ARM Community: ARM Tech in HD Sport Cameras, Gaming Devices & Electric Cars at CES 2013 - ARM Community

Welcome to a sunny and slightly chilly January in Las Vegas for the annual homage to technology -- the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). CES has been running for nearly fifty years but wasn’t always here in Las Vegas. I found some interesting historical facts about the show and some great pictures from previous events in this article by The Verge.

CES is always an exciting time for ARM to see what the next big thing in the consumer world will be, just a step above the super-techie processor-world we live in. I’ve spent the last couple of days with the #wheresARM team as we look around to see the breadth and depth of ARM Powered devices that exist, including the quad core ARM® Cortex™-A9 and Mali™ powered tablets that we know and love, the high-end top-of-the-range smartphones, the latest mountable 4K GoPro camera that seems to be bolted to so many surf boards and ski helmet these days, all the way to the latest high-tech toys like the Sphero gaming ball.

As well as finding a whole set of new products and markets that are making use of the high performance and low power features that ARM technology offers, we also managed to catch up with some of the people who live and breathe ARM technology.

Warren East, ARM CEO was invited to speak at the Samsung keynote on Wednesday morning. I caught up with Warren to get his thoughts on the show and ask about the significance of being invited to join the Samsung keynote. It was at this keynote that Samsung also announced the Exynos 5 Octa processor. This 8-core processor is the first to be based on ARM's big.LITTLE™ technology, which pairs an energy-efficient ARM Cortex-A7 multicore chip with a larger, more powerful Cortex-A15 multicore chip.


A real crowd pleaser at the show this year is the GoPro booth with the latest GoPro Hero3 sport cameras.The GoPro product is a great result of the ARM ecosystem at work with companies like Ambarella, Cadence and GoPro working together with ARM technology to make on the coolest products in the market today. I spoke with Chris Day about Ambarella, the products that Ambarella silicon is going into, and their extensive use of ARM technology in all of their products.


I was also able to catch up with Lip-Bu Tan, the CEO of Cadence. Lip-Bu shared with me how ARM, Ambarella, Borden International and Cadence are enabling the technology in the GoPro cameras. He explains how the speed of the technology development is decreasing the time-to-market for this product allowing the products to the consumers more quickly than ever before.


On Sunday before CES, NVIDIA announced their new Project Shield gaming portable device. This is the first gaming device with a full controller, built in 5" display that can play both Android and PC games. The PC games can even be streamed to a GForce GT TV. All of which is running the ARM Cortex-A15 based Tegra 4. Watch the video below to find out more what Ujesh Desai, NVIDIA's Vice President of Corporate Marketing had to say about the coolest product announcement at CES 2013!


I also checked out the Tesla Model S electric car on NVDIA's booth. Its built-in infotainment system is running on not one but two Tegra 3 CPUs based on ARM's Cortex-A9...one behind the driver’s dash and the center display.



One of the most interesting new devices to hit the market in 2012 was the Sphero robotic gaming ball which is based on an ARM Cortex-M3. This small moving ball can be remotely controlled by an ARM powered smartphone or tablet. They are also enabling it to work as a game controller for certain applications. If you haven't stopped by the Sphero booth at CES this week, make sure it's on your “can't miss” list before Friday!



It's been a great week so far, looking forward to CES Day 3! And if you’re attending CES, participate in our Where's ARM Twitter photo challenge. Find ARM Powered gadgets at CES, tweet them with #WheresARM hashtag for a chance to win some great ARM processor-based prizes such a Google Chromebook, Kindle Fire & Nintendo 3DS.

Andy Frame, CPU Product Manager, ARM, is based in Cambridge and is fanatical about the success of the Cortex-M3 and how it is rapidly becoming the de-facto standard for 32-bit MCU’s. Since joining ARM in 1995, Andy has had a variety of roles from Software Tools Technical Training though to Business Development, joining the CPU product management team about two years ago to look after Cortex-M3.