ARM Community: Mainstream Technologies Fuel the Internet of Things Revolution - ARM Community

There is an old saying that no matter where you are in the world you are never more than three feet away from a spider. I can’t tell you if this is true, although my wife hopes it isn’t. However it is probably a fact of life that you are never more than three feet away from a silicon chip manufactured on a mainstream technology process (250nm-90nm). Take a look around you right now. The computer screen you are reading this blog on is driven by display drivers manufactured on a mainstream technology node. That mobile phone you just used has several chips manufactured on mainstream nodes for battery management, power control and display functions. Your GPS device, tablet, coffee maker, microwave oven, PMP, video game player, and even the toys your kids are playing with are all powered by mainstream technology. As more of these products incorporate ARM-based microcontroller and microprocessors combined with wireless technology the application goes beyond an internet of computers to becoming an internet of things.

Mainstream process technology has been around for so many years that it is easy to dismiss as plain and uninteresting. However it touches your life in more ways than you can imagine. I am an engineer and I can attest that engineers typically love technology and the more complex it is, the more it makes us swoon. The market, however, loves a solution and it so happens that the mainstream technology nodes provide the perfect solution to a wide variety of everyday problems. That is why there are so many applications built using chips manufactured on these nodes.

It is really amazing how all the stakeholders in the ARM Connected Community ecosystem have been able to continue to innovate with mainstream technology nodes. Foundries have been coming up with new niche processes targeted at solving application specific problems – for example ultra low leakage processes which help extend battery life by orders of magnitude or BCD (Bipolar CMOS DMOS) processes which integrate analog, digital & high current devices on the same die.

As the leading physical IP provider, ARM has consistently invested in developing new products and innovations targeting mainstream processes like the industry leading Artisan® ultra high density standard cells or Artisan low power memory compilers. But the most important stakeholders are the end-customers who come up with new ideas and products that keep us on our toes and constantly challenge us to help them solve their problems.

To discuss the future of mainstream technology nodes and understand what it will take to keep the pipeline of innovation growing, ARM is coordinating a panel session at the GLOBALFOUNDRIES Global Technology Conference at the Santa Clara Convention Center on 30^th August 2011. The goal of this panel discussion, moderated by Ed Sperling, editor in chief, System Level Design, is to have an open discussion on the challenges facing the mainstream node and how can the stakeholders co-operate to ensure mutual success for all. We have assembled a superb team of panelists to represent all the stakeholders and each brings his own unique insights from their vantage point:


Come join us and listen to some fascinating conversation!!!

Ravi Mahatme, Platform Marketing Manager, ARM, joined ARM in 2004, fresh out of graduate school. He started off designing embedded SRAM memory compilers but switched to marketing a couple of years ago. Having worked in a number of ARM offices, Ravi is now based in Silicon Valley and currently manages the physical IP products that go into developing embedded applications . Ravi is excited at the upcoming ‘smart’ revolution where the unique combination of processing power and semiconductor technology is revolutionizing traditional markets and opening up some new ones.