Arm Holdings plc (formerly an acronym for Advanced
RISC
In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a comp ...
Machines and originally
Acorn RISC Machine) is a British
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...
and
software
Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications.
The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...
design company based in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...
, England, whose primary business is the design of
central processing unit
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary Processor (computing), processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes Instruction (computing), instructions ...
(CPU) cores that implement the
ARM architecture family
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of RISC instruction set architectures (ISAs) for computer processors. Arm Holdings develops the ISAs and lic ...
of instruction sets. It also designs other chips, provides
software development tools under the DS-5, RealView and
Keil brands, and provides
systems and platforms,
system-on-a-chip (SoC) infrastructure and software. As a "holding" company, it also holds shares of other companies. Since 2016, it has been majority owned by Japanese conglomerate
SoftBank Group.
While ARM CPUs first appeared in the
Acorn Archimedes, a
desktop computer
A desktop computer, often abbreviated as desktop, is a personal computer designed for regular use at a stationary location on or near a desk (as opposed to a portable computer) due to its size and power requirements. The most common configuratio ...
, today's systems include mostly
embedded systems, including ARM CPUs used in virtually all modern
smartphone
A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...
s. Processors based on designs licensed from Arm, or designed by licensees of one of the
ARM instruction set architectures, are used in all classes of computing devices. Arm has two lines of
graphics processing units (GPUs),
Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
, and the newer
Immortalis (which includes hardware-based
ray-tracing).
Arm's main CPU competitors in servers include
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
,
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
and
AMD. Intel competed with ARM-based chips in mobile devices but Arm no longer has any competition in that space (although vendors of actual ARM-based chips compete within that arena). Arm's main GPU competitors include mobile GPUs from technology companies
Imagination Technologies (
PowerVR),
Qualcomm
Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...
(
Adreno), and increasingly
Nvidia,
AMD,
Samsung and
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
. While competing in GPUs, Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia all have combined their GPUs with Arm-licensed CPUs.
Arm had a primary listing on the
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange based in London, England. the total market value of all companies trading on the LSE stood at US$3.42 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Paul's Cath ...
(LSE) and was a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is the United Kingdom's best-known stock market index of the 100 most highly capitalised blue chips listed on ...
. It also had a secondary listing of
American depositary receipts on New York's
Nasdaq. However, Japanese
multinational conglomerate SoftBank Group made an agreed offer for Arm on 18 July 2016, subject to approval by Arm's shareholders, valuing the company at £24.3 billion.
The transaction was completed on 5 September 2016.
A planned takeover deal by Nvidia, announced in 2020, collapsed in February 2022, with SoftBank subsequently deciding to pursue an
initial public offering
An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
on the Nasdaq in 2023, valuing Arm at billion.
History
Name
The acronym ARM was first used in 1983 and originally stood for "Acorn RISC Machine".
Acorn Computers' first
RISC
In electronics and computer science, a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) is a computer architecture designed to simplify the individual instructions given to the computer to accomplish tasks. Compared to the instructions given to a comp ...
processor was used in the original
Acorn Archimedes and was one of the first RISC processors used in small computers. However, when the company was incorporated in 1990, what 'ARM' stood for changed to "Advanced RISC Machines." According to
Steve Furber the name was changed at the behest of Apple, which did not wish to have the name of a competitor in the name of the company. At the time of the
IPO in 1998, the company name was changed to "ARM Holdings", often just called ARM like the processors.
On 1 August 2017, the styling and
logo
A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name that it represents, as in ...
were changed. The logo is now all lowercase ('arm') and other uses of the name are in sentence case ('Arm').
Founding
The company was founded on 5 November 1990 as Widelogic Limited but this was rapidly changed, on 3 December 1990, to Advanced RISC Machines Limited and structured as a
joint venture
A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...
between
Acorn Computers,
Apple
An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...
, and
VLSI Technology. Acorn provided 12 employees, VLSI provided tools, Apple provided a US$3 million investment (equivalent to $ million in ).
Larry Tesler, Apple VP was a key person and he helped recruit the first CEO at the joint venture, Robin Saxby. The new company intended to further the development of the
Acorn RISC Machine processor, which was originally used in the Acorn Archimedes and had been selected by Apple for its
Newton project. Its first profitable year was 1993. The company's Silicon Valley and Tokyo offices were opened in 1994. ARM invested in Palmchip Corporation in 1997 to provide system on chip platforms and to enter into the disk drive market. In 1998, the company changed its name from ''Advanced RISC Machines Ltd'' to ''ARM Ltd''. The company was first listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and
Nasdaq in 1998 and by February 1999, Apple's shareholding had fallen to 14.8%.
In 2010, ARM joined with
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...
,
Texas Instruments,
Samsung,
ST-Ericsson (since dissolved) and
Freescale Semiconductor (now
NXP Semiconductors) in forming a
non-profit
A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
engineering company,
Linaro.
Acquisitions and divestments
;1999
* Micrologic Solutions, a software consulting company based in Cambridge
;2000
* Allant Software, a developer of
debugging
In engineering, debugging is the process of finding the Root cause analysis, root cause, workarounds, and possible fixes for bug (engineering), bugs.
For software, debugging tactics can involve interactive debugging, control flow analysis, Logf ...
software
* Infinite Designs, a design company based in
Sheffield
Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...
* EuroMIPS a smart card design house in Sophia Antipolis, France
;2001
* The engineering team of Noral Micrologics, a debug hardware and software company based in
Blackburn, England
;2003
* Adelante Technologies of Belgium, creating its OptimoDE data engines business, a form of lightweight
DSP engine
;2004
* Axys Design Automation, a developer of
ESL design tools and Artisan Components, a designer of ''physical IP'' (
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
:
standard cell libraries, memory compilers,
PHYs etc.), the building blocks of
integrated circuits
;2005
*
KEIL Software, a leading developer of
software development tools for the
microcontroller
A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...
(MCU) market, including
8051 and C16x platforms. ARM also acquired the engineering team of PowerEscape.
;2006
* Falanx (now called
ARM Norway), a developer of
3D graphics accelerators
* SOISIC, who specialise in developing
silicon-on-insulator physical IP
;2008
* Logipard AB, a public Swedish company spun out of Anoto AB, specialising in graphics processors
;2011
* Obsidian Software Inc., a privately held company that creates processor verification products
* Prolific, a developer of automated layout optimisation software tools, and the Prolific team will join the ARM physical IP team
;2013
*
Internet of Things
Internet of things (IoT) describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The IoT encompasse ...
startup Sensinode
* Cadence's PANTA family of high-resolution display processor and scaling coprocessor IP cores (formerly developed in Evatronix)
;2014
*
PolarSSL, a
software library implementing the
SSL and
TLS protocols. (In February 2015, PolarSSL has been rebranded to
mbed TLS
Mbed TLS (previously PolarSSL) is an implementation of the Transport Layer Security, TLS and SSL protocols and the respective cryptographic algorithms and support code required. It is distributed under the Apache License version 2.0. Stated on t ...
to better show its fit inside the
mbed ecosystem.
)
*
Duolog Technologies, an
electronic design automation
Electronic design automation (EDA), also referred to as electronic computer-aided design (ECAD), is a category of software tools for designing Electronics, electronic systems such as integrated circuits and printed circuit boards. The tools wo ...
company that developed a suite of tools that automate the process of IP configuration and IP integration
;2015
* Sansa Security, a provider of hardware security
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
(IP) and software for advanced system-on-chip components deployed in Internet of Things (IoT) and mobile devices
* Wicentric, a
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...
Smart stack and profile provider
* Sunrise Micro Devices, a provider of sub-one volt Bluetooth radio intellectual property (IP)
* Offspark, a provider of IoT security software
* Carbon Design Systems, a provider of cycle-accurate virtual prototyping solutions
* On 19 November, ARM, alongside
Cisco Systems
Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...
,
Dell
Dell Inc. is an American technology company that develops, sells, repairs, and supports personal computers (PCs), Server (computing), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals including printers and webcam ...
,
Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
,
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
, and
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...
, founded the
OpenFog Consortium, to promote interests and development in
fog computing.
;2016
* Apical, a provider of imaging and embedded computer vision IP products
* Allinea Software, a leading provider of software tools for HPC
;2018
*
Treasure Data ($600 million acquisition), provides enterprise data management software for device-to-data IoT platform
* Stream Technologies, provides connectivity management platform and GSM connectivity
;2019
* WigWag, an IoT gateway and cloud platform business.
;2020
* In July 2020, Arm announced plans to spin off Treasure Data, together with the other parts of its "IoT Services Group" business, into separate SoftBank-owned entities by the end of September 2020.
Changes of ownership
Japanese conglomerate
SoftBank Group made an agreed offer for ARM on 18 July 2016, subject to approval by ARM's shareholders, valuing the company at £23.4 billion (US$32 billion).
[ The transaction was completed on 5 September 2016.]
In 2017, a 25% stake of Arm was transferred to the SoftBank Vision Fund, which received investment from the Saudi sovereign fund.
Attempted acquisition by Nvidia and initial public offering
American technology company Nvidia announced plans on 13 September 2020 to acquire ARM from SoftBank, pending regulatory approval, for a value of US$40 billion in stock and cash, which would have been the largest semiconductor acquisition to that date. SoftBank Group would acquire slightly less than a 10% stake in Nvidia, and ARM would maintain its headquarters in Cambridge. There was opposition to the deal, including national security concerns from the UK and competition concerns from fellow tech companies such as Google
Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
, Microsoft and Qualcomm
Qualcomm Incorporated () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software and services related to wireless techn ...
, whose chips in use or on sale heavily rely on Arm's intellectual property. It was also being battled by Arm China, its subsidiary, a majority stake of which was held by Chinese investors. The acquisition was initially scheduled to conclude before the end of 2022 per the contract. However, the European Commission
The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...
, the UK Competition and Markets Authority and the US Federal Trade Commission
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) United States antitrust law, antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. It ...
raised completion concerns focusing on Arm's role within Nvidia, while the UK government also raised concerns about national security
National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...
. The merger attempt was eventually cancelled in February 2022 due to the aforementioned regulatory pressure and hurdles.
Arm filed for an IPO on 21 August 2023 on the Nasdaq, rather than the LSE. A few days earlier, SoftBank Group bought back the 25% stake from Vision Fund for around $16 billion, valuing Arm at over $64 billion. Arm went public on 14 September 2023 raising $4.87 billion at a $54.5 billion valuation, with SoftBank continuing to own roughly 90% of the company following the offering.
Dispute over Arm China leadership
SoftBank Group sold more than half of Arm China in 2018 to a local consortium consisting of various parties including China Investment Corp. and the Silk Road Fund, effectively relinquishing majority ownership of its Chinese subsidiary to a group of investors with ties to the Chinese state. From 2020, a discord between Arm and the effective owners of Arm China became visible after the British parent company unsuccessfully tried to oust the chief executive of the subsidiary, who, however, managed to retain his position. A prevailing view emerged that the matter would negatively affect the pending approval by the Chinese regulators of the Softbank-Nvidia deal, as well as any public offering of Arm.
In September 2021, despite Arm's denial, reports stated that the chief executive of Arm China, whom the British parent had tried to dismiss, had publicly declared the "independence" of Arm China. In February 2022, Allen Wu, the CEO of Arm China, floated the idea of a public offering of the Chinese subsidiary in 2025.
On 29 April 2022, it was reported that the CEO and legal representative of Arm China had finally been replaced according to legally recognized filings. However, Allen Wu continued to dispute this. Subsequently, in 2023, key staff left to form their own chip design startup Borui Jingxin, which competes with Arm China, particularly for engineers.
Operations
Unlike most traditional microprocessor suppliers, such as Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
, Freescale (the former semiconductor division of Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...
, now NXP Semiconductors) and Renesas (a former joint venture between Hitachi
() is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1910 and headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company is active in various industries, including digital systems, power and renewable ener ...
and Mitsubishi Electric), ARM only creates and licenses its technology as intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...
(IP), rather than manufacturing and selling its own physical CPUs, GPUs, SoCs or microcontrollers. This model is similar to those of fellow British design houses ARC International and Imagination Technologies, which have similarly been designing and licensing GPUs, CPUs, and SoCs, along with supplying tooling and various design and support services to their licensees.
Technology
A characteristic feature of Arm processors is their low electric power
Electric power is the rate of transfer of electrical energy within a electric circuit, circuit. Its SI unit is the watt, the general unit of power (physics), power, defined as one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with oth ...
consumption, which makes them particularly suitable for use in portable devices.
Arm processors are used as the main CPU for most mobile phones many PDAs and handhelds, like the Apple iPod
The iPod is a series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices that were designed and marketed by Apple Inc. from 2001 to 2022. The iPod Classic#1st generation, first version was released on November 10, 2001, about mon ...
and iPad, and computer games and as well as many other applications, including GPS navigation devices, digital camera
A digital camera, also called a digicam, is a camera that captures photographs in Digital data storage, digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film or film stock. Dig ...
s and television
Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...
s.
Arm supercomputers
The world's second fastest supercomputer
A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
(previously fastest) in 2022, the Japanese Fugaku is based on Arm AArch64 architecture.
The supercomputer
A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second (FLOPS) instead of million instruc ...
maker Cray has added "ARM Option" (i.e. CPU blade
A blade is the Sharpness (cutting), sharp, cutting portion of a tool, weapon, or machine, specifically designed to puncture, chop, slice, or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they a ...
option, using Cavium ThunderX2) to their XC50 supercomputers, and Cray claims that ARM is "a third processor architecture for building next-generation supercomputers", for clients such as the United States Department of Energy
The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government that oversees U.S. national energy policy and energy production, the research and development of nuclear power, the military's nuclear w ...
.
Fujitsu (the supercomputer maker of June 2011 world's fastest K computer according to TOP500
The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful non-distributed computing, distributed computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year. The first of these ...
) announced at the International Supercomputing Conference in June 2016 that its future exascale supercomputer will feature processors of its own design that implement the ARMv8 architecture, rather than the SPARC processors used in earlier supercomputers. These processors will also implement extensions to the ARMv8 architecture equivalent to HPC-ACE2 that Fujitsu is developing with ARM Holdings.
The Cray XC50-series supercomputer for the University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...
is called Isambard, named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel. The supercomputer is expected to feature around 160 nodes, each with two 32-core ThunderX2 processors running at 2.1 GHz. Peak theoretical performance of the 10,240 cores and 40,960 threads is 172 teraFLOPS.
The Vanguard project by Sandia National Laboratories is to deliver an exascale ARM machine. The first generation was called Hammer, it was based on X-Gene by Applied Micro. The second generation was called Sullivan was based Cavium's ThunderXs processors. The third generation of the Sandia National Laboratories' Vanguard project called Mayer was based on pre-production ThunderX2. The fourth generation also based on ThunderX2 is called Astra and was slated to become operational by November 2018.
Neuromorphic technology
ARM968E-S was used to build the neuromorphic supercomputer, SpiNNaker (Spiking Neural Network Architecture).
Products
Arm has four lines of central processing unit
A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary Processor (computing), processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes Instruction (computing), instructions ...
s (CPUs)/processors:
* Neoverse (infrastructure processors)
* Cortex-A (Application processors)
* Cortex-R (real-time processors)
* Cortex-M (microcontrollers)
It also has two lines of graphics processing units (GPUs): Mali
Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...
, and the newer Immortalis (with hardware-based ray-tracing). In addition, it offers Ethos neural processing units (NPUs), Corelink/CoreSight System/SoC IP, and TrustZone/CryptoCell/SecurCore Security IP.[
Arm offers several microprocessor core designs that have been "publicly licensed" for its newer "application processors" (non-microcontroller) used in such applications as smartphones and tablets.
]
Cores for ARMv8.2-A include the Cortex-A77, Cortex-A65AE, Cortex-A76, Cortex-A75 and Cortex-A55. Cores for ARMv8-A include the Cortex-A73, Cortex-A72, Cortex-A32, Cortex-A35, Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53. ARM's client roadmap includes Hercules in 2020 and Matterhorn in 2021.
Cores for 32-bit architectures include Cortex-A32, Cortex-A15, Cortex-A12, Cortex-A17, Cortex-A9, Cortex-A8, Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A5, and older "Classic ARM Processors", as well as variant architectures for microcontrollers that include these cores: Cortex-R7, Cortex R5, Cortex-R4, Cortex-M35P, Cortex-M33, Cortex-M23 Cortex-M7, Cortex-M4, Cortex-M3, Cortex-M1, Cortex-M0+, and Cortex-M0 for licensing.
Licensees
Companies often license these designs from Arm to manufacture and integrate into their own ''System on chip'' (SoC) with other components such as GPUs (sometimes Arm's Mali) or modem
The Democratic Movement (, ; MoDem ) is a centre to centre-right political party in France, whose main ideological trends are liberalism and Christian democracy, and that is characterised by a strong pro-Europeanist stance. MoDem was establis ...
/ radio basebands (for mobile phones). Arm offers multiple licensing programs for their cores. Arm also offers Artisan POP IP, where Arm partners with foundries to provide physical implementation, which allows faster time to market.
In February 2016, Arm announced the Built on Arm Cortex Technology licence often shortened to Built on Cortex (BoC) licence. This licence allows companies to partner with Arm and make modifications to Arm Cortex designs. These design modifications will not be shared with other companies. These semi-custom core designs also have brand freedom, for example Kryo 280.
In addition to licences for their core designs and BoC licence, Arm offers an "architectural licence" for their instruction set architecture
In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, ...
s, allowing the licensees to design their own cores that implement one of those instruction sets. An Arm architectural licence is more costly than a regular Arm core licence.
The ''Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and also published digitally that focuses on business and economic Current affairs (news format), current affairs. Based in London, the paper is owned by a Jap ...
'' reported in March 2023 that Arm had planned to charge the licensees royalties based on the value of the device, instead of the prior model based on the chip's value.
Uses of Arm technology
Processors based on designs licensed from Arm, or designed by licensees of one of the ARM instruction set architectures, are used in all classes of computing devices (including in space). Processors designed by Arm or by Arm licensees are used as microcontroller
A microcontroller (MC, uC, or μC) or microcontroller unit (MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated circuit. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs (processor cores) along with memory and programmable input/output peripherals. Pro ...
s in embedded systems, including real-time safety systems (cars' ABS), biometrics systems ( fingerprint sensor), smart TVs (e.g. Android TV), all modern smartwatch
A smartwatch is a portable wearable computer that resembles a wristwatch. Most modern smartwatches are operated via a touchscreen, and rely on mobile apps that run on a connected device (such as a smartphone) in order to provide core functions. ...
es (such as Qualcomm Toq), and are used as general-purpose processors in smartphones, tablets, laptops, desktops (even for running traditional x86 Microsoft Windows
Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
programs), servers and supercomputers/ HPC,
Systems, including iPhone
The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
smartphones, frequently include many chips, from many different providers, that include one or more licensed Arm cores, in addition to those in the main Arm-based processor. Arm's core designs are also used in chips that support many common network-related technologies in smartphones: Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...
, WiFi and broadband
In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...
, in addition to corresponding equipment such as Bluetooth headsets, 802.11ac routers, and network providers' cellular LTE.
Partnerships
University of Michigan
In 2011, Arm renewed a five-year, US$5 million research partnership with University of Michigan
The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...
, which extended their existing research partnership to 2015. This partnership would focus on ultra-low energy and sustainable computing.
Arduino
In October 2017, Arduino
Arduino () is an Italian open-source hardware and open-source software, software company, project, and user community that designs and manufactures single-board microcontrollers and microcontroller kits for building digital devices. Its hardwar ...
announced its partnership with ARM. The announcement said, in part, "ARM recognized independence as a core value of Arduino ... without any lock-in with the ARM architecture." Arduino intends to continue to work with all technology vendors and architectures.
Intel
In October 2018, ARM Holdings partnered with Intel
Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
in order to share code for embedded systems through the Yocto Project. On 12 April 2023, ARM Holdings partnered with Intel Foundry Services to bring Arm SoCs to Intel's 18A process.
Mbed OS and Pelion
On 20 October 2018, Arm unveiled Arm Mbed OS, an open source
Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
for IoT. On 8 October 2019, Arm announced a new Partner Governance model for partners to collaborate on the future roadmap. Partners include: Analog Devices, Cypress, Maxim Integrated, Nuvoton, NXP, Renesas, Realtek, Samsung, Silicon Labs and u-blox. In November 2020, Arm spun out the entire IoT software division as Pelion, a separate but wholly owned subsidiary of Arm. In October 2022 the IoT services of Pelion were purchased by Izuma Networks, an Austin, Texas based startup.
Autonomous Vehicle Computing Consortium (AVCC)
On 8 October 2019, Arm announced the Autonomous Vehicle Computing Consortium (AVCC) to collaborate and accelerate development of self-driving car
A self-driving car, also known as an autonomous car (AC), driverless car, robotic car or robo-car, is a car that is capable of operating with reduced or no human input. They are sometimes called robotaxis, though this term refers specifica ...
s. Members include Arm, Bosch, Continental, Denso, General Motors
General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
, Nvidia, NXP and Toyota
is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...
.
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
In August 2020, Arm signed a three-year agreement with DARPA, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, enabling DARPA researchers to use all of Arm's commercially available technology.
Senior management
In October 2001, Warren East was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of Arm Holdings. In the 2011 financial year, East received a total compensation of £1,187,500 from ARM, comprising a salary of £475,000 and a bonus of £712,500.
In May 2013, president Simon Segars took over as CEO.
In March 2014, former Rexam chairman Stuart Chambers succeeded John Buchanan as chairman. Chambers, a non-executive director of Tesco and former chief executive of Nippon Sheet Glass Group, had previously worked at Mars and Royal Dutch Shell.
On 8 February 2022, Rene Haas succeeded Segars as CEO with immediate effect, with Segars leaving Arm.
Current leadership
* ''Chair:'' Masayoshi Son (since September 2016)
* ''Chief Executive:'' Rene Haas (since February 2022)
List of former chairpersons
* Sir Robin Saxby (2001–2006)
* Doug Dunn (2006–2012)
* Sir John Buchanan (2012–2014)[
* Stuart Chambers (2014–2016)][
]
List of former chief executives
* Sir Robin Saxby (1991–2001)[
* Warren East (2001–2013)]
* Simon Segars (2013–2022)
See also
* RISC-V
RISC-V (pronounced "risk-five") is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) based on established reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles. The project commenced in 2010 at the University of California, Berkeley. It transfer ...
References
External links
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