The ARM Processor



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ARM – What is it?



ARM stands for Advanced RISC Machines
An ARM processor is basically any 16/32bit microprocessor designed and licensed by ARM Ltd, a microprocessor design company headquartered in England, founded in 1990 by Herman Hauser
A characteristic feature of ARM processors is their low electric power consumption, which makes them particularly suitable for use in portable devices.
It is one of the most used processors currently on the market


General Computer ArchitectureIdealized Baseline


A Stored-Program digital computer keeps its instructions and data in the same memory system, allowing the instructions to be treated as data when necessary.
A Stored-Program computer is sometimes reflected by its configuration as a desktop machine where the user runs different programs at different times.
Other times a Stored-Program computer is reflected by the same processor being used in a range of different applications, each with a fixed program, i.e. an embedded system.



General Computer ArchitectureDefinitions


Semantic Gap
The distance, in implementation terms, between a high-level language construct and a machine instruction.
Compiler
A computer program that translates a high-level language program into a sequence of machine instructions.
Processor Design Trade-offs
Processor design is to define an instruction set that supports the functions that are useful to the programmer while at the same time allowing an implementation that is as efficient as possible.
Good processor design should define the instruction set to be a good compiler target rather than something that the programmer will use directly.


RISC Architecture Advantages/Disadvantages


Advantages
A smaller die size
A simpler processor requires fewer transistors and less silicon area.
A shorter development time
Less design effort and therefore a lower cost
A higher performance
Simpler instructions are executed faster.


Disadvantages
Poor code density compared with CISC’s
Doesn’t execute x86 code


RISC Power-efficient Processing


Principals of low-power circuit design
Minimize the power supply voltage
Minimize the circuit activity
Minimize the number of gates
Minimize the clock frequency