Providing Processor Evaluation and Commercialization Methods for 1 Trillion Connected Devices
Accelerating ARM Cortex-M3 SoC Design through IP Subsystem and Validated ARM mbed OS Support

ARM has added several improvements to the DesignStart program to provide a foundation for easy access to embedded processor technology for developing IoT, intelligent, and connected solutions. Through this, it provides the fastest method to evaluate and design custom SoCs and bring them to market.

The improvements provided by the DesignStart program announced this time are as follows: ▲Addition of access to Cortex-M3 ▲Maintenance of existing access to Cortex-M0 to enable application to a wide range of smart embedded applications ▲Provision of a success-based royalty model with low risk by eliminating upfront licensing and evaluation costs ▲Enabling rapid IP access to commence CPU commercialization development within days.

More than 20 billion semiconductor chips are equipped with Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M3 processors, with approximately half of them shipped within just a few years. These processors continue to gain popularity due to their diverse features, ultra-compact size, and excellent power efficiency, and can even implement battery-free energy harvesting applications. For example, the Cortex-M0 processor boasts an ultra-compact size that can be mounted on a cross-section of human hair. Innovative cases implemented using the processor can be found at the ARM Innovation Hub.



Custom SoC, Providing Intelligence and Differentiation for 1 Trillion or More IoT Devices
At 'ARM TechCon 2016' held in the fall of last year, Masayoshi Son, Chairman of SoftBank, shared insights on why SoftBank acquired ARM, and explained ARM's role within his vision of connected devices reaching 1 trillion globally. To realize this vision, easily accessible and cost-effective embedded intelligence across a common platform is required.

Custom SoCs are necessary to fully realize this vision. Through custom SoCs, benefits such as supply chain simplification as well as complexity reduction, cost savings, increased differentiation and efficiency can be achieved. A newly published white paper by semiconductor market research firm Tirias Research emphasizes the effects of custom SoCs on OEM manufacturers' top-line growth and bottom-line profit. It states that ASICs can add more features to products to up-sell more value to products, and profitability improvements are possible through reduced board size and reduced use of expensive individual components.

There are various partners benefiting from the advantages provided by custom SoCs. For example, S3 Group developed an ARM-based custom SoC and applied it to industrial control applications, achieving 70% reduction in power consumption, 80% savings in component costs, and 75% reduction in PCB size.

However, the actual factor that realizes the potential of such custom SoCs and accelerates market entry is the tremendous volume of software and middleware already available on the ARM-based platform. In addition, open source support to further solidify the value of solutions, tooling, and an active and growing ecosystem are already in place.

Realizing the Vision of 1 Trillion IoT Devices
ARM is actively working to realize Chairman Son's bold vision. Through the enhanced DesignStart program, ARM has expanded the possibilities for innovation by system semiconductor design teams on Cortex-M0 and Cortex-M3, the most popular processor cores globally (both cores are being embedded in 500,000 SoCs per hour). The size, efficiency, performance, and versatility of these processors provide more opportunities to customize semiconductor designs ranging from ultra-compact sensors realizing intelligence in everyday life to highly integrated SoCs. All of this is made possible through a consistent ARM architecture supporting the world's number one embedded ecosystem and software asset base.

With immediate access to begin development and a complete system platform to realize designs with significantly lower risk, tested software and ARM and subsystem IP with no initial costs, the risk involved in the process of rapid market entry is substantially reduced, increasing the likelihood of realizing new ideas. There are no royalties on prototypes and early samples.