What is ARM?

An Arm processor is one of a family of central processing units (CPUs) based on the reduced instruction set computer (RISC) architecture for computer processors. Arm Limited, the company behind the Arm processor, designs the core CPU components and licenses the intellectual property to partner organizations, which then build Arm-based chips according to their own requirements. Arm Limited does not manufacture or sell any chips directly.Arm Limited offers designs for both 32-bit and 64-bit RISC multicore processors. The processors use a much simpler instruction set than their Intel counterparts, which are based on the complex instruction set computing (CISC) architecture. Arm processors are used extensively in consumer electronic devices such as smartphones, tablets, wearables and other mobile devices. They’re also used in a wide range of sensors and internet of things devices. According to Arm Limited, the company’s partners have shipped more than 215 billion Arm-based chips over the past three decades.SoC packages integrating ARM’s core designs include Nvidia Tegra’s first three generations, CSR plc’s Quatro family, ST-Ericsson’s Nova and NovaThor, Silicon Labs’s Precision32 MCU, Texas Instruments’s OMAP products, Samsung’s Hummingbird and Exynos products, Apple’s A4, A5, and A5X, and NXP’s i.MX.