ARM intros single-use licence for Big-Little

In an attempt to give its Big-Little architecture more traction, ARM has decided to put together a package deal for some of the components that will let prospective customers implement a multiprocessor subsystem in a single SoC design instead of requiring a perpetual, multiuse licence.

The single-use design licence will let a design team use a combination of Cortex-A15 and A7 cores – but not the latest A57 and A53 – in a multicore cluster, together with CCI-400 cache-coherent interconnect, interrupt controller and Amba bridge. Options include the Mali-T600 graphics processor and POP for a process-hardened version.

ARM says it currently has 17 customers who have licensed Big-Little under the existing model. The company aims to expand this with the single-use licence.