ARM is shipping its hardware design tools to software developers in a bid to open up the market for games on phones and set-top boxes.
“We see that we are in a shift in the market where mobile phones are becoming mobile computers and that opens up third party application developments which in mobiles have been a limited business so far, and create a software industry like the PC industry,” said Borgar Ljosland, a business development manager at ARM.
It has included its RealView system simulation environment in the latest software
development kit (SDK) for its Mali 3D graphics cores so that developers can simulate an entire handset before it is built and use this to develop games.
“One of the problems with game development cycles is there are very rapid product development cycles and that limits the developer’s ability to exploit the details of the hardware,” he said.
One of the first Mali cores, the Mali200, has been licensed to Micronas of Switzerland for set top box designs and to an unnamed mobile phone chipmaker.