ARM

ARM is one of the world's leading suppliers of semiconductor components.

ARM's business model relates to chip design and licensing, rather than the manufacture and sale of physical semiconductor products. The company issues intellectual property (IP) licenses for a network of partners that includes the world's leading semiconductor component suppliers. These partners use the developments of ARM IC to create and manufacture systems based on microchip design, paying ARM a license fee for the original IC and royalties for each chip or crystal plate produced.

She is best known as a processor developer, although she also creates development tools under the brands RealView and KEIL brands, other systems, platforms and software. In 2013, it occupies a dominant position in the market for the development of chips for mobile devices.

Offices

The central office is located in Cambridge,. Great Britain At the beginning of 2012, there are more than 1,700 employees. ARM offices are located around the world, including design centers in,,, and France India. Sweden USA

ARM headquarters in Cambridge, 2014

History

2024

Intel has sold a stake in ARM

During the second quarter of 2024, Intel fully sold its stake in Arm. This was reported in mid-August 2024 by Bloomberg , citing documents filed with   the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

According to the document, Intel got rid of 1.18 million shares of Arm, which belonged to it  at the end of the first quarter. Based on the average cost of securities for the second quarter of 2024 - $124.34 - the sale of the stake could bring Intel about $147 million, according to the publication of the publication.

Error detected in ARM to bypass Linux and Chrome browser protection

Security researchers from Seoul University and Samsung in mid-June unveiled a method to bypass the hardware protection mechanism MemTag^[1] (MTE - Memory Tagging Extension), implemented in Firestorm and Icestorm processors. All this architecture ARMv8.5-A^[2], officially released on April 1, 2019.

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ARM

The attack method, called TikTag, involves the use of a mechanism for speculative execution of processor code to intercept memory protection tags in the cache and extract them from there by an attacker's program. Moreover, the probability of successfully bypassing MemTag protection according to the results of experiments was at the level of 95%. The developer has confirmed vulnerabilities for the following versions of the ARM processor core: Cortex-X2, Cortex-X3, Cortex-A510, Cortex-A520, Cortex-A710, Cortex-A715 and Cortex-A720. The cores of these ARM versions are used in Apple A14 Bionic processors, which were released in September 2020.

MemTag technology was developed by ARM to monitor the correctness of pointers and is designed to protect against code execution attacks in case of buffer overflow, memory re-release or memory access before initialization. These attack methods allowed malicious codes to be executed from user data. When using MemTag, the memory was marked with special tags that blocked the ability to turn user data into executable code fragments.

The researchers discovered sequences of processor instructions that allowed, due to speculative execution of all program branches, to pump MemTag security codes into the processor cache, get them and bypass protection against incorrect pointers. They called such sequences "gadgets." In particular, they were discovered operating system Linux in and in. In browser Chrome the first case, it was possible to achieve exploitation by manipulating system OS calls, and in the second - using JavaScript.

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SNU, Samsung, GIT

Errors related to speculative execution of instructions can be extremely dangerous, since they allow attackers to bypass security mechanisms and gain access to confidential information, "the Mikhail Sergeyev lead engineer explained to TAdviser CorpSoft24. - The problem arises when these speculative instructions interact with security mechanisms such as MemTag in ARM. Processor manufacturers release microcode and firmware updates to fix vulnerabilities, and regularly updating these components can significantly reduce risk. Some modern ARM processors have additional hardware security mechanisms, such as TrustZone. Using this mechanism can increase the level of protection.

The researchers themselves suggest using sb or isb instructions to block an attack, which prohibit the use of speculative code execution during critical memory operations. Also, developers are advised to insert additional sequences of operations before instructions for controlling access to memory so that the mechanisms of speculative code execution do not have time to pump MemTag tags into the cache. However, this should be implemented by developers of operating systems and applications for them, and users should monitor the released updates and install fixes in a timely manner.

2022

Cut to 15% of the state

In mid-March 2022, ARM Holdings announced a reduction in headcount by up to 15%. With this amount of layoffs, about 1000 employees will leave the company.

ARM intends to reduce staff in Britain and the United States. At the same time, the company promises that engineers and developers will be less affected by the dismissal. By mid-March 2022, the company employs about 6,400 people, half of whom are in British offices and businesses.

ARM fires 15% of employees after $40 billion deal with Nvidia breaks down

This will be a difficult time for everyone, so I want to clearly explain why we are doing this, "says a letter sent to employees by ARM CEO Rene Haas. - To succeed in the opportunities before us, we need to be more disciplined about our spending and investment. To remain competitive, we need to eliminate duplicate jobs now that we are a single ARM. We need to stop work that is no longer critical to our future success and think about how we do the work. It is imperative that we focus on actions that will advance our strategy at the right pace.

An ARM spokesperson, speaking to CNBC, added that the company is constantly reviewing its business plan to ensure the right balance between opportunity and expense.

The mass layoffs at ARM became known a month after Nvidia announced its refusal to buy a British chip developer for $40 billion due to pressure from regulators in the United States, Britain and the EU. After that, ARM announced that the company's board of directors had appointed 35-year-old Rene Haas as the new CEO. He succeeded Simon Segars, who stepped down as head and board member after 30 years with the company.^[3]

Nvidia ARM deal fell through due to regulators

On February 8, 2022, the deal to sell Arm to Nvidia was officially announced. The latter will receive compensation from SoftBank (owner of Arm) in the amount of $1.25 billion for the fact that the takeover of the British chip developer did not take place.

The merger of Arm and Nvidia was opposed by the authorities of some countries. Regulators in the UK and the European Union (EU) have been scrutinizing the deal amid concerns that the business agreement could lead to an increase in the cost of semiconductor products, a reduction in assortment and a suppression of innovation in the European market . The deal never received approval from China's antitrust authorities .

Nvidia ARM deal fell through due to regulators

The value of the transaction, which depended on the price of Nvidia shares, initially amounted to about $40 billion and rose along with Nvidia's quotation rate to $80 billion at the end of 2021, although since then the shares of the California company have fallen until February 8, 2022. Instead of selling Arm, the owners of the company decided to bring it to the stock exchange, but the timing of the listing and the trading platform for it by February 8, 2022 were not announced.

In a separate statement, Arm said it had appointed Renee Haas to replace Simon Segars as chief executive officer and board member since taking effect. A veteran of the chip industry, Haas joined Arm in 2013 and worked for Nvidia for seven years before that.

Against the deal with Nvidia was Arm founder Hermann Hauser, who demanded that the UK government prohibit the sale of the company. After that, the British Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport announced that it would review the deal between Nvidia and Arm on national security grounds. The department feared negative consequences for the British technology industry if it occurred.

2020

Nvidia announces $40 billion ARM acquisition

On September 14, 2020, Nvidia announced the acquisition of ARM from Japanese holding SoftBank for $40 billion. Under the terms of the deal, which its participants want to close by the end of March 2022, Nvidia will pay $21.5 billion with its shares and $12 billion with its own funds, including $2 billion immediately after the agreement.

SoftBank may receive an additional $5 billion from Nvidia (in the form of securities or real money) if ARM achieves certain goals. In addition, Nvidia is committed to paying ARM employees about $1.5 billion in its shares.

Nvidia acquires ARM for $40 billion

According to Bloomberg, the sale of ARM to Nvidia will be the largest deal in the chip market. However, it will undoubtedly attract the attention of regulators and provoke claims from such competitors Nvidia as Samsung, Apple, Qualcomm, Broadcom, Intel and Huawei. All these companies use the ARM architecture in their products, as well as licensing their own developments. As a result of the deal, SoftBank and its Vision Fund will own a 6.7-8.1% stake in Nvidia.

ARM co-founder Hermann Hauser, in an interview with Reuters, criticized the merger of Nvidia and ARM, calling it "a disaster for Cambridge, Britain and Europe."

This is the last European technology company of global importance and is being sold to Americans, "Hauser said.

Selling ARM overnight would destroy the business model in the same way it did with the Swiss semiconductor industry, he said. One of the founders of the company called on the British government to put forward three requirements for the deal:

• guarantee the safety of jobs in Britain;
• Keeping the ARM business model open
• exclusion from U.S. security checks of customer relations.

According to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, the main goal of buying ARM is to "integrate Nvidia's technologies into the broad ARM network."^[4]

Nvidia's plans to buy ARM

On July 31, 2020, it became known that the company is Nvidia considering buying British a chip developer, ARM, owned by the the Japanese corporation. SoftBank Group According information to the agency, both Bloomberg sides have moved to the "advanced stage" of negotiating over the issue.

Sources close to the topic report that the American company NVIDIA and the Japanese SoftBank Group will be able to reach an agreement within the next two weeks. And at the end of July 2020, the graphics chip maker is the only company interested in buying ARM. The exact amount of the possible deal has not been announced, but agency informants indicate that NVIDIA is ready to pay more than $32 billion for ARM.

Microarchitectures developed by the British company are found in almost every mobile processor created by companies such as Qualcomm, Apple, MediaTek, Samsung and Huawei. Some of them use them in their own smartphones, tablets, wearable electronics and gadgets of the Internet of Things segment. According to the source, NVIDIA overtook Intel in the issue of market capitalization, so the purchase of a British chip developer could consolidate this success for the "green."

However, this deal for NVIDIA could cost a fortune. According to the latest analytical forecast of Street Research LLP, the market value of the British chipmaker in 2021 could be $44 billion. And in 2025, the cost of ARM may increase to $68 billion^[5].

2017: Increased IT staff and share

In October 2017, it became known about a 25 percent increase in the headcount of ARM Holdings a year after the sale of the British company to the Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank for $32 billion. In addition to the total number of employees, the share of IT specialists in the semiconductor company is growing, which is in line with the promises of the new owner.

 In the year since ARM's acquisition (September 5, 2016) closed, the chipmaker's headcount has increased by more than 1,100, a report provided to the UK Mergers and Acquisitions Committee (UK Takeover Panel) by SoftBank revealed. In the UK, ARM has grown from 1,749 to 2,173 employees, while in other countries it has grown from 2,651 to 3,330.^[6]

By absorbing ARM, SoftBank promised to double the number of employees of the semiconductor company in the UK in five years, as well as expand the labor force abroad. However, SoftBank said that part of the increase will be provided by transferring employees of the Japanese corporation to ARM.

ARM has increased staff by 25% and the share of IT specialists after the sale of the company for $32 billion

Another condition was to remain at 76.7% or increase the share of technicians in the total staff to prevent the spread of low-paid positions. By the beginning of October 2017, IT workers accounted for 77.9% of ARM personnel.

Finally, SoftBank pledged to increase ARM's research labs in Cambridge from 9 to 11 to strengthen the company's R&D direction.

The Financial Times (FT) notes that all these measures are aimed at curbing the political reaction to the takeover of ARM, which has undergone a wave of criticism. Even one of the founders of ARM, Herman Hauser, spoke negatively, calling the deal with SoftBank one of the most "sad and undesirable consequences" of the UK's plans to leave the EU (Brexit).^[7]

According to the press secretary of the British Prime Minister Theresa May (Theresa May), the politician supports the deal, which, in her opinion, is concluded "in the national interest." At the same time, earlier Theresa May warned that the sale of British companies to foreign companies would be even more carefully considered by the authorities.

SoftBank's commitments under the ARM purchase agreement were the first major test of new legislative rules introduced by the UK Takeover Panel. According to them, the buyer of British assets must from time to time disclose to the regulator detailed data on the activities of the acquired companies. In particular, it is necessary to provide a detailed report on whether the buyer has fulfilled the promises that he made before concluding the transaction. SoftBank transferred such a report to the UK Takeover Panel.

This progress in fulfilling commitments is indicative not only of SoftBank's commitment to make ARM one of the world's leading technology companies, but also of support for jobs, research and development in the UK, SoftBank said.

The sale of ARM was announced a few weeks after the referendum was held, in which the majority of Britons voted to leave the country from the EU. Critics have slammed SoftBank's actions as mercantile and aimed at capitalising on the fall in sterling following the Brexit announcement.

In 2017, SoftBank transferred a 25% stake in ARM to the SoftBank Vision Fund, created in the UK, which amounted to $91 billion. The British authorities knew in advance about these plans of SoftBank, and, apparently, such a deal did not cause concern for them, the FT notes.

2016

Market Entry for Supercomputer Processors

On August 22, 2016, ARM Holdings announced Scalable Vector Extension (SVE) processor technology, with which the British company plans to master the supercomputer market, challenging Intel and IBM. Read more here.

SoftBank buys ARM for $32 billion

On Monday, July 18, Japanese telecommunications corporation SoftBank announced the purchase of ARM Holdings for £24.3 billion ($32.2 billion). It's the biggest acquisition in SoftBank's history.

The value of the deal per ARM share will be £17, up 40% on the share price as of July 15, 2016. After announcing the sale of the British chipmaker, its quotes jumped 45% to the opening of the London Stock Exchange, bringing the company's market capitalization to £7.56 billion.

SoftBank announces largest acquisition in its history

ARM's top management and headquarters in Cambridge will remain, according to a statement from SoftBank. In addition, it is planned to increase the number of employees of the company in the UK at least twice over five years, reports Reuters.

SoftBank will pay for ARM's acquisition with its own cash savings and credit from Japan's Mizuho Bank. After the transaction closes, ARM shares will be removed from the exchange.

Amir Anvarzadeh, an Asian securities trader at BGC Partners, believes the ARM purchase is beneficial to SoftBank for two reasons. Firstly, the company being absorbed has stable cash flows due to the dominance of the mobile processor market, and secondly, it demonstrates high margins (about 95% quarterly, starting from the end of 2014) due to its focus on technology development.

Some smartphone makers may not like the loss of independence of ARM, which was mainly owned by institutional investors before the purchase of SoftBank, says Gartner analyst Roger Sheng. In his opinion, the Japanese owner may interfere with the expansion of ARM's business in the Chinese market due to political problems between the countries and the active policy of the Middle Kingdom in the development of domestic semiconductor production.^[8]

2014

Customers include more than 40 major electronics manufacturers

In 2014, ARM's customers included more than four dozen large electronics manufacturers. Processors based on ARM designs can be found in a variety of devices - from hard drives to cars and from game consoles to photo and video cameras and TVs.

Facebook implements ARM in data centers

Experts are watching with interest the growing popularity of ARM-based multiprocessor server solutions (they, for example, are actively introduced in data centers in 2014 Facebook) and are discussing the emergence of 64-bit ARMv8.

2012

Preparing to Develop Processors for Servers

ARM CEO Warren East, in an interview at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, noted that server hardware manufacturers have announced experimental systems with economical ARM processors. However, according to him, it may take several more years until the architecture of the new processor and the tools with which you can achieve significant success in the market appear. ARM began to conquer the server market in 2008 and at the same time the company's management concluded that the road to success would be six years long.

ARM products are used mainly in smartphones and tablets, but server manufacturers are showing growing interest in using processors that consume a small amount of power. The need for cost-effective processors is driven by the need to reduce the cost of building data centers DPC (). At the same time Hewlett-Packard , he is conducting research and experimental work using ARM processors and Tegra 3 chips from, Nvidia combining their capabilities for constructionssupercomputer Barcelona.

However, as a newcomer to this market, ARM will have to "move" Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, whose x86 processors dominate the data center. ARM currently produces only 32-bit microchips, which, unlike 64-bit processors for the x86 platform, according to East, are at a complete disadvantage with regard to servers. "There are a number of server applications where the software is written based on the prerequisite for a 64-bit processor on the system. ARMs today are primarily 32-bit processors, so we have to accept the fact that we cannot implement server loads where a 64-bit chip is assumed, "East said.

In October 2011, ARM introduced its first 64-bit microprocessor ARMv8 architecture. The advent of prototypes of consumer systems on this chip, like equipment for enterprises, is not expected until about 2014. ARMv8 will address large amounts of memory and storage, which is very important for applications running on servers. "Everything will be. If 10 years ago we said that we were going to enter the server market in 2012, then as soon as we started creating a 64-bit system a little earlier, we will go there soon. You shouldn't worry, it seems to me that this is a normal schedule, "East emphasized.

While ARM seeks to gain market share in server processors, Intel, entering the fight against ARM in the smartphone and tablet markets, has launched its own cost-effective chips. At CES, Intel announced that its Atom processor, codenamed Medfield, will be used in new smartphones from Lenovo and Motorola.

Delivery of over 15 billion ARM microchips

At the beginning of 2012, more than 15 billion ARM microchips were delivered. 600 processor licenses have been sold to more than 200 companies.

2009: Revenue - £305m

At the end of 2009, the company's revenue amounted to £305 million.

2007: Launch of Apple iPhone on ARM processors

However, the development of mobile devices brought ARM the greatest fame. Apple Newton and Pocket PC handlers were just a foreword to what happened after the release of the iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010. The energy intensity of the RISC architecture turned out to be the key to the construction of portable devices, and no matter how much Intel tries to compete with ARM in this field, it has not yet been possible to make a competitive processor for tablets and smartphones based on x86.

1998: Listed stock, Apple sells its stake in the company

The growth and improvement of the ARM architecture did not stop, and in 1998 the company successfully went public. At the same time, by the way, Apple sold its part of the shares: for it it was a year of severe crisis, and the refusal of a stake in ARM helped to get out of it. Could Steve Jobs then have assumed how important ARM products would be to Apple in ten years?

Even Intel at one time released ARM-based processors (the series was called XScale, but was sold with the division in 2006).

1992: Apple Newton Handler Processor

The first processor, the design of which was released at ARM Holdings after disconnecting from Acorn, was a ARM6 designed specifically for the Newton handheld and in collaboration with Apple. The ARM6 specification was first released in 1992, and in 1993 the company announced its first profits.

1990: ARM Founded

But the fact that Olivetti abandoned the idea of ​ ​ developing its own computer platform did not mean doom for ARM at all. The founder of Acorn Computers Hauser found a way to separate the processor business from Olivetti into a separate company and found two partners interested in this. In 1990, the combined enterprise was named the same as the processor architecture - ARM, but the decryption was changed from Acorn RISC Machines to Advanced RISC Machines.

Who at that moment might need a partnership with a RISC processor developer? Obviously, a company that produces devices based on them. Apple became it: in 1990, the future Newton handheld was designed there, and the ARM processor was great for it due to its economy in relation to battery charging.

VLSI Technologies was chosen as the third partner. This is the direct heiress of the VLSI Project, which was engaged in the design and production of integrated circuits. What was important to the future^[9] joint venture was that VLSI could provide ARM's own computer-aided design system].

VLSI itself needed a new processor customer. This is the pure embodiment of the idea of ​ ​ Conway and Mead, when the developer and the manufacturer of SBIS work separately (and in this case they are even on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean). Taught by the failure of Acorn, Hauser made another correction: instead of releasing the product itself, he suggested exclusively designing processors and selling intellectual property - that is, chip designs and licenses for their production.

If Intel is famous for having dozens of factories around the world, then ARM does not have a single one by 2014. This did not stop ARM from not only standing on a par with Intel and AMD, but also slowly turning into a serious threat to them.

The rapid growth in sales of IBM PC clones in the 1990s did not affect the popularity of RISC in the best way. Where Intel and Microsoft began to refuel, there was virtually no alternative to x86 processors. But professional applications remained: servers and workstations of IBM and Sun Microsystems, which use the "risky" architectures of PowerPC and SPARC, respectively, as well as the microcontroller market, which has long served as the main source of income for ARM.

1978-1984: Acorn era

ARM's history began with the creation of Acorn Computers, which in the 1980s had every chance of taking Intel's place in the global processor market.

In 1984, Acorn fell victim to a crisis in the personal computer market and Italian Olivetti acquired 80% in the company. The deal was unsuccessful, as IBM-compatible computers began to rule the world and everything that did not dock with them was doomed to oblivion.

See also

• The "cell PC" revolution or who will benefit from the ARM-Intel war

Notes