LONDON ' ARM Holdings plc, a licensor of processor and physical IP technology, has acquired Falanx Microsystems AS, a Norwegian developer of graphics processor cores, for an undisclosed sum. Nor was it disclosed whether ARM paid for Falanx in cash or in shares.

Falanx (Trondheim, Norway) is privately owned and has net assets of 2 million Norwegian Krone (about $315,000), ARM (Cambridge, England) said.

ARM has previously worked with Imagination Technologies Group plc (Kings Langley, England) to aid the design-in of its cores with Imagination's PowerVR graphics cores but Falanx is now set to become the graphics IP business unit of ARM, led by Pascal Peru as general manager.

Falanx has developed graphics accelerator IP and software for semiconductor system-on-chip (SoC) vendors. The company's main product is the Mali graphics processor unit (GPU) is a combination of hardware and software that supports 3D graphics and video on mobile phones, portable media players, set-top boxes, handheld gaming devices and infotainment systems.

"The graphics market for mobile, automotive and home applications, is increasingly important to ARM due to the rapidly growing usage of electronic devices with graphics capabilities; the estimated total available market for embedded 3D hardware is set to grow from 135 million units in 2006 to more than 435 million units in 2010," said Mike Inglis, executive vice president at ARM responsible for marketing and business development, in a statement. "The acquisition of Falanx will enable us to build upon our existing graphics activity and to drive the adoption of feature-rich, multimedia embedded solutions with a complementary ecosystem for developers," he added.