Definition of ARM Architecture

Do not be surprised that this term does not sound familiar to you, although most of you are users of a device that works with a microprocessor that complies with this architecture, since it is the one that equips the vast majority of CPUs for mobile devices such as smartphones Y tablets.

This is so thanks to the intrinsic characteristics of this architecture, which requires less power supply, dissipates less heat, and requires less space, three crucial points for a mobile device

While the x86 architecture is based on a CISC model (Complex Instruction Set Computer) in which the instructions are longer and more complex, consuming more clock cycles and Energy, the ARM architecture follows the RISC model (Reduced Instruction Set Computer), with shorter and faster instructions.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages: as the instructions in x86 are more complex, they can do more things and, therefore, the power of the micro is increased and its operation is simplified. programming.

That is why, despite there are examples of use of the ARM architecture in desktop devices or servers, these are fields in which the x86 architecture has triumphed, while the benefits of ARM are more suited to mobile devices, where it has ended succeeding.

Another difference between both architectures is their mode of commercialization: closed property vs. license

While Intel, AMD or Cyrix have developed their x86 solutions in-home and each one has had to "wake up", ARM Holdings (the company behind the development of the ARM architecture) designs each generation of this but does not manufacture chips, licensing its rights to other Business.

This is how we find a myriad of manufacturers that produce CPUs and ARM-based solutions, such as Qualcomm, Samsung, NVIDIA, MediaTek, Texas Instruments or even Apple among others, since each and every one of them has acquired a license from manufacturing to ARM Holdings.

Each of these manufacturers introduces the improvements it deems appropriate in its designs, thus customizing the chips and improving the sections it deems appropriate, thereby differentiating itself from the competence which also works with ARM. In this way, the different licensees can differentiate themselves in the market and vis-à-vis the consumer.

Initially 32 bits, the ARM architecture has lived -like x86- its passage to 64 bits

The advent of paradigm of the Internet of things (IoT) has given ARM architecture even more opportunities thanks to its low consumption energetic. Thus, manufacturers such as NVIDIA or Qualcomm have launched solutions for cars, for example.

The success of the ARM architecture has also been one of the causes of Intel's abandonment of the mobility arena, as the company The Californian felt it was unable to compete with the advantages of ARM chips, and its offering had been poorly adopted by manufacturers and consumers.

Regarding the software, ARM enjoys a great variety of platforms adapted to this architecture, perhaps the main one being GNU / Linux, an operating system that serves as the basis for Android

And the green robot system is the one most used by manufacturers and users on their devices. In fact, and despite having a PC version, Android moves "like a fish in water."

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