NovaThor was a platform consisting of integrated System on Chips (SoC) and modems for smartphones and tablets developed by ST-Ericsson, a 50/50 joint venture of Ericsson and STMicroelectronics established on February 3, 2009. ST-Ericsson also sold the SoCs (Nova) and the modems (Thor) separately. [1] [2] The application processor portion of the system was the successor of the previous Nomadik line from STMicroelectronics.
In early 2009, when development had already begun on a Nomadik SoC called STn8500, it was superseded by the NovaThor family from ST-Ericsson and renamed U8500 as the ST-NXP Wireless division was merged into the ST-Ericsson joint venture. [3]
On November 2, 2011, Nokia announced that NovaThor SoCs will power Nokia's future Windows Phone based smartphones, making a deviation from the standard use of Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs in Windows Phones. [4]
On February 28, 2012, ST-Ericsson announced that they would switch to fully depleted silicon on insulator (FD-SOI) transistors for upcoming products to reduce power consumption. As an example they stated that the L8540 SoC with FD-SOI transistors would consume 35% less power. [5]
On April 23, 2012, the company announced that development of application processors (such as NovaThor) was to be moved back into STMicroelectronics. [6]
On November 21, 2012, it was announced that ST-Ericsson had joined the Sailfish Alliance hence NovaThor ModAp platform would support Jolla's smartphones and Sailfish OS. [7]
On December 10, 2012, ST-Ericsson announced that STMicroelectronics will leave the joint venture after a transition period making Ericsson the full owner of the company. [8]
On December 20, 2012, Ericsson announced that they will not buy the remaining 50% stake that STMicroelectronics held. The future for the company therefore remained uncertain. [9]
On January 30, 2013, ST-Ericsson announced as part of its quarterly result that they had shipped 10.7 million U8500 NovaThor units in the fourth quarter of 2012. [10]
On May 28, 2013, ST-Ericsson announced that they would sell the assets and intellectual property rights for its mobile connectivity Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) to Intel for $90 million. [11]
On August 5, 2013, Ericsson and STMicroelectronics completed the split up of ST-Ericsson and NovaThor is since a STMicroelectronics product. [12]
| Model Number | Semiconductor technology | CPU Instruction Set | CPU | GPU | Memory Technology | Wireless Radio Technologies | Availability | Utilizing Devices |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NovaThor U8500 [13] | 40 nm [14] | ARMv7 | 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 | ARM Mali 400 MP (single core) | LP-DDR2 | HSPA | 2011 | Motorola XT760, HTC Desire 400 dual sim [5] Ontim WP8500, [15] Samsung Galaxy Ace 2, Samsung Galaxy Beam, Samsung Galaxy S Advance, [16] Samsung Galaxy S III Mini, [17] Samsung Galaxy Xcover 2, Shanda Bambook, [18] Sony Xperia go, Sony Xperia P, [19] Sony Xperia Sola, Sony Xperia U, Yulong Coolpad CP7728 [20] |
| NovaThor U9500 [21] | 45 nm | ARMv7 | 1 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 | ARM Mali 400 MP | LP-DDR2 | GSM/EDGE, WCDMA/HSPA+ (HSDPA 21 Mbit/s, HSUPA 5.76 Mbit/s) | 2011 | |
| Nova A9500 [22] | 45 nm | ARMv7 | 1.2 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 | ARM Mali 400 MP | LP-DDR2 | None | 2011 | HTC Sensation Z710T (China), [23] Lenovo LePhone S899t, [24] Snowball [25] |
| Nova A9540 [26] | 32 nm [27] | ARMv7 | 1.85 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 | PowerVR SGX 544 | Dual-channel LP-DDR2 | None | Cancelled | |
| NovaThor L9540 [28] | 32 nm | ARMv7 | 1.85 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 | PowerVR SGX 544 | Dual-channel LP-DDR2 | LTE FDD/TDD, HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, EDGE (external Thor M7400 modem) | Cancelled | |
| NovaThor L8540 [29] | 28 nm | ARMv7 | 1.85 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 | PowerVR SGX 544 @ 500 MHz [30] | Dual-channel LP-DDR2 | LTE FDD/TDD, HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, EDGE (integrated modem) | Cancelled | |
| NovaThor L8580 (eQuad | 28 nm FD-SOI | ARMv7 | 2.5-3.0 GHz dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 | PowerVR SGX 544 @600 MHz | Dual-channel LP-DDR2 | LTE FDD/TDD, HSPA+, TD-SCDMA, EDGE (integrated modem) | Cancelled |
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