The first Arm processor was created in Cambridge in 1985. From humble origins and with limited resources, the ARM1 was designed to power the new Acorn Archimedes computer systems. The ARM1 featured 6,000 gates, while modern Arm processors feature more than 100 million. Similarly, the popularity of the “exceptionally power-efficient” Arm architecture has scaled incredible heights. At the latest count there have been more than 250 billion Arm chips shipped, in devices spanning sensors, and smartphones, to datacenters and beyond.
(Image credit: Arm)
From the ARM Ltd turkey barn
Acorn wanted to create an ambitious follow-up to the BBC Micro, which used an 8-bit processor with a 16-bit address bus, namely the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor. Just two engineers, Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber, were tasked with this job.
