ARM updates 'vision', aims to be in all digital chips

Peter Clarke
(05/13/2004 5:44 PM EDT)

  LONDON -- Fourteen years into its existence RISC processor licensor ARM Holdings plc has changed its 'vision'. The company now aims to have its intellectual property in every digital integrated circuit that is produced.

From when the company was formed in 1990, as Advanced RISC Machines Ltd., a joint venture between ailing UK computer company Acorn, the less sickly Apple Computer, and ASIC chip company VLSI Technology Inc., the company's vision was: "To be the number one provider of embedded 32-bit RISC microprocessor cores".

It can be argued that ARM made that vision a reality sometime towards the end of its first decade of existence.

In a presentation provided for analysts and investors at an open-day held at ARM's Cambridge headquarters Thursday (May 13) Tudor Brown, the company's chief operating officer, revealed that the vision has now been updated. The vision is now for "ARM IP [to be the] foundation of every digital device on the planet".

Brown said that for the goal to be achieved it would require continuing progress in CPU licensing to be complemented by increased regional penetration, by the licensing of complementary systems, software and hardware, and the growth of sales from ARM development tools. "Software is the product differentiator and investment driver of future," Brown said in his presentation.

In his presentation Brown did not give an estimate of what proportion of digital chips ARM intellectual property can be found in today, but it is thought to be tiny, despite ARM's acknowledged success in the baseband chips of mobile telephones.