ARC processors are configurable and extensible for a wide range of uses in system on a chip (SoC) devices, including storage, digital home, mobile, automotive, and Internet of things (IoT) applications.
Before their initial public offering on the London Stock Exchange, underwritten by Goldman Sachs and five other investment banks, three related technology companies were acquired: MetaWare in Santa Cruz, California (development and modeling software),[2] VAutomation in Nashua, New Hampshire (peripheral semiconductor IP), and Precise Software in Nepean, Ontario (RTOS).
[5] In November 2023, Synopsys released the RISC-V compatible ARC-V processor IP as an extension of its ARC product line.
[6] Designers can differentiate their products by using patented configuration technology to tailor each ARC processor instance to meet specific performance, power and area requirements.
Extensions can include, for example, a memory management unit (MMU), a fast multiplier–accumulator, a Universal Serial Bus (USB) host, a Viterbi path decoder, or a user's proprietary RTL functions.