109-527: The ARM Cortex-A7 MPCore is a 32-bit microprocessor core licensed by ARM Holdings implementing the ARMv7-A architecture announced in 2011. It has two target applications; firstly as a smaller, simpler, and more power-efficient successor to the Cortex-A8 . The other use is in the big.LITTLE architecture, combining one or more A7 cores with one or more Cortex-A15 cores into a heterogeneous system . To do this it
218-535: A joint venture between Acorn Computers , Apple , and VLSI Technology . Acorn provided 12 employees, VLSI provided tools, Apple provided a US$ 3 million investment (equivalent to $ 7 million in 2023). Larry Tesler , Apple VP was a key person and he helped recruit the first CEO at the joint venture, Robin Saxby. The new company intended to further the development of the Acorn RISC Machine processor, which
327-410: A "basic word processor", ArcWriter, intended for "personal correspondence, notices and short articles" and to demonstrate the window, menu and pointer features of the system, employing built-in printer fonts for rapid printed output. The software was issued free of charge for registered users, although Acorn indicated that it would not produce a "definitive" word processor for the platform, in contrast to
436-608: A 40 percent improvement in overall system performance. The machines were supplied with RISC OS 3.10 or 3.11. The A30x0 series had a one-piece design, similar to the A3000 but slightly more shallow, while the A4000 looked like a slightly slimmer A5000. The A3010 model was intended to be a home computing machine, featuring a TV modulator (for use with traditional PAL -standard televisions, SCART televisions already being supported by all of these models ) and standard 9-pin joystick ports, while
545-434: A 9-inch passive matrix LCD screen capable of displaying a maximum resolution of 640 × 480 pixels in 15 levels of grey, also featuring a monitor port which offered the same display capabilities as an A5000. No colour version of the product was planned. A notable omission from the machine was a built-in pointing device , requiring users to navigate with the cursor keys or attach a conventional Acorn three-button mouse, such as
654-511: A Master 512 system featuring a Master 128 and 80186 co-processor comparing unfavourably to complete IBM PC-compatible systems. The planned Master Scientific product was never launched, leaving potential customers with the existing Cambridge Co-Processor expansion as their only available option. Attitudes towards Acorn and its technological position changed somewhat in late 1985 as news of its RISC microprocessor development effort emerged, potentially encouraging Olivetti to continue its support for
763-454: A RAM upgrade to 8 MB for the A3000 alongside other models. In 1996, IFEL announced a memory upgrade for the A3000 utilising a generic 72-pin SIMM module to provide 4 MB of RAM. Hard drive expansions based on ST506 , SCSI and IDE technologies were also offered by a range of vendors. With the "British Broadcasting Corporation Computer System" branding, the "main market" for the A3000
872-651: A card providing the two MEMC1a devices required to support 8 MB. Earlier revisions of the A5000 required desoldering of the fitted MEMC1a to provide such a socket. In 1992, Acorn introduced the A4 laptop computer featuring a slower 24 MHz version of the ARM3 processor (compared to the 25 MHz ARM3 in the A5000), supporting a 6 MHz power-saving mode, and providing between 2.5 and 4 hours of usage on battery power. The machine featured
981-513: A complete microcomputer, Acorn was regarded as having leapt ahead of its nearest competitors. On the eve of the announcement of Acorn's 32-bit ARM-based microcomputer products, prototypes designated A1 and A500 were demonstrated on the BBC television programme Micro Live exhibiting BASIC language performance ten times faster than a newly introduced 80386 -based computer from perennial education sector rival Research Machines , with suggestions made that
1090-636: A core value of Arduino ... without any lock-in with the ARM architecture." Arduino intends to continue to work with all technology vendors and architectures. In October 2018, ARM Holdings partnered with Intel in order to share code for embedded systems through the Yocto Project . On 12 April 2023, ARM Holdings partnered with Intel Foundry Services to bring Arm SoCs to Intel's 18A process. On 20 October 2018, Arm unveiled Arm Mbed OS , an open source operating system for IoT . On 8 October 2019, Arm announced
1199-701: A major supplier to primary and secondary education in the United Kingdom. However, attempts to replicate this dominance in other sectors, such as home computing with the BBC Micro and Acorn Electron , and in other markets, including the United States and West Germany , were less successful. As microprocessor and computing technology advanced in the early 1980s, microcomputer manufacturers had to consider evolving their product lines to offer increased capabilities and performance. Acorn's strategy for business computing and
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#17328727674791308-543: A new Partner Governance model for partners to collaborate on the future roadmap. Partners include: Analog Devices , Cypress , Maxim Integrated , Nuvoton , NXP , Renesas , Realtek , Samsung , Silicon Labs and u-blox . In November 2020, Arm spun out the entire IoT software division as Pelion, a separate but wholly owned subsidiary of Arm. In October 2022 the IoT services of Pelion were purchased by Izuma Networks, an Austin, Texas based startup. On 8 October 2019, Arm announced
1417-549: A portable case, having a motherboard "roughly half the size of a sheet of A4 paper", adding extra hardware for power management and driving the LCD, the latter employing an Acorn-designed controller chip using "time-domain dithering" to produce the different grey levels. Just as the processor could be slowed down to save power, so the 12 MHz RAM could be slowed to 3 MHz, with various subsystems also being switched off as appropriate, and with power saving being activated after "more than
1526-508: A primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and was a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index . It also had a secondary listing of American depositary receipts on New York's Nasdaq . However Japanese multinational conglomerate SoftBank Group made an agreed offer for Arm on 18 July 2016, subject to approval by Arm's shareholders, valuing the company at £24.3 billion. The transaction
1635-501: A processor module providing the ARM3 and a slot for a floating point accelerator (FPA) chip, the latter offering the possibility (subsequently unrealised) of processor upgrades. The FPA, replacing Acorn's previous floating point podule, was scheduled to be available in 1991. Much delayed, the FPA finally became available in 1993. In late 1991, the A5000 was launched to replace the A440/1 machine in
1744-564: A second or so" of user inactivity. The A4's case itself was used by Olivetti and Triumph-Adler models, particularly the Triumph-Adler Walkstation which did integrate a built-in pointing device, this being described as an "all-but-unusable touchpad mouse-controller" by one reviewer. The launch pricing of the A4 set the entry-level model with 2 MB of RAM at £1399 plus VAT, with the higher-level mode with 4 MB of RAM and 60 MB hard drive at £1699 plus VAT. Education pricing
1853-456: A slightly larger capacity of 800 KB for double density or 1.6 MB for high density. A later version of the A5000 featured a 33 MHz ARM3, 2 or 4 MB of RAM, and an 80 or 160 MB hard drive. Particularly useful in this revised A5000 was the use of a socket for the MEMC1a chip, meaning that memory expansions beyond 4 MB could more easily replace the single MEMC1a, plugging in
1962-472: A small central unit, monitor on top, and a separate keyboard and three-button mouse (the middle one used for pop-up context menus of the operating system). All models featured eight-channel 8-bit stereo sound and were capable of displaying 256 colours on screen. Three models were initially released with different amounts of memory, the A305, A310 and A440. The 400 series models were replaced in 1989 by
2071-590: A sole distributor for the A3010 Action Pack and Learning Curve bundles, with the pricing of the former reduced to only £299. Persisting with the strategy that some purchasers might choose a product positioned between games consoles and traditional PC-compatibles, the distributor, ZCL, aimed to take advantage of the absence of Commodore during the Christmas 1994 season. As the Christmas 1995 season approached, Beebug purchased Acorn's "entire remaining inventory", offering
2180-506: A substantial performance improvement, and the first ARM system-on-a-chip , the ARM250. The Archimedes preserves a degree of compatibility with Acorn's earlier machines, offering BBC BASIC , support for running 8-bit applications, and display modes compatible with those earlier machines. Following on from Acorn's involvement with the BBC Micro , two of the first models—the A305 and A310—were given
2289-497: A transition had begun from a range of machines of different vintages that still included the A3000 (at the low end) and the A540 (at the high end) to a range that purely featured more recently designed models including the A5000 as the high-end offering and the A4 portable. These new models utilised the first ARM system-on-a-chip —the ARM250 microprocessor —a single-chip design including the functionality of an ARM2 (or ARM3 without cache),
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#17328727674792398-607: Is "a third processor architecture for building next-generation supercomputers", for clients such as the United States Department of Energy . Fujitsu (the supercomputer maker of June 2011 world's fastest K computer according to TOP500 ) announced at the International Supercomputing Conference in June 2016 that its future exascale supercomputer will feature processors of its own design that implement
2507-508: Is a family of personal computers designed by Acorn Computers of Cambridge, England . The systems in this family use Acorn's own ARM architecture processors and initially ran the Arthur operating system, with later models introducing RISC OS and, in a separate workstation range, RISC iX . The first Archimedes models were introduced in 1987, and systems in the Archimedes family were sold until
2616-558: Is fully feature-compatible with the A15. Key features of the Cortex-A7 core are: Several system-on-chips (SoC) have implemented the Cortex-A7 core, including: ARM Holdings Arm Holdings plc (formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine ) is a British semiconductor and software design company based in Cambridge , England, whose primary business
2725-451: Is similar to those of fellow British design houses ARC International and Imagination Technologies , which have similarly been designing and licensing GPUs, CPUs, and SoCs, along with supplying tooling and various design and support services to their licensees. A characteristic feature of Arm processors is their low electric power consumption, which makes them particularly suitable for use in portable devices. Arm processors are used as
2834-597: Is the design of central processing unit (CPU) cores that implement the ARM architecture family of instruction sets. It also designs other chips, provides software development tools under the DS-5, RealView and Keil brands, and provides systems and platforms , system-on-a-chip (SoC) infrastructure and software. As a "holding" company, it also holds shares of other companies. Since 2016, it has been majority owned by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group . While ARM CPUs first appeared in
2943-736: The 8088 and 8086 . Systems using the Motorola 68000 and other processors running the Unix operating system also became available. Apple launched the Lisa and Macintosh computers, and Digital Research introduced its own GEM graphical user interface software, building on previous work by Xerox . Acorn's strategy seemingly evolved to align with Torch Computers —a company that Acorn considered acquiring —which had already combined BBC Micro hardware with second processors (and modems) to produce their Communicator product line and derivatives. In 1984, Acorn introduced
3052-771: The ARM instruction set architectures , are used in all classes of computing devices (including in space ). Processors designed by Arm or by Arm licensees are used as microcontrollers in embedded systems , including real-time safety systems (cars' ABS ), biometrics systems ( fingerprint sensor ), smart TVs (e.g. Android TV ), all modern smartwatches (such as Qualcomm Toq ), and are used as general-purpose processors in smartphones, tablets, laptops , desktops (even for running traditional x86 Microsoft Windows programs ), servers and supercomputers / HPC , Systems, including iPhone smartphones, frequently include many chips, from many different providers, that include one or more licensed Arm cores, in addition to those in
3161-717: The ARMv8 architecture, rather than the SPARC processors used in earlier supercomputers. These processors will also implement extensions to the ARMv8 architecture equivalent to HPC-ACE2 that Fujitsu is developing with ARM Holdings. The Cray XC50-series supercomputer for the University of Bristol is called Isambard, named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel . The supercomputer is expected to feature around 160 nodes, each with two 32-core ThunderX2 processors running at 2.1 GHz. Peak theoretical performance of
3270-1220: The Acorn Archimedes , a desktop computer , today's systems include mostly embedded systems , including ARM CPUs used in virtually all modern smartphones . Processors based on designs licensed from Arm, or designed by licensees of one of the ARM instruction set architectures , are used in all classes of computing devices. Arm has two lines of graphics processing units (GPUs), Mali , and the newer Immortalis (which includes hardware-based ray-tracing ). Arm's main CPU competitors in servers include IBM , Intel and AMD . Intel competed with ARM-based chips in mobile but Arm no longer has any competition in that space (however, vendors of actual ARM-based chips compete within that space). Arm's main GPU competitors include mobile GPUs from technology companies Imagination Technologies ( PowerVR ), Qualcomm ( Adreno ), and increasingly Nvidia , AMD , Samsung and Intel . While competing in GPUs, Qualcomm, Samsung and Nvidia all have combined their GPUs with Arm-licensed CPUs. Arm had
3379-471: The Acorn Business Computer (ABC) range, based on the BBC Micro architecture, offering models with different second processors and capabilities to respond to computing trends at the time. These models received generally favorable reviews from the computing press. However, with Acorn facing financial strain due to various endeavors, the company was rescued by Olivetti in 1985, leaving the future of
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3488-468: The CDROM , a backplane with one slot could be fitted). Also produced, but never sold commercially were: Reminiscent of the BBC Micro upon its release, the earliest Archimedes models were delivered with provisional versions of the Arthur operating system, for which upgrades were apparently issued free of charge, thus avoiding the controversy around early ROM upgrades for the BBC Micro. In early 1988, Arthur 1.2
3597-1279: The Cortex-A77 , Cortex-A65AE, Cortex-A76 , Cortex-A75 and Cortex-A55 . Cores for ARMv8-A include the Cortex-A73 , Cortex-A72 , Cortex-A32 , Cortex-A35 , Cortex-A57 and Cortex-A53 . ARM's client roadmap includes Hercules in 2020 and Matterhorn in 2021. Cores for 32-bit architectures include Cortex-A32, Cortex-A15, Cortex-A12 , Cortex-A17 , Cortex-A9 , Cortex-A8 , Cortex-A7 and Cortex-A5 , and older "Classic ARM Processors", as well as variant architectures for microcontrollers that include these cores: Cortex-R7 , Cortex R5 , Cortex-R4 , Cortex-M35P , Cortex-M33 , Cortex-M23 Cortex-M7 , Cortex-M4 , Cortex-M3 , Cortex-M1 , Cortex-M0+ , and Cortex-M0 for licensing. Companies often license these designs from Arm to manufacture and integrate into their own System on chip (SoC) with other components such as GPUs (sometimes Arm's Mali) or modem / radio basebands (for mobile phones). Arm offers multiple licensing programs for their cores. Arm also offers Artisan POP IP, where Arm partners with foundries to provide physical implementation, which allows faster time to market . In February 2016, Arm announced
3706-502: The Logitech mouse bundled with the machine. The other expansion ports available on the A4 were serial and parallel ports, a PS/2 connector for an external keyboard, a headphone connector, and support for an Econet expansion (as opposed to an Econet port itself). No other provision for expansion was made beyond the fitting of the Econet card and a hard drive. The A4 effectively fit an A5000 into
3815-483: The 10,240 cores and 40,960 threads is 172 teraFLOPS. The Vanguard project by Sandia National Laboratories is to deliver an exascale ARM machine. The first generation was called Hammer, it was based on X-Gene by Applied Micro . The second generation was called Sullivan was based Cavium 's ThunderXs processors. The third generation of the Sandia National Laboratories ' Vanguard project called Mayer
3924-485: The 300 series as an official upgrade, with the possibility of 4-slot backplane being available from third parties, but a hard drive expansion card was also required for these machines, occupying one slot. Both series included the Arthur operating system (later replaced by RISC OS as a paid-for upgrade), BBC BASIC programming language, and an emulator for Acorn's earlier BBC Micro , and were mounted in two-part cases with
4033-547: The 68000". Disillusionment was sufficient for some software producers to signal a withdrawal from the Acorn market. Other commentators in response to the B+ suggested that Acorn pursue the second processor strategy more aggressively, leveraging the existing user base of the BBC Micro while those users were still using the machine. In 1986, Acorn introduced the BBC Master series, starting with
4142-626: The A3000 also saw Acorn regaining a presence in mainstream retail channels, with a deal with high street retailer Dixons to sell the computer at "business centre" outlets, followed by agreements with the John Lewis and Alders chains. Acorn also sought to secure the interest of games publishers, hosting a conference in August 1989 for representatives of "the top 30 software houses, including Ocean , Domark , US Gold , Grand Slam and Electronic Arts ". Marketing efforts towards home users continued in 1990 with
4251-565: The A3000 and to replace the low-end A400 series models: the A3010, A3020 and A4000. Launched alongside the Acorn Pocket Book , a distinct product based on the Psion Series 3 , the machines supposedly heralded "a changed company, with new direction" and the availability of Acorn products in mainstream high street stores including Dixons, John Lewis and Argos as well as mail order catalogues. Thus,
4360-410: The A3010 did not actually utilise the ARM250, instead having a "mezzanine" board carrying the four separate devices comprising the complete chipset, with this board plugged into the motherboard in place of the ARM250. An Acorn representative indicated that this solution was pursued to meet retailing deadlines, whereas an ARM representative denied that any "serious delays" had occurred in the development of
4469-460: The A3010 upgraded to 2 MB of RAM in place of the A3000, included an Acorn colour monitor, the PC Emulator and a suite of Genesis hypermedia applications for a price of £799. The A4000 Home Office bundle combined the A4000 with Acorn colour monitor, Icon Technology's EasiWriter 2 "professional word processor" and Iota's Desktop Database application for a price of around £1175. The retail pricing of
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4578-604: The A3010 was designed for 2 MB, third party upgrades overcame this. In 1996, IFEL announced a memory upgrade for the range utilising a generic 72-pin SIMM module to provide 4 MB of RAM. Pricing started at just under £500 including VAT for the Family Solution bundle: an unexpanded A3010 with no monitor (to be used with a television), combined with the EasiWord word processor and one game (initially Quest for Gold). The existing Learning Curve bundle, updated to incorporate
4687-536: The A3010 was notable as making it the cheapest of any Archimedes machine sold. With games consoles gaining popularity, Acorn apparently attempted to target the "games machine plus" market with the A3010 by appealing to "the more knowledgeable, sophisticated and educationally concerned parents", this against a backdrop of established competing products having been heavily discounted: the Amiga 500 having been reduced to £299, for instance. In 1993, Commodore would subsequently offer
4796-510: The A3020 targeted the primary and middle school educational markets, featuring an optional built-in 2.5-inch hard drive and a dedicated network interface socket, both capabilities being provided without requiring the machine's "mini-podule" expansion slot. Meanwhile, the A4000 was aimed at the secondary education and office markets, offering a separate adjustable keyboard to comply with ergonomics regulations deemed applicable in these markets. Technically,
4905-464: The A305 in a fashion reminiscent of the Master Compact . This speculation evolved to more accurately predict a machine with 1 MB of RAM aimed at junior or primary schools . Other commentators correctly predicted the provision of an internal disc drive and a single "special" podule slot. However, any new, low-cost product providing support for up to 2 MB of RAM also raised questions about
5014-452: The A4 were eventually produced, with Acorn providing the previously announced Econet card, and with Atomwide providing Ethernet and SCSI adapters utilising the bidirectional parallel port present on the A4 (and also the A5000 and later machines). Atomwide also offered the "Hi-Point" trackball peripheral modified to work as an Acorn-compatible mouse which attached to the side of the unit. In 1992, several new models were introduced to complement
5123-464: The A4000 was almost functionally identical to the A3020, only differing in the supported hard disk size (3.5-inch in the A4000), this due to the machine's different casing. Despite the resemblance to the A5000, the A4000 along with the other models only provided a single "mini-podule" expansion slot, just as the A3000 did. All three ARM250-based machines could be upgraded to 4 MB with plug-in chips: though
5232-775: The A410/1, the A420/1 and A440/1, these featuring an upgraded MEMC1a and RISC OS. Earlier models which shipped with Arthur could be upgraded to RISC OS 2 by replacing the ROM chip containing the operating system. Because the ROM chips contained the operating system, the computer booted instantly into its GUI system, familiar from the Atari ST . Despite the A310 being limited to 1 MB of RAM officially, several companies made upgrades to 2 MB and 4 MB, with
5341-547: The A5000 via third party upgrades such as the Computer Concepts ColourCard Gold. The A5000 was the first Acorn machine to adopt the 15-pin VGA connector . It was the first Archimedes to feature a high density capable floppy disc drive as standard. This natively supported various formats including DOS and Atari discs with formatted capacities of 720 KB and 1.44 MB. The native ADFS floppy format had
5450-540: The A540 should have been - smaller, neater, with higher capacity drives and all the same speed for about half the cost". The A5000 initially ran RISC OS 3.0, although several bugs were identified, and most were shipped with RISC OS 3.10 or 3.11. The A5000 featured the new 25 MHz ARM3 processor, 2 or 4 MB of RAM, either a 40 MB or an 80 MB hard drive and a more conventional pizza box-style two-part case. With IBM-compatible PCs offering increasingly better graphical capabilities, they had not merely matched
5559-643: The A7000 were anticipated (and eventually delivered in the form of the A7000+). The A7000 , despite its name being reminiscent of the Archimedes naming conventions, was actually more similar to the Risc PC , the line of RISC OS computers that succeeded the Archimedes in 1994. It lacked, however, the DEBI expansion slots and multi-slice case that characterized the Risc PC (though by removing
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#17328727674795668-635: The ABC range uncertain in the expected restructuring process. Ultimately, only one of the variants—the Acorn Cambridge Workstation—would reach the market, in a somewhat different form than originally planned. The demise of the Acorn Business Computer left Acorn purely with a range of 8-bit microcomputer products, leaving the company vulnerable to competitors introducing 16-bit and 32-bit machines. The increasing dominance of MS-DOS in
5777-452: The ARM250, indicating that the mezzanine board had nevertheless been useful during the design process. Owners did not need to upgrade this board to a genuine ARM250 as it was "functionally identical" to the ARM250. One inadvertent advantage that the mezzanine board conferred was the ability to upgrade the ARM2 on the board to an ARM3, this being a popular upgrade for previous ARM2-based models that
5886-466: The ARM3 processor as standard, supporting up to 16 MB of RAM , and included higher speed SCSI and provision for connecting genlock devices. The memory access frequency was raised to 12 MHz in the A540, compared to 8 MHz in earlier models, thus providing enhanced system performance over earlier models upgraded with ARM3 processors. The hardware design featured memory modules, each providing their own memory controller and 4 MB of RAM, and
5995-545: The Acorn Archimedes was variously described as "the first RISC machine inexpensive enough for home use", and "the first commercially-available RISC-based microcomputer". The first models were released in June 1987, as the 300 and 400 series. The 400 series included four expansion slots and an ST-506 controller for an internal hard drive , whereas the 300 series required the addition of a backplane to gain expansion slot capabilities. A two slot backplane could be added to
6104-619: The Autonomous Vehicle Computing Consortium (AVCC) to collaborate and accelerate development of self-driving cars . Members include Arm, Bosch , Continental , Denso , General Motors , Nvidia , NXP and Toyota . In August 2020, Arm signed a three-year agreement with DARPA , the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, enabling DARPA researchers to use all of Arm's commercially available technology. In October 2001, Warren East
6213-625: The BBC Micro where the View word processor had been central to Acorn's office software range. However, Acorn did also announce a port of the 1st Word package, First Word Plus, for the platform. ArcWriter was poorly received, with window repainting issues demonstrated as a particular problem, and with users complaining of "serious bugs". Although taking advantage of the Arthur desktop environment and using anti-aliased fonts , complaints were made about "blurred and smudged" characters and slow display updates when changing fonts or styles on low-memory machines like
6322-485: The BBC branding. The name "Acorn Archimedes" is commonly used to describe any of Acorn's contemporary designs based on the same architecture. This architecture can be broadly characterised as involving the ARM CPU and the first generation chipset consisting of MEMC (MEMory Controller), VIDC (VIDeo and sound Controller) and IOC (Input Output Controller). Having introduced the BBC Micro in 1981, Acorn established itself as
6431-587: The British parent company unsuccessfully tried to oust the chief executive of the subsidiary, who, however, managed to retain his position. A prevailing view emerged that the matter would negatively affect the pending approval by the Chinese regulators of the Softbank-Nvidia deal, as well as any public offering of Arm. In September 2021, despite Arm's denial, reports stated that the chief executive of Arm China, whom
6540-1001: The British parent had tried to dismiss, had publicly declared the "independence" of Arm China. In February 2022, Allen Wu, the CEO of Arm China, floated the idea of a public offering of the Chinese subsidiary in 2025. On 29 April 2022, it was reported that the CEO and legal representative of Arm China had finally been replaced according to legally recognized filings. However, Allen Wu continued to dispute this. Subsequently, in 2023, key staff left to form their own chip design startup Borui Jingxin , which competes with Arm China, particularly for engineers. Unlike most traditional microprocessor suppliers, such as Intel , Freescale (the former semiconductor division of Motorola , now NXP Semiconductors ) and Renesas (a former joint venture between Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric ), ARM only creates and licenses its technology as intellectual property (IP), rather than manufacturing and selling its own physical CPUs , GPUs, SoCs or microcontrollers. This model
6649-493: The Built on Arm Cortex Technology licence often shortened to Built on Cortex (BoC) licence. This licence allows companies to partner with Arm and make modifications to Arm Cortex designs. These design modifications will not be shared with other companies. These semi-custom core designs also have brand freedom, for example Kryo 280 . In addition to licences for their core designs and BoC licence, Arm offers an "architectural licence" for their instruction set architectures , allowing
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#17328727674796758-493: The Cub monitor that was popular amongst institutional users of the original BBC Micro. (Having been "nowhere to be seen" when the Archimedes was released, Microvitec had sought to introduce its own Cubpack range of IBM PC-compatible personal computers for the education market offering some BBC BASIC compatibility, building on an estimated 80 percent market share for 14-inch colour monitors in the sector, and aspiring to launch an "interactive video workstation". ) The introduction of
6867-428: The IOC1, VIDC1a and MEMC1a chips all "integrated into a single giant chip" and fabricated using a 1 micron process. The ARM250, running at a higher 12 MHz clock frequency and used in conjunction with faster 80ns memory chips, compared to the 8 MHz of the ARM2 and the 125ns memory of the A3000, gave a potential 50% performance increase over such older systems, achieving a reported 7 MIPS. Some early units of
6976-492: The Master 128 which re-emphasised second processors in the form of internally fitted "co-processors". Although a modest evolution of the existing 6502 -based platform, enthusiasm for the series was somewhat greater than that for the B+ models, with dealers and software developers citing the expansion capabilities and improved compatibility over the B+. However, the competitiveness of these co-processors proved to be constrained by hardware limitations, compatibility and pricing, with
7085-399: The Master 128". Despite the machine's desktop footprint, being larger than a simple keyboard, the case was not designed to support a monitor. Acorn offered a monitor stand that attached to the machine, this being bundled with Acorn's Learning Curve package, and PRES announced a monitor plinth and external disc drive case. The new model sported only a single internal expansion slot , which
7194-401: The PC Emulator software, with an introductory video presented by Fred Harris. Aiming at the "pre-Christmas market" in 1990, another bundle called Jet Set offered a more entertainment-focused collection of software valued at £200 including Clares' Interdictor flight simulator, Domark's Trivial Pursuit, Superior Golf, and the Euclid 3D modelling package from Ace Computing. The price of this bundle
7303-644: The bundles. At the time of these product revisions, the A3020 had become absent from related promotional material, even material aimed at the educational purchaser, although it remained in Acorn's price list presumably for the interest of institutional purchasers. Acorn's marketing relationships with high street retailers were somewhat problematic. While outlets such as the John Lewis Partnership proved to be successful marketing partners, electrical retailer Dixons seemingly made relatively little effort to sell Acorn machines despite promising "greater opportunities" in 1993 after earlier criticism. In late 1994, Acorn appointed
7412-474: The business market and advocacy for the use of such software in the education sector left Acorn at risk of potential exclusion from its core market. Meanwhile, competing machines attempted to offer a degree of compatibility with the BBC Micro, enticing schools to upgrade to newer, more powerful non-Acorn machines while retaining access to software developed and purchased for Acorn's "aging machine". Acorn's ability to respond convincingly to these competitive threats
7521-417: The capabilities of Acorn's machines, but in offering resolutions of 1024 × 768 in 16 or 256 colours and with 24-bit palettes, they had surpassed them. The A5000 (along with the earlier A540) supported the SVGA resolution of 800 × 600 in 16 colours, although the observation that "Archimedes machines have simply not kept pace" arguably remained. Earlier models could also benefit from the video performance of
7630-409: The company at "a critical stage" in its refinancing of Acorn. Subsequent commentary suggested the availability of this microprocessor—the Acorn RISC Machine—in future computers as well as in an evaluation board for the BBC Micro, although such a board—the ARM Evaluation System —would only be announced in mid-1986 at a cost of £4500. Having also developed the additional support chips required to make up
7739-442: The company at £23.4 billion (US$ 32 billion). The transaction was completed on 5 September 2016. In 2017, a 25% stake of Arm was transferred to the SoftBank Vision Fund , which received investment from the Saudi sovereign fund . American technology company Nvidia announced plans on 13 September 2020 to acquire ARM from SoftBank, pending regulatory approval, for a value of US$ 40 billion in stock and cash, which would have been
7848-486: The company following the offering. SoftBank Group sold more than half of Arm China in 2018 to a local consortium consisting of various parties including China Investment Corp. and the Silk Road Fund , effectively relinquishing majority ownership of its Chinese subsidiary to a group of investors with ties to the Chinese state. From 2020, a discord between Arm and the effective owners of Arm China became visible after
7957-444: The entry-level Amiga 600 at a price of only £199, although with Commodore "losing money on a big scale" while Acorn remained profitable, such discounting was not regarded as a threat to the A3010. The pricing and bundles involving these machines was updated in late 1993, introducing a new Action Pack in place of the Family Solution, featuring the game Zool plus Icon Technology's StartWrite word processor. This bundle effectively reduced
8066-481: The existing product range. With the existing A400/1 series regarded as "a little tired", being largely unchanged from the A400 models introduced four years previously, the A5000 was regarded (by one reviewer, at least) as "the biggest leap forward for Acorn since the introduction of the Archimedes in 1987", introducing a combination of the ARM3 processor and RISC OS 3 for the first time in a new Acorn product, being "the machine
8175-426: The future of the 300 series, given the limitation of the 300 series to a maximum of 1 MB at that time. Concurrently with these rumoured product development efforts, work had commenced on a successor to the Arthur operating system , initially named Arthur 2 but renamed to RISC OS 2 for launch. In May 1989, a number of new machines were introduced along with RISC OS 2: the 300 series was phased out in favour of
8284-457: The home market was later pursued with the introduction of the A3010 in 1992. The A540, introduced in late 1990, was an anticipated consequence of Acorn's Unix workstation development, offering the same general specification as Acorn's R260 Unix workstation (running RISC iX ) but without built-in Ethernet support and running RISC OS 2 instead of Unix. It was Acorn's first machine to be fitted with
8393-421: The introduction of The Learning Curve: a bundle of A3000 and application software priced at £699 plus VAT, requiring a SCART capable television (and appropriate cable ), or bundled with a colour monitor and Acorn's monitor stand for £949 plus VAT. The software, having a retail value of around £200, consisted of the second, RISC OS compliant version of Acorn's First Word Plus, the hypermedia application Genesis, and
8502-529: The introduction of more capable machines involved a range of "second processor" expansions, including a Z80 second processor running the CP/M operating system, a commitment made by Acorn when securing the BBC Micro contract. Meanwhile, established platforms like CP/M running on Z80 processors faced competition from the IBM PC running PC DOS and computers with a variety of operating systems on Intel processors such as
8611-590: The largest semiconductor acquisition to that date. SoftBank Group would acquire slightly less than a 10% stake in Nvidia, and ARM would maintain its headquarters in Cambridge. There was opposition to the deal, including national security concerns from the UK and competition concerns from fellow tech companies such as Google , Microsoft and Qualcomm , whose chips in use or on sale heavily rely on Arm's intellectual property. It
8720-488: The licensees to design their own cores that implement one of those instruction sets. An Arm architectural licence is more costly than a regular Arm core licence. The Financial Times reported in March 2023 that Arm had planned to charge the licensees royalties based on the value of the device, instead of the prior model based on the chip's value. Processors based on designs licensed from Arm, or designed by licensees of one of
8829-408: The machine being built at Acorn's longstanding manufacturing partner, AB Electronics. The A3000 used an 8 MHz ARM2 and was supplied with 1 MB of RAM and RISC OS on 512 KB of ROM. Unlike the previous models, the A3000 came in a single-part case similar to the BBC Micro , Amiga 500 and Atari ST computers, with the keyboard and disc drive integrated into a base unit "slightly smaller than
8938-480: The machine for £135 including VAT together with various "value-added packs". Production of the A3020 and A4000 ceased in 1995, with remaining stocks to be sold during 1996, due to their lack of conformance with newly introduced European Union electrical and electronics regulations. This left the A7000 as Acorn's entry-level desktop system, and appropriate pricing adjustments were expected, particularly as faster versions of
9047-607: The machine's launch, priced at £49. To enable the machine's serial port, an upgrade costing £19 was required, and Econet support was also an optional extra. Although only intended to be upgradeable to 2 MB of RAM, third-party vendors offered upgrades to 4 MB along with expansions offering additional disc drive connections and combinations of user and analogue ports, both of these helping those upgrading from Acorn's 8-bit products, particularly in education, to make use of existing peripherals such as 5.25-inch drives, input devices and data logging equipment. Simtec Electronics even offered
9156-500: The machines would carry the BBC branding. Revealingly, Acorn's managing director noted, "Over the past two years we've paid the price of having no 16-bit micro." The first available models in the family were the A305, A310 and A440, introduced in 1987, followed by the A3000, A410/1, A420/1 and A440/1 in 1989, A540 in 1990, A5000 in 1991, A4 in 1992, with the A3010, A3020 and A4000 being the final models, also introduced in 1992. Powered by an ARM2 (Acorn RISC Machine) processor,
9265-735: The main Arm-based processor. Arm's core designs are also used in chips that support many common network-related technologies in smartphones: Bluetooth , WiFi and broadband , in addition to corresponding equipment such as Bluetooth headsets , 802.11ac routers , and network providers' cellular LTE . In 2011, Arm renewed a five-year, US$ 5 million research partnership with University of Michigan , which extended their existing research partnership to 2015. This partnership would focus on ultra-low energy and sustainable computing . In October 2017, Arduino announced its partnership with ARM. The announcement said, in part, "ARM recognized independence as
9374-644: The main CPU for most mobile phones many PDAs and handhelds , like the Apple iPod and iPad , and computer games and as well as many other applications, including GPS navigation devices , digital cameras and televisions . The world's second fastest supercomputer (previously fastest) in 2022, the Japanese Fugaku is based on Arm AArch64 architecture. The supercomputer maker Cray has added "ARM Option" (i.e. CPU blade option, using Cavium ThunderX2 ) to their XC50 supercomputers, and Cray claims that ARM
9483-457: The mid-1990s alongside Acorn's newer Risc PC and A7000 models. The first Archimedes models, featuring a 32-bit ARM2 RISC CPU running at 8 MHz , provided a significant upgrade from Acorn's previous machines and 8-bit home computers in general. A performance rating of 4 MIPS was claimed in Acorn's publicity for the Archimedes. Later models featured the ARM3 CPU, delivering
9592-434: The new BBC A3000, and the 400 series were replaced by the improved 400/1 series models. Having been developed in a "remarkably short timescale of nine months", the machine was the "major learning vehicle" for an integrated CAD system introduced at Acorn employing products from Valid Logic Systems , and it was reported that the A3000 was the first home microcomputer to use surface mount technology in its construction, with
9701-437: The newer Immortalis (with hardware-based ray-tracing ). In addition, it offers Ethos neural processing units (NPUs), Corelink/CoreSight System/SoC IP, and TrustZone/CryptoCell/SecurCore Security IP. Arm offers several microprocessor core designs that have been "publicly licensed" for its newer "application processors" (non-microcontroller) used in such applications as smartphones and tablets. Cores for ARMv8.2-A include
9810-456: The original Acorn Archimedes and was one of the first RISC processors used in small computers. However, when the company was incorporated in 1990, what 'ARM' stood for changed to "Advanced RISC Machines." According to Steve Furber the name was changed at the behest of Apple, which did not wish to have the name of a competitor in the name of the company. At the time of the IPO in 1998, the company name
9919-566: The price of the A3010 to £399 including VAT, reportedly making it "the cheapest Risc machine yet". The Learning Curve was revised to feature Acorn's own Advance integrated suite, together with the PC Emulator and DR DOS 6 , and the bundle was also made available in conjunction with the A4000. The Home Office bundle was updated with Iota's DataPower replacing Desktop Database, and with Colton Software's PipeDream 4 and Acorn's PC Emulator being added to augment EasiWriter. A variety of demonstration programs and an audio training tape were also provided with
10028-503: The smaller upgrades augmenting the built-in RAM and the larger upgrades replacing it entirely. The 400 series were officially limited to 4 MB of RAM, but several companies released 8 MB upgrades that provided an extra MEMC chip plus 4 MB of RAM to complement an existing 4 MB of fitted RAM. In early 1989, speculation about new machines in the Archimedes range envisaged a low-cost, cut-down model with 512 KB of RAM to replace
10137-667: Was also being battled by Arm China, its subsidiary, a majority stake of which was held by Chinese investors. The acquisition was initially scheduled to conclude before the end of 2022 per the contract. However, the European Commission , the UK Competition and Markets Authority and the US Federal Trade Commission raised completion concerns focusing on Arm's role within Nvidia, while the UK government also raised concerns about national security . The merger attempt
10246-674: Was appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of Arm Holdings. In the 2011 financial year, East received a total compensation of £1,187,500 from ARM, comprising a salary of £475,000 and a bonus of £712,500. In May 2013, president Simon Segars took over as CEO. In March 2014, former Rexam chairman Stuart Chambers succeeded John Buchanan as chairman. Chambers, a non-executive director of Tesco and former chief executive of Nippon Sheet Glass Group, had previously worked at Mars and Royal Dutch Shell. On 8 February 2022, Rene Haas succeeded Segars as CEO with immediate effect, with Segars leaving Arm. Acorn Archimedes The Acorn Archimedes
10355-422: Was based on pre-production ThunderX2. The fourth generation also based on ThunderX2 is called Astra and was slated to become operational by November 2018. ARM968E-S was used to build the neuromorphic supercomputer, SpiNNaker (Spiking Neural Network Architecture). Arm has four lines of central processing units (CPUs)/processors: It also has two lines of graphics processing units (GPUs): Mali , and
10464-401: Was changed to "ARM Holdings", often just called ARM like the processors. On 1 August 2017, the styling and logo were changed. The logo is now all lowercase ('arm') and other uses of the name are in sentence case ('Arm'). The company was founded on 5 November 1990 as Widelogic Limited but this was rapidly changed, on 3 December 1990, to Advanced RISC Machines Limited and structured as
10573-501: Was completed on 5 September 2016. A planned takeover deal by Nvidia, announced in 2020, collapsed in February 2022, with SoftBank subsequently deciding to pursue an initial public offering on the Nasdaq in 2023, valuing Arm at US$ 54.5 billion. The acronym ARM was first used in 1983 and originally stood for "Acorn RISC Machine". Acorn Computers ' first RISC processor was used in
10682-402: Was delivered in an attempt to fix the deficiencies and problems in the earlier versions of the software. However, even after Arthur 1.2 had been released, a reported 100 documented bugs regarded as "mostly quite obscure" persisted, with Acorn indicating that a "new, enhanced version" of the operating system was under development. Following on from the release of Arthur 1.2, Acorn itself offered
10791-520: Was eventually cancelled in February 2022 due to the aforementioned regulatory pressure and hurdles. Arm filed for an IPO on 21 August 2023 on the Nasdaq, rather than the LSE. A few days earlier, SoftBank Group bought back the 25% stake from Vision Fund for around $ 16 billion, valuing Arm at over $ 64 billion. Arm went public on 14 September 2023 raising $ 4.87 billion at a $ 54.5 billion valuation, with SoftBank continuing to own roughly 90% of
10900-495: Was evidently constrained: the BBC Model B+ was merely a redesigned BBC Model B (with some heritage in the ABC endeavour) providing some extra memory but costing more than its predecessor, being labelled as a "stop gap" by Acorn User 's technical editor, expressing frustration at opportunities not taken for cost reduction and at a general lack of technological innovation in that "Acorn has never shown interest in anything as exciting as
11009-567: Was first listed on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and Nasdaq in 1998 and by February 1999, Apple's shareholding had fallen to 14.8%. In 2010, ARM joined with IBM , Texas Instruments , Samsung , ST-Ericsson (since dissolved) and Freescale Semiconductor (now NXP Semiconductors ) in forming a non-profit open source engineering company, Linaro . Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group made an agreed offer for ARM on 18 July 2016, subject to approval by ARM's shareholders, valuing
11118-449: Was incompatible with the ARM250. However, performing such an upgrade involves modifications to both the "Adelaide" mezzanine board and the ARM3 upgrade board employed in the upgrade. For machines fitted with an actual ARM250 processor, the closest alternative to an ARM3 upgrade in terms of performance enhancement was the Simtec "Turbo RAM" upgrade which provided 4 MB of faster RAM and gave
11227-467: Was noted, cost a "not-so-bargain" £550 once upgraded to 1 MB of RAM. The relative affordability of the A3000 compared to the first Archimedes machines and the release of RISC OS helped to convince educational software producers of the viability of the platform. Shortly after the A3000's launch, one local education authority had already ordered 500 machines, aiming to introduce the A3000 to its primary schools in addition to other levels of education. Such
11336-490: Was originally used in the Acorn Archimedes and had been selected by Apple for its Newton project. Its first profitable year was 1993. The company's Silicon Valley and Tokyo offices were opened in 1994. ARM invested in Palmchip Corporation in 1997 to provide system on chip platforms and to enter into the disk drive market. In 1998, the company changed its name from Advanced RISC Machines Ltd to ARM Ltd . The company
11445-413: Was physically different from that of the earlier models, although electrically similar. An external connector could interface to existing expansion cards, with an external case for such cards being recommended and anticipated at the machine's launch, and one such solution subsequently being provided by PRES's expansion system. Acorn announced a combined user port and MIDI expansion for the internal slot at
11554-585: Was schools and education authorities, and the educational price of £529—not considerably more expensive than the BBC Master—was considered to be competitive and persuasive in getting this particular audience to upgrade to Acorn's 32-bit systems. The retail price of £649 plus VAT was considered an "expensive alternative" to the intended competition—the Commodore Amiga and Atari ST—but many times faster than similarly priced models of those ranges. The Amiga 500, it
11663-462: Was the success of the model that it alone had 37 percent of the UK schools market in a nine-month period in 1991 and, by the end of that year, was estimated to represent 15 percent of the 500,000 or more computers installed in the country's schools. The appeal of the A3000 to education may also have motivated the return of Microvitec to the Acorn market with the Cub3000 monitor: a re-engineered version of
11772-421: Was £1099 and £1399 respectively. Acorn foresaw educational establishments taking to the machine where existing models were needing to be moved around between classrooms or taken on field trips, although review commentary noted that "the A4 is too expensive for schools to afford in large numbers" and that contemporary Apple and IBM PC-compatible models offered strong competition for business users. Peripherals for
11881-597: Was £747.50 which also included a television modulator developed by the bundle's distributor, ZCL, designed for use with "any TV set" and offering a "monitor quality" picture. Pre-launch speculation for the A3000 had suggested the inclusion of a TV modulator and a possible price of £399 for a 512 KB "Archimedes 205" machine aimed at the home market. Rumours about the integration of various elements of Acorn's chipset—specifically, MEMC and VIDC—to "do an Electron" were regarded as logistically demanding and thus unlikely to reduce cost. Such increased integration and targeting of
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