ARM buys Texan chip validation firm Obsidian

The British chip architecture firm ARM has bought Obsidian Software, a Texas-based processor verification and validation firm.

The takeover will help ARM handle the increasing complexity of high-performance system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs, ARM said in a statement on Friday.

"ARM and Obsidian Software have had a long relationship which started with early work on Cortex-A8," ARM processor chief Mike Inglis said. "The technology and people that will come with this acquisition are a significant addition to our capabilities in maximising quality and reducing time to market of ARM-processor-based SoCs."

According to the statement, the Obsidian team will stay in Austin, Texas, as part of ARM's processor validation team. ARM is the company whose architecture lies behind almost every mobile phone chip in the world.