Almost half of the licensees are new to ARM, reflecting the fact that the Cortex-M0 has succeeded in broadening the ARM Partner base to vendors in what were traditionally considered 8/16-bit domains, while also complementing the ARM Cortex processor portfolios of a number of existing major ARM Partners such as lead licensee NXP.
The Cortex-M0 processor achieves smaller code-size, better energy-efficiency and higher performance than 8 and 16-bit microprocessors, while offering a future-proof roadmap and broad tools and OS support. This has prompted many of the new licensees, like Triad, Melfas and Austriamicrosystems, to take the opportunity to move from 8-bit to the Cortex-M0 processor.
The success of the Cortex-M0 processor has enabled ARM to secure design wins in new market areas, including mixed signal, touch-screen control, flash card, system-on-chip (SoC) control and finite state-machine (FSM) replacement.
The Cortex-M0 processor is the most recent addition to the ARM Cortex-M series of processors, aimed at low-power, high-performance embedded applications. Its sister processor, the higher performance Cortex-M3 processor now has more than 35 licensees and together with Cortex-M0 is spearheading ARM’s rapid growth into the domain of 8/16-bit embedded devices.
