What is ARM? (& Why Is It In Everything Now)

The Impact of Apple's M1 Chipsets Apple's M1 chipsets have received positive feedback for their speed and battery life. The new M1 MacBook Pro is as fast as promised, with incredible battery life. This has led to high demand for the new chipsets, even prompting users to sell their previous models.

Rise of ARM Chipset Producers Mediatek, a major producer of ARM chipsets, is making significant strides in the industry. Other companies are also starting to develop their own chipsets based on ARM architecture due to its growing popularity and performance benefits.

ARM, originally a part of Acorn Computers in the 1980s, was formed when a team within the company designed their own processor due to unavailability of suitable processors. In 1990, it became Advanced RISC Machines Limited and later shortened its name to ARM Limited. The company doesn't manufacture chipsets but owns their design and licenses them out.

ARM vs x86: Key Differences The main difference between ARM and x86 architectures lies in their instruction sets. ARM uses a reduced instruction set computer (RISC) philosophy, providing smaller instruction sets compared to the more complex ones used by x86. This allows ARM processors to be more power efficient and produce less heat, making them ideal for mobile devices.

Customization and Use Cases of ARM Processors ARM processors can be licensed out to manufacturers who then create custom cores tailored for specific use cases. For example, MediaTek creates chipsets optimized for multimedia playback, web browsing, tablets, Chromebooks at an affordable cost. Additionally, both the world's smallest computer and the most powerful supercomputer are based on ARM architecture due to its customization capabilities.

ARM chipsets have different instruction sets than x86 processors, requiring reconfiguration of apps to work on both. Apps made for iOS and Android need to be redone to work on Windows or Mac due to the difference in processor architecture.

The Challenge of Translating x86 Code to ARM In the computer world, translating x86 code into code that ARM processors can understand is possible but not optimal. Apple's Rosetta 2 program eases the transition to Apple Silicon, but a native app performs significantly better than a translated one.

ARM Chipsets and Customization for Specific Use Cases As more manufacturers use ARM chipsets in their devices and optimize programs for them, the issue of performance disparity with x86 will diminish. Manufacturers benefit from customizing chipsets for specific devices, gaining improved performance tailored to their needs.