ARM says its Q1 revenues grew by 22% over the same quarter of 2014, a position it ascribes to continuing momentum in licensing of advanced technology, as well as a growth in the shipments of devices featuring ARM processors.
ARM's Q1 revenue was £227.5million, 22% higher than the £186.7m recorded in 2014. However, when stated in dollars, revenues only showed a 14% increase to $348.2m.
Amongst the Q1 highlights were licenses signed for four ARMv8-A processors and two POP licenses, including one which will see a Cortex A-53 processor implemented on a 28nm process. Meanwhile, 3.8billion ARM based chips were shipped in Q1, 31% more than in the same period in 2014.
Pete Hutton, executive vp and president of ARM's product groups, noted than 1bn more ARM based chips had shipped in Q1 2015 than in the same period last year. "And five of the top 10 chip makers took licenses," he added.
The company signed 30 processor licences in Q1 2015, eight of which were for Cortex-A series processors. It says it has now signed 68 processor and architecture licences for the ARMv8-A. Meanwhile, 16 further licences were signed for Cortex-M class devices, taking the total number for this class to 300.
"There has also been a big investment in Cortex-M class devices," Hutton noted, "and we have built a design centre in Taiwan to focus on this area."
Hutton also pointed to growing interest in ARM's 64bit v8 architecture, claiming 20% of Cortex-A class shipments are now v8 based. "And that's likely to grow to about 50% by the end of the year."
