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Arm Holdings

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ARM Holdings–which was founded in 1990 and is headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom–is the world’s leading supplier of semiconductor IP (intellectual property). Technology designed by ARM is used in over 95 percent of the world’s mobile handsets and in more than ¼ of all electronic devices.

The company has design centers and offices located all across the globe, including:

• Austin, Texas
• San Jose, California
• Olympia, Washington
• Munich, Germany
• Trondheim, Norway
• Shin Yokohama, Japan
• Sophia Antipolis, France
• China
• Taiwan
• Slovenia
• India

ARM does not sell and manufacture semiconductor chips. Instead, it is involved in designing semiconductor IP and licensing it to a network of partners, which includes:

• ARCHOS
• Intel Corp
• Microsoft
• Nokia Mobile Software
• NVIDIA
• AMD
• Obsidian Software Inc.
• RealNetworks
• Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd

Some of the world's biggest semiconductor and systems companies pay ARM a license fee for its original IP and a royalty on every wafer or chip manufactured. This enables them to use ARM IP to develop and manufacture system-on-a-chip (SoC) designs.

ARM processors are characterized by their low electric power consumption, and this has made them ideal for use in portable devices such as personal digital assistants (PDAs) and mobile phones. Most PDAs and modern mobile phones use ARM central processing units (CPUs). ARMs are used in other applications as well, including:

• The WLAN processor of Sony's PSP
• Apple iPod
• Nintendo DS
• Nintendo Gameboy Advance
• Digital cameras
• GPS
• Storage devices
• Network devices
• Digital televisions

ARM also designs, licenses and sells:

• Systems and platforms
• Software development tools
• Software
• SoC infrastructure

To date, 600 processor licenses have been sold to over 200 companies and more than 15 billion ARM-based chips have been shipped. ARM sets high standards for themselves with their quality policy that revolves around 1) monitoring and continuously improving employees performance, products and services, business and organization, and 2) satisfying customer expectations and needs by delivering products on time that are confirmed to meet the agreed requirements.

ARM in Universities

ARM is involved in training the next generation of designers, engineers, etc, through its ARM University Program. The goal of this program is to promote the use of ARM processors as teaching aids in higher education settings such as universities. Courses which would benefit from using ARM development systems and IP are those that focus on general programming, SoC design, embedded systems development and computer architecture.

Some of the materials, tools and starting points that the program makes available to both faculty and students include:

• Physical IP components
• Development systems
• ESL tools
• Real-Time OS's
• Application notes
• Training materials

Educators, education institutions and students often make requests of the ARM University Program for a second or third-year undergraduate text that covers the basics of hardware and assembly. To fulfill those requests, a new textbook has been published to assist in the teaching of ARM and students can either use it as a part of course offerings or learn at their own pace. It includes:

• The assembly basics
• A discussion about the ARM7TDMI
• Fractional asthmatic
• Tables
• Subroutines
• Memory-mapped peripherals
• Mixing C and assembly

The textbook makes use of the free software tools available under the company’s Kiel brand which does not just simulate an ARM processor; it can simulate a complete microcontroller.