IBM and ARM signed an agreement to produce revolutionary technology that would help ARM to move ahead with renewed vigor and IBM to take its first steps at getting a share of the tablet PC market. Under an agreement signed in January, IBM will support ARM in its endeavor to scale its Cortex manufacturing process down to 14 nanometers. This would arm ARM with the thinnest silicon chips in the market and hence make it one of the best processor providers for tablets. ARM’s system on a chip platform had revolutionized the tablet processors with enhanced battery life and powerful computing experience with reduced size.
Michael Cadigan, general manager for IBM’s Microelectronics unit, said that ARM’s Cortex processors are now the processors of choice for leading smartphone manufacturers and tablet PC companies. He said that IBM plans to work closely with ARM and other customers to give a boost to the present ARM technology for a varied range of computing and communication devices and products.
IBM is now a party to the biggest technological boom of this year and wants to expand its horizons into processors and chips too. ARM officials feel that this transfer of manufacturing process over to IBM will allow their company to focus on design and development of next generation innovation in the form of chips powering mobile technology. Simon Segars, executive vice president and GM over ARM’s Physical IP unit, said that IBM already has a reputation of excelling in research and development.
ARM had become the leading provider of the SOC platform to OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) like Samsung and Dell. Also Microsoft who till now was a supporter of Intel has dissolved that relationship and jumped on the ARM band wagon and planned the next generation of Windows, Windows 8 to be powered by ARM’s processor chips. IBM saw a jump in its shares with this announcement, with them going up by 3.05% as soon as the announcement was made, ARM shares however came down by a 2.5% following the increase of 3% the previous day when Goldman Sachs had recognized its growing role in the computing market claiming that tablets will soon replace one in three PC sales this year.
