UMC to Develop Power-Saving Chip in Joint Project

United Microelectronics Corp. is collaborating with ARM, Artisan Components Inc., National Semiconductor Corp. and Synopsys Inc. to develop an energy-efficient, system-on-chip (SOC) technology demonstrator, the ULTRA, with energy savings of up to 60% with longer battery life for hand-held electronics products.

“Today’s portable products continue to increase in functionality while shrinking in size, meaning that a chip has to do more while still maintaining reasonable power consumption,” said Patrick Lin, UMC’s chief SOC architect. “The ULTRA technology demonstrator is optimized for these applications as it delivers low-power characteristics without sacrificing performance.”