ARM Chips Have Legs

With all the hype Intel has around embedding its Atom processors in everything from treadmills to deadly looking spider surveillance cameras, you could almost be forgiven for thinking the game was over and everyone was going home.
The growing surge of mobile devices, as evidenced by the myriad display of smart phones and tablets at Computex 2010, combined with near-glacial pace of battery technology almost ensure ARM chips, with their battery sipping ways, continue to play starring roles in dedicated mobile devices.
Just one of numerous ARM partners, Freescale Semiconductor just released its new i.MX535 processor which includes five dedicated cores: processor, 2D, 3D, video, and audio.  Based on the ARM Cortex-A8 core, this chip is clocked at 1 GHz with 1.2 GHz planned for later this year.

The integrated platform also includes the ability to decode 1080p and encode 720p video streams while also hosting other services including DDR3, SATA, LVDS, Ethernet, and USB for a significantly lower manufacturing cost.  Variations without specific dedicated cores are also available for reduced cost targeted at simpler applications.
One of Freescale’s engineers advised RCR that it planned to go a step further and release its i.MX6x series for the second half of next year and that the series includes plans for up to four processing cores and enhanced multi-processing support.  Separately, Texas Instruments’ Tom Kelly told RCR that ARM chips up to 2 GHz are a likely possibility.
Freescale’s Glen Burchers, however, is not at all convinced the future will continue to be driven by the “gigahertz race.”  He foresees mobile computing dominated by highly efficient “good enough” local processors offloading heavy workloads to Cloud-based resources.
If Burchers’ prediction is correct, ARM chips, with an architecture built from the ground up to be energy efficient, have a bright future ahead.