Arm's Approach

It revolves around three principles

1. Optimized Performance

Our approach revolves around three poles.

First, Arm optimizes its processors and other technology to fit the performance, power, and area requirements for a wide variety of applications and use cases. And the quest for better performance never ends.

Smartphone and device CPUs such as the Arm Cortex-X2, Arm Cortex-A710, and Arm Cortex-A510 provide up to 35% more performance than their predecessors while improving energy efficiency by up to 30%.

The story is similar in the cloud and edge. Chip designers adopting Neoverse processor designs are creating SoCs that provide 2x to 3.5x better CPU performance per watt than traditional processors⁷ so networks can manage more traffic with less energy and cost.

By varying power, core count, and technology features, Arm Neoverse processors can power the cloud, the edge, and remote infrastructure.

A Better TCO for RANs and Datacenters

Less Is More. Arm Neoverse-based Ampere Altra processors consume 78% less energy and 76% fewer of the available CPU cores to perform the same CU/DU functions as traditional processors.⁸

A Cleaner Cloud. Arm Neoverse-based servers can perform 33% to 64% more work (SpecINT 2017) and avoid 42% to 74% of the CO2 emissions of servers using equivalent traditional processors.⁹

2. Choice

Leading chip designers, equipment manufacturers, software developers, and service providers use Arm technology as a foundation for their own products, leading to greater choice and accelerated innovation.

NXP's Layerscape LX2160A and LX2162ZA processors are based on Arm Cortex-A72 and designed for efficient, economical edge devices. ArrayComm has adopted NXP's Arm technology for its 5G distributed units.

Nokia created ReefShark, a world-class chipset that dramatically eases 5G network roll-out by using latest silicon technologies and computing platforms, including Arm Neoverse.

For a Wide Variety of 5G Applications

Arm Neoverse processors are designed to fit an expanding universe of use cases and devices.

3. An Open Ecosystem

We are also actively involved in efforts to establish standards in 5G to make it easier for more companies to participate in 5G and for more businesses and consumers to adopt 5G services.

Transforming wireless will require the insight and experience of companies across the technology spectrum: open source developers, hyperscale cloud providers, device manufacturers, traditional carriers, and others. Without standards, it won't happen.

Arm’s Project Cassini and Project Centauri establish hardware, software, and security frameworks for building cloud-native gateways, servers, and other edge devices. Over 100 companies have joined these efforts.

As part of this effort, Arm is also actively involved in open source organizations such as the O-RAN Alliance, the Telecom Infra Project, and the Magma Foundation.

Marvell's 5G Open RAN Accelerator Card is built on its extensive collaboration with Arm. The card is also part of the Evenstar program aimed at expanding the global adoption of Open RAN.

The Arm 5G Solutions Lab

Managed in conjunction with Tech Mahindra, the Arm 5G Solutions Lab serves as a virtual forum to bring together software developers, semiconductor designers, OEMs, service providers, and others to accelerate time-to-market and time-to-revenue for 5G products and services.

The Lab provides secure access to validate interoperability and gain confidence across a range of critical use cases, including small cells, macro cells, private 5G networks, cloud RAN, RAN Intelligence Controller (RIC), and core network designs.

You can sign up here.

The Ecosystem in Action

Performance benchmarking of silicon, interoperability testing, and better understanding end-user KPI are some of the foundational tasks carriers and vendors need to accomplish to speed adoption, says Tech Mahindra's Sanyasi Rao.

5G in a Box. Capgemini, Benetel, Ampere, Gigabyte, Philuido, and Arm collaborated on an Open RAN 5G server combining core and RAN functions in a single box. The multicore design means DSP tasks can be performed on general-purpose silicon.