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Cortus APS3 Processor Deployed in Selected Discretix CryptoCell® Security Platforms

Montpellier, France, 14th September 2012. Cortus, a technology leader in ultra-low power, silicon efficient 32-bit processor IP today announced that the Discretix has licensed the APS3 processor core. Utilized in selected versions of the Discretix CryptoCell embedded security platforms, the APS3 core has been deployed in high volumes for a variety of smartphones, tablets and home devices.

The small silicon footprint, low power consumption and high performance of the APS3 have assisted Discretix in providing optimized, cost effective security co-processor design to its IC platform customers that do not use an ARM TrustZone host processor.

“This is an excellent example of what our licensees are able to achieve using our cores.” said Michael Chapman, CEO and President of Cortus. He adds, “Discretix have been able to take advantage of our low power, small silicon footprint and high performance processor core to offer their customers a competitive, low power, flexible security solution. We are impressed by the ease with which they have managed to integrate ASP3 into their security platform.”

“Cortus’ APS3 CPU gave us a stable, low-gate-count basis for our security processors”, commented Amit Shofar, VP Business Development at Discretix. “The processor was very easy to integrate and to extend for our needs”.

In addition to the silicon efficient APS3, the Cortus microcontroller core family includes the energy efficient APS3R, the flexible APS5 and the high performance FPS6 with floating point. Further cores are under development for release later in 2012. The APS3 and APS3R have been licensed for low power applications such as Bluetooth LE, touchscreen controllers and SIM cards. 

The ecosystem around the Cortus microcontroller cores is rich and well developed, and it includes peripherals commonly used in embedded systems, bus bridges to ensure easy interfacing to other IP and system support and functions such as caches. A full development environment (for C and C++) is available, which can be customised and branded for final customer use. For the most demanding designs the APS5 and FPS6 can be used in a multi-core configuration.

Products and trade names mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. 

About Cortus S.A.:

Cortus S.A. is the price/performance leader for 32 bit processor IP for embedded systems. Cortus cores are used in applications where one or more of small silicon footprint, low power consumption, good code density/small code memory size and high performance are important.

Cortus is the world leader in terms of DMIPS per square micrometre and DMIPS per microwatt for 32-bit microcontroller cores.

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