ARM took to the Computex 2014 in Taipei to announce that it will be building its first CPU Design Center in Taiwan.
The facility, which will be ARM's fourth design center after one built in the U.K., France and the U.S., will be located in Hsinchu Science and Industrial Park in the northern city of Hsinchu and will focus on the production of ARM M-Cortex series of processors. M-Cortex is targeted towards the increasingly growing market of wearable devices, Internet of Things and embedded applications.
ARM said Taiwan is the perfect choice for the location of its fourth design center because it is situated closely to its semiconductor and ecosystem partners. The chipset maker also cited Taiwan's "high-caliber local engineering talent" as a major reason for choosing to build its latest design center in the country.
"The new design center will have a particular focus on the development of ARM Cortex-M processors which are the market-leading design choice for IoT products. Establishing a new, world-class CPU design team in Taiwan will allow us to work even closely with key regional partners seeking to accelerate this market," said ARM chief executive Simon Segars.
ARM deputy general manager of CPU also told the Taiwanese media that ARM is looking to "find a talent pool" and hire at least a hundred engineers with microprocessor design skills for its new design center.
Taiwan welcomed the announcement. Tyzz-Jiun Duh, deputy minister of Taiwan's ministry of economic affairs, says the government is happy that ARM recognizes Taiwan's "achievement" and is grateful for the British chipmaker's "willingness to further invest in Taiwan." Duh also said the government maintains economic development as one of its top priorities.
"Taiwan's semiconductor industry is playing a leading and strategic role in the global market," said San-Cheng Chang, minister of science and technology. She also said that the Taiwanese technology industry enjoys the full support of the Ministry to promote the development of advanced technologies and to build up a strong talent pool.
"We are pleased to witness ARM establishing its first CPU design center in Taiwan, endorsing Taiwan's strong talent and well-established industry chain," she added.
The Taiwanese design center is expected to open at the end of this year.
ARM also announced MBED, an open-source development platform that allows developers to create products based on ARM's microcontrollers.
Since ARM was established in 1990, it has shipped more than 50 billion systems on a chip (SoCs) to makers of various electronic devices, such as smartphones, tablets, sensors, servers, enterprise structure and, recently, Internet of Things. ARM's chipsets are found at the heart of devices created by manufacturers such as Apple, Samsung, Sony, HTC and LG.
