I just returned from the Embedded World tradeshow in Nürnberg, Germany. Across a broad range of embedded applications, companies are increasingly using a 32-bit microcontroller where an 8-bit device once sat. The specific motivation behind the migration seems to vary depending on application or customer but generally includes:

• Increasing convergence of previously disparate subsystems
• Increasing application requirements driven by algorithm complexity
• Increasing usage of higher level programming languages to leverage to productivity of abstraction and enable code reuse
• Inclusion of high-value functionality like communication, as opposed to being a simple black box

However, given the intense cost sensitivity of MCU market, there is a need to ensure that the system cost points remain at a bare minimum. ARM’s focus has been in

• Reducing the minimum configuration (and therefore silicon area) of the processor. Cortex^TM-M0 is 12k gates sets a new standard for this...

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The ARM architecture is becoming so prevalent in the industry it seems to be at the foundation of the major EDA events. This year’s DATE, March 8-12, is no exception. Although ARM does not have a stand, its presence will be felt throughout the five day conference. There are a myriad of ARM Engineering management and Fellows participating in the panels or presenting papers on ARM architecture and physical IP. And no doubt the ARM logo will be predominantly and proudly displayed within the exhibitions of ARM’s vast eco-system, the ARM Connected Community.

ARM works closely with leading EDA partners for integration and optimization of ARM IP deliverables with the most advanced design flows. ARM directly collaborates with each partner in the development and validation of various design flows and methodologies, enabling successful path from Register Transfer Level (RTL) to foundry-ready GDSII. DATE will be another testament to ARM’s prolific adoption amongst the design...
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…you could see to ‘Ackney marshes, if it wasn’t for the ‘ouses in between”. That chorus from a music hall song may not mean much if you weren’t born in the East End of London, but it came to mind as I walked around the Embedded World show last week. In most areas of the show floor you couldn’t look anywhere without your view being interrupted by ARM logos or Cortex-M3 demos. Actel, Atmel, Energy Micro, NXP, ST, TI and Toshiba were all promoting their Cortex-M processor based devices and announcing major new products or additions to their existing Cortex-M3 based portfolios. If I’d eaten a bratwurst for every ARM logo I passed while walking the floor, I’d have had to buy an extra seat on the flight home.



True to its focus on embedded applications the overall message coming out of the show was ‘faster, smaller and lower power’, and each of the 70 ARM Partners attending was definitely on message.

Among the major announcements at...
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Jump to:DS-5 Tool - Cortex-M4 Processor - EETimes Embedded Market Report - ARM Connected Community


I arrived in Nuremberg, Germany on Tuesday lunchtime and noticed immediately that the pace in Nuremberg was pretty fast. I spent the first afternoon of Embedded World at the ARM Keil booth assisting with the demo setup. Demos include the video-sphere (displaying the Earth on the photo) based on the Cortex-M3 processor and also a weather station with sensors talking to a web server through a CAN bus. Of course, all were developed using RL-ARM from Keil.

DS-5 Tool

The main announcement for Keil was the launch of the Development Studio 5 (DS-5) tool. This is a brand new Eclipse-based IDE tailored for Linux development. The picture on the right (click on them for a bigger view) shows the debugger linked to a board running Google Android 2.0 OS. The ARM Solution Center for Android seeks to fulfil all of your Android development needs.

As you can imagine,...
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Anybody visiting this year’s Embedded World conference in Nurnberg could be forgiven for thinking that the event is co-sponsored by ARM due to the amount of ARM Powered devices and ARM Connected Community Partners actively participating in the event.

In fact this year the conference has dedicated a whole track to the Cortex-M family of processors, indicating exactly how pervasive the range has become throughout the embedded industry!

The list of ARM Partners who have chosen the event to unveil new ARM processor-based products or additions to their existing product lines is extensive but includes Actel, NXP, STMicroelectronics, Energy Micro and Toshiba. Meanwhile the support for ARM processors from our own Keil tools and rest of the development community will also be in full view from Partners including Green Hills, IAR, Lauterbach, Micrium, SEGGER and many more.

A large number of presentations will be given by ARM and our Partners during...
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I have often heard that teenagers are the best predictor of what new technology is going to take hold in the near future. ..This week I got to feel like a teenager again as I walked around MWC experiencing everything from a real time video conference with a juggler to seeing a lot of excitement buzzing around the ability to click on a widget and watch my favorite video. Not to get all “we are the world “or anything but I definitely did get a sense that everyone from every corner of the world was assembling at Barcelona this week…Probably more so than in Vancouver. Clearly nowadays everyone wants to stay connected and MWC is definitely the place to find cool ways to do so...

MWC being a mobile show actually is the forum where everyone is battling to get content to the SCREEN… whether your mobile phone or your TV at home. Excitingly ARM’s technology is known for bringing energy efficient processing and the best user experience to consumers, so our technology is key to...
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Mobile World Congress 2010 is proving to be an excellent show featuring the strength of the ARM Connected Community. Below are some of the coverage highlights from our Partners’ announcements at the show: Global Foundries, ST-Ericsson, Samsung, Green Hill, Symbian, and Texas Instrument.

GLOBALFOUNDRIES/28nm

GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM Define the Standard for Mobile Technology Platform Innovation at MWC 2010
PitchEngine.com, ARM, February 15, 2010
Barcelona, Spain - At the 2010 Mobile World Congress, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM today unveiled new details on their leading-edge System-on-Chip (SoC) platform technology for powering the next generation of wireless products and applications.

ARM Unveils Performance Boosting Chips at Barcelona’s Mobile World Congress
Silicon Fen Business Report, February 16, 2010
GLOBALFOUNDRIES and ARM Holdings plc unveiled details at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona of their System-on-Chip (SoC) platform technology for powering...
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Like many of you I'm sure, I played with LEGO as a kid. When asked what I was going to do when I grew up, I gave the answers that everyone expected of me…"train driver" or "fireman". But secretly I dreamed of a job where I could spend all my time building things with my favorite toy... Well thanks to ARM's cool technology it has come true (well in-between my regular day job anyway)! As I got older, I became interested in puzzle solving, electronics and programming and my "expectations" gradually changed from train driver to chip designer. However, my hobby and dream have remained essentially the same and I continue to enjoy dabbling in construction, electronics, mathematics and software programming in my spare time.

Over the last year or so, I designed, built and programmed several LEGO machines capable of solving the well-known Rubik's cube puzzle. They are all created from off-the-shelf components (one of which may well be in...
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With so much excitement coming from Mobile World Congress 2010, it’s no surprise that ARM & its global Partners are being featured in so many press articles. Below are some of the coverage highlights from our Connected Community Partners’ announcements at the show: G&D, Qualcomm, Global Foundries, ST-Ericsson and Samsung.

G&D/QUALCOMM

G&D to enable PIN-protected transactions on NFC phones
By Sarah Clark, NearFieldCommunicationsWorld.com, February 15, 2010
Giesecke & Devrient (G&D) is demonstrating a prototype of a complete security platform for mobile handsets, designed to enable a range of services including PIN-protected mobile payments, at the Mobile World Congress. Developed with support from Qualcomm, the proof-of-concept solution is being demonstrated running on Qualcomm Snapdragon chipsets and shows how G&D's MobiCore secure application environment and Snapdragon's security architecture can be used to deliver a complete ARM...
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Stay tuned for blogs, news and updates from the ARM Team at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona, Spain from February 15-18th .

Before the show even starts, tell us know what you are looking forward to seeing the most!