ARM CELEBRATES 10 YEARS IN SHEFFIELD

13th April 2010

ARM Ltd

ES Admin

0 0

ARM is celebrating 10 years of operation in Sheffield this week, highlighting the city’s growing importance as a technology hub. ARM, a FTSE 100 company, licences IP to a network of Partners including 200 leading semiconductor and systems companies, with more than 18 billion ARM processor-based chips shipped to date. The company’s processor designs power over 95 percent of mobile phones and over 25 percent of all electronic devices from handheld gaming devices to portable music players and digital cameras. ARM has over 1700 employees with offices worldwide including China, India, Silicon Valley and the UK.

Mike Inglis, executive vice president and general manager of processor division, ARM said: “The high tech sector in Sheffield is growing fast and ARM is a large part of that growth. Internationally the city is often associated with traditional industries and manufacturing but it’s quickly developing into a hub for next generation technology innovation. Many processor technologies lying at the heart of the latest electronic devices are conceived here in our Sheffield design lab.”

The Sheffield office is home to one of ARM’s processor design teams, and has grown four-fold in the last ten years to employ 40 people. In addition to helping drive the development of cutting-edge high-performance, low-power electronic products, the centre is responsible for driving the technology behind the ARM AMBA technology. AMBA is an industry standard that enables ARM Partners to optimize the development and shorten the time to market for ARM processor-based chip designs.

ARM‘s Sheffield operation can trace its roots back to start-up business Infinite Designs which was acquired by ARM in April 2000. Infinite Designs previously went through the start-up process at business incubator Sheffield Technology Parks.

Now there is a new breed of technology start-up bidding to do the same. Gene DePrez, Director of Innovation and his team at Creativesheffield, are helping to encourage further growth. He said: “For years there has been a high tech presence in the city but recently there has been a real feeling of a sector coming together. There are established companies such as ARM and several technology start-ups growing around that core, forming a creative cluster and a very flexible supply chain.

“Engineers deciding to work in Sheffield in the high tech field now know that they are coming into a sector that has great potential for growth with opportunities to move forward after their first job.”

DePrez also cited this as; “demonstrating the important role that the city’s business incubators and accelerators play in connecting and supporting collaborative product design.”