Everyone who is interested in mobile technologies has heard about ARM architecture. However, for most people this is associated with the processors of tablets or smartphones. Others correct them, specifying that this is not the stone itself, but only its architecture. But practically none of them was really interested in where and when this technology actually came from.
Meanwhile, this technology is widely distributed among numerous modern gadgets, which become more and more every year. In addition, on the way to the development of the company, which was engaged in the development of ARM processors, there is one interesting case, which is not a sin to mention, perhaps for some it will be a lesson for the future.
ARM architecture for dummies
Under the acronym ARM hides a fairly successful British company ARM Limited in the field of IT-technologies. It stands for Advanced RISC Machines and is one of the world's largest developers and licensors of the 32-bit RISC processor architecture that most portable devices are equipped with.
But, characteristically, the company itself does not manufacture microprocessors, but only develops and licenses its technology to other parties. In particular, the ARM architecture of microcontrollers is purchased by such manufacturers:
- Atmel.
- Cirrus Logic.
- Intel
- Apple
- nVidia
- HiSilicon.
- Marvell
- NXP.
- Samsung
- Qualcomm.
- Sony Ericsson
- Texas Instruments.
- Broadcom.
Some of them are known to a wide audience of consumers of digital gadgets. According to the assurances of the British corporation ARM, the total number of microprocessors produced by their technology is more than 2.5 billion. There are several series of mobile stones:
- ARM7 - a clock frequency of 60-72 MHz, which is important for mobile budget phones.
- ARM9 / ARM9E - the frequency is already higher about 200 MHz. These microprocessors are equipped with more functional smartphones and handheld computers (PDAs).
Cortex and ARM11 are already more modern families of microprocessors in comparison with the previous architecture of ARM microcontrollers, with a clock frequency of up to 1 GHz and advanced digital signal processing capabilities.
The popular xScale microprocessors from Marvell (until mid-summer 2007, the project was at the disposal of Intel) are actually an extended version of the ARM9 architecture, complemented by a set of Wireless MMX instructions. This solution from Intel was focused on supporting multimedia applications.
ARM technology refers to the 32-bit microprocessor architecture, containing a reduced set of instructions, which is referred to as RISC. According to the calculations, the use of ARM processors is 82% of the total number of RISC processors produced, which indicates a fairly wide coverage area of 32-bit systems.
Many electronic devices are equipped with an ARM processor architecture, and these are not only PDAs and cell phones, but also portable game consoles, calculators, computer peripherals, network equipment and much more.
A little trip back to the past
We’ll set off a few years ago in an imaginary time machine and try to figure out how it all began. It is safe to say that ARM is more likely a monopolist in its field. And this is confirmed by the fact that the vast majority of smartphones and other electronic digital devices operate under the control of microprocessors created using this architecture.
In 1980, Acorn Computers was founded, which began to create personal computers. Therefore, previously, ARM was introduced as Acorn RISC Machines.
A year later, the home version of the BBC Micro PC with the very first ARM processor architecture was presented to consumers. It was a success, nevertheless, the chip could not cope with graphic tasks, and other options in the face of the Motorola 68000 and National Semiconductor 32016 processors were also not suitable for this.
Then the management of the company thought about creating its own microprocessor. Engineers are interested in the new processor architecture, invented by graduates of the local university. It just used a reduced set of commands, or RISC. And after the appearance of the first computer, which was controlled by the Acorn Risc Machine processor, success came pretty quickly - in 1990, an agreement was signed between the British brand and Apple. This marked the beginning of the development of a new chipset, which, in turn, led to the formation of an entire development team, referred to as Advanced RISC Machines, or ARM.
Since 1998, the company changed its name to ARM Limited. And now, experts are not involved in the production and implementation of ARM architecture. What did it give? This did not affect the development of the company in any way, although the main and only direction of the company was the development of technologies, as well as the sale of licenses to third parties, so that they could use the processor architecture. At the same time, some companies acquire the rights to ready-made kernels, while others, with a license, equip processors with their own kernels.
According to some reports, the company's earnings on each such decision is $ 0.067 . But this information is averaged and outdated. Each year, the number of cores in chipsets is growing, respectively, and the cost of modern processors exceeds the old models.
Application area
It was the development of mobile devices that brought ARM Limited a huge popularity. And when the production of smartphones and other portable electronic devices became widespread, energy-efficient processors immediately found application. I wonder if there is linux on arm architecture?
The culmination period of the development of the company falls on 2007, when partnerships with the Apple brand were renewed. After that, the first iPhone based on an ARM processor was presented to consumers. Since that time, such processor architecture has become an invariable component of almost any manufactured smartphone that can only be found on the modern mobile market.
We can say that almost every modern electronic device that needs to be controlled by a processor, one way or another equipped with ARM chips. And the fact that such a processor architecture supports many operating systems, be it Linux, Android, iOS, and Windows, is an undeniable advantage. Among them are Windows embedded CE 6.0 Core, the arm architecture is also supported by it. This platform is designed for handheld computers, mobile phones and embedded systems.
Distinctive features of x86 and ARM
Many users who have heard of ARM and x86 confuse the two architectures a bit. Meanwhile, they have certain differences. There are two main types of architectures:
- CISC (Complex Instruction Set Computing).
- RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computing).
CISC includes x86 processors (Intel or AMD), RISC, as you can already understand, the ARM family. The x86 architecture, and arm have their admirers. Thanks to the efforts of ARM specialists, who focused on energy efficiency and the use of a simple set of instructions, processors greatly benefited from this - the mobile market began to develop rapidly, and many smartphones almost almost equaled the capabilities of computers.
In turn, Intel has always been famous for the release of processors with high performance and bandwidth for desktop PCs, laptops, servers and even supercomputers.
These two families in their own way won the hearts of users. But what is their difference? There are several distinguishing features or even features, we will analyze the most important of them.
Processing power
Let's start the analysis of the differences between the ARM and x86 architectures with this parameter. A feature of RISC professors is to use as few instructions as possible. Moreover, they should be as simple as possible, which gives them advantages not only for engineers, but also for software developers.
The philosophy is simple - if the instruction is simple, then for the desired circuit does not need too many transistors. As a result, additional space is freed up for something or the size of the chips becomes smaller. For this reason, ARM microprocessors began to combine peripheral devices, such as graphics processors. A good example is a Raspberry Pi computer, which has a minimal number of components.
However, the simplicity of the instructions is expensive. In order to perform certain tasks, additional instructions are necessary, which usually leads to an increase in memory consumption and time to complete tasks.
Unlike the processor arm architecture, CISC chip instructions, which are Intel solutions, can perform complex tasks with great flexibility. In other words, RISC-based machines perform operations between registers, and it is usually required that a program load variables into a register before performing an operation. CISC processors are capable of performing operations in several ways:
- between registers;
- between register and memory location;
- between memory locations.
But this is only part of the distinguishing features, we turn to the analysis of other signs.
Power consumption
Depending on the type of device, the power consumption may have a different degree of significance. For a system that is connected to a constant power source (mains), there is simply no limit to energy consumption. However, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets are completely dependent on power management.
Another difference between the arm and x86 architectures is that the former uses less than 5 watts of power, including many related packages: GPUs, peripherals, memory. This low power is due to the smaller number of transistors in combination with relatively low speeds (if you draw a parallel with the processors for desktop PCs). At the same time, it found its mark on productivity - it takes more time to perform complex operations.
Intel cores are complex in structure and, as a result, their energy consumption is significantly higher. For example, the Intel I-7 processor with high performance consumes about 130 watts of energy, mobile versions - 6-30 watts.
Software
Comparison on this parameter is quite difficult, since both brands are very popular in their circles. Devices that are based on arm-architecture processors work perfectly with mobile operating systems (Android, etc.).
Machines running Intel processors can work with platforms like Windows and Linux. In addition, both microprocessor families are friends with applications written in the Java language.
Analyzing the differences in architectures, one thing is clear: ARM processors mainly control the power consumption of mobile devices. The challenge for desktop solutions is to ensure high performance.
New achievements
ARM, through competent policy, has completely taken over the mobile market. But in the future she is not going to stop there. Not so long ago, a new core development was introduced: Cortex-A53, and Cortex-A57, in which there was one important update - support for 64-bit computing.
The A53 core is a direct follower of the ARM Cortex-A8, which, although it did not have very high performance, but power consumption at a minimum level. According to experts, the architecture of arm cortex a53 reduces power consumption by 4 times, and its performance will not be inferior to the core of the Cortex-A9. And this despite the fact that the core area of A53 is 40% less than that of A9.
The A57 core will replace the Cortex-A9 and Cortex-A15. At the same time, ARM engineers claim a phenomenal performance increase - three times higher than the A15 core. In other words, the A57 microprocessor will be 6 times faster than the Cortex-A9, and its energy efficiency will be 5 times better than that of the A15.
To summarize, the cortex series, namely the more advanced a53, differs from its predecessors in higher performance against the background of no less high energy efficiency. Even the Cortex-A7 processors, which are installed on most smartphones, can not stand the competition!
But what is more valuable is that the architecture of the arm cortex a53 is that component that will avoid the problems associated with lack of memory. In addition, the device will drain the battery more slowly. Thanks to the new product, these problems will now remain in the distant past.
Graphics Solutions
In addition to the development of processors, ARM is working on the implementation of the Mali series graphics accelerators. And the very first of them is Mali 55. LG Renoir was equipped with this accelerator. And yes, this is the most common mobile phone. Only in it, the GPU was not responsible for the games, but only drew the interface, because judging by modern standards, the GPU is characterized by primitive capabilities.
But progress is inexorably moving forward, and therefore, in order to keep up with the times, ARM also has more advanced models that are relevant for mid-range smartphones. These are the common Mali-400 MP and Mali-450 MP GPUs. Although they have low performance and a limited set of APIs, this does not prevent them from being used in modern mobile models. A vivid example is the Zopo ZP998 phone, in which the eight-core MTK6592 chip is paired with the Mali-450 MP4 graphics accelerator.
Competitiveness
Currently, no one is opposing ARM yet, and this is mainly due to the fact that the right decision was made in due time. But once upon a time at the beginning of its journey, the development team worked on the creation of processors for the PC and even attempted to compete with such a giant as Intel. But even after the line of business was changed, the company had a hard time.
And when the world-famous computer brand Microsoft signed an agreement with Intel, the other manufacturers simply had no chance - the Windows operating system refused to work with ARM processors. How can one not help using gcam emulators on arm architecture ?! As for Intel, observing the wave of success, ARM Limited also tried to create a processor that would be worthy of competition. For this, the Intel Atom chip was provided to the general public. But it took a much longer period of time than ARM Limited. And the chip went into production only in 2011, but precious time was already lost.
In fact, Intel Atom is an x86-based CISC processor. Specialists managed to achieve lower power consumption than in ARM solutions. Nevertheless, all the software that comes with mobile platforms is poorly adapted to the x86 architecture.
In the end, the company recognized the complete compliance of the decision and subsequently abandoned the production of processors for mobile devices. The only major Intel Atom chip maker is ASUS. At the same time, these processors did not sink into oblivion, they were equipped in droves equipped with netbooks, nettops and other portable devices.
However, there is a possibility that the situation will change and the beloved Windows operating system will support ARM microprocessors. In addition, steps are being taken in this direction, maybe something like gcam emulators will appear on the ARM architecture for mobile solutions ?! Who knows, time will tell and put everything in their place.
Future prospects
There is one interesting moment in the history of the development of the company ARM (at the very beginning of the article it was he who meant). At one time, Apple Limited was based on ARM Limited, and it is likely that all of ARM technology would have belonged to it. However, fate decreed otherwise - in 1998, Apple was in a crisis, and management was forced to sell its stake. Currently, it is on a par with other manufacturers and remains for its iPhone and iPad devices to purchase technology from ARM Limited. Who could know how things could turn out ?!
Modern ARM processors are capable of performing more complex operations. And in the near future, the company's management aimed to enter the server market, of which it is undoubtedly interested. In addition, in our modern time, when the era of the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) is approaching, including “smart” home appliances, one can predict even greater demand for chips with ARM architecture.
So, ARM Limited is far from a hopeless future! And it is unlikely that in the near future there will be someone who can squeeze out such, without a doubt, the mobile giant for the development of processors for smartphones and other similar electronic devices.
In conclusion
ARM processors quickly captured the market for mobile devices and all thanks to low power consumption and even if not very high, but still, good performance. Currently, the state of affairs at ARM can only be envied. Many manufacturers use its technology, which puts Advanced RISC Machines on a par with such giants in the development of processors as Intel and AMD. And despite the fact that the company does not have its own production.
For some time, the competitor of the mobile brand was MIPS with the architecture of the same name. But at present, there is so far the only serious competitor in the person of Intel Corporation, although its leadership does not believe that arm-architecture can pose a threat to its market share.
Also, according to experts from Intel, ARM processors are not able to ensure the launch of desktop versions of operating systems. However, such a statement sounds a little illogical, because the owners of ultra-mobile PCs do not use "heavy" software. In most cases, you need access to the Internet, editing documents, listening to media files (music, movies) and other simple tasks. And ARM solutions do a great job with such operations.