Arm continues to accelerate IoT software development with new partnerships

By Paul Williamson, SVP and GM, IoT Line of Business, Arm

November 07, 2022 -- A year ago we unveiled Arm Virtual Hardware, a cloud-based offering that delivers virtual models of Arm subsystems and third-party development boards to allow software developers, OEMs and service providers to begin software development earlier than ever before. Arm Virtual Hardware removes the need to wait for physical silicon, enabling software and hardware co-design without the complexity of building or maintaining complex board farms. Embedded systems developers have embraced this approach, which gives them access to more modern development practices such as MLOps and DevOps flows at scale. Earlier this year we went further by adding models of third party development kits to this offering, allowing developers to further accelerate the development of innovative IoT products to address a huge and diverse market.

We continue to receive extremely positive feedback from our developer community, who are keen to see even more choice and support for streamlining workflows in their chosen development environments. Arm is committed to ensuring developers have the tools they need in the places they are innovating, which is why I’m really pleased to announce some fantastic new partnerships that offer native integrations of our cloud-based development tools, including Arm Virtual Hardware, to accelerate developer workflows.

Arm Virtual Hardware integration with GitHub Actions

With over 90 million developers and counting, GitHub is at the center of the evolution of modern software development. On the hardware side, Arm’s computing footprint scales across multiple markets including IoT and embedded, with 230 billion Arm-based chips shipped to date. We’re thrilled to share that GitHub and Arm are now partnering to further accelerate the developer experience for embedded Arm devices with the integration of Arm development tools into GitHub Actions, a CI/CD platform that allows developers to automate their build, test, and deployment pipeline. The native availability of Arm tools, including our cross-compiler and Arm Virtual Hardware, will allow IoT and embedded developers to move faster than ever and get the best out of Arm-based silicon.

Developers can now use the Arm compiler and cross-compiler natively within GitHub Actions, as well as access Arm Virtual Hardware models of Corstone-based compute systems and Arm Cortex-M processors via self-hosted and GitHub-hosted runners. We’re excited to bring the accelerated development and CI workflows Arm Virtual Hardware can deliver to GitHub – a platform we know developers love. If you are at GitHub Universe on November 9-10, you can check out a preview demonstration of the new integration – or you can get started today with this excellent guide.

Cloud-based AutoML leaders continue to embrace Arm Virtual Hardware

We want to continue to make the advantages of Arm Virtual Hardware available wherever developers do their work, which is why we’re supporting integrations of Arm Virtual Hardware into the offerings of leading cloud-based development workflow providers. Today, I’m also pleased to share two significant milestones in the AI space, with both Qeexo and Nota.AI integrating Arm Virtual Hardware, which will be available as a development target on their platforms later this year. These AutoML platforms are changing the paradigm for the accessibility and ease-of-deployment of ML workloads – a natural fit with Arm’s goals for Arm Virtual Hardware. We’re proud to work with these partners to empower developers to start sooner and work faster in bringing new innovations to market to address the huge opportunities in IoT.

These are just a few recent highlights that illustrate the progress we’re making since we radically simplified and accelerated software design for IoT and embedded devices with the introduction of Arm Virtual Hardware. Multiple cloud-based AI and IoT toolchains have already integrated Arm Virtual Hardware directly into their offerings, meaning developers can start sooner, test at scale, and bring their innovation to market faster. Our ongoing investment and growing number of partnerships in the IoT and embedded market will continue to empower developers to innovate for a future built on Arm.

About Arm

Arm technology is defining the future of computing. Our energy-efficient processor designs and software platforms have enabled advanced computing in more than 230 billion chips and our technologies securely power products from the sensor to the smartphone and the supercomputer. Together with 1,000+ technology partners, we are enabling artificial intelligence to work everywhere, and in cybersecurity, we are delivering the foundation for trust in the digital world – from chip to cloud. The future is being built on Arm.