The agreement is the second of its kind ever, following a previously signed EDA tools and ARM Cortex-A15 processor license agreement. The new cooperation will provide Synopsys with access to a range of Cortex processors, including technology needed to implement ARM big.LITTLE™ processing, ARM Artisan physical IP, POP technology optimized for Cortex processor implementation, as well as CoreLink™ interconnect and AMBA 4 ACE system IP.

By expanding their collaboration to include the latest ARM technology, Synopsys will be able to create and deliver optimized tools and methodologies for the implementation and verification of ARM processing subsystems, and ARM will be able to enhance its IP. The ongoing partnership aims to meet demand from designers for SoCs that feature both extreme energy efficiency and high performance.

For example, ARM big.LITTLE processing combines Cortex-A15 MPCore™ and Cortex-A7 MPCore processors with ARM CoreLink CCI-400 cache coherent interconnect to allow software to be migrated seamlessly to the optimum processor for each task. This paradigm enables up to 70 percent processor energy savings on common workloads.

"In today's increasingly competitive market environment, optimized solutions from two industry leaders can make a big difference for our partners designing ARM technology-based SoCs by accelerating the design process and driving gains in power and performance," said Simon Segars, executive vice president and general manager, Processor and Physical IP Divisions at ARM. "By providing Synopsys with wider access to industry-leading ARM IP, we are enabling mutual customers to benefit from streamlined design and verification, ultimately, decreasing time to market."

Combining ARM and Synopsys expertise, the optimized implementation flows will use Synopsys Galaxy tools and methodologies as well as ARM Artisan physical IP and POP solutions to better enable designers to produce Cortex-A9, Cortex-A15 and Cortex-A7 processor-based designs faster and with improved performance and power results. This solution is complemented by Synopsys' Virtualizer™ Design Kit (VDK) for ARM big.LITTLE processing, as well as by Synopsys' Discovery Verification IP and Protocol Analyzer for the AMBA 4 ACE specification.

In addition to using the ARM processor-optimized methodologies with Synopsys' Galaxy tools, designers can also use Synopsys' Lynx Design System for additional productivity and predictability through a tapeout-validated, SoC-level implementation flow. Synopsys provides optimized processor implementation training and design assistance to help customers achieve their target performance and power in their chosen semiconductor process technology. Synopsys will also optimize the Discovery Verification Platform for ARM IP. Discovery VIP and Protocol Analyzer integrate additional tests, system monitor checks and other features to accelerate verification of AMBA 4 ACE interconnect-based designs.

"Synopsys tools are used in a significant portion of leading-edge implementations of ARM processor-based SoCs, and our customers are pushing for extreme performance and power efficiency," said Deirdre Hanford, senior vice president, global technical services at Synopsys. "This expanded collaboration enables Synopsys and ARM to deliver the optimized solutions that SoC designers need to meet the power and performance requirements for their ARM-powered designs."