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ARM succeeds if its partners do too

by Tarinder Sandhu on 13 June 2014, 14:00

Tags: ARM

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The ARM® ecosystem is diametrically opposed to the Intel's. ARM designs processors and licenses technology to a wide range of companies who then build their custom processors and chipsets around it. ARM's success is therefore inextricably tied into the success of its partnekrs.

Working with hundreds of partners paves the way for diversity that's certainly not possible otherwise. Thinking of smartphones as an example of ARM-powered technology, partners can use the full ARM building blocks of Cortex®-A processor, Mali™ graphics and various additional ARM application-specific processors. Should they wish to look outside the ARM IP suite, which is perfectly acceptable, third party companies provide the graphics and other IP blocks that together make up a modern system-on-chip (SoC) processor. These processors, or chipsets as they're sometimes known, then go into all manner of handsets and tablets.

A number of high-profile companies use the ARM architecture and release SoCs that are in turn adopted by numerous smartphone and tablet makers. These companies often sell their products in different regions across the globe. One of the largest ARM partners is MediaTek.

MediaTek

Founded in 1997 and headquartered in Taiwan, MediaTek produces chipsets that are used in optical storage, desktop TV, feature/smartphones and tablets. With global sales of $4.5bn in 2013 and enviable strength in the Chinese market, MediaTek primarily uses an array of ARM Cortex-A series processors which are increasingly allied to ARM Mali graphics. Well-known companies such as Acer, Lenovo, ZTE, Alcatel, Huawei, Sony, and Philips all feature MediaTek SoC technology.

MediaTek's expertise is in taking the latest ARM design technology and turning it into a fully-functioning chipset quickly and efficiently. It was the first company to release what it termed the world's first octo-core processor, MT6592, composed of eight Cortex-A7 cores running simultaneously - a design that has already been used by over 30 handset makers.

Though running a bottom-to-top stack of chipsets for smartphones and tablets, MediaTek is also at the vanguard of the next generation of technology. For example, it is busy sampling the very latest big.LITTLE processors, with the MT6595 chipset possessing four (big) Cortex-A17 cores and four (LITTLE) Cortex-A7 cores running in tandem via the preferred Global Task Scheduling (GTS) method of core-switching, meaning that any number of cores can be active at any time. This big.LITTLE implementation improves both performance and battery life.

MediaTek is looking even further afield with the soon-to-be-sampling MT6752 chipset. Housing eight 64-bit-compatible ARM Cortex-A53 cores and thus a natural successor to the MT6592, this SoC also uses the latest ARM Mali-T760 graphics and various flavours of wireless connectivity. Expect the MT6592 to power the finest smartphones of early 2015.

Rockchip

There's room for hundreds of players in the ARM ecosystem. An example of a mid-sized company is Rockchip. Much like MediaTek, Rockchip also makes use of many ARM processors for its chipset business.
Each ARM partner offers something slightly different to handset and tablet makers. The popular Rockchip RK3188 SoC, featuring four Cortex-A9 processors and Mali-400MP4 graphic, is used by Asus, Toshiba, and even Tesco for their entry-level smartphones and tablets. Got a MemoPad 8 or Hudl? Rockchip is the company behind the brains of the device.

Innovation is ceaseless for the companies that design SoCs. Rockchip has already debuted the RK3288 chipset, one that integrates four Cortex-A17 processors and, tellingly, the latest-generation Mali-T760MP4 graphics. Expect it to show up in premium devices by year end.

Diversity is key

The ARM approach to business means that everyone wins. Designing the architecture that runs the latest energy-efficient processors - CPU or graphics - enables partners such as MediaTek and Rockchip to integrate them into an SoC the best way they see fit. These chipsets are then sold on to device makers that everyone is familiar with.

There is no one-fits-all strategy at play here; the best SoCs, built through careful thought and sensible implementation, find their way into devices. Should a new SoC partner offer a better all-round package of performance, battery life, features and price than the incumbent, chances are that devices will swap from one SoC vendor to another - the Google Nexus 7 uses different SoC partners for the two iterations of the 7in device. Innovation, then, keeps all partners on their toes.

The diverse range of SoCs and partners vying for attention ensures that this burgeoning chipset industry isn't affected by the malaise that can often afflict a single-source supplier such as Intel; everyone needs to work hard to maintain their positions, and such competition can only be good news for you, the consumer, who receives dollops of extra performance year on year!



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