In 1998 Advanced RISC Machines Ltd name is changed to ARM Ltd, 50 million cores a year shipped.
In 1998 ARM IPO on both LSE & NASDAQ
In 1999 ARM acquired Micrologic Solutions, a software consulting company based in Cambridge, UK
In 2000 ARM acquired Allant Software, a developer of debugging software; Infinite Designs, a design company based in Sheffield, UK and EuroMIPS a smart card design house in Sophia Antipolis, France
In 2001, ARM acquired the engineering team of Noral Micrologics, a debug hardware and software company based in Blackburn, UK.
In 2002, Artisan Components acquired NurLogic Design a PHY and analogue mixed signal company based in San Diego, CA. China office is opened.
In 2003, ARM acquired Adelante Technologies of Belgium, creating its OptimoDE data engines business, a form of lightweight DSP engine.
In 2004, ARM acquired Axys Design Automation, a developer of ESL design tools; and Artisan Components, a designer of Physical IP (standard cell libraries, Memory Compilers, PHYs etc.), the building blocks of integrated circuits.
A characteristic feature of ARM processors is their low electric power consumption, which makes them particularly suitable for use in portable devices[5]. In fact, almost all modern mobile phones and personal digital assistants contain ARM CPUs, making them the most widely-used 32-bit microprocessor family in the world. Today ARMs account for over 75% of all 32-bit embedded CPUs.[6]
Unlike other microprocessor corporations such as AMD, Intel, Freescale (formerly Motorola) and Renesas (formerly Hitachi and Mitsubishi)[11], ARM only licenses its technology as intellectual property (IP), rather than manufacturing its own CPUs. Thus, there are a few dozen companies making processors based on ARM's designs. Intel, Freescale and Renesas have all licensed ARM technology. In 2007, 2.9 billion chips based on an ARM design were manufactured[12].
Company name
The acronym ARM originally stood for AcornRISC Machine. The company name ARM stands for Advanced RISC Machines. This name was changed, around the time of the IPO, to "ARM Holdings", since it was felt the term RISC, which indicates a type of CPU design, being phonetically identical to risk, would deter people unfamiliar with computers.
