LONDON — In a repeat run of the announcement of ARM's second quarter financial results, the company's senior executives revealed that the multiyear architectural licensee mentioned on Monday (July 28) is a "leading handset OEM" which is developing its roadmap for mobile computing devices.

However, ARM did not reveal that the identity of the architecture licensee. Apple, with its success with the iPhone, would be a clear contender as the un-named licensee. The iPhone is rich in ARM processor cores.

An architectural license gives its owner the freedom to extend the ARM architecture and processor cores. ARM has given out very few in its 18 year history. Most of ARM's customers sign licenses for specific processor core designs that have been tried and tested by ARM engineers. "Don't get excited about any revenue on this deal as it's all tied up with future technology and the revenue will be recognized over several years. But it is very important as far as we're concerned in terms of securing design wins with that particular OEM and also in the mobile space altogether," said Warren East, CEO of ARM, at the analysts conference called to discuss ARM's Q2 financial results.

East did not say much about what the architecture license was granting the OEM in terms of the power to add to versions of the ARM instruction set architecture, or craft proprietary implementations. "It varies," said East of licensing in general.

"We're not really disclosing any more about that transaction than we've already disclosed," said East.