ARM connecting the world!

John Cornish, VP and GM, Design Division ARM.

ARM is connecting the world today, according to John Cornish, VP and GM, Design Division ARM. Over 4 billion people are using ARM-powered mobile phones currently. He was speaking at the ARM Technical Symposium in Bangalore, India.

Looking at the end user product demand in 2010, there were 3.7 billion SoCs in mobile phones, 15.3 billion embedded and other SoCs, 1.5 billion SoCs in enterprises, 230 million units in client computing devices, etc. The end user product demand in 2015 will be 7.3 billion SoCs in mobile phones, 21.6 billion embedded and other SoCs, 750 million SoCs in client computing, 2.7 billion SoCs in enterprises, 1.2 billion SoCs in DTVs/STBs, and 110 million server and 140 million desktop and PC SoC devices.

It is well known that there are and will be billions of Internet connected devices. Mobile is now the nexus of this revolution. The computing revolution is driving computing, content and the cloud.

ARM is said to be scaling across the digital world. For instance, ARM technology is suitable for application processors across a huge range of devices. Chip suppliers can develop for multi-industrial applications. Also, OEMs can re-use software across  mobile/consumer devices.

Despite all of this, there is still some way to go. As of now, 5.1 billion inhabitants of the planet don’t have access to the Internet, and 2.2 billion don’t have a mobile phone.

Cornish listed certain challenges such as the need for greater energy efficiency, greater software efficiency,  improved security and diversity of solutions vital to address the opportunity.

Regarding smart energy-connected systems, he mentioned smart home energy management (HEM), smart meters, smart appliances, smart heating, home area networking, etc. “We will need smart devices that can be embedded on anything,” he added.

ARM delivers on four main aspects — provider of GPU technology, has the highest performing GPU market, enables better interconnect and provider of physical IP for highly optimized processor implementation.

ARM has reached scalability with its Cortex processors that provides compatibility across a diverse range of applications. The Cortex-M0 family is enabling mixed signal. The Cortex-R family includes the R5 and the R7, which will be released at the end of 2011. The Cortex-A family is in screens everywhere. The Cortex-A15 has introduced the cache coherent interconnect. Cornish advised that ARM’s processor optimization pack (POP includes the core optimized physical IP, certified benchmarking and implified knowledge.

GPU computing brings 100s of GFLOPs of processing power into the hands of developers. It is driving heterogenous computing to handle complex use cases. The ARM partnershio is said to enable strength in diversity — thereby enabling richer end-product offerings. The OS, web and applications are all optimized for ARM.

TrustZone, a system-wide approach to security, on high performance computing platforms for a huge array of applications, including secure payment, digital rights management (DRM), and web-based services.

The ARM Connected Community currently has 850+ partners. The ecosystem is built and evolved over many years. The flexible, diverse ARM ecosystem is continuously evolving to enable new paradigms across new markets.

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