News & Analysis
ARM's East cites power as key IC design driver
Peter Clarke
11/2/2012 12:15 PM EDT
Better world
Data centers and the evolving enterprise also will radically alter the design landscape. "Data growth is unsustainable unless we design servers in a different way," East said. "But it is starting to happen. We've been working on this for four or five years and it is starting to show results."
Server processors would mimic the mobile SoC evolution, he added. Single-core chips with virtualization would be replaced by multicore processors; these in turn would be replaced by heterogeneous processors with many different cores and hardware accelerators. Already, the market is requiring many different server types, East noted.
Grey, CEO of Linaro, which previously provided Linux-based software for mobile applications, announced that the organization would add open-source software development for the enterprise to its to-do list. Linaro already has engaged with a dozen companies to work on core Linux software for ARM-based servers, and initial software will be delivered before the end of this year, Grey said. The organization has 120 software engineers, and that number will double over the next 12 months, he added.
Java resurgent
Althoff said Oracle is looking for ways to collaborate with ARM, particularly around the Java programming language. Oracle is targeting both the 32- and 64-bit levels and across the entire ARM ecosystem. "We have 9 million Java developers supporting about 3 billion devices running Java," Althoff said. "If the forecasters are right about the Internet of Things and machine-to-machine communications, that is about to be turned on its head. It's about to explode, 50 billion devices, 100 billion devices."
Althoff added that Java has recently been ported to run on Cortex-M cores that are typically used in microcontrollers. "We want to have Java run everywhere," he said.
That provided an opening for East to address IoT and to announce that ARM is joining with CSR, Neul and Cable and Wireless to support the Weightless standard. The proposed wireless technology spec for communications between a basestations and thousands of machines would use unoccupied TV transmission channels, so called white-space radio. This would serve as a possible platform for multiple applications that could rely on M2M communications.
Chips for such applications must be small, low-cost and ultra-low power, all attributes that play to strength of ARM processor core architectures, East claimed. "Technology is no longer the barrier. Connectedness is now the important factor."
East added, "If we apply the same partnership approach, the industry is in a better position than we have ever been in before to make the world better."
ARM TechCon was organized by UBM Electronics, published of EE Times.
Related stories:
--ARM adds weight to IoT debate
--White space radio startup raises funds
--Weightless standard for IoT outlined in book
Data centers and the evolving enterprise also will radically alter the design landscape. "Data growth is unsustainable unless we design servers in a different way," East said. "But it is starting to happen. We've been working on this for four or five years and it is starting to show results."
Server processors would mimic the mobile SoC evolution, he added. Single-core chips with virtualization would be replaced by multicore processors; these in turn would be replaced by heterogeneous processors with many different cores and hardware accelerators. Already, the market is requiring many different server types, East noted.
Grey, CEO of Linaro, which previously provided Linux-based software for mobile applications, announced that the organization would add open-source software development for the enterprise to its to-do list. Linaro already has engaged with a dozen companies to work on core Linux software for ARM-based servers, and initial software will be delivered before the end of this year, Grey said. The organization has 120 software engineers, and that number will double over the next 12 months, he added.
Java resurgent
Althoff said Oracle is looking for ways to collaborate with ARM, particularly around the Java programming language. Oracle is targeting both the 32- and 64-bit levels and across the entire ARM ecosystem. "We have 9 million Java developers supporting about 3 billion devices running Java," Althoff said. "If the forecasters are right about the Internet of Things and machine-to-machine communications, that is about to be turned on its head. It's about to explode, 50 billion devices, 100 billion devices."
Althoff added that Java has recently been ported to run on Cortex-M cores that are typically used in microcontrollers. "We want to have Java run everywhere," he said.
That provided an opening for East to address IoT and to announce that ARM is joining with CSR, Neul and Cable and Wireless to support the Weightless standard. The proposed wireless technology spec for communications between a basestations and thousands of machines would use unoccupied TV transmission channels, so called white-space radio. This would serve as a possible platform for multiple applications that could rely on M2M communications.
Chips for such applications must be small, low-cost and ultra-low power, all attributes that play to strength of ARM processor core architectures, East claimed. "Technology is no longer the barrier. Connectedness is now the important factor."
East added, "If we apply the same partnership approach, the industry is in a better position than we have ever been in before to make the world better."
ARM TechCon was organized by UBM Electronics, published of EE Times.
Related stories:
--ARM adds weight to IoT debate
--White space radio startup raises funds
--Weightless standard for IoT outlined in book
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SylvieBarak
11/2/2012 4:16 PM EDT
I visited TI's Kilby labs a while back and they were doing all kinds of experiments with motors to reduce power consumption. It was fascinating, because you don't often think of semiconductor firms doing motor research... but low power needs are pushing the big players into those spaces
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wsw1982
11/5/2012 5:24 AM EST
It's funny that at the mean time ARM is losing in power efficiency. The Samsung Exynos 5 is power hungry in both Cromebook and Nexus 5. The ARMy smartphones consume more power than the medfield phones. The ARM's arguments are always about the maximum performance and idle power consumption, while the others about both the full load performance and top power consumption.
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help.fulguy
11/10/2012 2:08 PM EST
@wsw1982. Watch out. You are in the wrong place. This is ARMTimes (aka EETimes) and you cant say anything bad about ARM. Even though the Exynos in your Chromebook is sucky and consumes about 10W, you cant say anything negative.
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