And when it is about the intellectual property the chip is sometimes just the "dongle" added to the IP to stop the customer ripping the IP provider off — and to help the customer connect one lot of valuable IP to other lot of IP in their system.

According to a report from FBR Research, the iPhone winners include Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (applications/video processor), Marvell Technology Group Ltd. (802.11), Infineon Technologies AG (baseband), Broadcom Corp. (touch screen controller), and CSR plc (Bluetooth) among others.

So how many core processors from ARM Holdings plc (Cambridge, England) does that represent? It's probably one ARM in the Samsung video processor. The Marvell 802.11n solution has an on-chip CPU. And then there is the Infineon baseband chip. While Infineon's mobile phone basebands have not traditionally been based on ARM cores Infineon's S-Gold3 turbo engine for multimedia phones is based on a ARM926 processor core to provide modem functions, according to the datasheet. So an Infineon baseband, maybe a custom one for Apple, is quite likely to be based on an ARM processor core.

The CSR Bluetooth protocol stack typically runs on a XAP processor core from Cambridge Consultants Ltd. and custom DSP engines when it runs on CSR-provided silicon but it also runs on ARM cores in some applications. Either way would represent multiple design wins for Silicon Fen.

It should be remembered that ARM was at the core of the PortalPlayer Inc. chip that kick-started the iPod revolution, before Samsung displaced PortalPlayer with the S5L8701B05 ARM processor in the iPod Nano. This is another indicator that ARM could be the CPU of choice in the iPhone.

I make that somewhere between two ARM cores and lots of ARM cores inside each and every iPhone. If anybody has a more accurate ARM core count they are welcome to get in touch (pclarke@cmp.com)

But it should be remembered that winning a lot of design-ins does not necessarily mean winning a lot of revenue. That's one reason why many companies (and journalists) still focus on the chips. Concentrating on the chips is the one way to try and capture all the value provided to the system builder. IP licensors notoriously only capture a small amount of that value and this has led to discussions over the viability of the IP business model.

Indeed, there are apochryphal tales that the company that supplies the sticky-backed plastic films that protect screens from scratches make more money per mobile phone than ARM.

Getting multiple design-wins into a gadget would be one way to redress that imbalance — if it exists — and it would also help ARM reach its stated goal of being inside every digital chip.

It is interesting to note that one of the founders of Advanced RISC Machines Ltd. back in 1990 — the forerunner of public company ARM Holdings plc — was Apple Computer Inc.