Considering ARM? You should be. Everyone else is.

The tagline for ARM is “The architecture for the digital world” and that is a very appropriate statement to make given that we are in such a completely digital world. While the architecture was initially designed for PC use, the advantages that it offers has proliferated the technology to be used in almost every electronic system that we use each day.

According to ARM, with over 15 billion ARM based chips shipped and 600 processor licenses sold to more than 200 companies including STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, NXP Semiconductors, and Freescale Semiconductor, it is not difficult to see why they can be found everywhere. Some notable, and highly recognizable, consumer products include the Nintendo DS, Apple iPhone and iPad, Canon PowerShot camera, and Samsung Galaxy. To name every system that uses an ARM core would be a nearly impossible task.

However, it is more than just the consumer gadgets and toys that we love that use ARM processors. We rely on ARM technology in our lives for critical applications as well, specifically in automotive, for things like air bag deployment and breaking systems.

When choosing an ARM device there are a number of key things to consider: size, cost, power consumption, and support. The weight placed on each of these aspects will be dependant on the specific application that is being designed. For example, power consumption and size have much less value in an automotive application than they would in a mobile phone. And often there is a trade off between the aspects, such as an increased cost associated with a smaller size.

As the architecture has been licensed to many companies the implementation can be achieved in different ways. Some take advantage of smaller process lithographies, and ARM has been reduced to an amazing 28nm, however there are significant costs involved with adopting such an advanced size. Other companies choose to take advantage of the reliability and cost savings available with larger geometries, or make improvements by implementing the architecture using their own methods, such as Freescale using Thin Film Storage (TFS) with FlexMemory Technology for their Kinetis ARM Cortex-M4 Microcontrollers.

In terms of power consumption the trade off is performance. The faster the processor operates the more power it will consume. There are techniques that can be applied to reduce the power consumption, such as having a shortened instruction set, and that ties in nicely with the support aspect to consider.

To help engineers design in microprocessors using an ARM architecture faster and more efficiently, most companies that make the devices offer support through various methods – evaluation kits, development tools, training videos, white papers, design guides, and many others. As the product lifecycle continually shortens it is vital to receive support from companies to get to market faster, which means not only designing the system but also eliminating the bugs.

At the end of the day, the right tool for the job has to be selected, and given the number of choices that a design engineer has to make when looking at ARM architectures, it can be quite daunting. Instead of looking up every company and trying to navigate their websites to find the information you are looking for, and alternative is to visit the Mouser Product Knowledge Center. This will provide a list of products, applications, and manufacturers, to get a jump start on your research.