LONDON — ARM Holdings plc has built up a significant momentum behind its Mali graphics technology that is now licensed by 18 OEMs and SoC developers, including Samsung Electronics, Micronas, Inc. and Zoran.

ARM (Cambridge, England) says many of those on board are leading electronics groups or chip designers, but would not name them due to contractual agreements.

The company said the Mali55 and Mali200 graphics processing units (GPUs) have been licensed by nine SoC vendors, including Micronas Inc., and Zoran (who has incorporated it into the Approach5C multimedia processor), since their launch at 3GSM in 2007. And the Mali-JSR184 3D graphics engine has been licensed by nine leading OEM licensees including Samsung Electronics.

The Mali2000 and Mali55 graphics processor units were developed by Norwegian company Falanx Microsystems AS and provide 2D and 3D graphics that combine hardware and software for a range of applications in addition to mobiles and portable media players, for instance set top boxes and infotainment systems.

ARM bought the graphics chip specialist in June 2006. Up till then, it had worked with Imagination Technologies Group plc (Kings Langley, England) to aid the design-in of its cores with Imagination's PowerVR graphics cores.

Falanx has subsequently become the graphics IP business unit of ARM. Last March, the company started sampling to selected customers a complete software development kit for the graphics processors.

ARM says the success of the development program is mainly due to SoC vendors and OEMs seeking a single supplier capable of delivering the key components of a graphics stack: acceleration hardware, driver software and complementary Java APIs.

It stresses the graphics market goes beyond gaming and is relevant for any device with a screen, and added it is working with many others to complete the graphics services stack. More details about these partnerships are promised for later this year, with some expected during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next month.

Three "top tier SoC licensees" of Mali200 are said to be using the 2D and 3D graphics processing technology in cellular baseband, high-end applications processing and portable navigation devices.

"Licensing momentum was strong during 2007 and we have seen a number of market-leading SoC vendors come onboard, combined with a material increase in OEM shipments of Mali-JSR184 technology", said Michael Dimelow, director of marketing, Media Processing Division, ARM.