Marvell Announced ARMADA Processors For Next Generation ARM Smartphones

Marvell announced the game-changing ARMADA family of processors designed specifically for next generation ARM instruction set smartphones, smartbooks, consumer and embedded devices, and displays. In addition to true mobility from lightweight designs and long battery life - today's connected consumers and enterprise users demand high quality, instantaneous personal entertainment, and content from a multitude of social-networking and other cloud-based services.

The ARMADA family of application processors sets a new standard by offering CPU cores with PC-class performance, support for Adobe Flash technology and Blu-ray functionality. Additional features include complete broadband connectivity for the next wave of innovative electronics, spanning price points from low cost consumer gadgets all the way to premium performance devices. Customer adoption has been rapid: to date, Marvell ARMADA application processors have won more than 50 design wins.

At the core of the ARMADA family is the company's patented CPU technology. According to the analyst firm, the Linley Group, ARM instruction set CPUs -- which power 98 percent of all mobile phones -- are becoming the standard for other forms of mobile computing. Marvell ships one billion chips per year, two-thirds of which include Marvell CPUs running the ARM instruction set, making Marvell the largest producer of ARM chips in the world.

The ARMADA processors are Designed from the ground-up to offer the best combination of price and performance across all device markets.  Marvell's best-in-class ARM CPUs are at the heart of each chip. Unlike comparable products in the industry, Marvell's CPUs deliver higher performance and lower power dissipation while providing full software compatibility to all ARM-based applications.

ARMADA 100
The ARMADA 100 series delivers strong performance at mass market price points for cost sensitive consumer and embedded markets such as digital picture frames, e-readers, multifunction printer user interface (UI) displays, portable navigation devices (PNDs),  interactive VoIP phones, IP surveillance cameras, and home control gadgets.  Key features include up to 1.2 GHz operation, 24-bit WUXGA LCD support, built in display controller, 2D graphics hardware acceleration and consumer/embedded oriented I/Os (PCIe, Ethernet, USB 2.0, SDIO, 5-in-1 card reader, DDR2/LPDDR1, and more).

ARMADA 500
The ARMADA 500 series is designed for high performance consumer devices such as smartbooks.  Alongside the ARMADA 600 processor family, the ARMADA 500 series is one of the industry's first running ARM v7 instruction set. Key features include ARM v7 CPU core running up to 1.2 GHz, vector floating point (VFP) v3 and 512KB L2 cache, 1080p video decode, 15 MT/s 3D graphics, WUXGA LCD resolution support, security acceleration and consumer/embedded oriented I/Os (PCIe, Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0, SDIO, DDR3, and SATA).

ARMADA 600
The ARMADA 600 series brings high performance to compact form factors, such as smartphones and embedded mobile devices. Alongside the ARMADA 500 processor family, it is one of the industry's first running ARM v7 instruction set. Key features include a CPU core running up to 1 GHz, ultra low power, VFP v3 and 256KB L2 cache.

ARMADA 1000
The ARMADA 1000 series allows manufacturers to enable a new generation of compelling connected home entertainment products, including Blu-ray players, Digital Media Adapters (DMAs), connected digital TVs, and certain types of streaming HD Set-Top-Boxes (STBs). Key features include dual CPU cores running up to 1.2 GHz, low power design, dual full-HD decode , high performance audio DSP, 2x32 DDR2 controllers (up to 800 Mbit/s), high performance graphics acceleration, a robust security subsystem including a secure execution processor and a set of peripherals (USB 2.0, SDIO, Ethernet, PCIe, SATA, HDMI, and more).

Technical Specifications
The ARMADA SoCs also leverage several of Marvell's key technologies:

• Scalable CPU core frequency and voltage for power-efficient operation
• Tightly coupled DRAM controllers for low latency CPU access while  supporting balanced I/O throughput
• Hardware video acceleration to offer up to 1080p encode and decode
• 3D graphics acceleration at up to 45 million triangles per second (MT/s)
• Suite of award-winning Qdeo video technology
• Wide flexibility in I/Os spanning mobile devices (MIPI  DSI/CSI/HSI/SlimBus, mobile DDR), consumer/embedded devices (PCIe, Ethernet, SATA, 5-in-1 card reader, desktop DDR) and generic (SDIO, eMMC, USB 2.0, parallel, and more)

In addition, Marvell is introducing the newest member of the ARMADA family, the ARMADA 510 - the Company's first ARM v7 instruction set architecture compatible application processor. The ARMADA 510 is sampling to customers this quarter. For technical specifications on the ARMADA 510, please visit www.marvell.com.

Software Support
The ARMADA family supports primary operating systems used across consumer and embedded markets including Microsoft Windows Embedded CE, Windows Mobile, Google Android, Linux, Maemo, Ubuntu, and China Mobile's OMS. To further optimize key software frameworks, Marvell provides board packages for original equipment manufacturer's (OEM) development that support Adobe® Flash® technology, Microsoft Silverlight, and Real Video's Real Player.

To help OEMs focus their efforts on developing differentiated products at the interface and application levels, Marvell provides complete, robust systems-on-chip (SoCs) that combine optimized audio/video codecs and extensive use of open standards with full hardware and software integration to other critical platform elements such as Marvell Wi-Fi/Bluetooth/FM radio devices.  In addition to the ARMADA 100 series featuring full compatibility with previous Marvell application processors, all of the ARMADA processors feature integrated Wireless MMX2 (WMMX2) coprocessors for full-feature multimedia experience. ARMADA processor-based development and reference systems are available for all of the major market segments, shortening crucial time-to-market for device manufacturers.

Select customers are already sampling ARMADA processors; devices incorporatingthese chips are expected to be consumer ready by early 2010.

About Marvell
Marvell is a world leader in the development of storage, communications, and consumer silicon solutions. The company's diverse product portfolio includes switching, transceiver, communications controller, wireless, and storage solutions that power the entire communications infrastructure including enterprise, metro, home, and storage networking. As used in this release, the terms "company" and "Marvell" refer to Marvell Technology Group Ltd. and its subsidiaries. For more information, visit http://www.marvell.com.