SoftBank Group Corp (9984.T)-owned chip designer Arm introduced new mobile device technology on Monday. In addition, Taiwan smartphone chip maker MediaTek Inc (2454. TW) announced it would include it in its next product.
MediaTek, a veteran provider of low- and mid-tier smartphone chips, has entered the premium smartphone chip industry, historically dominated by Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O), which has been in a legal war with Arm since last year over chip licensing arrangements.
MediaTek stated in Arm’s blog that the new chips will boost its next-generation devices’ performance.
SoftBank’s Tokyo shares rose 8%, the most in almost a year. MediaTek rose 1.1%.
Chip designers buy Arm blueprints to manufacture hardware. Then, at Taiwan’s Computex expo, it will debut Immortalis-G720, a video image processing and AI chip, and Cortex-X4, a mobile device CPU.
Arm said both new chips had 15% higher performance than their predecessors, while the Cortex-X4 uses 40% less power, which is important for smartphones that demand long battery life.
Arm also “taped out” the Cortex-X4 at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330. TW), a costly operation generally done by chip designers who sell the final chip.
Chris Bergey, the general manager of Arm’s Client Line of Business, told Reuters that Arm sometimes makes chips to sell to test new manufacturing technology for customers.
Arm does not sell chips. “That’s not us,” he said.
The Financial Times reported last month that Arm was building a microprocessor to demonstrate its designs.
Arm announced the Cortex-X4 was taped out on TSMC’s N3E process, an industry first.
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