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Arm Limited (stylized as arm) is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge, England.[8] Its primary business is in the design of ARM processors (CPUs), although it also designs other chips; software development tools under the DS-5, RealView and Keil brands; and systems and platforms, system-on-a-chip (SoC) infrastructure and software. As a "holding" company, it also holds shares of other companies. It is considered to be market dominant for processors in mobile phones (smartphones or otherwise), tablet computers and for chips in smart TVs and in total over 160 billion chips have been made for various devices based on designs from Arm (more than from any other company). The company is one of the best-known "Silicon Fen" companies.[9]

History[]

ARM was originally an acronym for Acorn RISC Machine, now Advanced RISC Machine. While ARM CPUs first appeared in the Acorn Archimedes in 1987, a desktop computer, today's systems include mostly embedded systems, including all types of phones. Systems, like iPhone and Android 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 all the most common network-related technologies.

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). Examples of use of those RISC processors range from the world's smallest computer, to smartphones, laptops, desktops, servers and to the world's fastest supercomputer by several benchmarks included on the TOP500 list (and including at one point, in 2019,[10] the most energy-efficient one on the list). Processors designed by Arm or by Arm licensees are used as microcontrollers in embedded systems, including real-time safety systems. Arm's Mali line of graphics processing units (GPU) is the third most popular GPU in mobile devices. A recent addition to their lineup are AI accelerator chips for neural network processing.

Market competition[]

Arm's main CPU competitors in servers include IBM, Intel and AMD.[11] Intel competed with Arm-based chips in mobile, but Arm no longer has any competition in that space (however, vendors of actual Arm-based chips compete within that space). Arm's main GPU competitors include mobile GPUs from American and Japanese technology companies Imagination Technologies (PowerVR), Qualcomm (Adreno), and increasingly Nvidia and Intel. Despite competing within GPUs, Qualcomm and Nvidia have combined their GPUs with Arm-licensed CPUs.

Ownership[]

Arm had a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. It also had a secondary listing on NASDAQ. However Japanese telecommunications company 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.[12] The transaction was completed on 5 September 2016.[13][14]

On 13 September 2020, it was announced that Nvidia would buy Arm from SoftBank for $40 billion, subject to regulatory approval, with the latter acquiring a 10% share in Nvidia.[15][16][17] In December 2021, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit to block the deal, claiming that Nvidia's ownership of ARM architecture could stifle innovation and competition in the processor market.[18]

Microsoft and ARM[]

Fireside_Chat_with_Microsoft_and_Arm_-_Arm_Vision_Day

Fireside Chat with Microsoft and Arm - Arm Vision Day

Microsoft announced in December 1996 that it was porting Windows CE to run on third party devices running RISC processors, such as ARM and PowerPC.[19][20] In June 2012, Microsoft introduced its first ARM-based hardware with the Surface tablet, which ran Windows RT, an ARM-native version of Windows 8. However, the ARM versions were slow to catch on, compared to the Intel-based options.[21]

Windows versions developed for ARM[]

The following versions of Microsoft Windows support ARM instruction set architectures:

In June 2021, Microsoft introduced ARM64EC, an application binary interface (ABI) to help developers transition apps from x64 (Intel) code over to ARM.[22] However, this development path is only supported for Windows 11, which includes emulation to allow both types of code to run.[23] Microsoft and AMD are reportedly working on new ARM-based chipsets for future Surface laptops.[24]

References[]

  1. Erin Griffiths (16 November 2017). "Phone-chip Designer Tackles 'Industrial' Internet of Things". Wired. Retrieved 11 December 2017. 
  2. Ltd, Arm. "IP Products | Machine Learning" (in en). Retrieved 12 April 2020. 
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Arm Segment | Financials and Filings | Investor Relations | About Us | SoftBank Group" (in en). SoftBank Group. Retrieved 2 March 2018. 
  4. 4.0 4.1 "ARM Holdings on the Forbes World's Most Innovative Companies List". 
  5. "ARM's first press release". Retrieved 19 November 2015. 
  6. Saxby, Robin (23 November 2006). "Chips With Everything" (PDF). Retrieved 27 May 2011. 
  7. "Arm Worldwide Office". 
  8. "ARM LIMITED - Overview (free company information from Companies House)". 
  9. "ARM CPU Core Dominates Mobile Market – Nikkei Electronics Asia – Tech-On!". Techon.nikkeibp.co.jp. Retrieved 18 April 2011. 
  10. "November 2019 | TOP500". Retrieved 2 December 2020. 
  11. Merritt, Rick. "Cavium Flexes ARM Server Upgrade: 14nm ThunderX2 will pack 54 cores". 
  12. BBC. “ARM chip designer to be bought by Japan's SoftBank 18 July 2016. Retrieved 22 July 2016.
  13. "SoftBank finally completes £24bn ARM takeover". Silicon Republic. 5 December 2016. 
  14. "Acquisition of ARM Holdings plc. by SoftBank Group Corp.". 
  15. Moorhead, Patrick. "It's Official- NVIDIA Acquires Arm For $40B To Create What Could Be A Computing Juggernaut" (in en). Retrieved 14 September 2020. 
  16. "NVIDIA to Acquire Arm for $40 Billion, Creating World's Premier Computing Company for the Age of AI" (in en). 13 September 2020. Retrieved 21 November 2020. 
  17. Rosoff, Matt (13 September 2020). "Nvidia to buy Arm Holdings from SoftBank for $40 billion". CNBC. 
  18. FTC sues to block Nvidia's $40B acquisition of Arm by Mike Peterson, AppleInsider. 2021-12-02.
  19. Microsoft Expands List of Supported CPUs for Windows CE Platform, Microsoft. 1996-12-04.
  20. What Was Windows CE, and Why Did People Use It? by Benj Edwards, How-To Geek. 2021-08-24.
  21. Windows RT: The odd birth, brief life, and quiet death of Microsoft's ugly duckling operating system by Steve Ranger, ZDNet. 2015-02-13.
  22. Announcing ARM64EC: Building Native and Interoperable Apps for Windows 11 on ARM by Marc Sweetgall, Microsoft. 2021-06-28.
  23. Microsoft's x86 64-Bit Emulator for Arm Devices Is Exclusive to Windows 11 by Michael Kan, PC Magazine. 2021-11-16.
  24. Microsoft and AMD reportedly partner up to create powerful Arm laptop chip by Sean Endicott, Windows Central. 2011-10-04.

External links[]

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