Thus the Group makes no chip but sells design i

"It is a centre for our group, with a team that made the very good job." It is in such glowing terms that Warren East, CEO of ARM (Advanced Risc Machine) celebrated the tenth anniversary of its implementation in Sophia-Antipolis. The world leader in the design of microprocessors for chips announced its intention to increase its staff on-site hiring 25 of employees in addition to the Cape of 55 employees by the end of the year. What to strengthen the French position of the group, which has another centre in Grenoble, 30 employees strong. "It is a recognition for our engineers and Sophia-Antipolis technology ecosystem," said Pascal Peru, Director of ARM France. In fact, number of semiconductor manufacturers have implemented on the technopole, such as Intel, Texas Instruments, Infineon and STMicroelectronics, which promotes investment.

If ARM processors are found in more than 90 of mobile phones in the market, its brand remains little known to the general public, because it places all up the chain of semiconductors. Thus, the Group makes no chip but sells design, i.e. the smart plan, manufacturers (Samsung, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, Infineon...), who then adapt it to their needs.

Battle above the mobility

ARM pays via a contract licensing and royalties levied on every chip sold. What revenue very comfortable. Created just thirty years ago, the British group - its headquarters is in Cambridge - account only 1,700 employees and cleared in 2009 a turnover of 489 million dollars, while 10 lower than 2008 because of the economic crisis, but increase of 45 report in 2004.

The key to this success ARM processors are very little consumers of energy and very compact. Ideal for mobile use. What to allow the mark to grant 85 market share in the segment of mobile phones. Today, these features could allow ARM to find new relays for growth, with, first, that of touch tablets. "It is a very interesting market, which will certainly cannibalize"netbooks"SFF PC sold low-priced market." "ARM is very well placed to play the leading roles," judge Warren East. In particular, many tablets integrating Google's Android operating system should integrate architecture ARM (Samsung, Acer, MSI,...). On the Apple iPad, Warren East refuses to communicate, even if many experts say that the chip A4 equipping the famous terminal works under ARM. In all cases, Nice site will be in the front line in this battle, as he participates in the development of the Cortex A9 chip, particularly suited to the shelves.

Nevertheless, this new market will be not easy to capture. ARM must count with the competition from Intel, world's leading manufacturers of semiconductors, which wants to impose on the shelves its concurrent architecture called "x 86", ultra-majoritaire in the world of the PC. Its chips dedicated to mobility, named "Atom", are regularly the technological developments that make them less intensive in energy. "Intel is a very large group, with beautiful technology and a lot of money." His last chips are of better quality than the previous. "But it cannot be placed at the same level as our products that we are constantly improving," relativizes Warren East, with an all British irony.