With the adoption rate of the ARM mbed IoT Device Platform increasing rapidly, the company has announced a new assurance standard, the ARM mbed Enabled program.

Cramer said competitors like Intel, Samsung, Qualcomm, ARM and Nvidia will fight the deal in Washington because it has the potential to crunch their gross margins by bringing up costs. He also pointed out that Washington has been relatively unfriendly to larger mergers this year.

There are a few possible explanations for the lack of Cortex-A57 design wins, and they involve physics and economics.

ARM has acquired Offspark, a Netherlands-based supplier of Transport Layer Security, that will get folded into its mbed operating system for its Cortex-M cores.

This is the first Android smartwatch based on the Broadcom system-on-chip (SoC) platform which includes a 1.2GHz Quad-core ARM Cortex A7 processor (BCM23550), an improved GPS and Sensor processing SOC (BCM47531) capable of simultaneously tracking five satellite systems (GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, SBAS, and BeiDou), the now popular Wi-Fi/BT/NFC/FM quad-combo connectivity chip (BCM43341), and a highly integrated power management IC (BCM59054).

Qualcomm, which uses processor technology licensed from ARM, follows a handful of other ARM chip suppliers that are trying to offer server chips.

Intel CEO Brian Krzanich expects new semiconductor partners in China to migrate to the US chipmaker's architecture within a few years and give up on ARM technology more widely used in smartphones and tablets.

ARM has announced an enhanced suite of higher performance and more energy-efficient products specifically designed for the rapidly growing mid-range mobile and consumer electronics markets.

ARM and SMIC have announced an agreement to offer the ARM Artisan physical IP platform for SMIC's 28nm poly SiON process to provide high-performance, high-density and low-power technologies for SoC designs.

Sir John Buchanan, chairman of ARM, is preparing to step down from the role less than a year after the departure of long-term chief executive Warren East.

AMD on Tuesday said it will be sampling 64-bit ARM system-on-a-chip (SoC) products to customers this quarter and is "on track to launch one of the industry's first 64-bit ARM server SoCs in 2014."

For years, Intel has been battling to replace ARM-based chips used in smartphones and other mobile devices. Now it has partly succumbed to the low-power ARM approach.

ARM's chief executive has said the emergence of low-cost smartphones and Apple's move into China will drive sales at the British microchip designer.

Qualcomm's CEO said his company has the capabilities to build ARM server chips but was careful not to disclose any product plans at the International CES in Las Vegas.

The acquisition expands ARM's position at the forefront of the visual computing and graphics industries. Additionally, the agreement enables Geomerics to build on their existing partnerships as well as accelerate their development in mobile.

Rumors have buzzed surrounding ARM' possible release of 128-bit chip designs to power various new smartphones. Most recently, via PCPro UK, the company was cited by the Korea Herald to promise 128-bit architecture "within the next two years."

ARM predicts a shift in demand toward lower-priced smartphones will help boost royalty revenues.

ARM expanded its reach from mobile systems down to wearables and out to datacenter servers at its annual ARM Tech Con here last week.

British microchip designer ARM said Tuesday it has a record order backlog going into the final fiscal quarter as it posted a rise in third-quarter profit on forecast-beating revenue powered by global demand for smartphones.

ARM has opened a new Design Center in Noida, North India. The center will focus on IP design in specialized areas such as planar and FinFET CMOS technologies and address the growing needs of ARM partners.

Imagination Technologies will release a new CPU design in 2014 for low-power servers.

Intel, AMD and ARM are looking to address new workloads fueled by such trends as cloud computing, mobility, big data and social networks.

"Windows remains committed to the ARM platform," a Microsoft spokesman told CNET. "We are looking forward to new ARM-based Windows devices that will launch later this year."

Mali graphics IP core shipments are on course to be more than 300 million units in 2013, more than doubling the 150 million units shipped in 2012, according to Simon Segars, CEO of processor IP licensor ARM.

ARM chipmakers TSMC and Globalfoundries plan to release ARM processor chips capable of running at 3GHz sometime in 2014.

AMD plans to sample its first ARM-based processors for servers early next year, alongside paired CPUs and integrated graphics cores in an attempt to oust Intel's Xeon from its dominance in the server market.