ARM Community: Computex 2012: The Post-PC Era & the Future of Technology - ARM Community

In the “post-PC” era, ARM is going to be playing a bigger role at COMPUTEX, as well as in the global information and communication technology (ICT) industry.

“The world is changing,” said Simon Segars, Executive Vice President of ARM. “With ARM technology, users are always connected and devices are always available…the world is at your fingertips!”

More specifically, Segars predicted that the smartphone and tablet markets in which ARM owns major shares would continue to grow. Besides, as ARM steps into the server segment with its partners, ARM will be able to own 20% of server market share in 2015.

Simon Segars at the Summit Forum - Computex 2012

At the pre-show of COMPUTEX 2012, Segars mentioned that it is ARM’s 5^th year at COMPUTEX, which has traditionally been a showcase for PCs. However, this has changed in recent years along with the industry. There are 6 billion connected people in the world with more than 1,000 types of devices of various shapes and sizes.

Strong partnership
Mobile computing is an industry generating more than 1 trillion US dollars every year. Partners, including semiconductor companies, manufacturers, software companies and wireless carriers are changing the way people interact with the world. ARM embraces the ideas of energy efficiency, scalability, choice, and co-existence. ARM enables its 250+ licensees to build System on Chips (SoCs) with lower costs, thus lowering the price of end products.

Currently, ARM’s partners are shipping 28nm and 32nm chips. At the same time, progress on 20nm chip technology is allowing leading foundries to create already taped out multiple test chips, including ARM’s Cortex^TM-A15 based designs. The first likely to be taped out in 2013 is assumed to the 14nm. ARM will continue to work closely with foundry partners to optimize cores and processors.

Development of smartphone and tablet
New innovations in processor design enable consumers to choose from a variety of products. Smartphones and tablets are changing people’s lifestyles. Users can stay connected with the world no matter where they are: in the home, in the office, or in transit from one to the other.

At the same time, multi-core is a growing future trend. ARM’s big.LITTLE^TM technology enables handheld devices to save energy consumption by using the “LITTLE” technology during normal usage and saving the “big” technology for high performance requirements, e.g. playing video. In this way, users can enjoy the performance of devices without worrying about battery life.

The tablet segment is going to be a rising star. In the US market, tablets have reached a 10% penetration rate in only 2 years while smartphones took 7 years to do so. The tablet market will continue to grow in both developing and developed countries. The Android tablet market was 25 million in 2011 and is believed to likely reach 50-60 million in 2012, with prices ranging from $49 to $199 US dollars.

Latest News from Computex 2012: ARM Executive Vice President Simon Segars states “Mobile Technology is Driving the Next-Generation of Mobile Computing”

Yen-shyang Hwang, freelancer. Yen had more than 4 years of expertise in IT news reporting, covering Apple, HP, Google and tons of IT topics for DIGITIMES Taiwan. By combining information from global brand names and their supply chain in Taiwan, Yen was able to provide readers with first-hand insights on global IT market trends. Yen has been covering ARM's development since 2009. At the moment, Yen is an MBA candidate at Georgetown University, USA.