home expect fast, inexpensive access to the Internet, and this demand is driving the development of ever more powerful devices,' Winbond assistant vice-president Stephen Huang said. 'Our ongoing partnership with ARM is key to enabling this vision.' ARM develops and licenses microprocessor technology based on reduced instruction set computing - a low-cost, high-performance chip architecture used in devices that include handheld computers, Internet-ready mobile phones, and video set-top boxes. Winbond, Taiwan's largest supplier of integrated circuits, has been licensed to use the ARM946E-S microprocessor core for networking applications that include printer servers, file servers and residential gateways for broadband access. Financial details were not given. The first licensing deal between Winbond and ARM was made in 2001. Winbond plans to have residential gateway products based on the ARM946E-S core available by the end of the year. The product will also work as a virtual private networking router, as well as a printer or file server. Mr Huang noted that current analogue modem technology is not suited to the increasing memory demands of applications such as streaming video, MP3 files, digital photographs, video-on-demand and online gaming. With residential gateways, home Internet users can quickly and easily create home networks by connecting audio devices, computers, digital cameras and other networking-ready digital appliances together. Other benefits include added server and storage functions that enable home security and automation, utility monitoring and control, and online commerce.
