Arm gears up for AI with new generation of mobile chip designs

Arm Holdings has launched its next-generation set of chip designs called Lumex that can run on mobile devices such as smartphones and watches without accessing the internet. The new generation of Arm mobile designs come in four types, ranging from less powerful but more energy efficient ones designed for watches and other smart wearable devices to a version designed to maximize the computing horsepower available.

The Lumex designs announced are part of the company's Compute Subsystems (CSS) business, which aims to offer handset makers and chip designers a more ready-made piece of technology that enables their speedy use in new products.

The peak performance design aims to run software that harnesses the power of large AI models without accessing cloud computing on devices such as high-end smartphones.

"AI is becoming pretty fundamental to kind of what's happening, whether it's kind of real-time interactions or some killer use cases like AI translation," said Chris Bergey, a senior vice president and general manager at Arm. "We are just seeing AI become kind of this expectation."

The complete designs that Arm is now making for data centers and mobile phones are part of the company's longer-term plans to grow its smartphone and other revenue through a variety of means. Arm also plans to invest more money into examining making its own chips and has hired several key people in order to do so.