ST-Ericsson claimed that by using SMP the Symbian OS would be capable of running more applications, more effectively, while also reducing overall power consumption. The overall system performance is optimized by balancing the applications across the number of instantiated CPUs and their operating frequencies, ST-Ericsson said.

Neither ST-Ericsson nor ARM said how many processors had been implemented in the system-chip or why demonstrations had to be kept private.

"This endorsement of the ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore multicore processor by ST-Ericsson demonstrates the rapid adoption of SMP by our partners, paving the way for a new category of mobile devices that deliver significantly more processing performance on demand," said Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at ARM, in a statement issued by ST-Ericsson. "This milestone has been reached by close co-operation with our partners and it now offers the potential for device manufacturers to continue the trend of delivering a more personal mobile internet experience."

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