The Future is Built on Arm

Arm and its partners are laying the foundation for the next wave of computing from IoT and automotive through mobile computing and data centers.

The Future is Built on Arm

Bringing brilliant people together to unlock the power of technology and define the future of computing.

Who We Are

Arm is at the center of a revolution transforming the way people live and businesses operate.

A Future Built on Arm

Arm is defining the future of computing by offering foundational technology that enables our partners to deliver an unparalleled range of specialized processing products covering all global markets and sectors. We are freeing engineers, designers, software developers, and entrepreneurs to think big and explore any possibility.

Our partners are building on the pervasiveness, performance, and proven quality of the Arm technology platform to take computing everywhere. Together, we're redefining what's possible in cloud computing, automotive and autonomous systems, IoT, and the metaverse.

Arm customers have produced over 240 billion Arm-based chips to date. We anticipate that soon 100% of the world's digital data will be processed by Arm technology at some point during its lifecycle.

30+ Years of Innovation

A small team of engineers working in a barn outside Cambridge, England had an idea. It took off from there.

A Connected World

We are in an era where technologies such as AI, IoT, and 5G are already playing a leading role in making our world more sustainable. Experts estimate that, by 2030, digital technologies could reduce total fossil fuel emissions by 15% or more by fine-tuning energy consumption in the factories, homes, transportation systems, and buildings that surround us¹.

Emerging economies can benefit even more than established ones through an enhanced ability to close the digital divide with better internet connectivity and technology that can transform utilities and other essential services.

Arm and its partners are working together to ensure our shared vision of a more sustainable and ethical world is realized as quickly and as effectively as possible.

Which technology will have the biggest impact on your business over the next five years?

AI?
5G?
IoT?

Arm and its partners are working together to ensure our shared vision of a more sustainable and ethical world is realized as quickly and as effectively as possible.

Made Possible by Arm

Fugaku Created by RIKEN and Fujitsu, Fugaku is the world’s most powerful supercomputer. With over 158,000 Arm-based processors, Fugaku is being used to explore new drug candidates for COVID-19.

South African National Blood Service SANBS is developing an autonomous drone that can fly over 100 km while carrying 2 kg of blood to link remote communities with caregivers.

Respiro An add-on module for commercial asthma inhalers, Amiko's Respiro analyzes breath patterns and other parameters to give doctors better insight into patient health.

Amazon Web Services The AWS Arm-based Graviton2 delivers 2x to 3.5x more performance per watt than conventional processors, leading to 40% or more improvements in overall price performance.

Swift Navigation Conventional GPS is accurate to within 3-5 meters. Swift can pinpoint location within centimeters for improved safety and to support new services.

Mojo A computer in a contact lens, the Mojo Lens can translate street signs, display images, or serve up AI simulations in a secure, unobtrusive manner.

Misty Robotics A platform for accelerating the development of computer vision, voice recognition, and other applications for robotics.

Rainforest Connection Arm CPUs and GPUs help detect and locate illegal logging and animal poaching in remote ecosystems around the world.

What We Do

Arm creates efficient, powerful solutions for addressing very large problems.

What We Do

IPs Not ICs

Arm designs the technology building blocks that semiconductor designers, equipment manufacturers, and others use to create silicon chips and specialized compute systems that are today powering a host of devices, applications, and services across global markets.

The company offers a range of flexible licensing options, from those allowing unlimited experimentation with Arm's platform to specific product-by-product, single design uses.

Why Arm?

With billions of transistors and specialized subsystems operating at extreme speeds, processors remain some of the most complex devices ever produced. And every year the challenge becomes more difficult.

Arm technology is built on decades of research, investment, and engineering in areas such as processor verification, physical layout design, security, and debugging. Using Arm IP, partners get to market quickly and reliably, delivering unique system-on-chip (SoC) products that meet any performance need.

We are also dedicated to cultivating an ecosystem where competition, cooperation, and innovation all thrive. We do our best to help businesses make their Arm-based product succeed in their chosen market with targeted services like support and training. The health of the ecosystem is fundamental to our strategy: we succeed only if our customers and partners succeed.

We’re entering an era where computing must be pervasive, powerful, secure, and sustainable. Arm is designing the technology building blocks to make that possible."

Rene Haas, CEO, Arm

Case Study: Cortex-A53

Unveiled in 2012, the Arm Cortex-A53 CPU is one of our most popular designs. Semiconductor companies such as Qualcomm, Samsung, MediaTek, and NXP have incorporated it into a broad spectrum of entry-level, mid-range, and high-end SoCs.

These SoCs in turn have served as a foundation for popular and groundbreaking devices, including the most popular smart speakers, digital telescopes, smart glasses, computer vision systems for cars, smart security cameras, a space-saving smart oven, gaming controllers, a device for detecting bacteria in water, e-readers, a device that lets cars find their own parking spaces, personal firewalls, an internet access hub for isolated communities, tablets, and billions of smartphones and IoT devices.

Solving Computing's Biggest Problems

Performance, Power, and Cost

Performance-per-watt is the unsung hero of computing. Since the 1940s, the number of operations computers perform per watt of energy has approximately doubled every two years. The advances in chip design, material science, and manufacturing that have made performance gains possible have also steadily slashed the cost of computing.

Unfortunately, traditional techniques for advancing performance, power, and cost are becoming more complex and expensive. A slackening of the pace would reverberate across the technology landscape. Cellular networks would become more costly to manage. Datacenters would require more racks, equipment, and real estate. New applications would bog down devices. The virtuous cycle of smaller, cheaper, faster, and better would begin to slow down.

An Energy Crisis? Datacenter power has remained relatively flat for a decade. Some predict it could grow by up to 7x in the coming decade with AI, IoT, and other applications.

The advances in chip design, material science, and manufacturing that have made performance gains possible have also steadily slashed the cost of computing.

AI Everywhere

By 2025, around 90% of new enterprise apps will include some form of AI. We will also be surrounded by AI- and ML-enabled devices: analysts estimate there will be over 8 billion voice-assisted devices by then, or enough for one for every person on the planet.⁵

Delivering the potential of AI compute everywhere requires us to make rapid progress across areas such as processing power, system design, and neural network model development to meet advancing market needs. Arm and its ecosystem are focused on matching what the world requires while simultaneously seeking to protect data confidentiality, privacy, and security.

The Next Frontier - Specialized Processing: Combining Arm Cortex-M55 CPU and Arm Ethos-U55 neural processing unit (NPU) delivers a performance uplift of up to 50x for ML and 25x for efficiency.

By 2025, around 90% of new enterprise apps will include some form of AI."

Security

Maintaining robust security has become the connected computing world's greatest challenge. Hackers exposed an estimated 37 billion private records in 2020. Ransomware attacks grew by 150% with the average cost of an attack rising to $1.85 million. In all, experts expect cybercrime to cause more than $10.5 trillion worth of damages by 2025.

Consumers and businesses are struggling to keep up. Only 47% of companies carry out a full threat analysis on new products, according to a survey by PSA Certified, while 54% said an uncertain ROI and lack of buy in prevented them from investing more in continuous security measures. Markets such as IoT and AI will slow down if security problems persist.

To achieve technology's potential, we need to make security better and make it far easier to use.

To achieve technology's potential, we need to make security better and make it far easier to use.

Lacking Confidence: only 4% of organizations are completely confident in their security policy when it comes to protecting third-party data.

Armv9

Armv9, our latest architecture, will be at the forefront of the next 300 billion Arm-based chips. Some of the enhancements include:

Arm Confidential Computing Architecture (CCA)
Arm CCA is a framework for protecting code and data, even while in use, at the chip level. Realms, a feature introduced by CCA, will allow users to create isolated enclaves for exchanging information or performing transactions with trusted parties.

Memory Tagging Extension (MTE)
MTE detects latent flaws in code to eliminate future problems. More than 70% of vulnerabilities in major software platforms come from the memory issues MTE finds. MTE also improves application stability and reduces crashes.

Maximizing Performance through System Design
The Armv9 architecture, combined with Arm's Total Compute approach to system-level design (see 'Our Products'), provides a foundation for achieving annual double-digit gains in performance.

Better AI Performance and Simplified Development
Scalable Vector Extension 2 (SVE2) accelerates AI adoption by making it easier for device designers and software developers to add vector processing into their products and thereby improve AI and 'real world' signal performance.

The Next 300 Billion: Arm Chief Architect Richard Grisenthwaite and Arm Fellows provide a deep dive into Armv9, the foundation for the next decade of Arm devices. Armv9 chips began to sample in 2021.

Our Customers and Partners

Driving innovation through cooperation.

Our Customers and Partners

An Expanding Ecosystem

Arm technology has become globally pervasive due to the support of an ecosystem of hundreds of innovative partners who constantly develop chip technology, compute systems, and smart devices leveraging the power of Arm designs to deliver insights and intelligence across all possible computing applications.

Our extended ecosystem includes Fortune 500 companies and freshly minted startups as well as national laboratories, leading universities, equipment manufacturers, and technology distributors across the globe.

Arm is also a key platform for cloud native developers, gaming developers, enterprise apps and operating systems, and the AI community. Billions of times a day, consumers take advantage of AI on Arm platforms for voice applications or facial recognition.

Additionally, Arm fosters close relationships with semiconductor foundries and electronic design automation (EDA) developers to help ensure that our designs can be smoothly transitioned to products. Knowledge for bringing Arm-based products to market is widespread.

Why an Ecosystem Approach?

This distributed approach to innovation produces enormous benefits:

Rapid innovation with less risk. Hardware and software developers that take advantage of Arm's proven platform can spend more of their time and resources on adding unique market value to their products.
Increased choice and variety in silicon. SoCs based on Arm CPUs, GPUs, NPUs, and other technologies span applications and price points. Many remain active in the market for decades.
Increased choice and variety in devices. A wider choice of efficient processing products gives equipment designers an enhanced ability to apply ever more capable compute while staying within their power budget.
A thriving software community. With millions of developers and extensive support across the open source community, the Arm platform is a leading hub for software innovation.
A lower total cost of ownership. Competition and innovation ultimately lead to lower costs and better experiences for customers, further fueling adoption and innovation.

Which industry will see the greatest impact from digital technology in the next decade?

Healthcare
Transportation
Manufacturing

New Ways to Operate: Arm Flexible Access

The Arm Flexible Access licensing program gives partners low-cost or no-cost access to a wide range of Arm IP, tools, and training during the design phase. The goal is to encourage experimentation while reducing risk. Over 100 companies actively participate in Flexible Access. Examples include:

Hailo: Hailo’s AI processors for automotive and other edge devices (right) can perform up to 26 billion operations per second. Arm Flexible Access accelerated prototype development and fundraising.

Femtosense: Femtosense is designing highly efficient AI chips that mimic the sparse neural systems found in nature to help reduce power consumption in everything from consumer devices to datacenters. Arm Flexible Access helped ensure its cutting-edge technology would be compatible.

Atmosic: Atmosic (right) is developing extremely low-powered SoCs and radios that can run on harvested power. Arm Flexible Access lets the team experiment with different core combinations.

The Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups and Arm created a program that gives ten startups per year access to Arm technology to jumpstart development.

Arm Flexible Access was created to address the opportunities presented by a world of one trillion securely connected devices."

Rene Haas, CEO, Arm

The Arm Flexible Access licensing program gives partners low-cost or no-cost access to a wide range of Arm IP, tools, and training during the design phase.

Removing the Roadblocks

Arm also actively engages in standards and technology initiatives to spur adoption. Some of our efforts include:

Project Cassini: An Arm-inspired initiative to establish performance, security, and compatibility specifications for creating cloud-native hardware and software for the edge.

O-RAN Alliance: An industry organization seeking to lower the cost, accelerate the deployment, and improve the capacity of 5G networks through open architectural standards.

Linaro: An engineering organization dedicated to expanding the availability of open source software for the Arm platform.

Autonomous Vehicle Computing Consortium (AVCC): A cross-industry effort to lay a foundation for safe, secure, and feasible autonomous vehicles.

PSA Certified: Provides manufacturers and developers with processes for establishing a root of trust for chips, devices, software, and other products. PSA certification gives consumers and businesses a way to evaluate the security fitness of products.

Our Markets

From the endpoint to the cloud. In other words, wherever computing happens.

Our Markets

Consumer Technology on Arm

Arm technology is pervasive across consumer devices, including 99% of all smartphones, and most contain multiple Arm-based processors. An SoC in a high-end smartphone might contain four or more Arm-based CPUs to handle different tasks, as well as an Arm Mali graphics processor (GPU) for video or games and an NPU for voice commands or running facial recognition algorithms.

Arm processors have also become a growing presence in laptops, providing consumers with high performance and all-day battery life.

As more consumers experience the internet through Arm-based devices than PCs.⁶ Arm has increasingly collaborated with the software community to optimize games and other applications while improving stability and security.

Over the next decade, expect to see more immersive content—8K capture and projection, augmented and virtual reality, real-time gaming—running on thinner, lighter, and even more efficient smartphones, tablets, wearables, and laptops. New devices that eliminate the 'computer' from computing will also emerge.

Samsung Exynos 2100 provides 30% more performance while consuming 20% less power than its predecessor. It includes one Arm Cortex-X1 CPU (peak performance), three Arm Cortex-A78 CPUs (sustained performance), four Arm Cortex-A55 CPUs (maximum efficiency), and an Arm Mali-G78 (graphics).

Embedded and IoT on Arm

Arm-based processors can be found inside other consumer devices (set-top boxes, smart speakers, wearables, TV remote controls) as well as in commercial/industrial systems (HVAC systems, manufacturing robots, motion controllers) due to their ability to deliver superior performance within very tight thermal and power envelopes.

A growing number of our partners are turning to Arm technology to embed AI into devices for predictive maintenance and other IoT services. Innovation from Arm's global software community is essential in making these services a reality.

In the future, Arm technology will increasingly be used to perform complex AI tasks, such as grid balancing and real-time threat detection. Smart sensor networks powered by energy-efficient processors will also be deployed to improve agriculture, logistics, and other industries.

Bob Assistant, a smart sensor for predictive maintenance, can sample equipment vibrations every five minutes for two years on a single AA battery.

Automotive on Arm

Arm Cortex CPUs power the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), in-vehicle infotainment systems, entertainment systems, vehicle body cameras, EV battery modules, charging systems, and engine management systems inside many cars. Compute efficiency is critical for EVs: reducing the electrical load of computing systems can extend driving range.

Nissan incorporated Arm Cortex-R CPUs in the control system of the Leaf to increase efficiency, output, and deliver 1.3x more torque. Other Arm partners include Apostera, with technology that uses augmented reality to project traffic and other information safely onto the windshield so drivers can keep their eyes on the road.

Arm and Arm partners are also deeply involved in the development of autonomous driving systems. Fully autonomous cars are expected to 'run' on over 1 billion lines of code. Onboard computing systems will need to be extremely powerful, compact, and efficient, and achieve high levels of safety for autonomy to hit the road.

Bumper to Bumper: Arm's automotive lineup includes Cortex-A (high performance), Cortex-M (balanced), Cortex-AE (mixed-criticality workloads), Cortex-R (real-time processing), and Mali (graphics) for serving the range of critical applications.

Infrastructure on Arm

Arm Neoverse is our processor family for servers, networking, and digital infrastructure. Neoverse-based SoCs can range in size from 8 to 128 CPUs, include GPUs or NPUs, and vary by speed, cache, I/O, and other attributes.

Better power performance translates into datacenters and wireless networks that can accomplish more work with less real estate, power, cost, and equipment. Customers report price/performance gains of 40% or more⁷.

Arm technology can be found in the operations of AWS, Oracle, Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, Equinix, and numerous carriers. Red Hat, VMWare, and other software developers have also gravitated to Neoverse.

Meanwhile, laboratories in the EU, UK, US, Republic of Korea, Switzerland, Germany, India, and elsewhere have adopted Neoverse for their latest supercomputer designs.

Capacity Speed, and Power: Marvell's OCTEON 10 network processors, based on a Neoverse Armv9 CPU, will provide a 3x performance- and 4x performance-per-watt uplift to datacenters and 5G networks. Marvell also plans to combine OCTEON with NVIDIA GPUs to improve AI at the edge.

Our Products

The building blocks of the digital universe.

Our Products

Arm's specialized processors, interconnects, software, and other technology can be combined to create SoCs that achieve specific performance requirements or multiple KPIs all at once.

We have also created a wide portfolio of tools, libraries, and physical IP to help our customers implement their ideas.

Additionally, we collaborate with foundries, tools vendors, and others to help improve yields, ensure compatibility, and reduce costs. For example, Arm is moving EDA verification to Arm-based servers in the cloud to reduce the time and cost of processor development.

Total Compute on Arm

Arm’s Total Compute strategy introduces a holistic approach to SoC and system design. Rather than start with a slate of technical goals, Total Compute encourages designers to focus on use cases and identify how different IP blocks, software, and other technology can interact to deliver optimal performance and diverse experiences.

The result is a superior experience with extensive compatibility and high levels of security in everything from smart devices to supercomputers.

The three principles of Total Compute—greater performance, in-depth security, and better access for software developers—can help unleash the creativity of engineers and developers and pave the way for new, immersive experiences.

Synergy for SoCs: The block diagram of an Armv9-based Total Compute SoC combines:

Arm Cortex-X2 for 30% improved burst performance on games and intensive apps,
Arm Cortex-A710 for 30% improved sustained performance,
Mali-G710 for 20% improved graphics,
Arm Cortex-A510 for 35% improved performance on management tasks, while delivering 15% improved system power performance.

The three principles of Total Compute—greater performance, in-depth security, and better access for software developers."

Security on Arm

Arm believes security is an inherent principle of design. Our innovations include:

TrustZone Found in billions of devices, TrustZone creates hardware-enforced, isolated zones inside CPUs for securing payment systems, content, sensitive code, and data.
Physical Security Solutions By tampering with one device, hackers can extract code and learn how to attack entire product lines. Technologies that include the Arm Cortex-M35P prevent side-channel attacks and other data acquisition techniques.
SecurCore High security for embedded applications and smart cards. Tens of billions of devices contain SecurCore.
Corstone Reference packages for simplifying the design process while balancing power, performance, and security.

State Hackers, Supply Chains, and Computing as a Utility: Arm's Simon Segars and Microsoft President Brad Smith discuss the security challenges of the future.

Arm believes security is an inherent principle of design."

Software on Arm

Creating IP is not enough to ensure success. We dedicate considerable time and effort to developing software, tools, firmware, and other technologies to ensure that the world's software runs on Arm, and runs superbly.⁸

Nearly half of Arm’s engineering staff is dedicated to software, development, tools, and support.

We collaborate with Unity, for example, to optimize the performance and improve the frame rate of games developed on its games engine. Likewise, we are working with Microsoft to streamline the process for developing AI applications for IoT.⁹ We have also established strong relationships with the cloud native and enterprise communities to ensure Arm becomes an even more robust option for businesses.

What's Next

New ideas for a changing world.

The Road Ahead

Exploring potential ideas for the next decade of computing.

Morello. Developed in conjunction with Google, Microsoft, and the UK’s Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, Morello is an in-silicon technology that isolates attacks to keep them from spreading. A demonstrator system is nearing completion. If the program continues to achieve its milestones, Morello will likely feed into Armv9 toward the middle of the decade.

M0N0. An R&D project in conjunction with DARPA, M0N0 is an experimental processor that can perform ML tasks like voice recognition on a few milliwatts. M0N0 is targeted at applications like acoustic traffic analysis, better perimeter security, and environmental monitoring.

Triffid. An early-stage R&D project, Triffid processors run on energy harvested from ambient sources like radio frequencies. Triffid can be used to insert inexpensive intelligence into everyday items, such as shoes or food containers, to boost recycling or lower food chain losses.

Trishul. An R&D project being conducted with GlobalFoundries, Trishul links massive numbers of independent processors (CPUs, DPUs, GPUs, NPUs, and other devices) with a high-speed mesh. The end result will be a “chip” for building lower cost, lower power supercomputers or inserting supercomputer capabilities into edge computers or cars.

A Better Future

We are more than a company. We are people in 85 countries with an obligation to build for a better tomorrow. Some of our efforts include:

Decarbonized Compute. We are developing technologies to reduce the carbon generated by computing, as well as collaborating with partners to use computing to decarbonize buildings, manufacturing, and other industries. Arm is committed to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Ethical AI. Building Ethical AI is one example of how Arm is working to bring the technology industry together to create an ethical framework to ensure that AI and ML are developed and deployed in a fair, responsible manner.

Arm Education. To close the skills gap in STEM, we've developed a wide range of free university education programs, online courses, and tutorials for students, teachers, and even private companies on IoT, system design, graphics, and other subjects.

Sustainable Development. Arm is a leading partner in 2030 Vision, an organization created to harness the power of the technologies behind the fourth industrial revolution (AI, IoT, 5G) to meet the 17 Global Goals for Sustainable Development¹⁰ set forth by the UN General Assembly in 2015.

Bridging the Digital Divide: Powered by Arm Cortex-A53 and Cortex-A7 processors, the Jangala Big Box provides low-cost, energy-efficient connectivity for up to 100 users and up to 2,500 with repeaters. Over 3.5 billion people are still not connected to the internet.

References

1. https://exponentialroadmap.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/Exponential-Roadmap-1.5-September-19-2019.pdf

2. https://cybersecurityventures.com/hackerpocalypse-cybercrime-report-2016/

3. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/03/us/politics/ransomware-cybersecurity-infrastructure.html

4. https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-70-percent-of-all-security-bugs-are-memory-safety-issues/

5. https://www.statista.com/statistics/973815/worldwide-digital-voice-assistant-in-use/

6. https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/mobile-desktop-internet-usage-statistics

7. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/graviton/customers/

8. A Pervasive Platform graphic: 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2024.

9. https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/internet-of-things/microsoft-and-arm-partner-to-deliver-an-end-to-end-intelligent/ba-p/1751373

10. https://www.2030vision.com/global-goals