ARM Holdings (ARM)

The Silicon Chip IP Blueprint Company

Every device in your house such as the computer, tablet, smart speaker, mobile phone, cooker, washing machine, wi-fi unit, television, games console and car probably has a chip based on ARM technology.

This Cambridge, UK headquartered company traces its history back to the late 1970s. At that time, home-based computing was becoming a possibility and there were many hardware makers, and the PC had not yet become the de facto technology standard.

In 1978 Hermann Hauser, Andy Hopper and Christopher Curry founded Acorn Computers. They made several computers in the 1980s including the BBC Micro which were popular in the UK.

BBC Micro produced by Acorn.

In the 1980s, Acorn decided they needed to develop their own chip and set up a division called Acorn Risc Machines and then renamed Advanced Risc Machines or ARM for short.

In 1990, ARM was restructured and spun off as three-way JV with Acorn, VLSI Logic[1] and Apple Computer. At the start, Acorn provided 12 employees, VLSI provided tools, and Apple brought a $3mn investment.

The new company was designed to further develop an Acorn chip called Acord RISC machine processor. This had been selected by Apple as the chip for its Newton PDA.

Apple Newton PDA

Newton provided ARM with Revenues and ARM was profitable by 1993. However, Newton was a failure in terms of sales and was discontinued in 1998.

The rest of this report is behind the paywall and only available to paying subscribers. Please do consider subscribing. The cost has been set at the lowest level permitted by Substack and is the equivalent of one cup of coffee a month.