ARM features and applications

FEATURES OF  ARM :               ARM is a RISC based computer processor.Using a RISC based approach to computer design, ARM processors require significantly fewer transistors than processors that would typically be found in a traditional computer. The benefits of this approach are lower costs, less heat, and less power usage, traits that are desirable for use in light, portable, battery-powered devices such as smart phones and tablet computers.The reduced complexity and simpler design allows companies to build a low-energy system on a chip for an embedded system incorporating memory, interfaces, radios, etc.
                          By 2005,  about 98% of the more than one billion mobile phones sold each year used at least one ARM processor. As of 2009, ARM processors accounted for approximately 90% of all embedded 32-bit RISC processors and were used extensively in consumer electronics, including personal digital assistants (PDAs), tablets, mobile phones, digital media and music players, hand-held game consoles, calculators and computer peripherals such as hard drives and routers.
   ARM CORES: 
    There are many extensions or updates of arm processor cores are introduced , some of them are tabulated as below,
    

Aerchitcture	Family
ARMv1	ARM1
ARMv2	ARM2, ARM3
ARMv3	ARM6, ARM7
ARMv4	StrongARM, ARM7TDMI, ARM9TDMI
ARMv5	ARM7EJ, ARM9E, ARM10E, XScale
ARMv6	ARM11
ARMv6-M	ARM Cortex-M0, ARM Cortex-M0+, ARM Cortex-M1
ARMv7	ARM Cortex-A5, ARM Cortex-A7, ARM Cortex-A8, ARM Cortex-A9, ARM Cortex-A15, ARM Cortex-R4, ARM Cortex-R5, ARM Cortex-R7
ARMv7-M	ARM Cortex-M3, ARM Cortex-M4
ARMv8-A	ARM Cortex-A53, ARM Cortex-A57

 APPLICATION OF ARM CORES:

            ARM cores are used in a number of products, particularly PDAs and smartphones. Some computing examples are the Microsoft Surface, Apple iPad and ASUS Eee Pad Transformer. Others include the Apple iPhone smartphone, iPod portable media player, Canon PowerShot A470 digital camera, Nintendo DS handheld game console and TomTomturn-by-turn navigation system.

  They also used it in developing Manchester University's computer ,SpiNNAKER, which uses arm core to simulate human brain.

    ARM chips are also used in Raspberry Pi, BeagleBoard, BeagleBone, PandaBoard, and other Single-board computers, because they are very small, inexpensive and consume very little power.