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Swedish research students recently produced a near clone of the ARM7 processor. The clone, dubbed BlackARM, is part of a research project presented at this week's DATE conference in Munich.
Three research students at Mälardalen University in Västerås set out to prove a method for quick development of systems on chip with several parallel processor cores. To do this, they needed a processor core, preferably for an ARM processor. But when they couldn't gain access to a source code, they created their own ARM clone. Now, ARM and others want to collaborate with the students.
Black Arm, which is the name given to the students' ARM clone, is part of Socrates, acronym for System-on-Chip for Real Time Embedded Systems, a research project focusing on developing a scaleable multiprocessor platform. The project's first prototype is presented at the DATE conference.
The students, Mladen Nikitovic, Mikael Collin and Raimo Haukilahti, and their research supervisor Joakim Adomat tell Elektroniktidningen how they first intended to make BlackARM available to others over the Internet. But the risk of a lawsuit by British ARM, owners of the original ARM processor core, was too great. Instead, they are now considering invitations to collaborate with both ARM and other companies or research groups.
"ARM has offered us their source code, collaboration and sponsorship. But only if we sign some contracts," says Joakim Adomat.
Black Arm, which is the name given to the students' ARM clone, is part of Socrates, acronym for System-on-Chip for Real Time Embedded Systems, a research project focusing on developing a scaleable multiprocessor platform. The project's first prototype is presented at the DATE conference.
The students, Mladen Nikitovic, Mikael Collin and Raimo Haukilahti, and their research supervisor Joakim Adomat tell Elektroniktidningen how they first intended to make BlackARM available to others over the Internet. But the risk of a lawsuit by British ARM, owners of the original ARM processor core, was too great. Instead, they are now considering invitations to collaborate with both ARM and other companies or research groups.
"ARM has offered us their source code, collaboration and sponsorship. But only if we sign some contracts," says Joakim Adomat.
Gittan Cedervall
