Actions Semi licenses ARM Cortex-A50 for tablet and OTT STB SoCs

Actions Semiconductor Licenses ARM Cortex-A50 Processor Family to Target 64-bit Tablet Market

ZHUHAI, China and CAMBRIDGE, England — Actions Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: ACTS), one of China’s leading fabless semiconductor companies, and ARM (NASDAQ: ARMH), the world’s leading semiconductor intellectual property (IP) supplier, have signed a license agreement for the 64-bit ARM® Cortex®-A50 processor family. Actions Semiconductor’s first SoC is due to be available in late 2014, making it one of China’s leading technology design companies delivering an ARM-based 64-bit chip for tablet devices.

Actions provides comprehensive portable multimedia and mobile internet system-on-a-chip (SoC) solutions for portable consumer electronics. With this IP license, Actions will develop 64-bit SoC solutions targeting the tablet and over-the-counter (OTT) set top box markets.

“We are pleased to extend our relationship with ARM by licensing the Cortex-A50 processor family,” said Dr. Zhenyu Zhou, CEO of Actions Semiconductor. “We believe this investment in 64-bit architecture reinforces our position as one of the leading design houses in China providing leading-edge, high performance products at attractive price points. With the mobile industry rapidly migrating from 32-bit to 64-bit operating systems, we expect our next generation SoCs utilizing this IP will allow us to compete more effectively in both the branded and whitebox segments of the tablet and OTT set top box markets.”

“Premium smartphones and tablets have become primary computing devices and that is driving strong demand for 64-bit solutions,” said Allen Wu, president, ARM Greater China. “Actions Semiconductor is a valued partner and we believe the combination of its expertise in low power SoC development with the ARM Cortex-A50 processor family and ARM POP IP is an exciting way of fulfilling this requirement.”