'We are the architect for the digital world'

Warren East, CEO, ARM 

 ARM is now a leading supplier of semiconductor IP

in the world. What kind of R&D work is happening in India?



A year ago, ARM had one full-time employee here. Today, we have a small
commercial team-the design center now has 110 people. We do physical IP design

and processor validation support. Today, the Bangalore center is the third

largest ARM location worldwide. We have an increasing number of Indian

customers-both design houses and people who are making products themselves,

and some end customers. ARM has been in India since 1996, but we have been

working through Wipro.  In 2004, we

started a similar relationship with the Tatas. They did some work for us on

developmental tools.

When you acquired the design center in Bangalore, were

these Indian partners concerned?



Absolutely. When I was here a year ago, they were very concerned about the

fact that we were going to stop business with them. We assured them that this

was an increase in capacity for ARM. We were looking at acquiring a design

center because of the emerging industry here. We believe that over the next

several years, the market for semiconductors here will grow. It is about talent

and cost, and also about customers.

The money here will flow mainly from the wireless space?



ARM is obviously very well known in the wireless space. All the market

segments that we target will reflect in India. The other market besides mobile

is automotive. Just recently, we announced a new microcontroller called

CortexA8. It will find its way into automotive products.

Cortex is expected to appear in several high-end

applications besides mobile phones. What are these applications?



Today, there is a lot of Internet infrastructure. So ADSL modems, Wi-Fi,

things that enable the digital world to be useful to everyday people. You have

extensions of consumer products, of digital cameras that are growing hugely. If

you look at ARM's five million units, just over 60% is in mobile handsets.

About 40 % is non-mobile handsets, Internet infrastructure, digital cameras,

consumer products, and automotive microcontrollers.

Embedded computing is coming to cameras and phones. What

role will ARM play in the digital world?



We say we are the architecture for the digital world, we are the essence of

the digital age. The microprocessor lends its spirit to the chip. It is at the

heart of the digital product.

ARM never focused on the desktop PC. Why is that?



Initially, we chose not to focus on the desktop PC because we saw no point.

We would have spent a lot of money trying to get designs in. It is a relatively

small volume. Having said that, within the PC, I have a Bluetooth connection, a

wireless LAN connection, a hard disk drive, keyboard controller, there is a

camera involved as well-all those products require ARM microprocessors. The

fact that we are not the central processor in the PC is almost irrelevant.

—Goutam Das 



outamd@cybermedia.co.in