ARM

ARM is setting up a joint venture with security technology companies Gemalto and Giesecke & Devrient to arrive at a common security standard for connected devices such as tablets, smart-TVs, games consoles and smartphones, the company said Tuesday.

ARM which holds a dominant share of processors that go into smartphones, said it will hold 40 percent of the joint venture with the other partners holding 30 percent each.

AMD today laid out its plans for the next couple of years at its Financial Analyst Day. The plans are a mix of familiar and logical extensions of the company's current products, but contained some more surprising elements: specifically, AMD opened the door to future processors that include ARM CPUs.

The market seems to think that the folks at ARM and its licensees (TI, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Marvel, Apple, et. al.) are on the verge of attacking Intel where it is most susceptible – the PC and server space. Indeed, ARM is making inroads with low power designs, and has a virtual monopoly on mobile devices. But the path to PCs and Servers is a very different path than smartphones and tablets. And clearly, Intel doesn’t think it can afford to concede any territory, which is why it is pushing back hard on the mobile heartland of ARM. So let’s step back and see what Intel has going for it vs.