A May 15 agreement between Sun and ARM
Holdings gives the British maker of embedded technology for cell phones
and other mobile devices access to "several hundred" of Sun's
microprocessors patents.
The agreement allows ARM, which is based in Cambridge, England,
to begin using Sun's patented CMT (chip multithreading), graphics, I/O,
memory and power management technology in its own line of embedded
processors and other products.
The announcement is the latest for Sun's Microelectronics
division, which not only creates new technologies for the company's
products but also looks to sell patents to other vendors. In addition
to ARM, Sun recently signed an agreement to license intellectual
property in its Neptune Ethernet technology to Marvell Technology.
The latest agreement also shows that Sun is looking beyond its
traditional strengths in the commercial space to leverage its
technologies. On May 8, Sun executives at the JavaOne show in San
Francisco detailed how the new JavaFX Script, a scripting language for
creating rich content and applications, can be used for Java-powered
devices such as mobile phones.
Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT Research, said Sun is
trying to trying to keep its UltraSPARC and other technologies viable
in much the same way IBM kept its Power Architecture alive through its
Power.org Web site and its partnerships with the handheld and gaming
industries.
"I don't see it as Sun moving into a position where they are
creating products, but it's more of Sun looking for partners that can
leverage a play in those markets," King said. "I think a company like
Sun is looking for partners who can tweak the technology in a new way
for customers in new markets, and what area of technology is growing
faster than the handset market?"
Marc Tremblay, chief technology officer and
chief architect of Sun's Microelectronics division, said that within
the embedded space, Sun's CMT and multicore technology would be a
logical choice for companies looking to develop product infrastructure
that requires lower power and higher performance.
CMT is a feature that allows the CPU to run multiple threads in
parallel, which provides higher throughput for multithreaded
applications. In its current line of server processors, the UltraSPARC
T1 offers four threads per core. The soon-to-be-released Niagara 2
processor doubles the threading, offering eight threads per core. Both
processors offer eight cores per chip.
"When you look at it, you have a lot of the same power issues
and the desire for higher performance in the embedded world," Tremblay
said. "We think that it's an area that can really benefit from
multicore and multithreaded technology."
The financial details of the agreement between Sun, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., and ARM were not disclosed.
Read the original article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2129878,00.asp
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