Just as your pulse is checked during a routine physical, free cash flow is used as an indicator of a company's health. It equals the cash brought in from operations minus the money needed to pay the bills. Think about leftover money in your checking account after you pay this month's bills.

Investors and analysts see this leftover money as a gauge of a company's ability to perform. It is available for transactions such as handing out dividends and working on new products.

Some argue free cash flow is wrongly overshadowed by the emphasis often placed on earnings. Earnings numbers can be manipulated and don't always tell the whole story -- and earnings don't mean much if there's nothing left over after a company pays its expenses. Even if you bring in a six-figure salary, but no money left after paying the bills, are you in great financial shape?

You don't have to be Einstein to figure out free cash flow. To calculate the number, subtract the company's expenditures and dividends from its operating cash flow.

If the free cash flow is written in red ink, it doesn't necessarily signal curtains. This is common for young companies looking to grow. It also could be a result of heavy investments, which in the long run could be worth a standing ovation.

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Monday, June 02, 2008

ARM Mali-400 MP Technology Brings High-End Graphics Performance to All Consumer Devices

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Comtex

CAMBRIDGE, England, Jun 02, 2008 (PR Newswire Europe via COMTEX) ----Multicore Graphics Solution Revolutionizes User Experiences With Pioneering Scalability

CAMBRIDGE, England, June 2 /PRNewswire/ --

ARM ((LSE:ARM); (Nasdaq:ARMH)) today announced the ARM(R) Mali(TM)-400 MP scalable multiprocessor graphics solution, capable of delivering performance of up to 1G pixels per second and enabling licensees to serve multiple product markets with the same architecture, whilst retaining the flexibility to choose the optimum power, performance and area configuration for their application. The pioneering Mali-400 MP architecture offers breakthrough scalability, also reducing costs for developers and OEMs associated with platform fragmentation, as no changes are required to support one to four processors.

"Architectural reuse of software and hardware components is of increasing importance to SoC developers," said Frank Dickson, co-founder and chief research officer, MultiMedia Intelligence. "The scalability of the ARM Mali-400 MP GPU, from 300 million to over 1 billion pixels per second, will enable OEMs to deliver a wide range of market-leading products on the same underlying architecture, reducing their total cost of ownership and maximizing ROI."

The ARM family of Mali GPUs is opening up new product markets that will benefit from graphics acceleration, from mobile feature phones through to 1080p-based iDTVs. Recent Mali GPU licensees in the set-top box market mean that the consumer experience in the home is set for a radical change.

"We see an increasing need for pixel processing of up to 1G pixels in the home as HD screens become ubiquitous," said Ola Larsen, vice president of marketing at TAT, an ARM Mali Developer Relations Program Partner. "The set-top box and digital TV user interface will never be the same once graphics acceleration such as Mali technology becomes the standard."

The Mali-400 MP solution builds on ARM's experience and knowledge gained in the widely-adopted ARM MPCore(TM) technology, implemented in the ARM11(TM) MPCore and Cortex(TM)-A9 MPCore multicore processors, designed to reduce system bandwidth, optimize performance and reduce power consumption.

"The battle for consumers' attention across all consumer electronics product markets means that the graphics acceleration capability of these devices is rapidly becoming a must-have feature. Consumers expect an equally compelling user experience when accessing content from their mobile and digital home entertainment devices," said Michael Dimelow, director of marketing, Media Processing Division, ARM. "The ARM Mali-400 MP graphics solution enables our customers to bring scalable graphics processing performance to a wider range of product markets and more economically than before."

Power consumption and area efficiency are key aspects of the Mali-400 MP GPU design. The ability to scale performance to meet different price points and power budgets allows the Mali-400 MP GPU to address the widest possible market while bringing significant cost benefits through utilizing the same single software stack across multiple devices.

The ability to capture the attention of consumers through the display on their electronic devices, as demonstrated by a range of high-end designs today, is driving the need for hardware graphics acceleration in a wide range of consumer devices. The scalable multicore graphics processing design of the Mali-400 MP solution will help bring graphics acceleration to almost any device with a screen.

Availability

The ARM Mali-400 MP GPU is available for licensing today. For more information about the ARM Mali graphics stack, please visit: http://www.arm.com/products/esd/multimediagraphics_home.html.

About ARM

ARM designs the technology that lies at the heart of advanced digital products, from wireless, networking and consumer entertainment solutions to imaging, automotive, security and storage devices. ARM's comprehensive product offering includes 32-bit RISC microprocessors, graphics processors, enabling software, cell libraries, embedded memories, high-speed connectivity products, peripherals and development tools. Combined with comprehensive design services, training, support and maintenance, and the company's broad Partner community, they provide a total system solution that offers a fast, reliable path to market for leading electronics companies. More information on ARM is available at http://www.arm.com.

ARM is a registered trademark of ARM Limited. Mali, MPCore and Cortex are trademarks of ARM Limited. All other brands or product names are the property of their respective holders. "ARM" is used to represent ARM Holdings plc; its operating company ARM Limited; and the regional subsidiaries: ARM, Inc.; ARM KK; ARM Korea Ltd.; ARM Taiwan Limited; ARM France SAS; ARM Consulting (Shanghai) Co. Ltd.; ARM Belgium N.V.; AXYS Design Automation Inc.; ARM Germany GmbH; ARM Embedded Technologies Pvt. Ltd.; and ARM Norway, AS.

Contact Details:
   ARM PRESS OFFICE: +44-208-846-0797. Stuart Gill, Text 100, +44-208-846-0758 ; londonarm@text100.co.uk ; Lorna Dunn, ARM, +44(0)1223-400835,
   lorna.dunn@arm.com .