Still early in the 20nm era, ARM acquires circuit design company Prolific

ARM, the UK-based company behind the reduced instruction set processor architecture of the same name, announced on Tuesday that it had acquired long-running chip design partner Prolific Inc.. The amount of money ARM put toward the acquisition was not disclosed.

Consumers won't directly see the fruits of this acquisition for several years, but the intent is clear: ARM is strengthening its talent pool and intellectual property for circuits 20nm process and smaller.

In late October, ARM partners Cadence Design Systems and TSMC announced they had completed the first 20nm Cortex A15 tape-out (the final "artwork" for the design to be printed on an integrated circuit) after 18 months of work on the project.

With Prolific's IC design and automated layout optimization tools, ARM will be able to speed up the design process at these small node sizes.

"Prolific has a long history of improving the efficiency of complex physical design process flows," said Paul de Dood, President and Founder of Prolific, Inc. "The ARM partnership will benefit from faster time to market for advanced node solutions through the addition of Prolific’s leading-edge optimization tools, which enable optimum power, performance and area with accelerated development timelines.”

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