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Sunday, May 8, 2011
ARM: low power is in our DNA.
ARM Holdings is one of the biggest successes of recent years.
It's responsible for licensing (not manufacturing) the processor tech behind almost all tablets and mobile phones including everything from the humblest 1998 Nokia to the Motorola Xoom and iPad 2 – as well as having involvement in oodles of other markets such as automotive. ARM's partners shipped a scarcely believable six billion processors.
Now a PLC, ARM was formed in 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines, ARM was a joint partnership between Acorn Computer (of the Archimedes and BBC Micro fame), VLSI and some other company called Apple.
ARM-POWERED: The iPad 2 runs the Apple A5 chip. It's made by Apple, but again based on the ARM architecture
The RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) chips we use in our iPhones today are direct descendants of the work Acorn did with the BBC Micro and later Archimedes computers – VLSI produced the first ARM silicon in 1985 for the BBC Micro (ARM2). ARM chips then powered the Apple Newton and other handhelds and mobiles.
Tablet growth
We took a few minutes to talk to Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at ARM - he's been at the company since 2005 before which he worked for Intel.
So is he pleased at the huge growth in tablets and other mobile devices using ARM-based silicon? "It's always nice when a strategy comes together," he says. "But there's a long way to go yet. There's a lot more we can do. I think this is a start rather than an end. It's very nice seeing TI, Nvidia and Qualcomm and everybody else in the market as we have been talking about it for a few years.
"Low power is very important, and we've had that built into our DNA from day one and I think that's very important in consumer devices and embedded devices right through to TVs, etc. You're now seeing TVs that are ultrathin with no heatsink or anything."
"The plethora of partners are doing about 6 billion [units] last year… that volume, that partnership, that model is really, really important to us." Over 200 companies license technology from ARM.
We asked Drew about the close relationship between ARM and its partners and the fact that ARM is already working on processor designs that we won't see in devices until 2015. "It helps our partnership model because of all that…we're able to influence short, medium and long term. [Our partners] help us with our roadmaps as well. It's a two-way relationship, not just a one way thing."
Competition from Intel
We then asked Drew how he reacts to the competition ARM faces from Intel. "We're an IP company. We work with the OEMs and they do what they think is right. ARM doesn't compete with Intel anyway, it's the ARM partners. Intel has a vertical model, we have a horizontal model. We don't make silicon, Intel doesn't license IP as far as I know."
We revisit the question, something that clearly irks Drew - after all, Intel has been clear in its aim to muscle in on ARM's mobile market while ARM is set to muscle in on Intel's traditional stronghold of Windows."We don't make chips and Intel does. Intel has a different business model to us. If you were really competing for a socket then it's the Nvdias, TIs and Qualcomms and everybody else that really competes with Intel. I know that they would like to say it's ARM but it's really our ecosystem that's the strength of ARM. It's a unifying force."
WINDOWS ON ARM: Windows 8 is set to run on ARM-based systems
"So it's really the ARM ecosystem partners and our licensees that compete with Intel. Where they take us… that's really up to them. The business model where you can have multiple licensees enables growth."
So did ARM really think the tablet market was going to take off in the way it has? "We saw the explosion in internet everywhere. I spoke to TechRadar a couple of years ago when we talked about browsers being important and plug-ins being important and optimising around the Adobe announcement and what was happening with Mozilla and the Android activity.
"We actually talked about smartbooks at the time – we thought that might take off and then one or two came out with tablets and that just exploded. I think in reality I don't think anybody quite forsaw the tablet explosion, but the internet everywhere was important.
"I also think the diversification opportunities in our business model helped as well because you're allowed to try lots of different things along the spectrum of products. Could I stand there and say I thought about tablets five years ago? No, I don't think anybody did that."
Beyond tablets
But Drew does think that ARM's move into computing will go beyond the mobile and the tablet – and that we'll see plenty of 3G-enabled laptops – dubbed smartbooks - running operating systems such as Google's Chrome OS.
"I think there will be ARM smartbooks, we've seen traction there. I hope there's growth there but again its consumer dependent and we're so far removed from consumers."
Drew also thinks that future technology growth will be governed by connectivity - and that 'internet everywhere is the key unifier. "The 4G LTE stuff, the cables in homes, lots more people in emerging markets having access via mobiles and tablets than they ever did with PCs, there's a whole revolution going on.
"If you look at the growth of the internet, the fastest growth is on smartphones and tablets and that's really important.
"I think this thing is just starting rather than ending. The internet everywhere story is just beginning."
Now a PLC, ARM was formed in 1990 as Advanced RISC Machines, ARM was a joint partnership between Acorn Computer (of the Archimedes and BBC Micro fame), VLSI and some other company called Apple.
ARM-POWERED: The iPad 2 runs the Apple A5 chip. It's made by Apple, but again based on the ARM architecture
The RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) chips we use in our iPhones today are direct descendants of the work Acorn did with the BBC Micro and later Archimedes computers – VLSI produced the first ARM silicon in 1985 for the BBC Micro (ARM2). ARM chips then powered the Apple Newton and other handhelds and mobiles.
Tablet growth
We took a few minutes to talk to Ian Drew, executive vice president of marketing at ARM - he's been at the company since 2005 before which he worked for Intel.
So is he pleased at the huge growth in tablets and other mobile devices using ARM-based silicon? "It's always nice when a strategy comes together," he says. "But there's a long way to go yet. There's a lot more we can do. I think this is a start rather than an end. It's very nice seeing TI, Nvidia and Qualcomm and everybody else in the market as we have been talking about it for a few years.
"Low power is very important, and we've had that built into our DNA from day one and I think that's very important in consumer devices and embedded devices right through to TVs, etc. You're now seeing TVs that are ultrathin with no heatsink or anything."
"The plethora of partners are doing about 6 billion [units] last year… that volume, that partnership, that model is really, really important to us." Over 200 companies license technology from ARM.
We asked Drew about the close relationship between ARM and its partners and the fact that ARM is already working on processor designs that we won't see in devices until 2015. "It helps our partnership model because of all that…we're able to influence short, medium and long term. [Our partners] help us with our roadmaps as well. It's a two-way relationship, not just a one way thing."
Competition from Intel
We then asked Drew how he reacts to the competition ARM faces from Intel. "We're an IP company. We work with the OEMs and they do what they think is right. ARM doesn't compete with Intel anyway, it's the ARM partners. Intel has a vertical model, we have a horizontal model. We don't make silicon, Intel doesn't license IP as far as I know."
We revisit the question, something that clearly irks Drew - after all, Intel has been clear in its aim to muscle in on ARM's mobile market while ARM is set to muscle in on Intel's traditional stronghold of Windows."We don't make chips and Intel does. Intel has a different business model to us. If you were really competing for a socket then it's the Nvdias, TIs and Qualcomms and everybody else that really competes with Intel. I know that they would like to say it's ARM but it's really our ecosystem that's the strength of ARM. It's a unifying force."
WINDOWS ON ARM: Windows 8 is set to run on ARM-based systems
"So it's really the ARM ecosystem partners and our licensees that compete with Intel. Where they take us… that's really up to them. The business model where you can have multiple licensees enables growth."
So did ARM really think the tablet market was going to take off in the way it has? "We saw the explosion in internet everywhere. I spoke to TechRadar a couple of years ago when we talked about browsers being important and plug-ins being important and optimising around the Adobe announcement and what was happening with Mozilla and the Android activity.
"We actually talked about smartbooks at the time – we thought that might take off and then one or two came out with tablets and that just exploded. I think in reality I don't think anybody quite forsaw the tablet explosion, but the internet everywhere was important.
"I also think the diversification opportunities in our business model helped as well because you're allowed to try lots of different things along the spectrum of products. Could I stand there and say I thought about tablets five years ago? No, I don't think anybody did that."
Beyond tablets
But Drew does think that ARM's move into computing will go beyond the mobile and the tablet – and that we'll see plenty of 3G-enabled laptops – dubbed smartbooks - running operating systems such as Google's Chrome OS.
"I think there will be ARM smartbooks, we've seen traction there. I hope there's growth there but again its consumer dependent and we're so far removed from consumers."
Drew also thinks that future technology growth will be governed by connectivity - and that 'internet everywhere is the key unifier. "The 4G LTE stuff, the cables in homes, lots more people in emerging markets having access via mobiles and tablets than they ever did with PCs, there's a whole revolution going on.
"If you look at the growth of the internet, the fastest growth is on smartphones and tablets and that's really important.
"I think this thing is just starting rather than ending. The internet everywhere story is just beginning."
LG LCD panel defect causes iPad 2 screen yellowing.
An defect in the LCD panels LG made for the Apple iPad 2 has caused the company to give the majority of the manufacturing privileges to Samsung.
Digitimes is reporting that the screen yellowing, which sees light leak from the edges of the display when darker objects are displayed, reported by some users is attributable to the panels made by LG.
Samsung has shipped four million of the 9.7-inch panels, whereas LG reports shipped only 800,000 after being forced to halt production to address the issues.
The report also claims that LG displays will make a return to the supply line in the second quarter, according to sources.
Shortages
Apple shifted 3.2m iPad units during the first three months of 2011, but massive backlogs have prevented the company achieving its full potential.
COO Tim Cook called the shortages "the mother of all backlogs" during a recent earnings call.
Samsung has shipped four million of the 9.7-inch panels, whereas LG reports shipped only 800,000 after being forced to halt production to address the issues.
The report also claims that LG displays will make a return to the supply line in the second quarter, according to sources.
Shortages
Apple shifted 3.2m iPad units during the first three months of 2011, but massive backlogs have prevented the company achieving its full potential.
COO Tim Cook called the shortages "the mother of all backlogs" during a recent earnings call.
British computing: cakes, codes and creativity.
It's all too easy to think of the computer as a piece of Americana. With the likes of Microsoft, Apple and IBM clouding our collective cultural memory, it's easy to overlook our small isle and its massive influence on modern computing.
After all, it was British engineers, British inventors and British manufacturers who were very much responsible for inventing the humble PC, from cracking codes at Bletchley Park to counting cakes for Lyons Tea Rooms, the first company to put computers to business use.
So why hasn't Britain stayed at the top of the technological game?
"Most of the early research into computing was done in Britain," Tilly Blyth, Curator of Computing at the British Science Museum, tells us. "And not just building the hardware, Britain had a massive influence conceptually, too. Alan Turing's 1946 paper was absolutely fundamental in exploring the potential for computing.
"But in the UK, we had lots of different industries all looking at computers and creating different kinds of machines; IBM became so huge and had such a large market internally in America that British companies simply couldn't compete."
Still got it
"But don't do us down," she warned. "There are still things we're incredibly well known for, that we do very well in Britain – and are internationally renowned for. ARM, for example, is doing incredible things with processors down in Cambridge.
"It's just that we don't have those major consumer brands, we don't have any Apples or Microsofts."
The American technology companies are very glamorous; they've got all kinds of gadgets and gizmos packaged up into neat and attractive parcels.
That glamour is something British tech companies seem to lack; engineering and processors are more likely to conjure up images of elbow grease and grime than to come in a svelte box with an Apple logo. Perhaps British computing has an image problem.
"I don't think technology has an image problem in the UK; it's become very cool to be into computing and know your way around a PC. But the problem here is creating the right kind of culture for innovation.
"The Government can help to lead that, but it has to start earlier too; it's about education, learning more than just how to use existing programmes, learning how to think creatively with computing, how to free your imagination."
Freedom and creativity
It's true that computing has become ring-fenced, in a way. Operating systems are easier to use, but the flip side is that more functions are automatically decided for you. Long gone are the days of the Commodore and the Spectrum for which we'd lug about those enormous ring-bound books and write our own programmes as we went.
"I think it's hard these days because computers have come so far – previous generations would only need basic knowledge but with the complexity of computing these days – it can be hard to find a way in to that at a young age," agrees Blyth.
"Maybe the development of apps and web pages can get people interested in technology. The small things can really show what we can achieve with it; perhaps that's the way in.
"And museums, of course. We're there to inspire people and open up ideas and show career paths that might not be immediately obvious.
"For example, our Making Modern Communications gallery is focused on creativity and how users, not just manufacturers and engineers, have helped to mould and shape communications technology. It shows you the influence you personally can have."
Unfortunately, Making Modern Communications won't be finished until around 2014; but it's never too soon to start thinking creatively about technology.
A bit of good old British creativity – and perhaps a nice cup of tea – is just what British tech needs.
After all, it was British engineers, British inventors and British manufacturers who were very much responsible for inventing the humble PC, from cracking codes at Bletchley Park to counting cakes for Lyons Tea Rooms, the first company to put computers to business use.
So why hasn't Britain stayed at the top of the technological game?
"Most of the early research into computing was done in Britain," Tilly Blyth, Curator of Computing at the British Science Museum, tells us. "And not just building the hardware, Britain had a massive influence conceptually, too. Alan Turing's 1946 paper was absolutely fundamental in exploring the potential for computing.
"But in the UK, we had lots of different industries all looking at computers and creating different kinds of machines; IBM became so huge and had such a large market internally in America that British companies simply couldn't compete."
Still got it
"But don't do us down," she warned. "There are still things we're incredibly well known for, that we do very well in Britain – and are internationally renowned for. ARM, for example, is doing incredible things with processors down in Cambridge.
"It's just that we don't have those major consumer brands, we don't have any Apples or Microsofts."
The American technology companies are very glamorous; they've got all kinds of gadgets and gizmos packaged up into neat and attractive parcels.
That glamour is something British tech companies seem to lack; engineering and processors are more likely to conjure up images of elbow grease and grime than to come in a svelte box with an Apple logo. Perhaps British computing has an image problem.
"I don't think technology has an image problem in the UK; it's become very cool to be into computing and know your way around a PC. But the problem here is creating the right kind of culture for innovation.
"The Government can help to lead that, but it has to start earlier too; it's about education, learning more than just how to use existing programmes, learning how to think creatively with computing, how to free your imagination."
Freedom and creativity
It's true that computing has become ring-fenced, in a way. Operating systems are easier to use, but the flip side is that more functions are automatically decided for you. Long gone are the days of the Commodore and the Spectrum for which we'd lug about those enormous ring-bound books and write our own programmes as we went.
"I think it's hard these days because computers have come so far – previous generations would only need basic knowledge but with the complexity of computing these days – it can be hard to find a way in to that at a young age," agrees Blyth.
"Maybe the development of apps and web pages can get people interested in technology. The small things can really show what we can achieve with it; perhaps that's the way in.
"And museums, of course. We're there to inspire people and open up ideas and show career paths that might not be immediately obvious.
"For example, our Making Modern Communications gallery is focused on creativity and how users, not just manufacturers and engineers, have helped to mould and shape communications technology. It shows you the influence you personally can have."
Unfortunately, Making Modern Communications won't be finished until around 2014; but it's never too soon to start thinking creatively about technology.
A bit of good old British creativity – and perhaps a nice cup of tea – is just what British tech needs.
Tor to fork Firefox for simplified anonymous browsing.
Tor is a tool for anonymizing web browsing and communications through encryption and proxy servers. Trouble is, it requires both a browser extension and a standalone app to work -- leaving average users "horribly confused," according to developer Mike Perry. So, the organization has decided to retire the Tor Button and create its own fork of Firefox with private browsing features baked in. As an added benefit, Tor will no longer be at the mercy of Mozilla to fix bugs that affect privacy and security. For now, the group will focus on its downloadable bundle with automatic configuration scripts for simplifying setup, but eventually the paranoid will have a browser they can finally call their own.
Space Adventures will shoot you to the moon for $150 million
Space Adventures -- who lets folks vacay in space via suborbital jaunts -- is offering to shoot you to the moon during your next work sabbatical. Amateur astronauts won't actually land on the lunar surface, of course, but their Soyuz spacecraft will get within 62 miles of it. To indulge in your lunar fantasy, it'll only cost you 150 million bucks, or roughly the GDP of a [insert small island/nation here]. One of the two seats is already taken, but the company needs another would-be moon man or lunar lady before the trip's a go.Friday, May 6, 2011
LG Optimus 2X scoops up Guinness World Record for being first dual-core smartphone
World's biggest CMOS sensor could help doctors detect and treat cancer
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