ARM is confident it can take on Intel's mobile chips

BRITISH CHIP DESIGN OUTFIT ARM is not expecting to be troubled by the newly announced Intel 3D tri-gate 22nm Ivy Bridge chips.

ARM has known about Intel's technology for some time but Intel told the press last week that its tri-gate transistor is its "most significant technology announcement of the year".

Intel's technology could be seen as taking significant aim at the market that ARM traditionally dominates, mobile connected devices like smartphones and tablets, but despite this ARM has remained unimpressed.

ARM shares briefly took a hit as investors nervously eyed Intel's announcement but the stock recovered before the weekend. The INQUIRER spoke with ARM's EVP of marketing, Ian Drew, about why ARM still has the advantage in the mobile chip market.

"This announcement is consistent with Intel's history of innovation through process improvements," said Drew.

"The ARM ecosystem innovates along multiple points, not only the process but also through micro‐architecture and system‐on‐chip design that enables optimised efficiency for a broad range of products," he added.

Drew said that ARM's strength lies in its partner ecosystem, something that will take Intel a much longer time to build, even if it has already partnered with ARM.

ARM has already been working with its partners on testing chips at 20nm and 22nm process nodes and announced a partnership with IBM for work on 14nm scale chips at the beginning of this year.

"We are confident that this will allow us to compete at a consistently high level within the industry," Drew added. µ