ARM Preps Near-Threshold Processor for IoT

Peter Clarke
EETimes (8/15/2013 09:50 AM EDT)

LONDON — ARM Holdings plc is working on a processor core optimized for operation close to the threshold voltage of CMOS transistors and at clock frequencies of the order of tens of kilohertz. The processor IP licensor has done multiple internal designs in research and is now developing a possible slow, very low-power microcontroller core for the Internet of Things (IoT) and other embedded applications.

Mike Muller, chief technology officer of ARM, told a group of UK journalists that strategies for processing small amounts of data and transmitting small payloads for the IoT might differ depending on whether a node was powered or relied on energy scavenging from the local environment. For the latter case, a processor optimized for exceedingly low-power consumption that could wake up whenever enough energy had been harvested could be useful.

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