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ARM Strength: 10 Billion Processors
ARM, a Cambridge, England-based company that licenses microprocessor-related technologies, says the total number of processors that use ARM technology now exceeds 10 billion. The first ARM chip shipped back in 1991. The ARM-based chips are in every hot device: the Nokia N95, iPods, the iPhone, TomTom portable GPS systems, even the Nintendo DS. They surely have come a long way, and have benefited from the mobile revolution in a big way. I used to follow this company pretty closely, and once wrote about the race between ARM and MIPS for Forbes.com. ARM has clearly outperformed MIPS over the past decade.
The ARM chip (early version) was also in Apple’s Newton. So from Newton to iPhone, Apple’s been at it for some time. The ARM is a very nice product, fast, low power, small package.