So much performance, in fact, that you will now find ARM inside bigger more powerful devices - tablet computers, e-readers and even netbook-style devices. "As the manufacturing process in which chips are made has changed, we have been able to pack more and more performance into the same piece of silicon." You can have smaller batteries and you can be innovative with your form factor and your industrial design. "Once you have got that low power you can create low-cost and small form factors. "In the mobile world, the primary driver has always been about low power and this seems to be taking the biggest traction in the industry right now. Whereas a home computer can draw more electricity from the mains when it needs to do something complicated, mobile devices need to manage their power consumption carefully, lest they suck their tiny batteries dry.ĪRM's director of marketing, Laurence Bryant, says it is something that ARM, with its Reduced Instruction Set Computing, has specialised in for 20 years.
Such complex graphics on home computers have only become possible in the last few years, as chip technology has caught up with designers' aspirations.īut in the future, mobile phones will be able to handle this and much more - thanks to the prototype chips being designed by one of the most quietly successful and profitable companies in IT - ARM.ĪRM does not manufacture chips but rather designs them for other people to make.Īround 95% of the world's smartphones have an ARM chip inside and, although the company does not discuss its customers, it is widely believed that there is even an ARM chip inside Apple's iPad.ĪRM designs are so popular with mobile manufacturers because of their low power consumption.
High-definition TV and ultra-complex gaming - all in 3D - is a big task for any computer.Įspecially as it tries to calculate the way the shadows should behave, or the way the light should reflect off each of the two million pixels on screen, 50 times a second. As tiny chips with big ambitions fight for processing power, is there anything the phones of the future will not be able to do? Inside your smartphone, a battle is raging.
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