The world’s largest tech conference focused on the PC industry, COMPUTEX, is scheduled to run for a full month from May 31st to June 30th this year. Kicking off COMPUTEXVirtual 2021 is Simon Segars, Arm’s Chief Executive Officer, with his aptly titled keynote address: Sparking the World’s Post-Pandemic Recovery. Harnessing technology as a force of good, Segars addresses technology’s role as the epicenter to the post-pandemic recovery.
Arm technology has been changing the way people live and the way businesses operate. Segars shared how its solutions can empower technological innovation while addressing the global demand for ubiquitous specialized processing with increasingly capable security and artificial intelligence (AI).
Armv9: Next-generation architecture
Segars likened Arm and its partners’ long-term investments in research and development to the decades of foundational research of the researchers of mRNA vaccines. Just as vaccines help the world better prepare and deal with the global pandemic, the investments that Arm’s partners are making today will help them address new opportunities that have yet to be discovered.
With a new approach to critical capabilities, Arm places focus on security, compute efficiency, protecting AI-enabled services, and sustainability. The combination of computing in the age of AI will accelerate how we tackle complex challenges surrounding climate change, security and equitable access to technologies and connectivity.
A decade of investment and research and development was put into the creation of Armv9, a major upgrade to Arm’s processor architecture. The next-generation architecture enables Arm’s partners to accelerate the development of new solutions based on new capabilities to unlock new opportunities. Armv9 architecture will address the global demand for ubiquitous specialized processing with increasingly capable security and AI.
Armv9 Confidential Compute: The challenge of security
Semiconductors are the key to technological innovation and development, and the foundation of all kinds of electronic products. At the heart of the global recovery, and the future, is the exploding demand for semiconductors. Over 25 billion Arm-based chips were shipped in the year 2020 alone. This demand is expected to grow as chips are used in smartphones, cars, 5G networks, and data centres.
Yet, the exploding demand and ubiquity of compute creates new vulnerabilities. Segars singled out security as the greatest challenge that computing needs to address. With a belief that 100% of the world’s data will be securely processed by Arm technology either at the endpoint, in the data networks or the cloud, Arm holds the issue of security with utmost importance so partners and end-consumers are confident that their information is protected from hackers and cyber crime.
Confidential Compute, the industry’s solution to rising cyber crime rates, goes beyond encrypting stored data to shielding portions of code and data from access or modification while in-use, keeping data more safe and secure.
Arm’s solution to the challenge of security takes Confidential Compute further with Armv9’s Confidential Compute architecture. Segars introduced Realms as part of Armv9’s Confidential Compute architecture. Usable across all applications, Realms creates regions in a system to separate sensitive and non-sensitive data to protect commercially sensitive data and code from the rest of the system while it is in-use, at rest, and in transit.
Coupled with Realms, Memory Tagging Extensions, Armv9’s second security feature, implements lock and key access to memory. Locks can be set on memory and keys provided during memory access. This ensures that data can only be accessed when using the right key.
Tackling climate change: Decarbonizing compute
Arm takes sustainability seriously by aiming to reduce energy consumption and lower CO2 emissions wherever computing happens. To decarbonize compute, Segars introduced Arm’s Neoverse V2 and N2, compute platforms optimized for sustainability and performance.
By using compute to create smarter and more energy efficient devices and infrastructure, Arm’s partners are trailblazers in the world’s post-pandemic recovery. Taiwan is a leader in this space; Segar cites several local examples in his address including: MediaTek’s use of Arm Total Compute Solutions to unlock new capabilities in mobile, AAEON’s use of IoT devices in Taipei to create smart infrastructure, Johnson Controls International’s use of Arm to reduce power usage and decrease carbon emissions in the Taipei World Trade Center, and RelaJet’s use of AI technology to deliver a smarter energy-efficient hearing aid.
Arm: Sparking the world’s potential for a better tomorrow
New technological advancements can be a transformative force in our world, especially as we emerge from the pandemic. In the age of AI, Segar shares that the combination of Arm’s compute platform and ecosystem and NVIDIA’s expertise in AI will create the world’s leading compute company.
Segars concludes with Arm’s purpose in the technological world. With an aim to spark the world’s potential and create a future designed by millions of minds, Arm stays rooted in building a more secure and sustainable world for generations to come. The work that Arm and its partners are doing today is going to play a critical role in building the world of tomorrow: a world that Arm is looking forward to building with its partners.