US-based chip designer ARM, one of the great dark horses of computing, is hardly known outside the industry, and yet far outsells Intel in the number of cores sold each year as its designs are used in a wider variety of devices including Apple's iPhone, Nokia N95, Sony Ericsson P1, Motorola ROKR E6, HTC P4350 phones.
Aiming to provide multi-faceted entertainment and communication features like games and global positioning systems at much lower battery power, ARM has revealed plans to put chips into more mobile devices that will let chipmakers like STMicroelectronics, FreeScale speed up the development of ARM-based chips for smartphones and PDAs.
"For years, games found in mobile phones have equalled low-graphic PC games. While some cellphone makers have started including support for better graphics, even today mobile phones are sold with built-in games that have almost no graphics," explains Keith Clarke, vice-president (technical marketing), ARM.
According to Clarke, "Mobile application developers can benefit from a silicon-independent platform that enables mobile game creation to start earlier in the handset design cycle, maximising commercial return after product launch."
Till date, more than five billion ARM processors have been shipped to all corners of the globe. ARM licenses a variety of cores to chipmakers for use in everything from set-top boxes to handheld computers, and has become a de facto standard in the cellphone and PDA phones.
ARM is already shipping a significant amount of technology for 3G, the next-generation wireless technology that will allow mobile phones to exchange real-time video and other high-bandwidth content.
"3G is already contributing to ARM's bottom line," Clarke says.
As consumer awareness grows and publishers release more content, worldwide mobile gaming end-user revenue is expected to grow from Rs 290 crore (Rs 2.9 billion) in 2006 to Rs 960 crore (Rs 9.6 billion) in 2011, according to Gartner, an information and technology research and advisory firm.
Gartner analysts expect high-growth markets such as China and India to bolster mobile gaming even further.
Rajeev Mehtani, vice-president and managing director, NXP Semiconductors, agrees: "Today's customers expect their mobile phones and portable devices to provide high quality multimedia infotainment, combined with long battery life.
"At the same time, mobile operators and content providers are demanding end-devices that incorporate enhanced multimedia functionalities, so that they can offer new services and content for future revenue growth." NXP Semiconductors claims to have enabled its partners to run high-performance multimedia applications with minimal power consumption and at lower price points for mobile and wireless devices.
Looks like the smartphones and other mobile devices are set to get a performance boost from the new multi-core processor design recently unveiled by ARM. The company is also working with partners to deliver a Linux-based platform for mobile devices.
Atul Arora, president (commercial operations), ARM says, "As GPS and TV are added to phones, we see a rising need for multi-core performance."
Software licensing firm Symbian has already said that it will support the new processor architecture in future versions of its Symbian OS platform to provide "performance on demand" - maximising battery life. Albeit, such chips are not expected to appear in production handsets until 2010.
